The Altar: A Novel of Horror

by James Arthur Anderson

When a new strip mall and housing development are built near a small New England town, tearing through untouched forest, a 300-year-old grave is uncovered, thereby setting loose an ancient evil from its eternal prison. Science fiction writer Erik Hunter soon finds himself the target of a near-immortal horror that feeds on human suffering. In order to save his family and his town, he must make the harrowing trip into the underworld of another reality, one filled with pain and terror--and there make the ultimate sacrifice to facilitate the return of his imperiled wife and young children to the "real" world. But even giving up his life and soul may not be enough to keep an evil spirit from escaping its natural home, and returning to earth to destroy and infect the world. A novel of unremitting horror that will keep you perched on the edge of your seat!

Genres: Horror

251 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Luka Novak · Rating 1 out of 5]

In many ways this book relies on established cliches. You have your "sleeping evil that is distrubed", your "ancient evil that was put down ages ago when people believed in evil", your "kid who understands" and your "wise old man who everybody thinks is a bit crazy".

Having said that you can pretty much figure out the story. When working on a construction site old stone is disturbed, evil wakes, bides his time, gathers disciples, bumps into local family (who in addition to having a kid are also newly arrived), family is warned by local Native American about evil lurking nearby and so on.

In addition to relying on established (and tired) cliches book often refuses to follow its own rules. Book basically says "Hell, demons etc work this way" and then on next page something happens that shouldn't have happened under those rules. Not to mention that despite sleeping for centuries evil-that-wakens seems awfully unperturbed by modern world things such as cars, helicopters, automatic weapons.....

Not a good book.

[Cher Green-LaRock · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Altar presents an interesting premise. The story begins with the disturbance of a long ago banished demon. When a family moves into the neighborhood, their backyard connecting to the forest, the dwelling place of the demon, they become sucked into the awakening process of the demon. Together, with the help of members of the community, they must put it back from where it came, or die trying. Anderson has put together a nice roller-coaster ride of demonic thrills.

I listened to the audio version of this story. If I had read it, my review may have turned out a little differently. I find that words on a page feel different for me than listening to a book.

I gave The Altar a '4 Star rating' due to some writing issues. Some of the dialogue was too long, too wordy, and interrupted the flow of the story. The author did a much better job when he was within the characters' internal dialogue sections. Also, the back story of the legend of the demon was repeated over and over again, throughout the story. It was as if the author thought we needed a refresher course to keep up. I found it somewhat irritating since it pulled me out of the story.

Overall, this was a good story. I enjoyed most of the time spent listening to it. I'd recommend it to a friend, with a little caution on the writing.

[Metalligazza · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a strange sort of book to talk about, it starts off very believable and could have quite easily have turned into a manson story but no it takes quite another turn without giving too much away it kind of prods at the realms of dante .
if this book is ever made into a movie it will need a huge budget for the cgi and pyrotechnics .
having said that I think I would take a trip to the cinema too see this, as a book I would probably say it's above average and to be honest horror storys can only go down two roads the believable route ( possession and serial killer stuff ) and then there is the almost fantasy stuff ( hellraiser and the like ) this book falls into the later.
I must admit I qhite enjoyed reading this and would recommend it if you don't need every thing to fall into the realistic dimension but if it is a fun book to pass a few hours and you like HP lovecraft but can't be bothered reading with thesaurus at hand then this may be the book for you.

[Charlene Hecht · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started off very good. Decent premise. But it did not finish that way. I had the the : get it over with already feeling going on.