The Spectral Chronicles is a series of books written by our very own Demetrios Anagnostopoulos.
In the first volume, Demetrios awakens as a ghost, and when he invents the sport Ghost Wrestling, he embarks on many adventures both in and out of the stadium. It isn't all fun and games, though, as demons seek to conquer the Earth and add it to the empire of Pandemonium. Only with the help of his friends can Demetrios prevent this from happening and keep the Earth peaceful and free of demons.
The stories so far:
- Volume I: The Sport of Ghost Wrestling (published in 2011)
- Volume II: The Return of Mephistopheles: World War III (published in Summer 2012)
- First Short Story: Dawn of a New Century (published in the 6th of December 2012)
- Volume III: The Rise of Atlantis: Light and Darkness (published in Summer 2013)
- Second Short Story: From Oslo to Kinardas (published in Summer 2014)
- Volume IV: A New Beginning (published in Summer 2015)
- Volume V: The Heralds of False Light (published in Summer 2016)
- Third Short Story: A Day of New Life (also published in Summer 2016)
- Volume VI: Battle for the Ages (published in Summer 2017)
- Fourth Short Story: A Night of Fun (also published in Summer 2017)
- Volume VII: The Kingdom of Dreams (published in Summer 2018)
- Fifth Short Story: Around the World
- Sixth Short Story: A Box of Chocolates
- Volume VIII: The Dark Below
The books can be seen online
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Tropes:
- Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Despite taking place in the future, ancient weapons such as swords, axes, and spears are used alongside guns with the same amount of force.
- Cerebus Rollercoaster: The books are going for a ride on one of these. The settings are nice places to visit, and the characters are cool people to hang out with (even the cynical and sarcastic Michael Hunter has his good qualities), but when the villains start rearing their ugly heads (both literally and metaphorically), don't expect the peace to last very long.
- The Empire: Two major ones. The Angels seek to unite the Universe in peace and justice and to protect life from the demons. The demons only wish to conquer and destroy everything in their path.
- Expansion Pack World: Subsequent volumes expand on points raised in the previous one.
- Familiar: Familiars in these stories have a bit of a Mon theme. They spend most of their time as small and cute Talking Animals. In times of battle, they can transform into strong and powerful prehistoric creatures.
- The Future: The Sport of Ghost Wrestling takes place in 2085, and later volumes go further from there.
- The Greys: The grey aliens (or Traiusu, as they call themselves) once had a scientific paradise on their home planet of Arasandra, until they were driven from their homes by the demons. They came to settle on Mars.
- Grim Up North: The villains have set up their bases in frozen northern locations, although in The Sport of Ghost Wrestling, the Brotherhood of Nullity's base is on a subantarctic island, so it would be a case of "Grim Down South."
- Immortality Begins at Twenty: And seems to have a limit of the 40s. This trope is played straight for angels, demons, and vampires, while for ghosts, they look the age where the best moments of their lives took place. Ruby is the youngest (so to speak), as she's 16 forever, while Ashur is the oldest at 37 forever.
- Interspecies Romance: Lots of it:
- Demetrios & Lily: Ghost and angel respectively.
- Anne-Marie & Lynessa: Also ghost and angel.
- Michael & Kayla: Ghost and vampire.
- It's Always Spring: The stories mostly take place in spring to summer, although The Sport of Ghost Wrestling begins in November, and the unpleasantness with the Brotherhood of Nullity begins in January. Sort of justified for the Stone Cutters; thanks to their living on a tropical island, it feels like its always spring or summer.
- The Magic Comes Back: Thanks to Ghost Wrestling, the supernatural stuff is making its return.
- The Magic Goes Away: Life on the Earth seems to have gotten boring since Atlantis sank, with the supernatural stuff happening in the background instead of the foreground. On the other hand...
- Our Angels Are Different: Some have the classic bird wings and others have light tentacles (this one is mostly prevalent among the Stone Cutters). They are often incredibly attractive. Many of them are good, but some have sadly fallen.
- Our Demons Are Different: Demons vary widely in their appearances and powers. Some are large and brutally strong, while others are small and scheming. Some are seductively beautiful (mostly succubi), while others are horrifying to even glance at. All are fiercely loyal to their master, Satan. Speaking of which, as it turns out, “Prince of Darkness” is only a title mortals came up with to avoid speaking too respectfully of him. His real title is “The Dark Emperor.” They also have a flavor of Outside-Context Problem, as they were this to the grey aliens and the fairies according to the backstory.
- Our Dragons Are Different: So far, only Red Dragons have been seen (although ghosts have turned into ones of different colors). They're the size of therapod dinosaurs and just as fearsome, which is why the Stone Cutters brought them into their ranks. There are also Netherworld Dragons, which reside in hell.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Physically, they share similarities, but they have different personalities as well.
- Our Elves Are Different: The high and dark elves usually consider themselves better than each other, but have their own codes of honor and morality and are willing to ally with those who are good.
- Our Gargoyles Rock: They're the classic monstrous creatures that disguise themselves as stone statues and attack when an enemy approaches. In addition, the dark elves created a race of gargoyles that look like a fearsome combination of a snake, a jaguar, and a dragon made of obsidian.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: And fearsome fighters, too.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Ghosts in these books have the following powers and abilities: they can fly, turn invisible, walk through walls, shapeshift, need to eat a lot to recharge after intense battles, don't age (they get to look as how they looked during the best moments of their lives) and have a super sense of humor (with the possible exception of Michael Hunter).
- Our Monsters Are Different: For those that don't have a category, there are the Stone Cutters' white elephants. They look like African bush elephants, only they have pure white skin and they're the size of Columbian mammoths.
- Our Orcs Are Different: They're a race of green-skinned Proud Warrior Race Guys who have once driven back the demons during their first invasion of the Earth.
- Our Vampires Are Different: There are seven different clans (Bronze Elephant, Emerald Cobra, Golden Lion, Obsidian Wyvern, Silver Wolf, Platinum Dragon, Ruby Tiger), but they each have a few things in common. They have enhanced strength and durability, some have psychic powers, and they can endure sunlight, although they prefer nighttime as that's when their powers are stronger.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: They were once created by a curse Satan placed on a pack of wolves during the Nightfall. Some of them, however, have become heroic warriors of nature when healed by the Lady of the Moon. They look like humans during the day, resuming their lupine forms at night.
- Pegasus: In addition to Moon Shadow, the flying Mustang that Demetrios rides, the Stone Cutters have flying horses of their own. They look like Thoroughbreds with the wings of albatrosses. Some have pure white or pure gold coats, and others have coats resembling those of plains zebras.
- The Power of Love: Love is the strongest magic in these stories, and it allows the caster to kick serious butt with it. So far it's happened for Lily with the power of the phoenix, Ashur with the power of the wolf, and Anne-Marie with the power of the unicorn. In Lily and Ashur's cases, it happened when the people they love (Demetrios and Leah respectively) were in terrible danger, while for Anne-Marie, it was both romantic and maternal love (protecting Lynessa and their children).
- Shout-Out: Given its own page.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The bad guys are getting stronger as more volumes are added, and they get more powerful within the same story.
- Sweat Drop: Even the noble and dignified King Zasedis gets them.
- Time Abyss: Since both angels and demons have been around since before the beginning of the Universe, they can easily fall into this trope. For a more recent example, Zasedis was celebrating his 21st birthday while the Earth was having the Pleistocene Epoch.
- Unicorn: The unicorns in these stories combine the modern-day child friendliness with the fierce wildness of their original mythology. They like fruit more than grass and their coats come in every color of the rainbow, but they can use their horns like swords.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Thanks to the popularity of Ghost Wrestling, the humans are getting used to supernatural stuff.
Statler: Do you think you'll give these books a read, Waldorf?
Waldorf: Books about a ghost? Well sure. But there's only a ghost of a chance of that!
Both: Doh-ho-ho-ho-ho!
Waldorf: Books about a ghost? Well sure. But there's only a ghost of a chance of that!
Both: Doh-ho-ho-ho-ho!
