check out website: www.pspublishing.co.uk
'Told By The Dead' is a collection of Ramsey
Campbell's short stories. They span over two decades and include
disturbing head teachers with disturbing family members, a song
that should never be heard, an insurance job that goes horribly
wrong for its instigator, a card game that has dark motivations
and even a man whose life results in tatters because of a shadow
that literally is tatters.
 I
have to admit that in my teens and early twenties all I would read was horror.
The genre fascinated me and the fact that it holds so many facets that evoke so
many different emotions, some quite opposite to the obvious, held some marvel
for me. So when I had the opportunity to read and review an author with Ramsey
Campbell's following and reputation for controversy I jumped at the chance.
Unfortunately, Campbell let down my balloon. I had heard that Campbell
had an unreachable prowess for literary excellence and yet all it appears to me
is a penchant for pretentious spouts of multi-syllable English word use. The one
thing he seemed incapable of doing is putting life into his characters. They seem
one dimensional and cardboard. Perhaps that is where the title comes from? You
don't actually care what the hell happens to them and at the end of reading one
of these short stories you forget them very quickly.
I read a short
story that was labelled horror not so long back called 'Jumper' written by Garrett
Addams. It had won the Observer Newspaper competition that Stephen King had set
up after his book 'On Writing' had been published and appeared in its paperback
edition. It was fantastic. I can remember pretty much all of the emotions that
it stirred and the shock that came when the main character's actions are totally
opposite to what you are expecting. That is the way to write and remember a short
story, Campbell fails dismally.
His stories take shape using reflections
of life, that he picks up from television or just an experience. Where this falls
down is that he doesn't seem to expand on the idea. Paltry story-telling with
a use of words with literary abandon? Definitely so. His story-telling
evokes no emotion whatsoever except a high level of boredom. There is no point
to nearly all the stories and the build up seems an unnecessary deluge of words
that just happen to be in Campbell's head.
Okay, so I really didn't
like the book? Well, there is something far more evil than a bad book. It's a
bad book sold at extortionate prices for people with more money than common, in
the sensory reflection of the word. As a trade copy, I saw a signature
from its author thus indicative that the author can sign his name, three illustrations
that were um...dull and basically the words 'First Edition' at the front. It is
disgusting that a book is sold on a reputation that isn't held up with the goods
of great horror writing. I would be doing myself a grave injustice by saying that
this book is worth the money, I'm too honest for such a thing.
If I
could say to you that there was one story that was really amazing and you have
to read it then maybe just maybe this book would be worth the read. Not one in
a collection of twenty-three stories entertained me. 'Agatha's Ghost' came close
but in the end it was lost amongst the swamp of bad ones. I'll concede that maybe
his writing style isn't my taste but I really don't think that that is the case.
I got several people to have a read of his book and all of them said the same
thing: they didn't like what they read.
These stories do indeed seem
wooden and dead. Maybe fans of Ramsey Campbell will want this book no matter what
I say but anyone else who appreciates a good book should give this one a wide
berth.
Donna Jones |
