Ernst, Morton, and Glass: Manesologists. Victorian Ghost Adventures

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Now you can read up to two months ahead of the public release on Patreon!

SORRY, WE ARE ON A TEMPORARY HIATUS!

Ernst, Morton, and Glassis a series of short stories and novellas about a team of manesologists, ghost experts who adventure through a fantastical version of Victorian England where ghosts and hauntings are a fact of every-day life. I've put a lot of research into this project, and while the three men that compose Ernst, Morton and Glass are fictional, many of the people they interact with are from real life, such as the famous lawman Bass Reeves, occultist Samuel Mathers, and social reformer Josephine Butler.I hope you will have as much fun reading these stories as I had writing them. Some are dramatic, some are comedic, but all carry the spirit of phantasmal thrills in the tradition of Algernon Blackwood and William Hope Hodgson.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: Otto Gruenwald

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 22
Views: 23,119

Chapters(74 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(4)

IndigoSparksRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I don't really go much into this genre, and it is definitely very unique compared to what is the norm here, but I feel like that works to the strength of the work!
The world is rich, the characters have this subtle life to them that makes this very enjoyable to read, or maybe its just the very specific writing style of this story. Grammar is fantastic, no mistakes, and a rather old-fashioned manner of speaking while still being easy to read and I really appreciate that.
A minor thing that sticks out to me though is that this portrays itself to be a type of short story collection, which it certainly isn't. It's more of a series of novellas, and that's slightly different. Because short stories are meant to be less than 10,000 words and certainly do not have chapters. I would suggest that the writer instead separates each novella into separate volumes of a work, because I understand that they mean for this to be a series of interconnected yet free-standing books. And I quite enjoy the style.
Solid ghost story, especially for fans of the Victorian time period. Would highly recommend if you're looking for something a little different.
OzFiefenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A very classically-scientific approach to ghost fiction, EMG (an acronym based on the three main manesologists in the story: Ernst, Morton, and Glass) is a very entertaining throwback to old horror stories from previous centuries full of their methodical exploration of the supernatural forces and attempting to categorize many weird elements into the uniformity of science in order to add an element of realism to the unreal.
The setting is the bustling 19th century (specifically, 1871 in the current short story), however the major difference being the legal acceptance of ghosts (academically called "Manes" by the characters in the story) and how life in England has been since Manes have become a tangible and studied existence in the country (and the world). There are references to real 19th century historical figures, although they are currently still in the background with the focus on original characters and histories.
Style 5/5:
The prose is extremely colourful, using direct and vivid imagery in order to stick itself into readers' head. There is use of techniques like repetition in order to place the reader in the same confused mindspace as the central character of the scene, like a literary optical illusion. The haunting nature of the world, contrasted deeply with the scientific approatch to it, is most powerfully shown through the use of light as an element of both wonder and mundanity. A lot of the current story is like this, the strange nature of the world is gradually overtaking by the academic exploration of it, which leads to not so much horror as much as reading the extent of science of a different history. A very fascinating read for this website, honestly.
There is also an exploration about how society percieves an event, their morbid curiosity, their dismisal of aspects they wilfully ignore for what they believe is more exciting, and how such things hurt people even beyond their death.
Story 5/5:
The currently available short story in this collection, "A
mr_R_GhostsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a very spooky ghost story! I connected with the characters instantly and the atmosphere of dread is really something else! I can't wait to see what happens next, and really want to know where the story is going. If you love classic ghost stories I recommend you give this one a shot!
Vincent ArcherRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
This is not the usual story for RR. Rather than being a progression fantasy of sorts, it is a more classical Victorian fantasy, set in an alternative 19th century of sorts, and what's more, it's an anthology of stories rather than a continuous global story. As it is, it will certainly not be to the tastes of every reader on the site.
The setting is well made, with great attention to the terms and customs that would fit, like the use of "manesologist" for a special in ghosts. The Roman-derived denomination is not well known - even if you can find it in AD&D 5E, for instance - but it sounds delightfully Victorian (and it helps that with 5 pages of Google, you'll find this story on the first page).
Our first ghost encounter is well drawn, although it is somewhat exposition-heavy, as it is used to set some of the rules for the ghosts of the stories. The first chapters will make you expect one story, while an entirely different one unfolds.
The biggest criticism is that, for an anthology, the only character that stands out in the first story is the ghost. The three titular characters are almost non-existent, and if our first manes does not end up a regular in the anthology, instead of just a first case for the trio, it will be hard for people to move to the next story and lose the "main character". That's always a risk in an anthology; that of secondary characters eating up the entire series. You have to make them interesting, but not too interesting.