Sin & Ashes

4.2/5 ( ratings)

"Some writers one admires and others make one want to do as they do, or try. For me, Joe Pulver is of the latter type. His imagination is so vile so much of the time that it makes me giggle with amazement. And the prose so deadly visionary. I'm grateful that the pieces in this collection are those of a fellow horror writer who has raised the ante on what it means to be such a creature." -- Thomas Ligotti on _Blood Will Have Its Season_ by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. The world of Joe Pulver's dreams and nightmares is a world of grim violence and death but also of strange beauty and wonder. In stories that read like poems and poems that read like incantations, Pulver weaves a sorcerer's spell of language-tough, gritty, cheerless, but always evocative, hypnotizing, intoxicating-that lays bare the fragility of human beings on the edge of the abyss, looking down at the depths and looking up at the boundless cosmos. H. P. Lovecraft, Robert W. Chambers, and other writers of terror and the supernatural are Pulver's touchstones, but his riffs on their tales are the work of a master craftsman who recognizes the emotive value of every sentence, phrase, and word. A poet in every sense of the word, Pulver sees the world and the cosmos as a cauldron of death and carnage but also a platform for triumph and redemption. In these stories, sketches, prose-poems, and vignettes, Pulver evokes the wild beauty of terror in a manner that few can match. Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. is the acclaimed author of the Lovecraftian novel _Nightmare's Disciple_, and he has written many short stories that have appeared in magazines and anthologies. His first short story collection, _Blood Will Have Its Season_ , was published to wide acclaim.

Language: English

Pages: 326

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Hippocampus Press

Release: December 13, 2010

ISBN: 0984480242

ISBN 13: 9780984480241

Sin & Ashes

Laird Barron

4.2/5 ( ratings)

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Language: English

Pages: 326

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Hippocampus Press

Release: December 13, 2010

ISBN: 0984480242

ISBN 13: 9780984480241

3.7/5 ( ratings)

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Reader Reviews

Dominique Lamssies

(4/5)

2

Dec 25, 2025

Ever wonder what it would look like if reality was shattered into a bunch of sharp little shards that floated in a bottomless pool of blood? And then you tried to pick them up?Yeah, that's reading Sin & Ashes, basically.This is not a book for everyone, but those who make it through will be glad they did.Highly recommended.
Gaze Santos

(3/5)

2

Dec 25, 2025

Pulver is a bit of a writing chameleon, willing and able to experiment with different writing techniques, and fuse them with his dark and visceral imagination. Some of these literary experiments were more successful than others, and on the whole this anthology was not as strong as his previous "Blood Will Have Its Season" which I absolutely loved. The first half of the book are mainly proem style works, where the story is given in abstract terms and hard to discern. This in itself is not always
Pearce Hansen

(5/5)

3

Dec 25, 2025

SIN & ASHES is a scathing collection. Jarring and unsettling from the git go, Joe refuses to allow the comfort of standard story structure to interfere with his assault on the reader.This is mean jazz, dissonant Bartok-style classical – music as prose poem. His work evokes the kind of mood you can barely tolerate even in memory, street poetry and strange riffs.Joe is an acquired taste – and while his strange and idiosyncratic mode of expression may have attained a little affectation in the cours...
Alanna

(5/5)

1

Dec 25, 2025

My review can be found here:http://sheneverslept.com/newsandrevie...
Michael

(2/5)

1

Dec 25, 2025

There's something I'm missing with Pulver's writing. I don't actually dislike his style, but it just kind of slides right off me. Nothing sticks even though I appreciate most of what I read. Low rating for now, but it's definitely something I want to re-read eventually.

Dominique Lamssies

(4/5)

Dec 25, 2025

Ever wonder what it would look like if reality was shattered into a bunch of sharp little shards that floated in a bottomless pool of blood? And then you tried to pick them up?Yeah, that's reading Sin & Ashes, basically.This is not a book for everyone, but those who make it through will be glad they did.Highly recommended.

Gaze Santos

(3/5)

Pulver is a bit of a writing chameleon, willing and able to experiment with different writing techniques, and fuse them with his dark and visceral imagination. Some of these literary experiments were more successful than others, and on the whole this anthology was not as strong as his previous "Blood Will Have Its Season" which I absolutely loved. The first half of the book are mainly proem style works, where the story is given in abstract terms and hard to discern. This in itself is not always

Pearce Hansen

(5/5)

SIN & ASHES is a scathing collection. Jarring and unsettling from the git go, Joe refuses to allow the comfort of standard story structure to interfere with his assault on the reader.This is mean jazz, dissonant Bartok-style classical – music as prose poem. His work evokes the kind of mood you can barely tolerate even in memory, street poetry and strange riffs.Joe is an acquired taste – and while his strange and idiosyncratic mode of expression may have attained a little affectation in the cours...

Alanna

My review can be found here:http://sheneverslept.com/newsandrevie...

Michael

(2/5)

There's something I'm missing with Pulver's writing. I don't actually dislike his style, but it just kind of slides right off me. Nothing sticks even though I appreciate most of what I read. Low rating for now, but it's definitely something I want to re-read eventually.

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Sin & Ashes

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Sin & Ashes

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