Customer Reviews

Fires Rising (Leisure Fiction)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Just when you think Michael Laimo cant top his previous book, he not only meets your expectations but exceeds them as well. I found this book to be very suspenseful with just the right amount of horror to keep my mind running wild trying to figure out the ending.

There were times while reading this book that I said "YUCK" and "GROSS",because the details were just so strongly written that you could actually visualize the scenes as they were/are taking place,which also makes it seem like YOU are part of the story as well. After reading a book like this it makes me believe that the author behind this horrific novel may just be proving himself to be quite the creative genius, whom writes like no other (atleast none that Ive seen).

"Fires Rising" gave going to church a whole new experience,wrapped up in one amazing plot and ending. Next time I go to church Ill make sure that the door stays open :-)

I strongly believe that "Fires Rising" may be his BEST book so far that he has written. I enjoyed it so much that I may read it again.

Looking forward to the release of "Dark Ride" next month".

3 AND 1/2 STARS

Fires Rising reminded me of a nice mix of movies from filmmaker John Carpenter. Take the standoff of trapped heroes from Assault On Precinct 13 and put them in a church, then add the growing evil and possession from Prince Of Darkness and you have a fairly accurate description of Fires Rising. While I didn't relate to the characters nearly as much as I did in his earlier novels such as Deep In The Darkness or Dead Souls, I enjoyed the constant threat of danger that Michael Laimo infused throughout the book. Somewhere between a novella and a full length novel, this is one of the shorter Leisure titles I've seen. But don't let that fool you, Laimo stuffs this baby full of violence, mythology, creatures, gore, and some memorable visuals that will stay with you for quite some time. And while I agree with others that this is his best technical writing, the story didn't grab me as much as I would have liked. Still a solid recommendation that has me looking forward to Laimo's next one.

There are only a few horror writers that I count the days until they release a new work and Michael Laimo is one of them. Along with Brian Keene, Laimo is one of the Leisure authors that never fails to please me when I crack open their newest offerings. Fires Rising is a quick, pulse pounding read following in the tradition of the action oriented supernatural novels of authors like Laymon, Little, and Mastertron.

If you like your horror hard edged, contemporary, and riddled with demons and monsters instead of the yawn inspiring pyschological dreck thats passing as horror today, Fires Rising should be right up your alley.
In fact, one of the creatures Laimo conjours up in this good vs. evil tale is so bizarre and original, it is worth the price of the book alone.

Laimo's 'Deep In The Darkness' is a classic that every horror fan should have on the shelf, and Fires Rising should be sharing space next it.
So give this one a shot if you enjoy traditional religous horror stories given a comptemporay makeover.

TTzuma

When I reviewed The Demonologist for Apex Digest, I said then that Michael Laimo reminded me of good 1970s/1980s religious horror. 666, The Omen, The Amityville Horror, and everything good and similar. His February 2008 Leisure Fiction release, Fires Rising, is no exception.

This book has everything. Strong religious themes, vagrants, evil construction crews, fire, mayhem, and enough tension implied through vivid imagery to stand one's hair on end (if you'll pardon the cliché). Fires Rising isn't for the weak of stomach or the easily repulsed -- not with its sewage demon, raw gore, violence, and copious blood. Without these things, though, the story would have a much blander flavor and not as much religious fervor.

Laimo researched this book to the bone -- this is readily apparent. His use of vivid sensory imagery is near overwhelming in places, causing the reader to, instead of putting the book down for a break, keep turning the pages.

"Well done" seems inadequate. Even so, I can't wait to see what Michael Laimo brings us next.

Fires Rising is the latest novel by Michael Laimo, is another Good vs. Evil type book. The back states that the church is supposed to be renovated but in actuality it is being destroyed and the protagonist, Father Pilazzo was in a sense being evicted. The main plot is follows the unearthing of items found buried in the church leading to a Good vs. Evil struggle and the gathering of sides. There are a couple side plots involving Father Pilazzo's current predicament and the homeless gathered in the church that may have stumbled onto something.

This fits the horror genre because it contains gore and a horror type storyline. There is nothing really scary here and the writing is ok. I really had to push myself to continue reading this so that I could get to the end. There were many times that my eyes would get heavy and I would start nodding off and that was during the action parts. The prose of the novel was quite jumpy. There were a few parts that really moved and parts that somewhat flowed and then those places that I had to drudge my way through. The characters were not bad. I did find myself more concerned with the homeless than I did with the main protagonist. The climax kept well with the character development of Father Pilazzo, but what he does in the end felt forced by the story so that it could end in a certain way.

Some criticisms

- "Evil that promises man the end of days," was a repetitive phrase that was overused. Just seeing those words so many times throughout the story really detracted from it.

- The main protagonist's character was just 2 dimensional and really didn't seem to have much of a place in the story until the end and then it felt as if the plot was pushing him along to a chosen goal.

- The fact that I had to push myself to finish reading it. The story was average and the writing was less than I expected.

Some positives

- The homeless characters felt more natural and I began to care more for them and found myself rooting more for them.

- A lot of the similes that Mr. Laimo used were just great. If there is one thing that Mr. Laimo has a knack for, it is using the appropriate similes through his work even though he did use one of them twice.

- This is the one that Mr. Laimo did not go overboard and bore me with gore details. In this one, he used the right amount to make the story really gruesome, but not in a way that it detracts from the story because you are reading just pages and pages of gore.

Overall, this story just didn't do it for me. I just couldn't wait to get it over with so that I could say that I was finally done. There was just not enough oomph to it. This is something that I would recommend only to those die hard G vs. E horror fans that love gore, and even then I only barely recommend it.

I won't get into too much detail, but some say this ranks up there with a Stephen King novel. I'm not a huge fan of Stephen King's books, but he's got a few like Misery that are bar none - the best. Mr. Laimo does have the ability to write in different styles and point of view, but this story was just a bit choppy to me. He seemed to try to get too detailed and I felt outside the story. I could never really feel or care about the protagonist.

Fires Rising is 262 pages of non-stop horror. I mean, it seems that Michael Laimo sat down and literally tried to write a scary scene on every page and it looks as though he's done it. If I could find one thing wrong with this, it would be the obvious, that it needed more stuffing-maybe a little more character development. But with a book this packed with page after page of creepy horror, it's still a five star book, in my opinion.
This is religious horror, without being judgemental to the reader: whether you are a religious person or not, this book will do what it is supposed to do: be a good read packed with frightening scenes.
If you like the kind of religious horror that calls possessed human beings, floating chalices of blood, the end of days, good vs. evil, to mind, then you should defintely read this.
And for any horror writers out there, this is a good study in how to pack every page with action and not have it ruin the book.
Great one once again by Laimo. Enjoy!

oh my god!!!!!!!!!!!!! this book is absolutely amazing!!! i couldn't wait to finish it!!! i was exhausted and still could not stop reading!!! my eyes were crossing and everything. i had to read the last chapters while covering one eye at a time so that they would not cross anymore! i cannot even express how much i thoroughly enjoyed this book. if anyone reading this has not bought it yet, do so immediately!!!

New York, the metropolis of the East is shockingly succumbing to its end. The once glimmering cosmopolitan streets of Manhattan are under an ancient threat, it seems that deep in the bowels of the city a great evil has ceased its slumber and the once holy grounds of an old church are the new birth place of something that promises the end of man kind. Tamed in the past, darkness finds new followers who will do anything to bring it back to its full glory filled with blood and screams of the innocent. What was once medieval fiction is staring non believers in the face and reaching out for their flesh.

The main hero of this story is Father Anthony Pilazzo, and elderly priest with spunk and character who has lived and conducted masses at the Church of St. Peter for many years. When strangeness envelops the city; on the street people stand and stare, whispers and enigmatic messengers tell Pilazzo about an upcoming end and the construction workers who are working as if in a trance are starting to act in a bad manner, it is becoming clear that something malevolent is about to be unleashed. A group of homeless men who hid in the belly of the church feel as if they have been woken up from some dream and feel a strange connection to the church and it's future, which is to be torn down because of some loophole in the church's contract - who with the act of demolition have uncovered something hidden deep below the floors. What they uncover comes with shocking consequences and the true beginning of the end. The powers of good and evil are on the rise and their horrific collision is imminent. As fires and violence engulf the city, a dark force takes over the sinners and ignites a battle that will leave very few to taste any unlike victory. It is up to the priest and those with nothing to loose to win back the freedom and stop the darkness from turning the city into scorching bellies of hell.

This tale was a true feast for the senses; violent, gripping, non-stop action packed and full of vivid and picturesque scenarios, it was not only intense but also a lot of fun to read. For those who like their horror gory and filled to the brim with horrific details this is a great place to get their fill, it reminded me a bit of Edward Lee's work, I can see his fans flocking to this book and coming out satisfied. Fires Rising is a new take on the end of the world type of a story, it made me happy that it was fiction, living in Manhattan and reading this was hitting very close to home and considering how real this book felt it would be one experience I would never want to witness. I absolutely loved the last chapters, they flowed off the pages and they felt like a sea of colors and action, it all read like the best stuff that movies are made of, and for a book it's a tough feat. The richness of the character development was brilliant without taking away form the action and the story started off powerful from the beginning, there is no beating around the bush with this book, and once it starts it never stops to shock the reader.

This was a wonderful tale of epic proportions - another winner from Laimo.

- Kasia S.

Before you read this review, know that I am NOT a writer in any sense of the word, and am not trying to be. So please forgive or excuse any grammatical errors, or run-on sentences, etc.
What I AM going to give you, is my honest review of this book, in my own opinion. It may not be the same as your opinion, and that's great. I honestly hope people enjoy this book more than I did. I like Michael Laimo's writing, and hope he is successful.

Now for my honest review:

I have to say, I was really looking forward to this book. I had read Mr. Laimo's novel "Deep in the Darkness", and found it to be an excellent book that had me looking out my windows at night and hearing noises upstairs when I was downstairs. After reading Mr. Laimo's blog pleading to pre-order this book as it was his best work yet, I did exactly that.

Unfortunately, the book never really grabbed me from the opening page, and only continued to spin its wheels for the remainder of the book.
The protagonist Father Anthony Pilazzo is the supposed son of Jesus Christ Himself, which casts him as mankind's would-be savior against an unnamed evil, along with the help of a rag-tag group of homeless people led by a hobo named Jyro and an ex-altar boy named Timothy. Jyro is the unfortunate soul who unleashed the evil from it's place buried beneath the church, after which Timothy and he band up together with a group of homeless people who also become trapped in the church to serve the side of good.

The problem I have with this, is that the book brings all of these characters together with the notion that they will have some vital role to play in the final confrontation between good and evil. You will expect Father Pilazzo to be the hero who comes to realize his important role in mankind's survival in the final battle.
None of this is actually true. Most of the characters are throw-aways, and Father Pilazzo himself (the supposed son of Christ), is utterly useless as a hero. He never actually does anything...in fact, NO character actually DOES anything. Most of the book is spent describing Jyro and the others trying to escape the church, while Father Pilazzo is unwittingly drawn TO the church.
A wooden rosary and a chalice (which everyone will assume is the Holy Grail as soon as it's mentioned) have some strange good/evil relationship that determines the very fate of the world.

It's all pretty disappointing. I was expecting much more.
The "twist" at the end is a head-scratcher. I won't reveal the end, but after I finished it, I was thinking, "Why did I bother?"
The scenes of gore, and horror never once gave me the creeps or the scares that I found in "Deep in the Darkness". In fact, the descriptions of death were far gorier in that book than this one.

All in all, I'm sure some people will like it, and find enjoyment in its apocolyptic scenario, but I found it pretty hollow. I know Mr. Laimo is capable of incredible story-telling, but this wasn't it for me. I AM however, looking forward to a sequel to "Deep in the Darkness".
I just hope it keeps with the original's tradition of scary hopelesness.