Historical Hauntings
Eighteen science fiction and fantasy writers herein turn their pens to the creation of tales containing haunts drawn from the pages of history. The result is a collection that has something for just about everyone. The settings range in time from 17th century Japan to the present, and the ghosts are for the most part well-known figures. The usual themes of helpfulness or vengeance are present, but there are several tales with a sharp twist at the end.
The moods also run the gamut, from Elizabeth Ann Scarborough’s light and humorous “The Mummies of the Motorway” to Brian M. Thomsen’s “In the Charnel House,” a profoundly moving tale whose origins lie in the Holocaust. There are Revolutionary ghosts, Arthurian ghosts, and angry and bewildered ghosts, in settings as diverse as the streets of Victorian Alexandria and the mind of Helen Keller. The overall quality is reasonably high, and every story contains some morsel for thought and reflection upon the ties between the past and the present.
