The Scary Reviews

Review copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review

A bio engineered chemical weapon, mixed with a strain of Ebola, transforms its victims into savage monsters. This is the setup for From the Ashes, and double hell, THAT is an awesome. I absolutely love a good apocalypse story and From the Ashes is just that. The government tries to keep the virus from spreading by firebombing major cities, killing infected and uninfected alike. As the story begins we meet Arvin and Melissa as they emerge from the Cobo Center in Detroit. Cobo is set up as a shelter and safe zone for Detroit while the bombings are wiping out the infected. Michael Hicks does a fantastic job of describing the scene of the city using well known landmarks to set the scene. As someone plenty familiar with Detroit, Cobo and the surrounding area I can see it as if I were there now.

A pair of Black Hawk’s carrying a team of Rangers is in route for cleanup and rescue. The first Ranger crew sent in has been radio silent for hours. As Hedley and his crew, in the second Black Hawk, are in route it’s hard for them to believe it has come to this. Cities are being destroyed because the virus spread faster than anyone could have imagined. Escaping from the city is near impossible, the highways and streets are jammed with vehicles and traveling on foot is too dangerous. I love the odds that are stacked against the uninfected and the Rangers. I was hooked with the descriptions of Rangers gear, guns and use of Military jargon. The pacing of the book doesn’t give you any breaks from the action. The monsters, or what becomes of those infected, is horrible and awesome at the same time. The way it/they are presented as the virus takes hold and change them into flesh eating beast is scary. These monster gums and noses bleed, their eyes look like slits, and have claws like a bear. No one gets away clean, the survivors and military suffer at every turn and I was on edge until the last sentence.

Book Info

Length: 105 Pages

Release date: October 18, 2016

To Purchase From The Ashes Click Here

In an effort to contain the spread of the Hemorrhage Virus, the United States government launched an attack on its nation’s cities. Hundreds of thousands of lives, and a number of major cities, were lost in Operation Reaper but the monsters created by the bioengineered virus remained.

A small team of Army Rangers have entered the ruins of Detroit in an effort to save whatever refugees they can, and stop whatever creatures they encounter. In an all-or-nothing gambit, the Rangers will soon discover that in the heart of the Motor City, evil rises from the ashes.

Michael Patrick Hicks, biography

Michael Patrick Hicks is the author of the science fiction novels Convergence, an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2013 Quarter-Finalist, and Emergence. His work has appeared in several anthologies, and he has written for the websites Graphic Novel Reporter and Audiobook Reviewer. In between compulsively buying books and adding titles that he does not have time for to his Netflix queue, he is hard at work on his next story.