Customer Reviews

The Ghost Pirates (Classics of Science Fiction)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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 Kindles 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).

I also only downloaded this book because it was free and ended up really liking it. I didn't expect such an old story to be very scary, but the story is pretty frightening. The imagery is compelling. Once you get in the mindset of the time period and the ship location, the story unfurls quickly. After reading this one, I looked up the author's other books for Kindle (there are several) and discovered some are weirder than others, but they all kept my attention and made me think about what would come next in the plot. My only complaint is that the story wasn't longer!

This short (1719 locations) novel grabbed me right away and didn't let go until I'd finished it. It is genuinely creepy, and probably shouldn't be read alone in a creeky old house during a midnight thunderstorm. Unless you like that kind of thing. There is a lot of technical nautical detail, but I didn't find it annoying; it just gave the author street (sea?) cred, as far as I was concerned. I can't help thinking that the writers for the movie Pirates of the Caribbean (Black Pearl) might've read this as kids, only the atmosphere in The Ghost Pirates is much more deadly.

For free -- why not?

Hodgson's preface to this novel is important to understanding his viewpoint:

"This book forms the last of three. The first published was "The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig'" ; the second, "The House on the Borderland" ; this, the third, completes what, perhaps, may be termed a trilogy; for, though very different in scope, each of the three books deals with certain conceptions that have an elemental kinship. With this book, the author believes that he closes the door, so far as he is concerned, on a particular phase of constructive thought."

The unifying theme seems to be the dreadful forces that lurk just beneath the veneer of what we, in immense folly, believe to be "reality". Malign forces may surface at any moment to drag us to destruction or worse.

Hodgson's early career at sea allows him to write with total authority and create an atmosphere of such authenticity that when the malignant forces begin to intrude, they are all the more convincing because of the setting into which they are introduced. As with "The Boats of the Glen carrig", Hodgson wastes NO time in getting right to it - the book's first sentence is, "He began without any circumlocution", and the narrator takes us immediately to the ship "Mortzestus", an unlucky ship haunted by "too many shadows". The palpable sense of creeping fear grows into climactic scenes, each one leaving the reader wondering how anyone will survive.

This novel, along with "The House on the Borderland", is spared the weak second half that spoils "The Night Land" and "The Boats of the Glen carrig". Totally engrossing, a cross between an old-fashioned sea story and the cosmic horrors of Lovecraft - you will not be disappointed in this one. Seek it out - be prepared for a wild ride!

I read this book in one afternoon and part of the next morning. Didn't want to put it down. Some of the dialogues were a little hard to read and I tried to avoid getting stuck on the names of the different parts of the ship. Overall, I give this book 5 stars....especially since it's free!!! :)

I first became interested in William Hope Hodgson when I heard that he was an influence on HP Lovecraft, one of my favorite writers. The ideal of maritime ghosts and haunted ships has always had an appeal as well, so I decided to check out "The Ghost Pirates" as my first voyage on Hodgson's shadow-haunted seas.

Hodgson leaves no doubt that a sailing ship is an ideal setting for a weird tale, being entirely bound in the confines of the vessel, and literally no where to run to when things become rough. The hardy breed of the seamen is a strong contrast to Lovecraft's academics and dilettantes, and there is a much firmer hand guiding the story. The sailors on the packet-ship Mortzestus are brave and skilled, yet not warriors by any means, rather tradesmen cast into unknowable circumstances. Jessop is an excellent spokesperson for the book, being a bridge between the upper-class ship's officers and the lower laborers, each with their own ideas and solutions. Hodgson clearly knows his way around a true sailing ship, as the relationships and terminology on board have the ring of authenticity.

Hodgson plays carefully with his cosmic horrors, lifting the veil only enough for a frightening glimpse but not enough to reveal all mysteries. Although called "The Ghost Pirates," these are no departed spirits of men that haunt the Mortzestus but rather something from beyond the realm of rational thought. The inevitiablity of the situation is tense, as the sailors sense the approaching doom while being unable to fathom or prevent it.

After "The Ghost Pirates," I will definitely seek out more of William Hope Hodgson's books, specifically the remainder in this loose trilogy, "The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig' " and "The House on the Borderland."

One of the best ghost stories set on a ship. Mr. Hodgsons maritime knowledge is the equal of William O'Brien. The sense of horror is built relentlessly from the very beginning as the main character slowly realizes that there is nowhere to run, or hide.

This was one of the first books I downloaded for my new Kindle.

Horror isn't my genre, but the name got my attention, and the reviews convinced me to try it. I'm very glad I did.

The novella builds the suspense very nicely, with some good foreshadowing from one of the characters. You wonder more and more just what the heck is going on. The payoff is worth the read.

It's not that long of a read, either, so is possible to do in one sitting. I would echo the comment to not read in the dark.

I didn't consider the sailing references as distracting as some others, but each reader will have to make up their own mind on this.

Considering this is free, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

William Hope Hodgson's first published novel, "The Boats of the Glen Carrig" (1907), is a story of survival after a disaster at sea, and of the monstrous plant and animal life-forms that the survivors encountered while trying to reach home. In his second book, the now-classic "The House on the Borderland" (1908), Hodgson described an old recluse's battle against swine creatures from the bowels of the Earth, and the old man's subsequent cosmic journey through both time and space. And in his third novel, 1909's "The Ghost Pirates," Hodgson returned to that milieu for which eight hard years at sea had provided such an extensive background. The book takes the form of a narrative told by able-bodied seaman Jessop, who had been sailing on the Mortzestus from San Francisco to (what we can only presume to be) England. As its name suggests, the ship has something of the spirit of death about her, and is deemed by most sailors to be unlucky. But surely none of her previous transits had ever gone as badly as the one Jessop describes. Ghostly images seen on the deck at night, and some minor accidents involving sails and rigging, only set the stage for more serious occurrences, and Hodgson soon ratchets up the suspense with some mysterious killings and unexplainable phantasms, all leading up to a murderous attack by the eldritch buccaneers of the title. As in his previous two books, Hodgson masterfully creates an atmosphere of creeping unease. With hardly a wasted word (the whole book runs to less than 140 pages; its very first sentence is "He began without any circumlocution"), Hodgson manages to sustain this jittery feeling over the novel's duration, while also letting us get to know the ship's crew and her officers. Interestingly, the Second Mate is described very sympathetically by Hodgson--he is one of the coolest-headed, most decent characters on board--despite the fact that Hodgson, when a cabin boy at the age of 14, supposedly suffered terrible treatment from his Second Mate. The Second here, Mr. Tulipson, almost strikes one as the idealized officer that Hodgson wishes he'd served under 18 years before.

As a snapshot of what life was really like for the sailors of around 100 years ago, the book is also exemplary. Hodgson, at one time a Third Mate himself, really knew the life inside and out, and his shipboard descriptions smack of authenticity. It would certainly help a modern-day landlubber, when reading "The Ghost Pirates," to have an UNabridged dictionary handy, to look up all the many nautical terms that Hodgson casually dishes out; words such as "futtock shroud," "washboard," "bunt gasket," "jackstay," "clewline," "dogwatch," "taffrail," "crosstree," "ratline," "craneline," "bollard," "paunch mat," "shakings," "jibboom," "spanker boom" and "crossjack." Looking up all these terms will slow the reader down, perhaps, but will also surely repay his or her efforts with a richer, in-depth experience. As a primer of life at sea and as a creepy fantasy of the unexplainable (and I should perhaps mention here that the bizarre happenings in this novel, like those in "The House on the Borderland," are barely explained by the author; some events in this mysterious world, it must be inferred, just cannot be rationalized), "The Ghost Pirates" succeeds marvelously. Though sadly out of print at the current time (like most of the other Hodgson titles), it is well worth seeking out.

A profoundly effective horror tale. Hodgson writes with a command of the language and has a seemingly thorough understanding of what it takes to raise the reader's gooseflesh. It surpassed my expectations, in terms of the thematic implications of the story that there are dark forces lurking below our perceptions of reality, forces that can and will strike without notice. Well-written and very effective in terms of the scares it provides, it will resonate with you long after you've read it, despite the fact it's an old fashioned ghost story. Those of us who are familiar with Lovecraft will readily detect the influence that Hodgson had on Lovecraft. Highly-recommended.