The Captain of the Polestar: A Ghost Story for Christmas

by Arthur Conan Doyle, Seth (Illustrator)

“[This] series of Christmas ghost stories, miniature books chosen and illustrated by the cartoonist Seth … [offers] chills―and charm.” ― New York Times Book Review World-renowned cartoonist Seth illustrates a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle classic.

The Pole-Star’s voyage comes to a halt after becoming trapped in the arctic ice, threatening the lives of its crew. Superstition soon takes hold as the frightened men claim to hear ghosts in the darkness, but it's the captain's increasingly strange behaviour that concerns the doctor most.

Genres: Christmas, Short Stories, Horror, Fiction, Gothic

81 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2023

About the author

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Captain of the Polestar, a physician on a whaling vessel recounts strange occurrences on a voyage through the icy sea. I appreciated the descriptions of the silence and the darkness surrounding the ship -- these were well written and provided an eerie atmosphere -- as well as the doctor's descriptions of the captain and several of the sailors, but this is not the most exciting or interesting story, and certainly not scary. I liked the sketches included, though, and would check out other stories published in this series.

Content warnings: brief/minor mentions of drugs and alcohol, mention of death of a non-human animal

[R1CEC4KE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some truly wonderful passages in here on madness and sound which resonated with me long after I put the book down. The phonetic speech of Mr Milne was an enjoyable puzzle to work around, if it did make it more difficult to read. Otherwise, a pretty bog-standard ghost story, not much to criticise.

Seth's geometric/flat illustrations are a stellar contribution and really seep into the haunting bleakness of the Arctic cold. +1⭐️

[Scott Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe this is the first non-Holmes piece I have read by Arthur Conan Doyle and I’m so glad I did. It was a wonderful little ghostly tale.

[Peyton Honeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you know me then you know I love a good ship. 🚢 Even better, a haunted ship with an insane captain stranded in the cold, desolate Arctic sea!

[Pascal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, don't get spooked by this but, this one is a slow burner with some strange but well placed sprints. And I mean your typical kind of slow that you'd expect from a story which was written in the 1890's. The build-up starts rough, written like a diary of a crewmate on board a whaling ship called "The Polestar". I do say "rough" because it's full of old language which, after finishing the book, isn't that strange at all, knowing it is written over a 13 decades ago. It just takes some getting used to, and when that's done? When your old language dictionary is up-to-date? Well, let me put it this way; I blasted through it and it made me "burn the midnight oil" (You get it? That's an old English saying. I'm fun, I know). But, to be fair, the story sometimes took a bit of a slumbing tone and those were the moments the pages turned way slower than I wanted them to. On the other hand though, there were moments in which the story took a sprint, Usain Bolt-style, and connecting the dots was done at a fairly fast pace.
This is the reason I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars. It was fun to read but somewhat rough around the edges.
They market it as a Christmas ghost story because, in older times, it was a tradition to read (and/or write) a ghost story on Christmas. This tradition has become an obscurity over the years, which is a shame. Why should Halloween have all the spooks for itself, right? These little spooky stories bring a somewhat, and this sounds a bit strange, "cozy" feeling with them. Which is exactly what you need accompanying Christmas. Maybe, just maybe, I'll write some short ghost stories myself. Only to keep this tradition alive and hopefully bringing it back to normality.
I love Christmas, I love spooky stories, what's better than to combine the two, right? Well, maybe a warm cup of dark coffee combined with a cinnamon roll, accompanied by a well-written book. But that's a sum of things for another review... uhm sorry, I mean another story.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s the 19th century and a whaling ship is trapped in the ice. Rations are dwindling, the captain’s slowly going bonkers and there’s a spooky apparition appearing on the ice. Will they escape? Is it really a ghost? … zzz…

Seth has apparently been “designing & decorating” old Christmas ghost stories in collaboration with Biblioasis, an indie Canadian bookshop, for quite a few years now - there are 26 books like this available! If I’d known that, I don’t think I’d have plumped for Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Captain of the Pole-Star - I would’ve gone for one of the others instead.

I’m not a fan of Conan Doyle’s. I acknowledge his contributions to literature, Holmes will outlive us all, and Baskervilles was ok, but I don’t find him to be all that good a writer. The other Holmes novels I’ve read are dull, The Lost World - while a great concept - was a lousy story, and his prose is pedestrian and flat. Case in point: this short story!

There isn’t really much to the story beyond the premise. Narrated by a doctor (of course), the ship and its crew are trapped on the ice so nothing happens there and everyone’s just sat around waiting for the ice to melt a bit, while the Captain goes from being disturbed and weird to being slightly more so towards the end when things inevitably go poorly for him. Meantime the dreariness is punctuated by the occasional sound or vague glimpse of the “ghost” and that’s about it. The “twist” ending really only raises more questions though I think it’s meant to explain the Captain’s behaviour.

I like the book design. It’s about half the size of a regular paperback - perfect for stocking stuffing if you have stockings that need stuffed, and who doesn’t at Christmas? - and Seth’s moody twilit art complements the horror genre well. Besides the cover, he also contributes a few illustrations to accompany the text, which are quite nice, though they’re in black and white so I’m sure they look more striking in full colour, like the cover art.

Not scary, not even slightly interesting, The Captain of the Pole-Star is another Conan Doyle dud. As a Seth fan though, I’m going to continue to look through the catalogue of his Christmas ghost story collabs and see if I can’t find something better.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The telling or reading of ghost stories during long, dark, and cold Christmas nights is a yuletide ritual dating back to at least the eighteenth century…”

Time for me to “revive a spooky, old Christmas tradition”!

This is a physically comforting book to read. It is small, and fits comfortably in the palm of one’s hand. The cover feels good. And the illustrations are lovely in their simplicity. I liked just looking at it and holding it.

A whaling ship, surrounded by fields of ice, and captained by a madman. And possibly haunted! NOT a good combination! And what exactly did the captain see out there on the ice? Creep and spooky!
And maybe I will make these books into a holiday tradition!

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good haunting yarn that takes place on the ‘Pole-Star,’ a whaling ship temporarily stuck in the northern ice floes. Capt. Nicholas Craigie’s vision of a ghostly wraith is seconded by the ship’s second mate and other superstitious sailors, and it is up to the ship’s doctor-narrator to hold it together until the ice breaks up and they can sail to safety. Perhaps it is not Doyle’s best tale, but interesting to see what he can do without Sherlock.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the frozen arctic setting. The whaling ship is trapped in the ice field and the captain starts to go a bit loony. It all feels a bit familiar. The sighting of a spectre of some sort only scares the crew more, reminds me a bit of Frankenstein floating on the ice. I like the psychological elements as the story is told from the journal of the ship's doctor.

Another cool Seth volume in the ghost story series.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The next in my quest to read all of Seth's Christmas Ghost stories. This is great writing, but it is not a great ghost story. I felt the fear and the cold of the landscape and the sense of panic at being trapped by the ice on a ship. But I felt no fear from the supposed ghost. I appreciated Doyle's use of Scottish dialect in some of the conversations.

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evokes the bitter landscape of the far North as well as a feeling that the ship's captain might not be as sane as he should be. Doyle was a wonderful writer.

Note: this small Biblioasis volume contains 54 pages of text, the rest filled with publisher information and Seth's minimalist sketches.

[Greg O · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good atmosphere, but otherwise nothing to offer. Astonishingly little happens in 81 pages. If you want Arctic atmosphere with more impact, read Dan Simmons' The Terror instead (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...).

[Paul Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Penguin Books] (2023). SB. 69 Pages. Purchased from Amazon.co.uk.

Serviceable.

The drab, naive drawings by “Seth” (Gregory Gallant (1962-)) bring nothing worthwhile to this book. Additional contextual information, for instance a more detailed biographical sketch of the author*, would have been a welcome substitute. (*A mere six lines… but ten for the illustrator…)

[Allison Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Classic little ghost story set on a whaling ship

[Catherine Mason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the creepiest of this series but well-written and entertaining.

[Quill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine, and mostly unremarkable. Seth’s artwork interstitials were fantastic however,

[Lafcadio · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted this to be better than it was. This book is tiny, and the story is short, but it was still a slog to get through with no discernible payoff.

[Brainard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feels gothic! Ghosts at sea…

[Jamie Marsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. Took a while get into it, even as a short book but by the end I enjoyed how it was all wrapped up.
Wouldnt say it was really that scary but the characters were great to dive into.

[Brady Hawkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story was kinda all over the place and I found myself not interested in it. I am going to keep it since it is so small and hope that I am in the right mood and mindspace the next time I read it.