What do you think?
Ascent
When terrorists target an American airforce base with a nuclear bomb, Kelly Wells races to find her sister in a nearby office block, desperate for them to be together in their final moments. At the same time, a handful of others fight their way through a panicked city to reach the building-frantic to make it to loved ones before the device ignites less than fifty miles away.
In the frozen instant of the detonation, Kelly, her sister and three strangers are locked in that moment and trapped in the offices. But they are not alone. An ancient god from the deepest pits in the earth has woken and knows their most private secrets and guilt. Now, horror takes the form of their darkest dreams to draw sustenance from their terror, and the beast stalking them will dine well.
Because everybody is afraid of something.
In the frozen instant of the detonation, Kelly, her sister and three strangers are locked in that moment and trapped in the offices. But they are not alone. An ancient god from the deepest pits in the earth has woken and knows their most private secrets and guilt. Now, horror takes the form of their darkest dreams to draw sustenance from their terror, and the beast stalking them will dine well.
Because everybody is afraid of something.
- GenresHorror
Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2017
About the author
Luke Walker
84 books76 followersLuke Walker has been writing horror and dark thrillers for most of his life. Recent work includes the novels Terminal State, The Ninth Circle, The Dead Room, Winter Graves, The Kindred as well as his Lovecraftian horror 'Nameless' trilogy. Several of his short stories have been published online and in magazines/books.
He is forty-nine and lives in England with his wife and cats.
Luke's Bluesky page is @lukewalkerwriter.bsky.social
Sign up to his newsletter at
https://substack.com/@lukewalkerwriter
Or find him at https://lukewalkerwriter.wordpress.com
He is forty-nine and lives in England with his wife and cats.
Luke's Bluesky page is @lukewalkerwriter.bsky.social
Sign up to his newsletter at
https://substack.com/@lukewalkerwriter
Or find him at https://lukewalkerwriter.wordpress.com
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 2, 2017
A handful of people are stuck in the hell that has become Greenham Place, after what they think is an explosion that may have ended the outside world. But that's not the worst of it. Something has been unleashed inside this tall office building, and it's after them. Will they survive? You'll have to read Ascent to find out!
Rod, Alex, Simon, Kelly and Dao were all strangers to each other before the explosion. Now, they may be all that's left of humanity. What I liked most about this story was how the characters were each introduced and how they got to know each other. Unfortunately, whatever was released into Greenham Place got to know them too, and it used that knowledge to torture them all.
I thought this story was beautifully told-the author took the time to develop each character and then tailored the horror to each one. Everybody has secrets, whether they be something that happened to them, or something they did to someone else. Now imagine a creature that could use all that and twist it around-using it to insert wedges between people, to make people hallucinate, or even just to guilt them to death-how can you defeat that? Maybe you can't?
I LOVED the ending of this book, but I imagine it might be a problem for some. As an American, in light of our current political problems, and the problems that other...unstable countries present not only to us, but to the world, it was easy for me to fill in the blanks. I think that helped the story to become more personal to me and I liked it that much more as a result.
My only complaint was that I thought the term "legging it" was a bit overused, but hey, if this stuff was going down anywhere near me, I would be legging it the hell out of there too.
More of a psychological horror story than anything else, (don't worry-there's plenty of bloody gore to go around too), Ascent was an impressive and imaginative story and I highly recommend it!
Available tomorrow everywhere, here: Ascent
*I was provided an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*
Rod, Alex, Simon, Kelly and Dao were all strangers to each other before the explosion. Now, they may be all that's left of humanity. What I liked most about this story was how the characters were each introduced and how they got to know each other. Unfortunately, whatever was released into Greenham Place got to know them too, and it used that knowledge to torture them all.
I thought this story was beautifully told-the author took the time to develop each character and then tailored the horror to each one. Everybody has secrets, whether they be something that happened to them, or something they did to someone else. Now imagine a creature that could use all that and twist it around-using it to insert wedges between people, to make people hallucinate, or even just to guilt them to death-how can you defeat that? Maybe you can't?
I LOVED the ending of this book, but I imagine it might be a problem for some. As an American, in light of our current political problems, and the problems that other...unstable countries present not only to us, but to the world, it was easy for me to fill in the blanks. I think that helped the story to become more personal to me and I liked it that much more as a result.
My only complaint was that I thought the term "legging it" was a bit overused, but hey, if this stuff was going down anywhere near me, I would be legging it the hell out of there too.
More of a psychological horror story than anything else, (don't worry-there's plenty of bloody gore to go around too), Ascent was an impressive and imaginative story and I highly recommend it!
Available tomorrow everywhere, here: Ascent
*I was provided an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*
November 5, 2019
I have to say I like that it’s an older male character who gets tormented with his weight and his thoughts of overeating and drinking–it breaks a stereotype quite nicely. Also, each person’s fears have stages and layers. I thought Kelly’s got drawn out a bit too far and started being more frustrating than teasing, but by and large it works. Since the creature trapping the five is feeding on fear, it also makes sense that it does its best to prolong the events rather than rushing to kill everyone off. After all, it just went to some lengths (presumably) to keep them alive for this.
There are a bunch of little details that never entirely add up for me. There’s a weird thing where a bunch of relevant dates related to their fears line up perfectly, but there’s no reason given as to why that’s somehow important. I mean, why would an anniversary matter to this being that’s supposedly older than the Earth? I also never understood why sometimes the streets outside look normal to the trapped five (ie, people go about their business as usual) and sometimes it’s completely deserted. I never entirely understood what the deal was with Simon kind of having fears in his past, but not, and if so, why did the creature include him in this? There’s also a late-arriving ally that goes entirely unexplained, and the ending was kind of out of left field and left a lot of room for interpretation. Even after Kelly’s reveal I never understood why her guilt manifested as fear of a certain person.
The characters are interesting, though. The events are scary and suspenseful. The action gets a little confusing when things heat up, but the general beats are good. I’d be curious to see what Walker would do with a couple more books under his belt.
Content note for lots of gore as well as some pedophilia.
Consider my rating a 3.5
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/11/r...
There are a bunch of little details that never entirely add up for me. There’s a weird thing where a bunch of relevant dates related to their fears line up perfectly, but there’s no reason given as to why that’s somehow important. I mean, why would an anniversary matter to this being that’s supposedly older than the Earth? I also never understood why sometimes the streets outside look normal to the trapped five (ie, people go about their business as usual) and sometimes it’s completely deserted. I never entirely understood what the deal was with Simon kind of having fears in his past, but not, and if so, why did the creature include him in this? There’s also a late-arriving ally that goes entirely unexplained, and the ending was kind of out of left field and left a lot of room for interpretation. Even after Kelly’s reveal I never understood why her guilt manifested as fear of a certain person.
The characters are interesting, though. The events are scary and suspenseful. The action gets a little confusing when things heat up, but the general beats are good. I’d be curious to see what Walker would do with a couple more books under his belt.
Content note for lots of gore as well as some pedophilia.
Consider my rating a 3.5
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/11/r...
January 13, 2018
DNF: Honestly, this book was not for me. I found that it started well, as the reader was thrown into the middle of the action, but I could not get past the middle which seemed to drag out with no real end in sight.
The story: a group of adults are stuck in a building following a possible explosion and are faced with their demons.
I liked the premise of this book, but it unfortunately did not deliver for me. I felt that once the characters were stuck in the building, the events were repetitive and their individual demons didn’t exactly attack them in very different ways. Their conversations were the same time and again; we have to get out of here - but my son! - let’s sit and think about a plan...
After the group went outside and saw the people outside, and realised their fate, I found it difficult to continue and pushed on an extra 80 pages. This part really threw the book off track for me, and I got increasingly bored as no clues were found. The most interesting part is when one of the women realised who Rod’s demon is, which I’m sure got explored later on, but when it was quickly dismissed for the time being, I felt that something had been missed.
Things I liked:
The descriptions and use of language; this book is very well written. I liked the premise of the narrative and feel as though if I had pushed through it may have clicked and I might have started to enjoy it. I did like the characters and the suggestion of a connection between them all, but until the arid revelation, there has been nothing bringing this to fruition other than the coincidental dates of their terrors.
I just couldn’t keep going with the slow plot and lack of discovery or explanation.
Thank you to Luke Walker for sending me a free copy in return for an honest review.
The story: a group of adults are stuck in a building following a possible explosion and are faced with their demons.
I liked the premise of this book, but it unfortunately did not deliver for me. I felt that once the characters were stuck in the building, the events were repetitive and their individual demons didn’t exactly attack them in very different ways. Their conversations were the same time and again; we have to get out of here - but my son! - let’s sit and think about a plan...
After the group went outside and saw the people outside, and realised their fate, I found it difficult to continue and pushed on an extra 80 pages. This part really threw the book off track for me, and I got increasingly bored as no clues were found. The most interesting part is when one of the women realised who Rod’s demon is, which I’m sure got explored later on, but when it was quickly dismissed for the time being, I felt that something had been missed.
Things I liked:
The descriptions and use of language; this book is very well written. I liked the premise of the narrative and feel as though if I had pushed through it may have clicked and I might have started to enjoy it. I did like the characters and the suggestion of a connection between them all, but until the arid revelation, there has been nothing bringing this to fruition other than the coincidental dates of their terrors.
I just couldn’t keep going with the slow plot and lack of discovery or explanation.
Thank you to Luke Walker for sending me a free copy in return for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews