Array'd In Flames

by Ken Davis

It’s 1863 and seventeen year old Finn Carey wants it all – a bit cocky, even for a young Irishman working in the mills of Massachusetts, but ambition is the one thing Finn never lacked. It’s when scores of bodies wash onto the rocky shore, poor immigrants on an ocean-crossing from Ireland, that Finn confronts a diabolical ambition that dwarfs his own. As the sun goes down, the ship that carried his brother and sisters runs aground nearby, neither mast nor spar out of true, and not a soul onboard. The darkened ship groans against the rocks, and from deep inside the holds rises a vile evil, who slips into the night.

Genres: Horror, Historical Fiction

326 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Ken Davis writes dark fiction: a blend of supernatural horror, gritty fantasy, and alternate history.

Reviews

[Mia Darien · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is difficult for me to review, because my impressions and feelings about it are quite mixed.

I struggled with the presence of both First and Third Person views. On a purely personal level, I've never liked it. I think it should be one or the other. In this book, Mr. Davis doesn't do it badly but I struggle with the purpose because after reading it, I'm not sure that the Third Person views were necessary. However, I found something lacking in the First Person views and that makes it hard to say it should have been all that.

To make a good book, you obviously need a good core story. Past that, you need imagery and empathy. Imagery is what builds your atmosphere and your setting. Empathy is the characterization that makes you like or dislike, but care about the characters in some way. The book was very good at the first, but lacked the second in a lot of parts. I believe some of the scarcity was meant to be style, showing emotinos through words and actions alone, with some thoughts, but it didn't quite work for me.

Finn drew me in more towards the end, somewhere after the 100 page mark, but he still fell flat more often than not. In First Person, we should be granted a better look into the heart not just the mind. That didn't happen here. And Finn could often read a little false to me. He takes everything too in stride. Some people are like that in life, but with what he faced, there was never any real doubt or confusion. Like after Ieva tells him about Liam and what's going on.

My best example is, without giving too much away, that despite the dramatic conclusion, I did not feel as much about one "big event" as I could have. As I should have, which was sad. Through out the story, I think I felt more empathy for the animals than the people.

There also seemed to be a disconnect in points, where the motivation and continuity gets fuzzy. For example, the sudden "drop" between Finn's first conversation with Sister Ieva to his next scene with Maggie, and the disconnect between Tommy's murder and the robber/Niall confrontation: how they blame the one he fired and go after his family without even a mention of the fact that the one who was fired is dead. Or later there isn't much "felt" from Finn about the "big event" at the end.

And yet! I say all that and I will still rate this story a four. If I was allowed half stars, I'd probably go with three and a half, but the story was engaging (though I am a sucker for a good Heaven and Hell tale), the narrative Voice did draw you in enough (even if not as much as I thought it should), and the atmosphere was set very strongly.

Though it could have used another go-through with a copy editor. Still, I belive I will probably be looking into more of Mr. Davis' work.

[Natasa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book, I did ...but I give it 3.5 stars. the reason is that it lacked action all throughout the book, if it's a horror story I like it when I'm spooked most of the time but here I think the creepy parts were good but every time something happened it was diluted with descriptions of the era / which I really like and I admire the
effort put into its research, there were everyday life descriptions, how people worked hard to survive...the marginal status of this Irish etc./but it seemed to me that this was more a historical read then horror. another thing that bothered me were the chapter titles, every time I read them I expected something happening but again it was mostly descriptive chapters with nothing much going on so I felt kind of mislead. now, I never write such long reviews I usually just give my rating and that's it. here I feel a bit guilty for giving it only 3 stars because all in all I liked the book...I guess it just wasn't the type of horror that I usually read and enjoy. I'll give though the other book a try from the same author.

[P. Christopher Colter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another excellent historical horror novel from Ken C. Davis. Set in Lawrence, Massachusetts during the Civil War, it tells of Finn Carey, a tough young Irish immigrant who has pulled himself up by his bootstraps to relative prosperity. His life is going so well that he arranges to have some of his family come over to the U.S. to join him. Unfortunately, an evil entity has hitched a ride on the same ship as his family members, and the actions of one of them on board the ship has caused the evil to pursue Finn and his family, while ravaging the city and its immigrant community.

This is the second novel by Davis that I have read, and I continue to be thoroughly impressed. He is able to convey the details of the historical period with astonishing accuracy, while still weaving a tale of terror that makes your toes curl and causes you to think twice about turning off the light before turning in. I am very much looking forward to reading more from Ken C. Davis in the future.

[Georgeanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book started out dark, continued darkly, and had darkness all throughout. There was poverty, prejudice, and evil things. I'm still not sure exactly 'what' the evil things were. Demons, fallen angels, vampires, or some sort of evil hybrids of two or more of these? Author Ken Davis drew me into this dark place with great skill and powerful writing. I will look for more of his work when I'm in the mood for a nice, dark, horror story. Did I mention that this was really dark? :-)