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Ashes
An unimaginable evil has burned its way across the globe in search of a kindred spirit, leaving in its wake the ashes of its victims. Now, in a small Pennsylvania town with a dark history of its own, it's found what it has been looking for.
- GenresHorror
306 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2005
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56 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 20, 2024
Howland's first novel (one of only two) starts with a bang-- some archeologists from U. Penn at an old Mayan village ruin in Honduras find an ancient, but beautifully preserved jar. Inexplicably, the lead archeologist breaks the seal and opens it, letting something out; the next thing the entire group starts killing one another. So begins a tale of Mayan devils/gods or what have you.
Howland opens the tale, skipping around several POVs, focusing upon a small town in Pennsylvania and various people there, as well as a freighter heading to Philly from Honduras. Obviously, what ever became freed from the Mayan jar worked its way to the ship and soon enough, all the crew died, reduced to piles of ashes. The titular Ashes arises from the results of the ancient Mayan demon/god; it possesses the power to reduce people/structures to ash in white hot flame, flame so hot it does not even smoke
Also, obviously, the Mayan god/demon thing finds it way to the small town in Pennsylvania? Why? Howland produces some connection to an evil man, one of the town's founders, that somehow the Mayan thing became attracted to. All of this became increasingly hard to swallow, but if you do not ask too many questions, the story flows. Some pretty good foo along the way, with white hot flames racking up the body count. Yet, a horror story should if not induce some shivers, at least a little creepy feeling. Unfortunately, Ashes did neither. Howland paces this decently and evokes some decent characters, but this never grabbed me. 2.5 stars, rounding down for the big slice of processed cheese at the end.
Howland opens the tale, skipping around several POVs, focusing upon a small town in Pennsylvania and various people there, as well as a freighter heading to Philly from Honduras. Obviously, what ever became freed from the Mayan jar worked its way to the ship and soon enough, all the crew died, reduced to piles of ashes. The titular Ashes arises from the results of the ancient Mayan demon/god; it possesses the power to reduce people/structures to ash in white hot flame, flame so hot it does not even smoke
Also, obviously, the Mayan god/demon thing finds it way to the small town in Pennsylvania? Why? Howland produces some connection to an evil man, one of the town's founders, that somehow the Mayan thing became attracted to. All of this became increasingly hard to swallow, but if you do not ask too many questions, the story flows. Some pretty good foo along the way, with white hot flames racking up the body count. Yet, a horror story should if not induce some shivers, at least a little creepy feeling. Unfortunately, Ashes did neither. Howland paces this decently and evokes some decent characters, but this never grabbed me. 2.5 stars, rounding down for the big slice of processed cheese at the end.
Read
July 20, 2019DNF, no stars for this one. I picked it up looking for a quick horror story. The premise was promising, archaeological dig and evil erupts. I got only as far as page eight where a rape of a corpse occurred. Not for me. Too many books to read to waste my time on that.
March 25, 2017
A very enjoyable piece of creepy entertainment.
did-not-finish
September 9, 2010Read 145 pages before deciding I did not care to continue with this book.
It took 6 chapters before the author finally settled in to the main characters of the book. I was starting to find it confusing because we started off with some ancient Mayan entity taking possession of an archeologist and killing his entire team. Then this entity kills him (cause him to self-combust leaving only a pile of ashes) and moves around Honduras on a killing/burning spree. Finally ends up on a freighter which gets hauled in to a Pennsylvanian port (the entity is in a spider at this point). From there it ends up in a small town. This town is named after an evil man from the 19th century.
Now this is where I started to get confused. Somehow or another this deceased evil man and this Mayan entity start to interact with one another through the people they possess and going on a killing/raping/burning spree in this town. The poor security guard (who the entity took control off after the spider) starts having flashbacks of both the Mayan and the town founder. The whole thing just had me scratching my head and wonder WTH.
The author probably ties all together (at least I hope he does) by the end of the book, but I don't have the patience to keep going to find out. Besides, I’ve never cared for stories about possession so that was another reason for calling it quits.
It took 6 chapters before the author finally settled in to the main characters of the book. I was starting to find it confusing because we started off with some ancient Mayan entity taking possession of an archeologist and killing his entire team. Then this entity kills him (cause him to self-combust leaving only a pile of ashes) and moves around Honduras on a killing/burning spree. Finally ends up on a freighter which gets hauled in to a Pennsylvanian port (the entity is in a spider at this point). From there it ends up in a small town. This town is named after an evil man from the 19th century.
Now this is where I started to get confused. Somehow or another this deceased evil man and this Mayan entity start to interact with one another through the people they possess and going on a killing/raping/burning spree in this town. The poor security guard (who the entity took control off after the spider) starts having flashbacks of both the Mayan and the town founder. The whole thing just had me scratching my head and wonder WTH.
The author probably ties all together (at least I hope he does) by the end of the book, but I don't have the patience to keep going to find out. Besides, I’ve never cared for stories about possession so that was another reason for calling it quits.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 10, 2014
Patron Review!
Very good book! It was a little difficult to get into in the beginning because the story jumped around from character to character, but once their stories connected it was hard to stop reading. This book has many of my favorite elements; mystery, horror, history, and paranormal activity. I would recommend this book to people who like any of these genres.
Very good book! It was a little difficult to get into in the beginning because the story jumped around from character to character, but once their stories connected it was hard to stop reading. This book has many of my favorite elements; mystery, horror, history, and paranormal activity. I would recommend this book to people who like any of these genres.
October 23, 2012
This is by far the most disturbing book i have ever read. I decided to try read outside of my norm and this most certainly is. I have never read a book with so much blood and gore. Ashes is just not a book for me.
Want to read
February 21, 20122/19/12 - decided not to read at this time. Needed something a bit more uplifting.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews