Orpheus Haunting the Dead (Anthology) [Paperback]

Stefan Petrucha (Author), Seth Lindberg (Author), Allen Rausch (Author)

Book Description

Series: Orpheus | Publication Date: October 6, 2003

Deal with the Dead
Death is no longer absolute - the men and women of Orpheus can see past the veil into the underworld. Their numbers include mediums, spirit-talkers and even actual ghosts. For a price, they'll cross the veil for you, to resolve lost causes or quiet restless spirits. But be careful, for the dead aren't to be trifled with, and in the end your payment may come in blood.
Four Times the Fear
Haunting the Dead presents four all-new novellas from some of the most exciting voices in modern horror fiction, set in the world of Orpheus, White Wolf's game of paranoia and the paranormal. Agents of the conspiracy known as Orpheus can see the dead, but can they trust these spectres and banshees? And what of the voice that squawks through dead channels, warning of a disaster on the horizon?

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: White Wolf Publishing (October 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588468372
• ISBN-13: 978-1588468376
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,509,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stefan Petrucha has written twenty novels and scores of graphic novels. His most recent work includes the parody Harry Potty and the Deathly Boring, the vampire novel Blood Prophecy, and the nonfiction Paranormal State: My Journey into the Unknown. He does not want to tell you where he lives. Gragg and Petrucha are co-authors of What the (Active Verb) Is Wrong with the Right?: A Fill-in-the-Blanks Game for the Rest of Us.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant way to pass your time, December 30, 2003

By 

Stephen R. Crow "gislef" (North Liberty, IA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Orpheus Haunting the Dead (Anthology) (Paperback)

Haunting the Dead is a collection of four novellas - all telling tales of the Orpheus Group, an organization (set in White Wolf's World of Darkness, presumably) that deals with ghosts, and employs agents who can either project themselves to the other side or are ghost themselves. "The Grass is Always Greener" by Stefan Petrucha deals with a haunted dormitory and a group of students assembled to take drugs and listen to a mysterious TV broadcast. Or...are they? This one only indirectly deals with Orpheus and from an outsider's viewpoint. "Eurydice" deals with Orpheus full bore, the only one of the four stories to do so, and exposes its corporate bureaucratic underbelly. One agent, Anders, with suicidal tendencies, loses his living girlfriend and has to wonder if life is worth living...when he knows his dead girlfriend's spirit is waiting for him to join him. "Dia de Los Muertos" has an agent and her ghost-partner investigating a haunted construction site and finds an Aztec cult tied into the overall menace threatening Orpheus. (Several Kolchak: Night Stalker in-jokes can be found in this one.) And "Corridors" mixes different times and places within a hotel as a new Orpheus agent/experiment wakes up to find the "big threat" and its minions overrunning the place. All four stories are tied together by the common thread of some big supernatural menace on the other side taking out Orpheus and its agents. As noted above, all four of the stories are a bit open-ended and there's no real resolution at the end. Still, all four of the stories are entertaining and I'd recommend them to those interested in stories of the supernatural guaranteed to keep you flipping the pages.

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read for Orpheus fans, December 8, 2003

By 

Jason Inczauskis "moonsight68" (Round lake beach, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Orpheus Haunting the Dead (Anthology) (Paperback)

I enjoyed all four of the stories in this book. Some of the things in it did seem to go against certain things in the core rulebook, however. Still, the stories are great, and I strongly recommend it.

5.0 out of 5 stars And I don't even normally *like* horror that much ...., May 14, 2008

By 

Wolfen Moondaughter (Flordia, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orpheus Haunting the Dead (Anthology) (Paperback)

(This review of mine was originally publised in Sequential Tart's Report Card, in November of 2003. http://www.sequentialtart.com/reports.php?ID=2713)

Haunting the Dead collects four chilling novellas about Orpheus, an organization in the World of Darkness mythos that investigates paranormal activity. The company has a most intriguing modus operandi -- they "kill" their employees temporarily so that they can do their job as ghosts!

In the first story, "The Grass is Always Greener", by Stefan Petrucha, we are deftly introduced to the whole concept through the eyes of Shutty, a suicidal college student who attends a fateful party. Fans of The Sixth Sense and The Others will truly enjoy this tale, which is perhaps the best in an overall great book.

The second tale, "Eurydice", by Seth Lindberg, tells the story of an Orpheus employee names Anders, and nicely lays out the workings (and hazards) of the organization as he searches for a lost coworker -- his lover, Lila. And, for those not up on their greek mythology, it explains the origin of the company's name. It also introduces the idea of a special sort of operative known as a "banshee", a concept that is carried over to the last two stories in the book. This tale is a little less horror and a little more sci-fi, with maybe a splash of What Dreams May Come.

In the third tale, "Dia De Los Muertos", by Allen Rausch, the concept is given a hispanic flavor as we accompany agent Eileen Savitch and her protege, Teo, on a vist to an Orpheus location in Mexico. Fans of the game Grim Fandango will get a kick out of this story. It seems to follow a different set of rules regarding the state of being a ghost than the other stories in the book, though, which is a little confusing.

The fourth and final tale, "Corridors", by Rick Chillot, tells the story of a haunted hotel. It's a complicated peice of work, jumping back and forth in time and location, but it's well worth the effort, so stick with it! Fans of Angel's more involved, chilling episodes, or of The Shining, will find it worthwhile.

The nice thing about this book is that it doesn't actually use any of the other World of Darkness concepts, so even readers new to the product line can enjoy it. So if you're a horror fan, don't be afraid to check it out!