Britain's First Cthulhean Author

COLD PRINT

by Ramsey Campbell, 1987

“Cold Print” is a collection of short stories by British horror master, Ramsey Campbell, all on Lovecraftian themes. About half of them are his early stories from the 60s, one is from 1976, and the rest come from the 80s.

As I had already read the two best stories in this volume, the collection seemed like Campbell's second best work. But that's hardly fair. All the stories are good; “The Tugging” and “Cold Print” are exceptionally good and the most original.

Lovecraft's stories might come across as quaint bits of New England in the 1920s, but Campbell's world is very modern and very grimy. He takes the commonplace events in our world and makes them sinister reminders of what lies beyond the veil. His half-insane narrators are the tour guides into the otherworldly realms just beyond our graffiti-scrawled streets and inhuman entities lurking in the back rooms of porn shops.

Stories like this swallow you into their vagina and give birth to you with a completely new mindset… which happens to a hero in one of the stories!

4 stars.