Ramsey Campbell - Midnight Sun

[dem]

Ramsey Campbell - Midnight Sun (MacDonald, 1990)

inside cover blurb:

Ben Sterling has a very strange inheritance ...

Though now a happy family man, and a successful writer of children's stories, as a child Ben was tragically orphaned by a mysterious car crash. Raised by a loving aunt who refused to discuss his father's eccentric family, he nevertheless develops a strange fascination with the lonely Yorkshire house they inherited.

On his aunt's death, Ben unexpectedly acquires this ancestral home, and the family decide to move into it .... ignorant of the strange stories concerning those who stray too close to the woods at night.

Ben himself is increasingly drawn to nearby Sterling Forest – extensive pinewoods planted by his family around the ancient oak grove where his great-grandfather was found dead so many years before. Edward Sterling had been exploring the icy wastes of the far north, where shamans were said to practise ancient rituals to keep the midnight sun shining over their desolate land. Found naked and snowblind in this distant wilderness, he had been returned to his wife .... but died soon afterwards in bizarre circumstances.

Now, three generations later, Ben unwittingly sets loose an awesome power, and soon the entire countryside falls into the grip of ice and blizzards. But what must be the sacrifice that can transform eternal winter back into spring?

A truly disturbing novel, MIDNIGHT SUN underlines Ramsey Campbell's talent for creating a modern supernatural tale that maintains the best spine-tingling standards of classic horror.

When i eventually get around to another of his novels (anything too deep is out of the question right now), it will most likely be The Influence unless any of our Ramsey Campbell fans can convince me this is the pick of the two? There don't seem to have been many mentions of Midnight Sun so far beyond a few one-liners that suggest it doesn't show him at his best?

[marksamuels]

Jun 27, 2009 14:22:04 GMT dem said:

Ramsey Campbell - Midnight Sun (MacDonald, 1990)

inside cover blurb:

Ben Sterling has a very strange inheritance ...

Though now a happy family man, and a successful writer of children's stories, as a child Ben was tragically orphaned by a mysterious car crash. Raised by a loving aunt who refused to discuss his father's eccentric family, he nevertheless develops a strange fascination with the lonely Yorkshire house they inherited.

On his aunt's death, Ben unexpectedly acquires this ancestral home, and the family decide to move into it .... ignorant of the strange stories concerning those who stray too close to the woods at night.

Ben himself is increasingly drawn to nearby Sterling Forest – extensive pinewoods planted by his family around the ancient oak grove where his great-grandfather was found dead so many years before. Edward Sterling had been exploring the icy wastes of the far north, where shamans were said to practise ancient rituals to keep the midnight sun shining over their desolate land. Found naked and snowblind in this distant wilderness, he had been returned to his wife .... but died soon afterwards in bizarre circumstances.

Now, three generations later, Ben unwittingly sets loose an awesome power, and soon the entire countryside falls into the grip of ice and blizzards. But what must be the sacrifice that can transform eternal winter back into spring?

A truly disturbing novel, MIDNIGHT SUN underlines Ramsey Campbell's talent for creating a modern supernatural tale that maintains the best spine-tingling standards of classic horror.

When i eventually get around to another of his novels (anything too deep is out of the question right now), it will most likely be The Influence unless any of our Ramsey Campbell fans can convince me this is the pick of the two? There don't seem to have been many mentions of Midnight Sun so far beyond a few one-liners that suggest it doesn't show him at his best?

Thanks to Dem for passing over a copy of this to me a while ago; it's a book I've been after for ages and I finally got around to reading it.

This is RC's attempt to incorporate the old "cosmic sense of awe" into a full-length novel, paying tribute to the likes of Lovecraft, Machen and Blackwood.

RC has shown he can do cosmic horror highly effectively, for example in the excellent "The Voice of the Beach". And indeed, in Midnight Sun there are moments of fantastic power, especially towards the end when the full-force of the mysterious icy power "out there, in them there woods" is unleashed and finally takes control of the protaganist Ben Sterling.

But I wonder whether the limitations of the novel are really an indication of the limitations of attempting cosmic horror within the conventions of the novel form itself. (Ramsey seemed to have circumvented this problem in other novels by developing phenomena as psychological/behind the scenes, as it were, rather than out-in-the-foreground)

The build-up was over-prolonged, to my mind, and seemed to cater to the requirements of achieving novel-length rather than an being an organic process of the writing in itself.

So I wonder whether Midnight Sun would have worked even better as a novella, at around a third of its current length.

Nevertheless, as it stands, it's a magnificent achievement and the high points towards the end more than make up for any minor criticisms I might make, and which are only a matter of personal preference.

I wonder too, whether this novel was partially inspired by elements found in Stephen King's novels The Shining and Pet Sematary? Nevertheless, what's clear is that Ramsey handles the cosmic aspect with a sure touch that SK never matched.

Mark S.

[ramseycampbell]

Nov 28, 2010 13:47:54 GMT marksamuels said:

[I wonder too, whether this novel was partially inspired by elements found in Stephen King's novels The Shining and Pet Sematary? Mark S.

Not consciously, Mark - Blackwood was in my mind.

[marksamuels]

Dec 20, 2010 12:08:21 GMT ramseycampbell said:

Nov 28, 2010 13:47:54 GMT marksamuels said:

[I wonder too, whether this novel was partially inspired by elements found in Stephen King's novels The Shining and Pet Sematary? Mark S.

Not consciously, Mark - Blackwood was in my mind.

Thanks, Ramsey.

I suppose I was thinking more of "father goes nuts/is possessed in wintry conditions and threatens own family" in those two SK books. But now you've mentioned Blackwood, I'm inspired to re-read "The Wendigo" again (I assume it's this one that was in your mind?)

Mark S.