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Literary Pretensions
Oct. 1st, 2012 09:10 pmMar 2012
House of Shadows - John Langan - Night Shade Books, 2010
* *
When I was a student, I went through a horror phase due to the influence of a friend. Of the various authors I tried, Ramsey Campbell was my favourite. His mix of supernatural horror with everyday nastiness by believable characters worked rather better for me than the gross-out horror of Clive Barker's The Damnation Game (a book I remember for all the wrong reasons) or the impressive imagination but overblown writing of H.P. Lovecraft.
I remarked recently to said friend that I hadn’t read a Ramsey Campbell novel in years, so he leant me this one as being "Campbell-like". Its subject matter - supernatural horror arising from human emotions - is indeed very Campbellian. However, it is clearly a first novel and there are numerous problems. It's like Ramsey Campbell, but not as good.
( Read more... )
House of Shadows - John Langan - Night Shade Books, 2010
* *
When I was a student, I went through a horror phase due to the influence of a friend. Of the various authors I tried, Ramsey Campbell was my favourite. His mix of supernatural horror with everyday nastiness by believable characters worked rather better for me than the gross-out horror of Clive Barker's The Damnation Game (a book I remember for all the wrong reasons) or the impressive imagination but overblown writing of H.P. Lovecraft.
I remarked recently to said friend that I hadn’t read a Ramsey Campbell novel in years, so he leant me this one as being "Campbell-like". Its subject matter - supernatural horror arising from human emotions - is indeed very Campbellian. However, it is clearly a first novel and there are numerous problems. It's like Ramsey Campbell, but not as good.
( Read more... )