4 out of 5 stars
One of my first thoughts, on reading “The Horror From the Bridge” (the second tale in this collection) was: who is Peabody and why is their voice drifting out of the window (on page 28)?
The second story, “The Insects from Shaggai” was one of my favourites. The description of the alien beings’ odyssey across space was fascinating, and I appreciated the usage of the metaphysical way it was narrated by a character who was also a writer of cosmic horror, being told a local legend to put into a story. It was ironic that the narrator decided the tale wasn’t worth writing about… until he experienced the horrors of it himself, that is.
“The Render of the Veils” was another favourite. I liked the idea of a model of a god that confuses the eye and appears to change size depending on how you look at it. This story also explores the idea of how we can never know ourselves truly and sometimes the greatest horror in the universe is our own selves.
“The Inhabitant of the Lake”, an epistolary tale, contained nightmarish dream sequences which I enjoyed, as well as the way Ramsey Campbell wove other legends subtly into his tale, e.g. hinting at a cosmic horror explanation for the existence of vampires, and explaining that the ancient covens of witches in England may have been worshipping something far more insidious than Satan…
In “The Mine on Yuggoth”, a man is searching for a metal that he could use to become immortal and travels to Yuggoth… but his visit is very poorly timed! I enjoyed the bizarre descriptions of what Edward Taylor viewed in the alien library and the method of passage between that planet and that of Earth.
In “The Will of Stanley Brooke”, a man passes away and changes his will at the last minute so that his doppelgänger inherits everything… but who – or what – is the doppelgänger really? I loved the dark, tongue-in-cheek ending of this one. The lawyer was my favourite character because of the calm, decisive way he handled the situation.
“The Moon-Lens” was another one of my favourites. I particularly liked how Ramsey Campbell wove the myth of Shub-Niggurath (The Black Goat with a Thousand Young) with other goat-centric ancient religious practices in Roman and Greek times as well as witches’ sabbats. The description of the dimension under the hill was interesting as well, with its weird distortion of distance and bodily proportions.
This edition of the book has “Appendices” — first drafts of the stories Ramsey Campbell sent to Arkham House before he changed the settings of the tales to the Severnford in England (amongst other things). It was fascinating to read these earlier incarnations and notice what had changed or improved in the final versions.
I loved the idea of the old central myth-cycle in “The Tomb-Herd” — the idea that other religions (e.g Mayan religion) could be based upon it. I also liked the subtle inclusion of ghostly lights (perhaps based on the supernatural phenomenon of orbs) and the inclusion of the old faerie trick of making humans lose their way by making all roads lead back to where they started. The prose in this was somewhat overdramatic and the words “abominable” and “hideous” cropped up a lot, but I liked the imagery of the statues under the church and the horrible fungi growing out of the graves.
The imagery in “The Face in the Desert” was vivid, especially the description of the desert, though the ending was predictable.
“The Horror From the Bridge” (an early draft of the story with the same title in the main part of the book, set in Massachusetts, America) has a main character called Joseph Peabody. This must be the “Peabody” which cropped up on page 28 earlier in the collection — presumably a typo.
I actually preferred “The Tower From Yuggoth” to its later version, “The Mine on Yuggoth” as the main character’s journey of discovery was longer and more dramatic, so I felt closer to the characters. The descriptions of the scenery in some places was captivating.
The Insects from Shaggai – an earlier version of the same-titled story in the main section of the book – was somewhat overwritten. Ramsey Campbell used the word “clattering” a lot here!
The Church on the High Street is a revised version of “The Tomb Herd,” this time set in the English Cotswolds. August Derleth, the head of Arkham House, was given freedom to tweak the story before publication so this was more of a collaboration between Ramsey and August. I actually preferred this version to “The Tomb-Herd” as it had more details and compelling imagery, as well as the inclusion of a mysterious character known as John Clothier, whom I’d have liked to read more about. However, I felt that the ending of this story wasn’t as strong as the ending of “The Tomb-Herd.”
In the Afterword, the author describes the process behind each of those first drafts and what inspired them, often criticising his early self for making rookie mistakes! Aspiring writers will find this section useful, as well as the copies of the letters August Derleth sent to Ramsey Campbell regarding his story submissions in the early 60s.
Nightwalks 