The Derelict

By: William Hope Hodgson

Narrated by: Felbrigg Napoleon Herriot

Length: 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

FNH Audio presents an unabridged reading of William Hope Hodgson's "The Derelict". When a storm abates, leaving the ship in need of repairs, the men set to work, only to discover another ship a mile off, a floating wreck, a derelict. Thinking there may be salvage to be had, they cross to the mysterious stranger. Instead of salvage, they discover horror and death, and possibly a clue to the origin of life itself.

©2012 FNH (P)2012 FNH

Classic Hodgson brand of horror fiction

Hodgson's unique and terrifying monsters always deliver, so far above Stephen King's obscenities filled garbage.

Underappreciated Classic!

This was the first time I read anything by William Hope Hodgson. Excellent! I will have to read more.

3 stars

Nicely narrated. This story is creepy fun on the high seas as only WHH can do. A doctor relates a tale of his younger days when he was onboard a ship that was blown near to a derelict ship after a storm. A few men go over to the ship to investigate. While not one of my favorites of Hodgson's, fans of his should check it out.

Excellent chilling story from my childhood!

A old sea tale I had read long ago as a wee lad, and all the delicious fear and awful dread of that Sargasso Sea hulk drifting slowly across the waves- it’s lumpy green bulk searching for seamen to digest… ah well you don’t forget a frightening night mare like that - not without it all coming back to you as the story unfolds with eerie anxious dread!

“Terribly Dull"

Story - Without spoiling anything the story is a retelling of an account of our protagonist, the doctor, shared whilst offering his services to a ship crew and their supernatural experience investigating a nearby abandoned ship at shore, the Derelict. Nothing happens after the retelling, it’s just supposed to serve as a fireside story amongst the doctor’s colleagues to spook them. It has its spooky moments near the end but they are short-lived and the build-up to them is too long and manages to pull you away from the story's focus. There is an unnecessary amount of interaction and description of the mold as well as how it interacts with the crew and doesn’t achieve much other than grossing them out.

Pacing/Composition - The story itself starts off simple and would be easy enough to follow were it not for the story trailing off every now and then to give unnecessary details and forgetting what kind of story it is telling.

Narration - I had to listen to this book at 1.4x speed to get anywhere because the narrator reads incredibly slow. It never brought any additional drama to the book and instead brings everything to a lull. Coupled with the ramblings of the doctor unless you wish to get lost and forget everything I’d recommend listening to it at least from 1.3x speed.

Who is this book for - I wouldn’t recommend this book particularly to anyone other than audiences looking for new and unusual spooks, germaphobes (maybe), and anyone interested in obscure horror.

How to enjoy the book - It's a hard book for me to enjoy even after a couple of listens, I'll admit, but I think it’s more pleasant if you listen to it at a faster speed & try to finish it in one sitting. It's not terrible, despite how I bashed it in this review but I think it's just not for me. While this is irrelevant, halfway through my second listening of the book I had the idea to imagine this as an episode of The Misadventures of Flapjack and that was arguably more entertaining than my first listen altogether. The horror aspects are fairly similar to that of the writing in Flapjack and it fits rather well if you choose to go that route.

What I found lacking - There is a lot of exposition that's not essential towards your understanding of the crew, the doctor, the Derelict, and even the spooky mold, but because the story is told from the Doctor's perspective it would have been nice to play a little more into that and have been able to see how the supernatural event impacted him or his comrades and given us context as to why he is sharing this story. The narration wasn't up to par with the type of story being delivered either, were it not so monotone it may have been an easier listen.

Sludge isn't scary.

Would you try another book from William Hope Hodgson and/or Felbrigg Napoleon Herriot?

Don't think so.

Would you ever listen to anything by William Hope Hodgson again?

Maybe.

What aspect of Felbrigg Napoleon Herriot’s performance would you have changed?

I sort of liked the English accent, but made it a bit harder to follow the story.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Derelict?

Most of it.

Any additional comments?

Nope.