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Review of “Cold Print”
This is a better story for a bunch of reasons. Firstly, although clearly with Mythos elements attached, it’s different. It’s set in a modern day city, in a few locations but mainly a bookshop. Not some quiet den, not some disquieting tunnel found beneath that den, not some long lost cultic site or temple/church/shrine, etc. None of the typical areas, This is a modern city.
Secondly, the main character is gay. It’s never mentioned outright, and not a major part of the script, but it’s there. If you read it and didn’t see it, head back to my synopsis, because I included the details of a lot of minor plot points but skipped some major ones. Those very, very minor ones are points of homosexuality.
Thirdly, and this is very important – Ramsey Campbell has learned a very important lesson as a writer. Showing, not telling. Not only is this an issue with his own first story, but it’s a problem in the Mythos generally, with his heavy fascination for all things adjective. Homosexuality is one. He never states that the character is gay. You figure it out. Another is the first page. You see him on a bus on a cold day. He takes a book out of the plastic wrap that he uses to protect it, and then reads it without touching it, using the bookmark to follow. But maybe that’s just one book or because its snow or it’s a sentimental book? So then when he steps off the bus and sees a magazine press, with soft cover novels in a section that’s not quite closed, and a bit of snow is heading in and dusting the covers, he makes sure he heads up and tells the person about it. When the seller doesn’t seem to care, he gets rather snarky. Ramsey Campbell shows you that Sam is a lover of books and can’t allow people to damage them. He doesn’t tell.
The more adult, fleshed out, different, mature story definitely shows. When you read Gen 2 stories, you’ll see that they tend to really embrace the Mythos elements tightly. In Gen 3 you have that, but you also see folks sort of breaking out of that mold, although it’s until Gen 4 that this really happens.
So Church in High Street is sort of like a Gen 2 story, coming in the early part of 3, and this one is fully ensconced in the Gen 3 era of the Mythos. It’s a better story. 3.5 stars.
Two years later, after Church was published and at the age of 18, Campbell publishes a collection of Lovecraft stories in the same vein, set in the Severn Valley. I thought about doing a few of those tales, and we still could, but they are roughly of the same quality and value as many others here. So I’m heading out for now, and what I may do is return to Campbell later for stories later in his life.
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