Engines of Ruin

By: Lucas Mangum

Narrated by: Sean Duregger

Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Thirteen dark tales from the author of Saint Sadist and Gods of the Dark Web.

The disappearance of his son brings a rock star home to atone for past sins. A bartending ex-preacher faces a terrible destiny when an former congregation member walks into his bar wearing a bloody shirt. A blizzard traps a suicidal writer at the Jersey Shore with a cult and its strange goddess. A woman shoots a pornographic video and the act shatters her reality. The zombie apocalypse forces three teenagers to take refuge with the school bully. An old poem connects a college student with her haunted past and her doomed future.

Lucas Mangum's debut collection Engines of Ruin will surely appeal to fans of Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, Sara Gran, Richard Laymon, Bentley Little, and John Skipp.

Stories included in this collection:

• Ghost Music
• Hell and Back
• Our Lady of the Sea
• Worlds Colliding
• Video Inferno
• Offerings
• Hayride
• Worm Magic
• Occupy Babylon
• The World Asunder
• A Killing Back Home
• Waters of Ruin
• The Last Easy Rider

©2018 Lucas Mangum (P)2020 David N. Wilson

Classic scary fun!!

This was a great read and listen. Shawn did an awesome job of narrating this one. It had all the feels of the classic campy Halloween goodness I love, the closer to Halloween I get. The King influence is strong and this is the most fun I've had reading a short story collection in a long time. I was given a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review, and it is one I'll definitely share and spread the word about. I loved this one, and hopefully you will too. Enjoy, and Happy reading.

Decent collection

I read Lucas Mangum's novella Gods of the Dark Web earlier this year, which left me impressed and disgusted (the latter, I suppose, in a good way), and was curious to listen to this follow up collection of stories.

A more diverse array of story types are on display in Engines of Ruin, some better than others. My favorites were "Our Lady of the Sea" and "Offerings." Overall enough goods stories that kept me going all the way through.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Grim stories

Great title. Very dark stories and not everyone has a happy ending. Sexually graphic, especially how woman are treated in most of the stories, which is not nice. Time-jumps in a few stories, as though a transition was missing. Very talented voice actor.

I. Throughly enjoyed this take on it’s genre.

I have listened to/read numerous books in this genre. This is one of the better ones. I do recommend this book.

I wasn't much of a fan.

***ATTENTION: I'm a killjoy. That is all.***

I love scary and weird stories, so when I come across a collection, I’m all for it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan of the majority of stories. Maybe it’s because I felt some were too short, or because most seemed to revolve around sex (a subject I’ve gotten so bored reading about) or have a lot of lip chewing, or are just meh stories.

Overall I think the narrator did a good job. There were times when he'd add emphasis to a word for whatever reason that I couldn't pick up on. I'd listen to him again.

I’ll probably come across as a prude for this comment (oh well) but starting a story with two characters having sex is one thing, but when they’re “f*cking” and the word is repeatedly used with the narrator adding emphasis to it all within the first five minutes of the story...? It just seemed a bit crass to me. I don’t know how to describe it but I wasn’t a fan.


----“Ghost Music” 1/5
“It was as if their genitals were meant for each other.” Seriously? I can’t think of how many times an author has referenced a male and female character, whether it’s their bodies matching up (like a puzzle piece) or their neither regions. This is a reason I avoid strictly romantic stories. I’m so over this description. Bring on something new! This is a perfect reason as to why I’m tired of reading sex scenes… they’re all the same. As for the story itself? I honestly wasn’t even sure what was going on.

----“Hell and Back” 2/5
This might have been a good story, but it was way too short.

----“Our Lady of the Sea” 1/5
Sorry, but this story bored me.

----“World’s Colliding” ?/5
I wasn’t sure how to rate this one. I felt it was all over the place and confusing, weird (in a bad way). I did find it funny that the author thinks a female (with a v*gina) can pee out semen. Please tell me why that doesn’t work, why it’s not possible? LOL

----“Video Inferno” 1/5
Again, I was bored.

----“Offerings” 5/5
I found this one to be the most interesting and entertaining of the batch.

----“Hayride” 1/5
I didn’t think there was much to this story.

----“Worm Magic” 1/5
I didn’t understand what was happening.

----“Occupy Babylon” 4/5
This was the next best story. I honestly wasn’t 100 percent sure what was happening, but I love zombies!

----“World Asunder” 1/5
This story made me think of the movie “Spit on Your Grave” with the young, “special” fella who hangs out with the a**holes of the town. They get into trouble, this time wanting to rape a female. They force the “special” guy to do the deed even though he doesn’t want to. Afterward, he lies in the fetal position and cries because it was so traumatizing for him; the other guys laugh, of course. Anyway, the fact he ends up getting his nose shattered and acts as though nothing happened? Yeah…

----“A Killing Back Home” 3/5
There was a description around the part when the female protagonist goes to visit her father. She describes the air as smelling like semen due to some type of pear. Can I ask why when male writers write about a female character, there’s usually sex involved, or overly graphic descriptions used for her, or what she does is described in a sexually manner? No? I didn’t think so. My comment has me thinking about an article I read recently in which a female writer was questioning the descriptions some male writers tend to use when describing scenes with female characters. Picture this: a woman is running for her life. She’s heading to a man (the main protagonist) who is waiting for her on the other side of a field. He’s watching her scream in terror, crying, and of course trip. “She was a beautiful woman. Her large jugs bounced as she ran in my direction.” Yeah… nothing wrong with that description.

----“Waters of Ruin” 2/5
I wasn’t really sure how I felt about this story. A part did catch my… ear though. “The cries came from above. The bathroom light flowed faintly from above like the sun above the sea.” Tells me what’s wrong?

----“The Last Easy Rider” ?/5
Again, I have no clue how I felt about this story. What was the point of it exactly? I’m not always the best person when it comes to reading into something. To me, it was about a girl who dreamed about her gay (or something gay/bi) friend.

I received a free audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Very Solid Collection

ENGINES OF RUIN by Lucas Mangum is a very solid collection with a few stories I consider excellent. The narration by Sean Duregger is once again superb. If you enjoy your fiction on the extreme side then ENGINES OF RUIN will not disappoint.

Good Collection of Twisted Horror Stories

Good collection of twisted horror stories. I am really hard pressed to say which one was my favorite. Each one offered up something unique and I thought as a collection they were pretty solid. While I didn't find them graphic from a horror perspective, a few were a bit graphic related to sex. A few of them to me seemed like they just ended and didn't have a full conclusion, not a fan of stories that don't have an actual ending and just leave things open. All in all they were neat stories and this author should definitely be on your radar if you like horror stories.

Sean Duregger did a great job with the narration. I loved his character's voices, the cadence he used, and the overall energy he put into each story. He really brought the story and characters to life

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Great Halloween read

I love scary short stories. This one was a great Halloween read. I really enjoyed it.

I was given a copy of this recording in exchange for an honest review.

Insane Stories

Weird bizarre stories with some sexual situations some good some not but good narration. Enjoyed his other books more.

didn't do it for me

There are several five-star reviews for this collection of short stories, so I guess that your enjoyment is a matter of personal taste. I thought that the best story in the bunch was 'Offerings'. I think that the author wrote well and the character development was pretty good in all of the stories. Why didn't I give more stars? Plot. I guess my preference is for stories with eerie hooks or ironic twists (especially at the end), but in my opinion none of these stories resonated with me in terms of gore, shock, horror, eeriness, or irony. I was expecting those things because of the audiobook cover art, I admit. It's too bad because, as mentioned, the author's writing style and character descriptions were on track. Tension-building was fine. The potential was there, but the endings didn't end quite right for me. To me, they ended with a shrug rather than a satisfying closure. It's my two subjective cents, though, because other reviewers were much more positive.

The narration was good - he has a good voice for horror fiction and was a good choice for this project.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.