diff --git a/shard.yml b/shard.yml
index 8658c08..0d8fca8 100644
--- a/shard.yml
+++ b/shard.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name: bindata
-version: 1.7.0
+version: 1.8.0
 
 development_dependencies:
   ameba:
diff --git a/spec/bindata_spec.cr b/spec/bindata_spec.cr
index ef2bcab..e2963f6 100644
--- a/spec/bindata_spec.cr
+++ b/spec/bindata_spec.cr
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 require "./helper"
 
 describe BinData do
+  it "should parse an object from a Slice" do
+    r = Header.new
+    r.name = "foo"
+    slice = r.to_slice
+    Header.from_slice(slice).name.should eq "foo"
+  end
+
   it "should parse an object from an IO" do
     io = IO::Memory.new
     io.write_bytes 5
diff --git a/spec/bitfield_spec.cr b/spec/bitfield_spec.cr
index af38605..7ebb7dd 100644
--- a/spec/bitfield_spec.cr
+++ b/spec/bitfield_spec.cr
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ describe BinData::BitField do
     io = IO::Memory.new
     io.write_byte(0x80)
     expect_raises BinData::ParseError, "failed to parse ByteSized.bitfield.header" do
-      obj = io.read_bytes(ByteSized)
+      io.read_bytes(ByteSized)
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/src/bindata.cr b/src/bindata.cr
index cdf4e10..a7f70ee 100644
--- a/src/bindata.cr
+++ b/src/bindata.cr
@@ -33,6 +33,11 @@ abstract class BinData
     IO::ByteFormat::SystemEndian
   end
 
+  def self.from_slice(bytes : Slice, format : IO::ByteFormat = IO::ByteFormat::SystemEndian)
+    io = IO::Memory.new(bytes)
+    from_io(io, format)
+  end
+
   def to_slice
     io = IO::Memory.new
     io.write_bytes self