The inhabitant of the lake and less welcome tenants

The late H. P. Lovecraft would have been fulsome in his praise of the work of this young disciple, who has made in these stories a distinct contribution to the Cthulhu Mythos. Choosing as his setting not the Arkham country of Massachusetts, but the Severn Valley in England, J. Ramsey Campbell has expanded the background of the Mythos, and brought into vivid being an entirely new setting to parallel that of Arkham-Dunwich-Innsmouth. "When I was ten years old I discovered H. P. Lovecraft," writes Campbell in his introduction to this volume, his first collection o£ tales, "and was profoundly excited and disturbed by his work." Now, only eight years later, he has made a significant contribution to Cthulhu lore, one many a more mature writer might well envy. Such tales as The Horror from the Bridge and The Insects from Shaggai have their origin in Lovecraft's Commonplace Book, while others, notably the title story and The Plain of Sound illustrate the imaginative powers of this newest recruit to the Cthulhu Mythos, whose stories "in their own modest way . . . reflect the greater wonder and horror of the masterpieces of H. P. Lovecraft." J. Ramsey Campbell's first volume augurs well for his future as a creative writer.