I read this book years ago and I must say that even now the images are still with me. It's a great summer read, but do not read it alone in your house at night!!! This is not a great literary classic. But, does every book need to be? Johnstone is a wonderful writer who can entertain his readers wholeheartedly... and frighten even the most stoic of readers! If a book can bring me back again after more than 10 years, I think that the author deserves some credit!

This is the first horror book i read about 8 or 9 years ago, and i must say it scared me then. I wanted to read it again because i can remember most of the book. i have also read otehr books by this author that were good but not as great as this one.

AS A TRUE SON OF THE SOUTH, I APPLAUDE MR. JOHNSTONE'S VIEWS OF THIS TRAGIC PERIOD IN OUR NATION'S HISTORY. TO A GREAT MANY PEOPLE. IT NEVER WAS A WAR ABOUT SLAVERY, BUT A FIGHT TO PRESERVE THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THEIR HOMELAND. BEFORE THE WAR, THE STATE HAD FINAL SAY IN WHAT WAS DONE WITHIN ITS BORDERS. AFTER THE WAR, RIGHT, WRONG, OR INDIFFERENT, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COULD AND DID HOLD SUPREME. MANY SAW THAT AS A RETURN TO WHAT WE FAUGHT THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR TO ESCAPE. SERMON OVER, AS USUAL, MR. JOHNSTONE DELIVERS A ROUSING GOOD TALE OF A LEGENDARY HERO, A SURVIVOR OF THE ALAMO AND A MAN DESTINED TO WALK WITH GIANTS. GREAT FUN AND MORE THAN A LITTLE HISTORICAL ACCURACY.

This book is just great. I can't really express in words of what this book did to me. Go ahead and call me an idiot or worse but this book dealt with a portion of history that I have studied over and over again. The Civil War and any person who was remotly interested in that war should like this book for it's accurate recounting of certain battles and of how it brings to life again the commanders of the armys once again. I believe you will like this book I know I have.

Them is classic Johnstone! It is very easy reading and once you start it is hard to put down. It has all the monsters(both human and nonhuman), sex and violence that one comes to expect in Johnstone's tales of horror.

IT IS ONE OF THOSE BOOKS YOU JUST CAN'T SEEM TO PUT DOWN

William W Johnstone's novel "Toy Cemetery" starts out fast and furious like a lot of his novels. It's got a decent storyline about a town taken over by an ancient evil. In fact parts of the storyline are quite similar to his previous trilogy Devil's Kiss, Heart and Touch. As with most Zebra books the summary on the back is quite deceptive. The toys in the story really are a minor character. In fact, Johnstone's novel is full of characters, some of them are throw away some of them are keepers. It's a shame because it's the sheer amount of characters in his novel that prevents me from giving it 5 stars. Written mostly like a classic pulp horror novel, it is quite graphic in it's violence. Sometimes funny..sometimes chilling its a quick easy read for those looking to remember the days of pulp horror novels.

Authors like Johnstone often get burried under the works of King, Koontz, Saul and others and are often overlooked lost treasures. I recommend Johnstones writing for the most part because it's light refreshing entertainment that won't bog you down. Toy Cemetary while not his best horror novel is quite entertaining nonetheless.

William W. Johnstone is the greatest horror writer of all time.Each book keeps you on the edge.Toy Cemetery was awsome.The evil dolls in Aunt Cary's toy collection get their revenge in the end.

Howdy folks, I'm James Drury, of television's the Virginian. These days I'm reading books onto audio tape, so I get the chance to read a lot of books. I must say, if you like gritty realism, you will like this Johnstone book. I liked it, but because of the amount of violence I probably would not let a younger reader pick it up. I have heard Johnstone compared to Kirby Jonas, and I guess my best way to review this book is to say, if you enjoy realism with a lot of violence, go with Johnstone, and if you enjoy your realism with the violence slightly toned down, go with Jonas. He is my personal favorite. But both are great writers and will surely live on forever with well deserved notoriety!

Johnstone writes good books, esp westerns, and mountain man books. Hope he keeps them coming.

Johnstone's first book in the "Ashes" series is a survivalist's wet dream. It is chocked full of violence, stupid but sadistic bureaucrats and heroic rebels. The main character, Ben Raines, is a former special forces and mercenary soldier who has become an author. As the world falls down around him he puts his writings into practice in order to save what is left of humanity. He sets up his own country and then battles the resurected but evil US government.By the way, in all the "Ashes" books, all government officials are facists who sadisticaly rape, pillage, and plunder the countryside. Ben Raine's rebels on the other hand, practice what can only be called a kinder, gentler form of facism.

Interestingly enough, the author's post apocolyptic world is characterized by nearly everybody but the rebels becoming sexual deviates. I don't know if this is caused by radiation or what but hardly 3-4 pages go by in "Out of the Ashes" without someone being raped or sodomized. By the fourth "Ashes" book it is difficult to find anyone left in America be it man, woman, or child who hasn't been raped and/or sodomized. Every other page is ripe with the vivid discriptions of these atrocities. Of course it is easier to justify the excessive violence in these books by the author demonizing the bad guys as sadistic rapists. It just makes it that much easier for the rebels to kill the dirty buggers.

"Out of the Ashes" is classic pulp fiction. It is excessively violent, and has some form of sex act (mostly rape) at least every 4 pages. It is assinine in it presumptions about society and simplistic in it's assumptions of human nature. Ironicaly, it is just the kind of book to appeal to the ignorant masses that are so despised by the hero of the book. The fact that there are now at least 28 volumns in the "Ashes" series with an almost cult following merely proves the point.

"Out of the Ashes" while not good literature, is somewhat entertaining in an excessively violent, sexual perverted and moronic kind of way. Have fun!

OK, so this story doesn't have the most original or deepest plots in the world, but what it does have is a strong political and social philosophy, and presents it in an interesting fashion.

Mr. Johnstone's protagonist, Ben Raines, leads the way as a warrior-philosopher fighting the human scum rising to the top after World War Three destroys the world. Along the way, he hooks up with a group of survivors, and together they form a nation without crime, poverty, or injustice.

Of course, the Washington liberals can't tolerate that, and destroy it.

The book is over the top and sometimes thin, it's still a good lead into an exciting series.

As the author of "Strike Hard", I continually read books that piqued my interest. "Out of the Ashes", the first of the Ashes Series, was one of the most enjoyable that I have ever read. Ben Raines seems to be a reflection of William Johnstone, thus adding a lot of depth to the character. Johnstone manages to put the reader right in the middle of the war, and its aftermath, plunging the reader into a world where chaos exists. However, there is a desire to see things set right, and Ben Raines is the man for the job. From punks to outlaws, Ben manages to strive victoriously to clear the way for the rebirth of the country, in the way it was meant to be. First of a series, "Out of the Ashes" is a terrific stand-alone novel, as well as an enticing beginning to a wonderful series. It is a book that I never tire of reading.

The Devil's Kiss is nothing more than an all you can eat buffet of exploitation movie chestnuts (aka cliches) consisting of sex, gun fights, sex, fist fights, sex, monsters, and sex. You have to love how Johnstone describes in loving detail all those wretched, kinky sexual acts while trying to sound like he is actually condemning them. And I never knew that the forces of evil were so incredibly well endowed. You aren't fooling me one bit Mr. Johnstone. Each book in the series is almost endearing in its sloppy, simple minded kind of way. So bad its pretty darn good.

I did not read this book untill after reading the 4th book THE DEVIL'S CAT. i preaty much just came across that book and after reading it i had to get the first one. This book kept me on the edge and made me believe that not only God does exsit but Satan also. I am not a very religous person but this book does make you think how much Satan does affect our lives everyday. I really wish someone would make a movie from this book. if done right it would be a blockbuster. I encouage you to read the three other books after this one. you would not be dissapointted. So keep the lights on, get under the covers, and keep a bible next to you.

Once I started reading The Devil's Kiss, I couldn't put it down. Johnstone brings the age old battle of good vs. evil to a whole new level. Johnstone makes Sam Balon a man who everyone can look up to and want to try in their heart to be. I've never read a book that has defined a character of class and courage until now. I have read the other 2 books in the series and hopethat there is more then that. I highly recomend this to anyone who truely likes horror because this book will scare you into a whole new reality of the world.

If you are looking for a a good book that compliments the first "Rig Warrior" book this is not it. I absolutly enjoyed the first book, but this one needs to bee rethought out. I felt Barry "Dog" Rivers could have gotten a little deeper into the situation that was going on in the town this story was set in. It was interesting to find out what he went through after the ending of the first book, but again I didn't feel his presence here as in the first installment. Hopefully the third book will be an exciting conclusion to this series. If you have read the first book and are planning on reading the third go ahead a check this one out. I'm sure some of the informatin that we are given here will come to play in the third.

Before I read this book, I read the review. Then I read Wheels and I thought that this book was every bit as good as the first and can't wait to get started on the next one. I'm just glad that Bill brought the series back cuz I've been looking for them in every used bookstore in my county. THANK YOU !!!! Again this book is EXCELLANT!!!!!!

The story is about Terry Kovak and his life from about fifteen on. Shows him as a young man and what he becomes. He is part of the Dog Team. This is a secret group that is part of the military. Terry is a trained killer, guns, knives, hands, you name it and he can kill with it. This is his life as he goes to many different countries doing his job. It is a sad book to me as he is lost for ever from his family, he becomes to hard for them. He is for ever lonely and by him self. I feel like to much of the book was written about his many, many affairs with women everywhere. Very detail and several pages devoted to that. In fact I guess over half the book was about his lust life. Would have liked it better if more written about the fighting.

I have read all of Johnstone's "ashes" series, several of his adventure books, and two of his horror stories. "The Last of the Dog Team" is his best effort. This was an engrossing, hard to put down book. My only complaint was that it should have been longer. While I do enjoy the "ashes" books for light reading, in all honesty, they fall short in character believability and plot development. "Dog Team" is a more serious work with good characters, an intestesting plot, and a logical flow. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it wholeheartedly. I hope Mr. Johnstone writes more like this... perhaps a sequal for the special ending

I love this book, it was excellant, I felt once again Johnstone was proving a point about liberal biases, Johnstone is my favorite writer and so far I have loved everything that he was written and I liked the Terry Kovak charecter becouse he was strong and determined but we got to see what he was really like and he was clearly 3 dimionional, I highly recommend this book to all and also all of Johnstones books including the ever popular "ashes" Series

Typical of the Ashes series over the past several novels, William Johnstone preaches his Rebel philosophy, as Ben Raines and fellow comrades, trek across Africa. Overall, the book is average, with its ups and downs. Positives, action and realistically, Rebels, some of them higher ups, getting killed...in an ambush of sorts across northern Africa. Raines underestimated Bottger and it comes back to hurt him. The first half of the book has the Rebels landing in Morocco, and traveling south along the west coast, fighting gangs, and helping some of the natives, who are starving or diseased. Negatives, lots of filler material as Johnstone repeats similar words every other page, with the same old vocabulary from his Team. The latter half of the book was better once the Rebels get into Togo and Benin. This is when Bottger launches a massive suicide assault using refugees as cover on the Batt Com 1 and some of the other Batt Coms. Ben of course survives, but wakes up alone. He journeys for a while, trying to find any surviving Rebels and is eventually regrouped with his Team, but the Rebels lose thousands. Raines regroups toward the end and the 18 Batt Coms are dwindled down to 10 Brigade groups. Meanwhile, rumor of an impending Civil War in the former U.S. between the SUSA and the reunified NUSA and EUSA reach Ben. But first they need to take care of Bottger.

Having read the entire series, and enjoying it so very much, I found this fit in nicely with the rest of the series. I dont know what is worse, the fact that the precludes to the Tri-states being formed are coming true more and more now in todays government, or the fact the final outcome could be the very one that Mr Johnstone wrote about in his first Ashes Book. Speaking just for me, tho i dont agree with the total following of the Rebel way, I agree with it enough that should it ever happen, me and mine would be moving into the "rebel" area. We need to take the country back and Mr Johnstone's series lays it out nicely, patiently waiting for the next one.

Well I just finished No. 25 Ambush in the Ashes in the Ashes. The whole series is outstanding; the best series of war books I have ever read and they leave me with a great desire for Americans to have someone like Ben Raines lead our country. The characters are excellent especially Ben, Jersey, Cooper, Ike, and a lot of others. It is really great reading books with the same character and watching them grow and getting to know them better. I started this series with I think it was book No. 29 "Crisis in the Ashes". I enjoyed it so much I went to Amazon and started ordering the books from the first one "Out of the Ashes". I just ordered "Triumph in the Ashes". It was the most expensive of the set but I know I won't regret it. I wish everyone could read this whole series. The writing is excellent, the characters are excellent, there is a different plot in every book and the books really make you think twice about what is going on in our country today. To be honest, I never thought I would enjoy reading a war book so much as I did this series. I hope William Johnstone keeps turning them out. He is a fantastic writer.
Kathy Riley