Customer Reviews

Ashes

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This novel centers around a force that is unwittingly unleashed on the world via a archaelogical dig. This force has the ability to possess certain hosts and reduce anything in it's path to cinders. What exactly this being is unfortunately is never explained at all. It is one one of the major downfalls of this book.

After the force is unleashed it makes a journey via boat to a town in PA where it finds a more permanent host and things get more interesting. This small town in PA has a interesting past all it's own that ties in with the entity but why is another reason not explained. There also is apparently a love story here that is not neccessary and just make's the story seem more muddled.

All this being said it is a decent book. The characters are well developed and you'll find yourself genuinely caring about them and what happens. The story is also fast paced and has a very crisp style.I did enjoy it for the most part but in the long run it is nothing too special and there are much better books out there that i would reccommend.

Like J.Foster in the review before mine, I found that some things were not explained well enough. There were enough gaps in the explanations of why certain things happened in the book to leave me scratching my head and wondering. The attempts to interweave various stories and historical sequences were pretty well done, but did leave me thinking that some of the plot intricacies were just not necessary to the story.

However, there were some unique plot points and situations and vivid and interesting characters. The style is fast-paced and readable and the story did keep my interest throughout. Over all, I'd say this is worth the read. I didn't feel like I wasted my money and I'll definitely give any upcoming books a try!

An archeological dig in Honduras reveals an ancient Mayan burial pot that contains the remains of an evil chieftan Chac Mol and his bride Xochitl. The pot is opened and unleashes the evil spirit which begins jumping into bodies of living creatures and killing the others, leaving behind piles of ash. The spirit eventually makes its way to PA and the little town of Aronston.

The town has its own history with its founder Aaron Moyer who was a little wacky in the noggin himself, having beaten his wife and was killed by her brothers. The spirit of Chac Mol has come to inhabit the body of Roger Phillips, descendant of the evil Aaron Moyer.

The story then begins its journey to completion when Roger/Chac Mol/Aaron Moyer thinks that local girl Collette Walls is Xochitl. The fun then begins with mysterious fires, ash piles, and introductions of characters that have no real purpose in the story (namely the playwright, the old man, the newspaper woman, the mentally challenged Byron). Throw in the Founder's Day events which only serve to acknowledge Aaron's role in the town (why the town celebrates an despicable person was beyond me). We also have Darrin, Colette's boss with whom she's having an affair, for a love interest plot that goes nowhere. I won't reveal the ending cuz I don't enjoy spoilers either.

All in all it had some potential but too many ingredients. The author should have run with one story or the other, either Chac Mol reincarnation or the ghost of Aaron Moyer re-establishing himself through a descendant. Both presences just convoluted the story and made it a bit sloppy.

None-the-less, it is worth the read and as others have mentioned, it's not a waste of money to buy the book but if you can get it at the library, you'll be just as well off. With proper treatment, this could make a decent movie.

This seems like a very formulaic Stephen King knock-off. Granted, I'm not finished, but still, of what I've read.

And sloppily written or edited, can't decide which.

For example, in the oral narrative in Chapter Two, given from a grandfather to his granddaughter, he says that he is 101. He says that "80 years ago" (when he would have been 21), he and his father went past a certain tavern. In the next paragraph, he says his father died WHEN HE WAS 16! How is this possible?

It's hard to take seriously (in its own way) a book which contains such obvious errors. The story is engaging, but I hope his next one is better.

There's nothing I enjoy more than a novel about darkness descending on a small town --especially when that town is in my native Pennsylvania. H. R. Howland's ASHES is a chilling, fast-paced horror thriller will big leagure horrors set in a small rural town. Good characters, a nicely woven plot, and enough shocks to please any fan of the genre.

This first book is a good read, starting in Honduras, with horrific violence, the transition to small town USA is creative. Some may feel that a spider as vector of evil is a stretch, but as a symbol of malevolence, laying in wait, lurking, waiting, with it's web spun for just the right human subject to walk past, a spider is perfect. The bigger and creepier the better.

The ground work for a possession is well and carefully laid. We have a past history of a cruel, abusive sociopath that died 200 years ago, with his last living relative a Desert Storm veteran, who has been ill used by his supervisor at his job. Of course, this unlucky, nightmare ridden man is the subject that walks near that vector of evil.

What ensues, is utterly magnificent chaos. As in any good story, the bad guy is sympathetic at times and at times I cheered for the destruction of those that blithely ruin other's lives. But as the story goes on, more of Roger is lost to the other that rides him.

All in all, a strong first book, and I will not hesitate to read his next offering!

at the least a 4 star effort, buy it, read it, you'll like it!

It starts off with a bang, a great scene at an archaoelogical site, but peters out soon thereafter. Too many characters, two storylines, neither of which is very interesting. We see tihngs fromt the point of view of a possessed spider! C'mon, that's just plain silly. Too bad, because the author has good skills and command of the language. It's the story he tells that falls flat.