The Searching Dead by Ramsey Campbell5/10/2023 ![]() ![]() The Searching Dead then is a return to Campbell's past - and in more ways than one. Although he has since repudiated that opinion, firmly acknowledging the quality of the Old Gent of Providence, it was soon quite rare for Campbell to write Lovecraftian fiction himself – with the significant exception of novella The Last Revelation of Gla’aki (PS Publishing, 2013). With maturity, however, came an urge to distance himself from Lovecraft. Campbell of course went on to become one of the world's most distinguished horror authors and even achieved that rarest of grails, recognition from critics outside of our much-maligned Horror genre. Such was the output of his youth – critically undistinguished yet joyfully imaginative Mythos pastiches, written in the 1950s under the mentorship of August Derleth in earnest imitation of Lovecraft – when Campbell was still a teenager. Anybody who has ever glanced at some of the more fantastical entries in the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game bestiary will have noticed, as I did, how many of the more extraordinary descriptions all came from works penned by this Ramsey Campbell. I am a latecomer to Ramsey Campbell but had been familiar with the remarkable output of his imagination long before I ever picked up a book bearing his name. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |