∎ Libro Ghost Pirates The William Hope Hodgson 9781421925813 Books

Ghost Pirates The William Hope Hodgson 9781421925813 Books

Download As PDF : Ghost Pirates The William Hope Hodgson 9781421925813 Books

Ghost Pirates The William Hope Hodgson 9781421925813 Books

I'm no Hodgson expert. In fact, I haven't read any of Hodgson's work apart from this collection of a novel and some short stories, so I can't really compare the yarns in this volume to the other components of his œuvre. However, I am an avid reader of Weird Fiction, and I found this collection to be exquisitely bone-chilling.

The centerpiece of the collection, The Ghost Pirates, actually reminded me a lot of many of John Carpenter's movies in that it's a synthesis of a survival story and a horror escapade. The Melvillean crew of a merchant marine ship are thrust into a world which seems normal at first but gradually reveals itself to be the haunt of an alien horror that they cannot comprehend. From there, the novel becomes a siege story, with a gradually thinning pool of men frantically trying to stave off the otherworldly forces seeking their demise. The title might give you Pirates of the Caribbean flashbacks, but rest assured there is nothing prosaic or popcorn-y about Hodgson's 1909 classic.

The other stories included in this volume are decidedly less subtle in their build up, being more like horror sonatas than the grand horrific opera that is The Ghost Pirates. Nevertheless, they are written at the same high-quality level as their bigger brother. A common theme amongst Hodgson's stories is that the monsters contained therein are merely extensions of a hostile world. The real villain of these stories is the entire universe, which conspires against the protagonists in the same way that a storm seems to conspire against an ailing ship. If you're into Lovecraft, Poe, Melville, or any other writer of the weird and macabre, this collection is an essential purchase (in my estimation).


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Ghost Pirates The William Hope Hodgson 9781421925813 Books Reviews

The Ghost Pirates was entertaining and holds up incredibly well for its age; I'm actually a bit surprised it has not received an update as a screenplay as it would translate well into a period horror movie. I downloaded this because it was free and fell into the horror genre. I was not disappointed and it is well worth the read. No blood and guts, but plenty of death and supernatural occurrences in the Nautical/Gothic sense. It is written in first-person, and is filled with archaic nautical terms which the s dictionary handles quite nicely (for the most part).

I don't give away detailed plot points in my reviews, but in a nutshell this is a story about a sailor who takes a job on a reputedly haunted ship. It follows the basic formula of disbelief and isolation, followed by a group realization that something is not quite right. Appropriately creepy, it reminds me of something one might hear from The Chowder Society (if you are unfamiliar with that group, read Ghost Story by Peter Straub).
William Hope Hodgson is revered as a writer of fantasy and horror fiction, among other genres. I've never read any Hodgson so I was looking forward to reading THE GHOST PIRATES, in part because of his reputation and because of Davi Sales wonderfully evocative cover art. Sad to say, I wasn't taken by THE GHOST PIRATES.

Hodgson's tale deals with a sailing ship journeying to its doom, as related by a sole survivor named Jessop. As the voyage progresses, queer things start happening on board the ship. Phantoms seem to be walking the desk. At other times, strange mists encircle the ship. Ghost ships appear only to vanish. And then things turn deadly.

Though many strange events transpire, I never felt a sense of dread about what was happening. Perhaps that was because Jessop ruminated endlessly on what he had seen/not seen, what it might be, etc. Then too, Hodgson, who had sailed the seas as a young man, uses endless nautical terms to describe the ship. It's all authentic terminology but, after a while, you get tired of scratching your head wondering what a fore brace lock is or a sherpole or t'gallant rigging.

Others have praised THE GHOST PIRATES so I might be all 'at sea' about it. Pick up a copy and see for yourself. You may be scared out of your wits. I wasn't.
If someone asked when I thought this was written right after I read it, 1909 would not have been close to my guess.
I checked several times after reading (and again when writing this review) to see if it was off by 50 years or more.
It seems too modern to me but that's probably my own bias. I would have guessed the 1960's. It's remarkably free from
the idiotic phrasing that so many books from that era are polluted with. However, brush up on your sea faring language,
there's some in here. Nothing bad, safe for kids too.

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Mini-spoiler alert
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One of the things I liked about this book is that it never really goes into detail about what/who/when they start to see.
Even as people start dying. If you like your stories neat wrapped up, and everything spelled out in the end this might
not be the book for you.
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End Mini-spoiler alert
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I'd love to see this made into a movie and I would guess that the folks who wrote Pirates of the Caribbean were very familiar with this
story because one of those movies (forgot which one) is too close to this book be a coincidence. Not that whole story, just a few parts
of it. I do not mean that in a bad way. It would make a good old fashonied story where the monsters are not blood sucking demons etc..
Just a slow build in suspense like a good Hitchcock movie. Who's the bad guy? Was that him?

I liked this book so much I went and bought the collected works by the author

The Collected Works of William Hope Hodgson (Unexpurgated Edition) (Halcyon Classics)

The Ghost Pirates alone is worth the $1.99 that the Collected works cost.
I'm no Hodgson expert. In fact, I haven't read any of Hodgson's work apart from this collection of a novel and some short stories, so I can't really compare the yarns in this volume to the other components of his œuvre. However, I am an avid reader of Weird Fiction, and I found this collection to be exquisitely bone-chilling.

The centerpiece of the collection, The Ghost Pirates, actually reminded me a lot of many of John Carpenter's movies in that it's a synthesis of a survival story and a horror escapade. The Melvillean crew of a merchant marine ship are thrust into a world which seems normal at first but gradually reveals itself to be the haunt of an alien horror that they cannot comprehend. From there, the novel becomes a siege story, with a gradually thinning pool of men frantically trying to stave off the otherworldly forces seeking their demise. The title might give you Pirates of the Caribbean flashbacks, but rest assured there is nothing prosaic or popcorn-y about Hodgson's 1909 classic.

The other stories included in this volume are decidedly less subtle in their build up, being more like horror sonatas than the grand horrific opera that is The Ghost Pirates. Nevertheless, they are written at the same high-quality level as their bigger brother. A common theme amongst Hodgson's stories is that the monsters contained therein are merely extensions of a hostile world. The real villain of these stories is the entire universe, which conspires against the protagonists in the same way that a storm seems to conspire against an ailing ship. If you're into Lovecraft, Poe, Melville, or any other writer of the weird and macabre, this collection is an essential purchase (in my estimation).