Customer Reviews

Historical Hauntings (Chronicles of Cheysuli)

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

 

 

The cover caught my attention, and so I bought it. I'm waiting for the next volume. There's Houdini's ghost, Helen Keller's, some WWII guys, all of them excellent and most of them with surprising, twists. My favorites were Jimmy Hoffa's ghost and Andre Norton's story.

As anyone with a fondness for the genre knows, a "ghost story" is not any story with something labeled a "ghost" in it; a ghost story offers an encounter with the unknown and unexplained, a meeting with something that is outside the realm of the expected. Ghost stories contain elements of suspense. By such a definition most of the stories in this piece are not ghost stories.
I do not blame the writers -- some of the stories are decently written. I do blame the editors for imagining these action yarns constitute ghost stories.
The first, "Fighting Spirits" is a supernatural confrontation with some monsters from beyond. No ghostly suspense; just a fight scene. The second, "Jennie in the Field" is a ghost story, but not a particularly well-written one. The third, Andre Norton's "Ravenmere," is an exception -- an excellent little story. "In the Charnel House," apparently attempts to be a Kafkaesque morality play but leaves me looking at an over-played and insufficiently justified moral. "When You're Dead" is an adventure / escape story "ghosted up" by a too easily labeled Harry Houdini. "Spirit of Honor" is an Oriental sword & sorcery piece, not a ghost story.
Get the idea?
This is definitely the most disappointing ghost story anthology I've purchased (and I've purchased more than a few).

Historical hauntings kept me up all night. I couldn't think about anything else until I was finished with the book. Vivid detail in every object. My only complaint is that it's waaaay too short. But other than that, highly reccomended.

This book doesn`t keep the promises.As you read the title you expect to be intertained with SCARY stories about ghosts but once I began to read it I soon give up because this book is SO boring.
Some cold air,a small strange noise and a little mist and that is all.I don`t know where those writers picked up their ghost???? stories.