Continuing Samhain Horror's line of reprinted Ramsey Campbell's novels is "The Hungry Moon", an eerie tale about a small England village besieged first by rabid Christian Evangelicals and then the dark, pagan, moon-worshiping force they accidentally awaken. For the most part a smart story offering acute observations on the dangers of religious fanaticism, Campbell's usually suspenseful "quiet horror" does drag a little towards the end. Taken as a whole, however, Campbell delivers the goods, as always: poignant characterization, sterling craft, creeping dread, and unsettling unease.Godwin Mann (yes, read that as God - Win - Man) is on a quest to win souls for God. Embarrassed by his father's B-Movie horror past (Dad played the Devil once in a film), Godwin experiences a life-changing "conversion" and becomes a self-styled version of Billy Graham, leading crusades and marches and rallies, all to advance the Good News. And he's come to England's shores to continue God's Good Work. He's come to the small town of Moonwell to rid it of its "pagan past", to "win the town for the Lord."And initially, he and his troupe of believers find a foothold in Moonwell. A moderately Christian town paradoxically proud of its Druid traditions, Moonwell's Christian residents see Godwinn's arrival almost akin to their own Second Coming, a chance to "purify" Moonwell of its pagan influences, once and for all. Battle lines are drawn, friend turned against friend, families divided. All in the name of Godwinn Man's "holy quest".But when Mann confronts the source of Moonwell's Druid traditions (a deep cave in which legends say Old Beings dwell), he returns....changed. No longer human, Godwin Mann uses his influence and newly "won" town to unleash an unspeakable darkness. Night falls...and stays. Daily deliveries - even the newspaper - from the outside world cease. No one can leave. No one can enter from outside Moonwell, as the demon that is now Godwin Mann slowly erases Moonwell, cutting it off from the rest of the world, hiding it in a perpetual night lit only by a strange, bloated moon.And this moon is hungry. And angry, for being ignored all these years.As always, you get what you expect in a Ramsey Campbell novel: smooth, flowing prose, deep characters, subtle emotional plays, and a lingering dread that settles right at the base of the neck. In this case, perhaps "The Hungry Moon" runs a little too long. The darkness settles around town very early, and readers can also guess pretty quickly what's happened to Mann. However, this novel's strength lies not in it's plot, necessarily, but in character development, as religious fanaticism not only tears the town apart, but ultimately leaves Moonwell completely vulnerable to the demon-possessed Godwin Mann. That's where this novel's real power comes from, in Campbell's portrayal of friends and family torn apart by the Lord's "Good News."
proof that occasionally, rarely, even if not stephen king, do read (somewhat contemporary) popular genre fiction. have actually read this twice, some time ago, trying to figure out how this horror works, now having read hp lovecraft, can see more of the heritage worked or deployed. not too surprising, found the first read more effective, more involving, as once knowing how it works out it becomes less suspenseful- and became aware of sort of structural errors, eg. long digression/rationale of the coming of the horror, the monster- and the importing of this evangelist seems less grounded in plausibility, such as why not a local preacher? friend who read this on my rec, said this reminded him somehow of an 80s horror film texture... have not myself watched or even read much horror of any era- well, except for fantasy with horror elements- was moved to try and characterize this horror: not monsters new or traditional eg. vampires, ghosts, insane slashers, not locales new or traditional eg. isolate cabins, castles, insane asylums, but what could be called 'existential' horror- when the usual laws of space-time no longer hold, when one's usual confidence in self or others having reasonable motivations, or even unreasonable motivations that can be defined, when the road you are on just keeps turning back and around and you can never leave... this is the sort of horror that works for me, at least the first time, but it does not work again... oh well, why read it twice? have not, unfortunately, found this effective in other work by this author, but willing to take recs...
What do You think about The Hungry Moon (1987)?
A very nice, unexpected surprise. First novel I read from this author who had been always told to be too tedious in some parts of his books due to an slow, unecessary narrative pace.I'm glad to follow my own instincts when reading for this book is a very good example of introducing hundreds of characters put together under an unleashed evil that is about to be brought in the world. The narration is sometimes stuck at the nothingness of the plot, but soon it speeds up to where the action is to be found and then, the reader cannot put down the book in the night-table any more.This ancient evil I mentioned before is not introduced until the very end of the novel, helping the caothic atmosphere of madness the village is surrounded by to grow up like a shadow after being hidden from the light. Almost five hundred pages where boredom is not even close to show up. Great, deep dialogues, the icing on the cake when the book reaches out the ending.
—Alvaro Navas
I feel like I should like this book more - yes its a British horror author who has massive acclaim and who has very strong times to H P Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos - but I did struggle with the book. there were times when it became bogged down and slowed down, it felt very British - which is both a good and bad thing. To my mind horror a good story of terror can be set almost anywhere (almost as in limited to the authors imagination) and England can have its fair share - so this is a good story but then again I feel stories like James Herbert's Shrine are as effective if not more so - in fact many of James Herbert's stories to me epitomise the style. That said this is an award winning book so I cannot lay the blame on the book maybe Ramsey Campbell's style does not sit as well as other authors do with me. Don't get me wrong The book was cleverly written and had some brilliant ideas - at times it felt a lot like Robert McCammon in sheer scale of the various aspects of the story happening at the same time. So as you can see I am torn over this book - should I like it more or did I appreciate it less than I should have?
—Andrew
Starts very slowly, primarily because the story is divided among a lot of characters. I don't mind a multiple point of view, usually, but in this case characters vanish for long stretches while other people are in the spotlight. It sort of lacks focus. Add to that a plot that is sort of Lovecraft meets X-Files with a menace that is tough to get a handle on, because it seems to affect different people in different ways. After the slow start it grabbed me, but then the plot went every which way and left me feeling sort of blah.
—Steve Goble
