Alone with the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell 1961-1991 Paperback – September 1, 2005

Ramsey Campbell is easily one of the best contemporary horror writers, and at their best his stories stand with the best of M.R. James, Poe, Lovecraft, Ligotti, and a few other masters of weird fiction. Alone with the Horrors does an excellent job of spanning thirty years of his career, though the majority of the stories were written between 1973 and 1980. It should be noted that this volume is more of a retrospective than a "best of," as is evidenced by the first story, "The Tower from Yuggoth," a Lovecraft pastiche which Campbell playfully criticizes in the introduction. Even so, the majority of the stories are good if not excellent.The volume contains what seem to be Campbell's two best known stories, "Mackintosh Willy" and "The Companion," (which Stephen King called one of the scariest stories ever written) as well as thirty-five other stories written between 1961 and 1991.The volume contains several provocative stories, but some of my absolute favorites are "The Scar," "The Man in the Underpass," "Mackintosh Willy" and especially "The Chimney," which continues to haunt me long after having first read it. This volume also presents an argument for Campbell as the absolute master of atmospheric horror in fiction- stories like "In the Bag" and "Down There" are claustrophobic and delightfully uncomfortable to read. The first paragraph of "In the Bag" makes me feel like I'm suffocating.---My only gripe with the Tor trade paperback (which is heavy and made with good quality paper) is that it has two things missing from older editions of the anthology. First, two of Campbell's erotic horror stories helped make up the 39 stories of the original volume. One of these, "Loveman's Comeback," is one of his best in my opinion. The introduction mentions that these were removed but does not explain why. I should note that in the new Tor edition Campbell has also swapped the first story for what was originally a different early Lovecraft imitation ("The Room in the Castle," I believe).Older paperbacks also included several haunting illustrations by J.K. Potter which I thought were a nice touch.All told, Campbell is a master of short fiction, in any genre, and this is the single most comprehensive volume of his work.

Campbell is a genius but if you're a fan of Stephen King or the like, you may find Campbell a switch in literary style. It took me a few short stories to get the beat for how he writes, but if you give it a try it is just as satisfying a read, just on a different vantage point. Are the stories scary? Not for me, but they were interesting.

Treat this as a gateway into the writing of dreams. Many stories don't feel like they inhabit the real world, and when reading them, neither do we. Some endings disappoint, but many stories are so slim and there's so many that if disliking one, there are still dozens ahead. Favorites were "The Guy," "The End of a Summer's Day," "The Man in the Underpass," "The Chimney," "The Gap," "Midnight Hobo," "Old Clothes," and "Apples."

I have not finished reading this book but have read about 50% so far. It has been worth the price. Even though I was looking for something more "Lovecraftian", Campbell has the same ability to draw horror from the ordinary and leave you with an open-ended feeling of disquiet. I will definitely be reading more RC as time allows.

Overall, I enjoyed this collection. There were several excellent stories, several that were good, and a few that I did not connect with. This is a large collection and I think I should have spread my reading of it out more.

Excellent series of short stories by a great story teller

Nuff said!!!

SHORT STORIES ARE JUST GOOD STUFF, AND THESE ARE PARTICULARLY "GOOD STUFF". YOU CAN READ ONE WHOLE STORY OVER BREAKFAST, THEN LEAVE FOR WORK SLIGHTLY DISTURBED ABOUT WHATCHA JUST READ. I REPEAT: GOOD STUFF.

Este libro recopila relatos cortos de Campbell desde 1961 hasta 1991. 30 años de carrera en los que fue evolucionando hasta convertirse en uno de los grandes escritores de terror contemporáneos.Esa evolución se nota pronto. El primer relato de todos es de su etapa "imitando" a Lovecraft y Derleth, y es bastante mediocre. Pero conforme pasan las páginas empieza a regalarlos mas y mas relatos de calidad. El volumen cuenta con una estupenda introducción donde Campbell comenta algo de cada relato (aunque mejor leerlo después de cada relato, para evitar posibles spoilers).Es una pena, eso si, que no esté editado en España. Es una edición que solo viene en inglés. Si buscais algo en Español podeís buscar los libros que ha publicado la editorial "La biblioteca del laberinto".

Product as expected. Thank you!

I have just finished reading Alone with The Horrors after reading another book of campbells short fiction 'Ghosts and Grizzly things' oh dear oh dear oh dear I liked only 4 stories in 37...... the problem is that their not scary. their not creepy. their not intrigueing. ( non of the skills of the horror writer are in evidence in these stories.) Often the author just waffles incoherently and your left thinking (what the hell is this about, i cant understand this flim-flam!)