I've finally got round to finishing Ramsey Campbell's Dark Companions. I actually started it nine months ago. I was enthusiastic about the first one or two stories, but that quickly wore off - which was probably why it's taken so long to finish.

He has a way of paring down the internal logic of a story - I mean in the supernatural aspects - to the bare minimum. I'm not sure I care for this to start with, but he occasionally takes it too far, so that, at the denouements, I'd sometimes find my suspension of disbelief abandoned me, souring the effects of a pretty workman-like build-up to that point.

On the subject of the denouements, he's a little over-fond of the twist in the tail for my liking. I read one of those magazines for amateur authors once. With every single story the be-all and end-all of the tale was the twist in the tail. I found them rather sad. Since then, I wince a bit when I find them from the fingers of a successful author - smacks a bit of the amateur, for me.

Most of the stories had a modern, run-down, dysfunctional, urban setting that was rather too real and familiar for me, subverting the escapism I look for in such tales. In fact, it made me a little uncomfortable, raising thoughts of classism and exploitation. I prefer a touch of the exotic in my tales of the supernatural - even if it's only moving the 'run-down, dysfunctional, urban setting' a century or two back or a country or two away. And, yes, I'm aware there's little logic to my feelings, here.

In the end I gave it three stars - not one thing or the other in my rating system - though I rated one or two of the stories higher than that (I simply rated all the stories and took the average). I wouldn't recommend it; I wouldn't discourage reading it. ( )

Campbell's book of 21 short stories is quite disturbing at times. He had won more awards for horror fiction than any other author at the time (1982) but I would imagine Stephen King has probably surpassed that total. Campbell seems to love atmospheric horror - lots of rainstorms, overgrown foliage and foggy, misty settings. Some of the stories didn't quite come together for me but a few of them were nicely twisted. My favorite story involved a mad scientist making his laborious climb up the cellar stairs after he had been thrown there by his wife's butcher boyfriend. Surprisingly, it was the scientist's head crawling up the stairs making its way to the lab where it rejoined its severed body. Ickily creepy! There are lots of unexpected 'dark companions' throughout the book just waiting to pounce on both innocent and guilty people. What is up that dark, sooty chimney? What lies at the bottom of the elevator shaft? What is making that slithering noise under the bed? Muahahahahhhhaaaaa. ( )

Cover blurb:

Come Close. Meet your dark companions...

Poor Elaine is working late at the office again, with no company but the smell of dust and old paper. But something sinister moves in the elevator shaft....something ghastly, down there. In a way, the worst thing is the absence of a cry. Miles is alone in his new house...the murderer's house. His sleep is free of nightmares. They only come when he jerks suddenly awake.

Drawn in closer.

Thorpe is investigating some file cabinets. What is that unnatural sound he hears? A trapped bird scrabbling in the chimney?