Dark Companions By Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell ´ 9 Download

This was my first introduction to Ramsey Campbell. I would say this collection is ok - not bad but not great. Most of the stories were kinda depressing (so much so that my reading buddy dropped out about mid way through), and all of them were much more on the subtle side than in-your-face. The stories often left a lot up to you as to how you believed things were finally resolved at the end. Only two of the stories stuck out for me, one being Out of Copyright and the other being The Pattern. The Pattern has a very interesting plot twist that I particularly enjoyed, an idea that I found original. Definately a change of pace. 0812516524 220615: i read this in comparison with stephen king as he is described as 'britain's version', have read now a few of his works, most prefer 'hungry moon', and of that the sort of 'metaphysical' aspects of horror. this is a series of short stories, collected in 1980 though dating to 1967. this is all horror. perhaps best read intermittent rather than in a few days, as the plot shared becomes too familiar...

i can see why he has won so many genre awards: he is a fluid writer, he operates well in first-person, in omniscient, in second-person, he creates characters, he finds common discomfort leading to horror, he does not distract with poetics. in this i like his work. as far as horror... this did not disturb me near as much as hp lovecraft but more than king, though i can see his pacing to reveal too slow for some readers...

a complaint i often have with short stories, not only genre but literary, is that there is often sort of a 'trick' turning usually at the end, and once you know it, the story does not offer anything in rereads... some of my favourites (a clean well-lighted place, snows of Kilimanjaro) i enjoy reading over and over. Campbell's stories have immediate, 'provocative' effects, rather than 'evocative' reason to read again. though who are these people who read more than once anyways... 0812516524 During my teenaged Lovecraft phase, I read some of Ramsey Campbell's early stories, found them okay, promptly forgot about them. Stephen King's unqualified rave for Campbell's short story The Companion sent me running to this collection, which is very strong stuff. Having read The Companion, I'm still not entirely sure what happened -- Campbell's approach is sometimes too damned oblique. But several other stories are far superior. One of Campbell's greatest strengths is his ability to create wounded characters struggling to get on with their lives, which makes them all the more vulnerable to the menace gathering just beyond their field of vision. This is particularly the case in a story like The Pattern, which delivers not just a bone-jellying shocker of an ending, but a genuine sense of tragedy. Now if I can just figure out what was going on with that carnival ride in The Companion. 0812516524 Aside from his short story collection Holes for Faces which I liked too. This collection was superb and Campbell was so good when writing short stories which it might compared with works of Charles L. Grant and to his influencer none other than Lovecraft.

Every story leaves an eerie, silent and heart beating descriptions and the one that scares me the most was Down There which I highly recommend and want to go back again because I have not slept and think of it while I'm at work. 0812516524 Campbell really shines in his short fiction, and he along with Adam Nevill are the only writers that can give me a genuine scare and one of the only writers I re-read. Of the 21 stories here, I'd already read several in other collections, but many are worth a second go.

These stories often contain the blighted urban landscape that characterizes Campbell's earlier work, which I love. There's also an atmosphere of loneliness in many of these, especially Napier Court, The Little Voice, Drawing In and Calling Card. This feeling of isolation, combined with the creepy touches Campbell constantly throws in seem to make for a perfect combination of generating fear.

And Campbell uses these touches to full effect, as in this creative example from Calling Card:

An insect clung to a tinsel globe on the tree. When she reached out to squash the insect it wasn’t there, neither on the globe nor on the floor. Could it have been the reflection of someone thin outside the window? Nobody was there now.

Or in The Little Voice:

all the coats lay in a mound [...] The mound looked as if a lumpy shape were hiding underneath. They were coats. Nothing but coats. Good God, it wasn’t as if they were moving. But if the lurker were holding itself still, waiting to be uncovered…

Having read Campbell's first collection Demons By Daylight I would rate this one above it. Although his first collection has some great stories, this one shows him in full command of his powers. For now I've skipped reading his second collection The Height of the Scream, which is generally seen as one of his lesser collections. It's telling that only one story from The Height of the Scream was reprinted in Campbell's best of story collection Alone With the Horrors while twelve from Dark Companions were.

My favorites would be Down There, The Little Voice, The Show Goes On and The Chimney.


Mackintosh Willy
I know this story has won awards and S. T. Joshi has called it a masterwork, but I wasn't overly impressed with it on my first read six years ago and I still don't think it's one of his best. It does have a creepy ending and a gritty urban flavor I think works well. A man recalls in his childhood how a homeless man who slept in a shelter in the park chased the boys away who ventured too near. After he dies his ghost returns seeking vengeance.

Napier Court
This was a really eerie story, with ratcheting tension and a skillfully crafted sense that the protagonist is perhaps not alone. It's tinged with delirium and painful regret and loneliness and finishes with a beautifully terrifying closing sentence. A young woman, depressed over a break-up and ill is left alone by her parents in a house that isn't quite empty.

Down There
Comparing my notes from when I first read this story five years ago, I think I enjoyed it far more this time. I liked the abandoned office building as a horror setting, again with the run-down urban setting. It's not one of the absolute best here perhaps, but it's creepy and has some good action too. A woman working in an old office building has to contend with something which has been festering in a sub-basement.

Heading Home
Cool little Tale From the Crypt type tale about a scientist, a murder and a terrible vengeance.

The Proxy
I liked this one even though it's not among the very best here, it generates a sense of mounting fear. It starts out with a bit of a M.R. Jamesian flavor but has a very creative twist at the end I never saw coming. A woman uncovers an old foundation in her garden, and seemingly unleashes an evil.

The Depths
This was another re-read, and I mostly agree with my original assessment: Very weird story, I think there's a good, original concept here, I just wish it was a bit less vague at times. After a writer stays in an old house where a horrible murder occurred, he is plagued by constant nightmares and his mind overflows with atrocities which happen in the real world.

Out of Copyright
Another re-read, this is a fairly short story of the supernatural invoked from a horror tale. A standard story of ghostly revenge I found more humorous than creepy.

The Invocation
This is a sort of creepy crawly horror story, and very effective in that regard. The why's of this story are a bit vague and mysterious, but by the end I didn't care. A young man renting a room in the house of an old woman accidentally summons a horrible creature into existence.

The Little Voice
This was the first thing I ever read by Campbell, I recall it was in the first volume of the Shadows anthology. I was very impressed by this story, and I think it holds up quite well. This is a very emotional, and dark horror tale with an unrelenting horror and overflows with Campbell's half seen hints at the horrific. A lonely woman inadvertently invites the ghost of a child into her life.

Drawing In
Oh boy, another spider story. This story is effectively skin-crawly and yet keeps you guessing. I also liked that, despite its rather short length, it establishes a good sense of place. A man recovering from a trauma stays in the house plagued by odd phenomena.

The Pattern
This was a decent story, but not among the best here. It feels a little too predictable perhaps. A couple staying at a rural cottage keep hearing cries in the woods.

The Show Goes On
I read this story about five years ago, and still think this is one of Campbell's best short stories. His technique of creepy touches and half-glimpsed horrors really works to create a supreme atmosphere of dread. One of my favorites. A man suspects thieves are able to enter his shop at night through a storeroom connected to a long-shuttered theater next door. He spends the night in his shop and explores the creepy old place.

The Puppets
I feel I missed something with this story. The central plot is about a doomed romance and the horror exists at the edges in a secondary plot -- but the two aren't seamlessly brought together in my opinion. A young man starts dating a young woman above his station in life, while observing that an old marionettist in the village acts increasingly strange.

Calling Card
This is a short, perhaps a minor story, but effectively creepy still with a potent atmosphere of loneliness. An old woman receives a vaguely threatening Christmas card, and starts to feel she is being stalked.

Above the World
Another I didn't re-read, here's my previous review: This was a pretty good story, a little slow starting out, but develops into a nice lost in a haunted wood type tale. A man explores the mountain where his ex-wife and her husband died of exposure, and becomes lost in a sudden fog, and seemingly changing nature of the woods themselves.

Baby
Another re-read, by far the most grimy story, a great generation of blighted urban atmosphere, the horror elements are kept rather vague at the start. It's more subtle and effective by holding its punches until the end, and has some very effectively hallucinogenic prose evoking a feeling of drunkenness and disorientation. An alcoholic bum decides to kill an old woman who is rumored to be wealthy and pushes around a baby carriage.

In the Bag
I didn't bother to re-read this one, here's my previous review: This story certainly has a powerful, creepy theme to it, but it also was a bit predictable to me. Campbell usually picks a theme (here suffocation via plastic bags) and brings it into the story in creepy ways, in the novels this can get run into the ground. A man haunted the guilt over someone in his childhood he saw suffocated by a plastic bag becomes worried after someone tries to do the same to his own son.

Conversion
This is another very short story, a very strange one. I like the mood of this one, with its dense prose, and even the rather kooky surprise ending. A man returns home to his wife late at night, with an overwhelming sense of dread that something is wrong.

The Chimney
This is a very creepy story, one Campbell's best. The end is a little vague, but it's all the more memorable for it. A timid boy fears something lurks in his bedroom chimney. He is told about Santa and fears the idea, but knows he will have to face the presence eventually.

Call First
This was another re-read, my first reading was so long ago I don't recall my original thoughts on it or where I read it. This is a minor story, but the plot reminds me of what I think is among Campbell best stories, Again. A man becomes curious about a strange old man's house, and breaks into it while he is away.

The Companion
This is another re-read, and another stand-out. Stephen King praised this story, and it's easy to see why, it has a very creepy ending and really holds its punches until then, building effectively. A man interested in old fairgrounds explores one and starts seeing the ghosts of his dead parents in the distance, and reliving childhood fears.
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I have a signed copy. Campbell is always eerie, although sometimes his stories are either a bit slow for me or perhaps just too densely constructed, requiring more of the reader than I'm usually ready to give. But most of his stories, even if I don't fall in love with them, leave me with a feeling of distorted reality. Campbell is definitely a bit of a different thinker. 0812516524 Collects twenty-one horror and fantasy stories. 0812516524 I have read this book so many times that my copy got worn out and water damaged and I am currently on a mission to find another copy at a used book store. This is the one that made me a fan of Ramsey Campbell. His short stories are almost more effective than the full-length novels, because these skip all the fluff an go right to bone-chilling. However, the horror in these comes not so much from the paranormal as our own imagination, and that which you gather from the characters. 0812516524 There are very few horror authors writing today who possess the blessed gift of invoking disquiet and unease without ever showing exactly what the source of that unease is. Writers such as these have the uncanny ability to tap into basic, human fears, giving them shadowy form through artful prose, sleight of hand, and misdirection. Thankfully, one such writer is still going strong, producing new work, as well as seeing his out of print work breathing new life through Samhain Publishing's new Horror Line.

That writer is Ramsey Campbell, and bringing him aboard is one of the smartest things Samhain could've done to give their fledgling horror line credibility. For Campbell is one of those writers with a knack for making us afraid...

Of nothing. A shadow on the wall. A moist draft wafting up from the basement. A light, papery scuttling from a dark corner. And in this reprint of his collection Dark Companions, terrifyingly and delightful subtle horrors abound. But the most important thing is the core of these stories: human fears. Nightmares. Mundane worries and haunting tragedy. Many of the stories in this collection initially read like straight literary works commenting on the human experience, and Ramsey's touch is so gradual, you don't notice the shadows growing quietly in the corner....

Until it's almost too late. Among the best in the collection are:

Down There, in which a secretary learns in horrific fashion that something soft and moist and creeping lives in the sub-basement of her office's temporary location. The Proxy, in which a ghost of a different kind - not even the ghost of a person at all - haunts a woman's house, eventually claiming her husband. The Depths, in which a writer's sudden, graphic insight into horrors too grotesque to mention proves more than just grisly inspiration for slasher fiction...but premonitions of actual events.

Out of Copyright, an always timely piece about an unscrupulous anthology editor that pilfers the wrong story. The Invocation, a classic 'be careful what you wish for' story, in which a college student wishes the noisy, troublesome old lady living above his apartment would shut up...for good. The Pattern, possibly the BEST story in the collection, about the echoes that are left in the wake of tragedy, and their unexpected effects on all of Time.

The Show Goes On, a terrifying allegory of a store owner walling off memories of his youth and the now-defunct cinema next to his store. Call First, in which a nosy library clerk gets more than he bargains for when snoops where he's not meant to be. And finally, the collection's title piece, Dark Companion, in which a man's phantasmagoric reliving of old carnival days takes a wrong turn...literally.

Ramsey Campbell's work isn't for everyone. But for those looking for something finer, something of substance, with subtle horrors woven in artful tapestries of smooth, flowing prose...he might be just what they're looking for. 0812516524 Update 12/10/19
I figured it was about time I threw in my 2 cents on the collection that completely changed my tune regarding Ramsey Campbell. Before experiencing this for the first time in the mid-90s, I had only read a handful of his novels and, while laced with some uniquely nightmarish imagery, they usually left me slightly underwhelmed despite the well-executed hallucinatory intrusions of the otherworldly. The hazy/cryptic nature of his prose could be a bit exhausting over the course of 300-plus pages, but in the short stories I'd constantly come across around that time (it seemed every horror antho published during the 70s-90s was legally required to include a Campbell entry) this opaque style was much more palatable and effective. The novels were often prone to a great deal of padding, containing several chapters devoted to detailing normal day-to-day banalities, and an excessive amount of peripheral characters with no clear purpose other than to possibly satisfy some publisher-mandated word quota.*

Dark Companions, on the other hand, revealed to me Campbell's absolute mastery of slow-burn terror that subtly sneaks up on the reader after bubbling under the surface and biding its time until the right moment. That same nebulous writing style that could become wearying in his longer works, has an almost mesmerizing effect at 20 pages that heightens the sense of unease and dislocation. While reading this, a switch was flipped in my head. His long-held reputation among many in the horror community as the greatest living writer of supernatural fiction suddenly seemed a very reasonable statement. I've since read quite a few of his collections, but this is the one I revisit most often. It showcases his best tales spanning the mid-70s to early 80s, the period in which he perfected his now unmistakable voice, shedding nearly all traces of his earlier Lovecraft pastiches, as good as many of those were/still are (esp. those collected in 1985's Cold Print). Instead he takes a more surreal, atmospheric approach to weird fiction here, and the results are chilling -- as unsettling and impactful as anything the genre has produced, before or since.

It's hard to single out individual entries, as nearly all are absolute gems, but I will mention a few especially freaky ones that really stuck with me:

-The Chimney (1977), a perfect read to get into the holiday spirit, about a little boy on Christmas Eve whose crippling fear of Santa grows until he's in tears, lying in bed and praying no one comes crawling out of his fireplace to kill him. But Santa's jolly and spreads joy, right? Terrifying story, inspired by Campbell's own childhood suspicions.

-Down There (1978) concerns a woman working late in her 6th floor office with only her boss for company during a raging thunderstorm. Strange, inexplicable sounds are coming from the mysterious sub-basement, where a bunch of spoiled food had recently vanished, and whatever's causing those sounds seems to be making its way up toward them. Hopefully the elevator's working and gets them out of there in time.

-The Companion (1976), in which a man is compelled to visit an old, dilapidated amusement park late at night. The rides shouldn't even be operational, and there are no attendants, but when he decides to get on The Ghost Train, his ride through darkness turns into a nightmare, and he's struck with the terrible sinking feeling he may not be sitting alone in his small train car. This one sent a serious chill or two down my spine even though I wasn't clear on just what the hell happened during my initial read. So I gave it another go and now I think I understand........even less than I did the first time.

-Mackintosh Willy (1979), where the narrator recalls an old derelict who used to live in the nearby park when he was a kid. He and his friends all feared Willy even though he seemed harmless. After the old man's mysterious death (and subsequent desecration), Willy will haunt our narrator and his best friend. Figuratively? Of course. But then who/what is leaving tattered clothing remnants around? Is one of the two friends responsible for the death? This one's both unnerving and emotionally moving.

Though several of the stories here are included in Campbell's greatest hits compilation, Alone With the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction, 1961-1991, this one is still worth getting as it's pretty much a best of as well. He's clearly at the top of his game during this era. His two prior collections, Demons By Daylight (1973) and The Height of the Scream (1976) provided clear indication that he was slowly breaking away from Lovecraft, with somewhat mixed, though admirable results. Both are worth a gander, not only for the various standout entries, but also to track the evolution of one of the field's most accomplished and influential writers, who by age 16 was already getting stories published by August Derleth's legendary Arkham House. Those early pieces may have been a bit lacking in originality considering he was a teen aping his literary idol, but they showed promise. Dark Companions, however, is so consistently impressive that he never quite matched it, in the 20th century at least (I'm not as familiar with his later material, which I need to rectify).

For anyone new to Mr. Campbell's work, this is the place to start. The prose throughout is elegant, yet often disorienting, which only adds to the overall bizarre, disquieting aura and feeling of dislocation, all of which would go on to become distinguishing characteristics of his that are immediately recognizable. Anyone who's kind of meh on him should check this out and see if your opinion changes. There are a handful of single-author collections from the 70s/80s horror boom I'd put in the same league as this**, but this might be the scariest, top to bottom. Even when you're not entirely sure why you're suddenly so unnerved.

5 Stars.

*Which, unfortunately, was a thing with some horror publishers. The Make 'em big like Stephen King philosophy ruined many a tightly-paced page-turner when it was deemed that it would be better off as a 480-page, filler-plagued slog because that's what sells, apparently. Of course, King's success was a huge reason the horror boom happened, hence a huge reason 90% of writers in the genre were even getting published so I can't complain. Still, an atmosphere of growing fear and dread can't really be sustained at epic lengths. Unless you're King, or Straub. 40 years ago.

**Not counting career retrospectives that span multiple collections, I'd go with Lisa Tuttle's A Nest of Nightmares (1986), Karl Wagner's In a Lonely Place (1983), Ligotti's Songs of a Dead Dreamer (1986), Lansdale's By Bizarre Hands (1989), the King's Night Shift (1978), Etchison's The Dark Country (1982), and T.E.D. Klein's Dark Gods (1985) as my favorites. 0812516524

A brilliant collection of stories by one of the masters of horror.


Not all companions are friendly. There are many that you most definitely do not want to see. When Elaine was working late at the office, she thought she was all alone. But something sinister was in the elevator shaft…working its way to her floor. Miles, too, thought he was alone in his new house, the house of a murderer, but he, too, had an unwanted companion. And Knox will never forget what was waiting for him in the dense fog.

Come and meet all of these companions and more in this chilling collection of horror tales by award-winning master of terror Ramsey Campbell. That clawing sound you hear, the haunting singing, the moving shadow—they all mean that something is waiting to make your acquaintance.

Contains “The Companion”, the story Stephen King called “one of the three finest horror stories I have ever read”.

[cover art by Jill Bauman] Dark Companions