Ash

By: James Herbert

Narrated by: Steven Pacey

Length: 22 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

David Ash, detective of the paranormal, is sent to the mysterious Comraich Castle, secluded deep in the Scottish countryside, to investigate a strange, high-profile case. A man has been found crucified in a locked room. The reports suggest that the cliff-top castle is being haunted.... Who or what is the reclusive hooded figure that Ash has seen from the window walking across the courtyard in the dead of night? What are the strange, animal-like sounds that come from the surrounding woods? And why are the castle's inhabitants so reluctant to talk about what they have seen? What Ash eventually discovers is truly shocking....

Featuring one of Herbert's best-loved characters, first encountered in The Ghosts of Sleath and Haunted, Ash is a ghost story like no other that will chill you to the marrow.

©2012 James Herbert (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

A good story, it definately had some scary parts.

I would recommend this book, the fact that all the bad guys from the real world turned fictional got wasted was great. All though I was disappointed with Louis's end, to have gone through all the horror with such strength even though his illness was so severe and then to not be able to be with Ash and the doctor was sad, but to have gone to his mother was good and very tearful. This was a strange book, but I liked it.

Great story

Story was great though strange catching throwback references to the "The Rats" series of books slipped in which is a very King style of writing that Aside it was a great listen

don't think this would have been the last

great story needed a follow on which couldn't happen great author brilliant storyline classic Herbert

Great great great

James Herbert's best as far as I'm concerned... Very spooky but yet believe able. The reader took you right there....loved it..

What A Mess!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A better story with a comprehensible conclusion.

What was most disappointing about James Herbert’s story?

The most disappointing thing about ASH was the story itself. The book's beginning is interesting, with characters one quickly decides are likeable and unlikeable. The book then cascades into a series of inexplicable, and wholly unbelievable, occurrences that are never connected to one another in any meaningful way despite the constant intimation that there is some common explanation. Ash, the titular parapsychologist, never explains (perhaps, never understands) what is happening. The book's casst of ridiculous characters includes Hitler's bastard daughter, all grown up and crazy as hell, and the transparent (as in one can literally see his internal organs) prematurely born son of Princess Diana who comes to take her son into her loving embrace at novel's end. Oh, and did I forget to mention Qaddafi. 'Nuff said.

Would you be willing to try another one of Steven Pacey’s performances?

No.

What character would you cut from Ash?

Hitler's daughter and Louie, the son of Princess Diana

Any additional comments?

Save your Audible credit

Trying too Hard

I'll give two reasons for why this novel didn't work for me. The first is that it really seems like the author was trying to shock or disgust me, rather than succeeding at scaring me. There's scenes of extreme gore where the action doesn't really call for it, a predatory lesbian character, and a writhing maggots scene that was more disgusting than disturbing. I want to enjoy the building atmosphere but these forced shocks let the air out of it. There's also two assassin characters, one of which gets nowhere.

That said, politics cannot be removed from the equation. I was on the fence about this book for a while, but when the author had two female heroes talk about how great Margaret Thatcher was, that was the last straw. You may be able to enjoy this book more if you agree with or can ignore the author's politics, but I couldn't.

Absurdity Unleashed

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A better book

What do you think your next listen will be?

The Mystery of Edwinn Drood by Charles Dickens

What does Steven Pacey bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He brings the English

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Ash?

No comment

Any additional comments?

Middle aged sex - no thank you

Bilge

What would have made Ash better?

Ash dying of a flesh eating virus on 1st page.

Has Ash turned you off from other books in this genre?

Yes

What character would you cut from Ash?

Ash

Any additional comments?

If an author chooses to write a plot involing a medical discipline such as Psychiatry, he should have the good grace to inform himself a little on the subject.
And certainly not refer to Psychiatric patients as Lunatics.

Not even Pacey could save this turkey

I managed to get through to Chapter 7 and couldn't listen any further. Stephen Pacey is as good a British narrator as I've ever heard...but even his credible narration could not make this awful novel into something entertaining, mildly interesting or enjoyable. The author should do "graphic novels" and forget any literary ambitions, at least, in this genre. Listening to this brought back the memory of listening to another audiobook wherein the author attempted to describe his characters almost entirely, by describing or mentioning, the popular music they liked. This author, though, uses a very different method to achieve the same effect... by using untold billions of descriptive adjectives and adverbs to "flesh out" his characters, settings, etc. But every word "picture" he tries to paint seems drawn, in sets, from previous material that is ever so familiar. His literary "inventions" are so trite, so hackneyed, that, although one may not remember the exact,original source(s), one already knows them by heart, long before this author ever pasted them in. Like, "the castle". Think about every popular image you have of a dark and brooding manse, all the images that one has ever heard about, read about, seen in movies or tv, or video games, even. Now, if one selects the image one has encountered most frequently, that seems to be the most popular, the one that just pops up first, that's the one the author uses. He applied that method to the first 7 chapters of this book, at least. Call the method "Write By Numbers". The novel is supposed to be a mystery, I think. This author does not know a mystery from a flight of migrating Canadian geese.

Stupidity

Worst book of his I have read. I have read nearly all. Ridiculous happenings using bats rats spiders maggots flies. Easy seen through plot and those guilty. I want my money back on this one Audible.