Quintessential H. Rider Haggard. The Ghost Kings sets its initial story in quasi magical Zululand before plunging headlong into the utterly mystical realm of the Mother of Trees and the ghostly dwarfs who have one foot in this world and another in the world to come. Its clash between the "real" and the "spiritual" is a recurring theme in Haggard's work. There is one difference in this story, however. And that concerns the heroine, Rachel Dove. Of all the Haggard novels I have read (and I have finished a number by now), this one has the strongest heroine of all. It is Rachel's story, almost entirely so. Not the eponymous women of Nada the Lily, Cleopatra, or even She can match what is largely a feminine perspective of not only Rachel but her friend, Noie, and the Mother of Trees herself, Nya. And, yes, Ghost Kings is something of a companion piece to Nada but only in that several of the characters in the latter make brief appearances in the former.

Otherwise, the novel is notable because of its treatment of the Afterlife. For Haggard life after death seems to have much in common with the ancient Greek Underworld. Inhabitants of it seek after pardon or affirmation, with many caught between a state of terror and aspiration for release. It is a limbo of sorts. Not a place that would seem all that pleasant to its potential inhabitants. ( )