Customer Reviews

The Complete Book of Devils and Demons

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

 

 

From its misleading title--this volume is rather slender given its claim for being "complete"--to its lack of bibliographic notes and historical and factual unreliability, Ashley's tome is an utter mess. Poorly written and organized, with only a three-page index, this is a book that cannot be taken seriously. "Devils and Demons," in fact, seems like a haphazard collection of the author's notes on interesting trivia he happened to bounce on, without bothering to reexamine his sources or concern himself with the formalities of English grammar. For example, in his brief discussion of C.S. Lewis's "Screwtape Letters," Ashley describes Lewis's book as "a delightful collection of business communications between a minor devil called Screwtape and his boss," evidently forgetting that Screwtape was a "major" devil corresponding to his underling nephew, Wormwood, as anyone even slightly familiar with the literature of fictional demonology knows. Such sloppy errors that are sprinkled through Ashley's work brings the subject down to the level of tabloid journalism, and with the same level of reliability. The reader would best be served by searching for other, more scholarly books which are abundant in this peculiar area of study, such as the "Compendium Maleficarum" or Robbins' "Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology." But "The Complete Book of Devils and Demons" is a complete waste of dead trees.

What a shame Leonard Ashley (who has no doubt spent some time looking into his subject) is unable to string an intelligent sentence together. This ridiculously pedestrian book demeans the fascinating subject of demonology through a nauseous trail of sloppy ideas, puerile humour and incongruous, misplaced anecdotes. A work of zero interest to even the most unsophisticated of students.

After picking up several books on related subjects, unfortunately this book ended up closer to the bottom of my reading pile. This book is loosely organized into many, many small chapters that seem to jump around quite a bit. Histories and anecdotes concerning demons are touched upon, but there seems to be an apologist's slant to everything. As if he is constantly reminding the reader that evil is bad instead of just giving us the history. Almost as though he is backing away from Hell, just in case it's all real and he's indicted by God for writing a book on the subject. I prefer a more objective approach to this sort of topic but all in all not terrible. (It's suprising to me how few good books are out there on demonology)

First off let me state that this book should have been named
"The anything BUT complete book of Devils and Demons".
Actually it has very little to do with Devils, Demons or anything of the like, this is just another one of those books that handles this fascinating subject in the uptight biased wore out judeo/christian manner that i for one am quite tired of, the author if we dare to call him that obviously wrote this book for a fast buck, i havnt read any of his other books and since reading this one i have no intention on doing so. His style is enough to give A person of even the strongest constitution a vein bulging headache. Like the title says, do your self a favor and save your $$$ for something more accurate and fulfilling.

Leonard Ashley's pathetic excuse of designing this book for the "sound bite" and "limited attention span" generation is an insult and affront to his readers.

The book is nothing but a mish-mash and mosaic of information culled from the Internet that the author has so carelessly put together.

For beginners and the uninitiated- this might briefly prove interesting- but in general- this book is a sleeping pill in disguise.

This actually is a VERY good book, despite the fact that I only gave it 3 stars. My only problems with the book were:

Format - The format is VERY difficult to follow at first, don't give up on it though. Once you understand how he put the book together, it's not so bad. My other problem with the format was that it's not the most efficient way to present the information.

needless information, or information better placed elsewhere - Admit it, run on sentences with parenthesis all over the place ARE hard to follow. Theres not alot of this, but it's there. Also, acknowledgments and other suggested reading would be better placed together at the back of the book, instead of being scattered throughout the chapter within the material brought forth.

Otherwise, as long as you've either studied this subject before, or are well educated, you can get whatever you need from this book. Once you get past all these distractions it is quite some exceptional reading.

The book is a good reference point for those looking into this subject for the first time. While the author provides a lot of information, her style in presenting it leaves something to be desired. The book format is put together in such a way that it makes it difficult for the reader to follow. There are also a lot of errors in grammar like misspelled words and run-on sentences. It seems the author would have noticed this, but I guess he was in a hurry. If you can live with the format then you may want to check it out. However, you may want to try "Encyclopedia of Hell" by Miriam Van Scott.

For many years I have studied many variations on Theology, including its evil brother Demonology. Finding a source with as much variety and coverage on the subject as this book has always been difficult. This book is the most in depth and well rounded I have found of its kind. My only complaint is its lack of organization. While it may all be in there, good luck finding it. However due to the detail and study that went into it this doen't dilute the power of this book, and I still give it 4 stars.

Great information, honestly most people will be very happy with this compilation. I love the way Ashley writes & presents his information. Quite a fan.

I purchased this book for fiction writing research purposes. This book is perfect. Kudos to Mr. Ashley. He adds humor and insight to the subject, and I often chuckled outloud. This book not only covers demons and devils, but mythology, folklore, people who are influential in mystical folklore as well as Judeo-Christian religious influences. I highly recommend it.