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The Three Births of Daoloth #2
Born to the Dark
“There’s a place past all the stars that’s so dark you have to make your eyes light up to see,” Toby said. “There’s a creature that lives in the dark, only maybe the dark’s what he is. Or maybe the dark is his mouth that’s like a black hole or what black holes are trying to be. Maybe they’re just thoughts he has, bits of the universe he’s thinking about. And he’s so big and hungry, if you even think about him too much he’ll get hold of you with one of them and carry you off into the dark...”
More than thirty years have passed since the events of The Searching Dead. Now married with a young son, Dominic Sheldrake believes that he and his family are free of the occult influence of Christian Noble. Although Toby is experiencing nocturnal seizures and strange dreams, Dominic and Claudine have found a facility that deals with children suffering from his condition, which appears to be growing widespread.
Are their visions simply dreams, or truths few people dare envisage? How may Christian Noble be affecting the world now, and how has his daughter grown up? Soon Dominic will have to confront the figures from his past once more and call on his old friends for aid against forces that may overwhelm them all. As he learns the truth behind Toby’s experiences, not just his family is threatened but his assumptions about the world...
Born to the Dark is the second volume of Ramsey Campbell’s Brichester Mythos trilogy.
More than thirty years have passed since the events of The Searching Dead. Now married with a young son, Dominic Sheldrake believes that he and his family are free of the occult influence of Christian Noble. Although Toby is experiencing nocturnal seizures and strange dreams, Dominic and Claudine have found a facility that deals with children suffering from his condition, which appears to be growing widespread.
Are their visions simply dreams, or truths few people dare envisage? How may Christian Noble be affecting the world now, and how has his daughter grown up? Soon Dominic will have to confront the figures from his past once more and call on his old friends for aid against forces that may overwhelm them all. As he learns the truth behind Toby’s experiences, not just his family is threatened but his assumptions about the world...
Born to the Dark is the second volume of Ramsey Campbell’s Brichester Mythos trilogy.
287 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2017
9 people are currently reading
386 people want to read
About the author
Ramsey Campbell
857 books1,592 followersRamsey Campbell is a British writer considered by a number of critics to be one of the great masters of horror fiction. T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today," while S. T. Joshi has said that "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood."
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September 27, 2021
It's a rare treat reading a book series, isn't it? It's interesting to sit back with the characters and see what's been going on since the last book. Dominic Sheldrake is definitely someone I wanted to check back in on, so here we are!
It's been 30 years since Dominic encountered his former school teacher Christian and his daughter Tina. Encountering them and what they had brewing is something Dom was all too happy to forget. He's gotten a job teaching film and he's married with a young boy named Toby. When Toby begins having seizures in his sleep, cracks start appearing in this happy family's life. When Dom's wife Lesley, begins a new treatment for Toby without even consulting Dom, things get a bit tense. Even more tension builds as Dom discovers who it is that's administering these treatments. You guessed it! Christian and Tina. Will Dom be able to extricate his son from their evil clutches? Will Dom be able to get anyone to pay attention to their evil doings? Will Dom's marriage survive all this? You'll have to read it to find out!
This book was an experience in frustration for me because I was yelling at Dom the whole time. Every time he tries to warn people about Christian and Tina's practices no one believes him, including his own wife. When he goes about trying to get proof, he's deemed obsessed. Even his old schoolmates don't believe him, until one of them finally offers to help. It's all so tension filled and frustrating. I just wanted to yell at all of them, "Don't you see? Don't you see what he's doing?" I felt Dom's pain and anger through and through.
Then comes the scary bits. Unlike the first book this has more serious cosmic horror leanings and that is my favorite sub-genre of horror. That endless darkness, those stars that look so plentiful in our sky are actually light years away from each other. What could be sleeping out there in the darkness? Some kind of God with moons for eyes? Biding its time. Waiting.
Just like me: waiting for the last book of this series! Highly recommended and bring on the third!
*Thank you to Flame Tree Press for the paperback ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*
BORN TO THE DARK is another fabulous entry in the Flame Tree Press line. This is a line that features renowned authors like Ramsey Campbell, as well as excellent but lesser known talents on the horror scene like Jonathan Janz, Hunter Shea, and John Everson. If you like horror and dark fiction, you should check them out!
It's been 30 years since Dominic encountered his former school teacher Christian and his daughter Tina. Encountering them and what they had brewing is something Dom was all too happy to forget. He's gotten a job teaching film and he's married with a young boy named Toby. When Toby begins having seizures in his sleep, cracks start appearing in this happy family's life. When Dom's wife Lesley, begins a new treatment for Toby without even consulting Dom, things get a bit tense. Even more tension builds as Dom discovers who it is that's administering these treatments. You guessed it! Christian and Tina. Will Dom be able to extricate his son from their evil clutches? Will Dom be able to get anyone to pay attention to their evil doings? Will Dom's marriage survive all this? You'll have to read it to find out!
This book was an experience in frustration for me because I was yelling at Dom the whole time. Every time he tries to warn people about Christian and Tina's practices no one believes him, including his own wife. When he goes about trying to get proof, he's deemed obsessed. Even his old schoolmates don't believe him, until one of them finally offers to help. It's all so tension filled and frustrating. I just wanted to yell at all of them, "Don't you see? Don't you see what he's doing?" I felt Dom's pain and anger through and through.
Then comes the scary bits. Unlike the first book this has more serious cosmic horror leanings and that is my favorite sub-genre of horror. That endless darkness, those stars that look so plentiful in our sky are actually light years away from each other. What could be sleeping out there in the darkness? Some kind of God with moons for eyes? Biding its time. Waiting.
Just like me: waiting for the last book of this series! Highly recommended and bring on the third!
*Thank you to Flame Tree Press for the paperback ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*
BORN TO THE DARK is another fabulous entry in the Flame Tree Press line. This is a line that features renowned authors like Ramsey Campbell, as well as excellent but lesser known talents on the horror scene like Jonathan Janz, Hunter Shea, and John Everson. If you like horror and dark fiction, you should check them out!
September 30, 2021
This story takes place in the year 1985 Dominic Sheldrake and his wife Lesley have a five year old son (Toby) of superior intellect but has suffered nocturnal seizures from almost his birth. They have tried everything to help Toby with his condition but nothing has worked until Tony's pediatrician recommends a center called "Safe To Sleep" where other children with his same disorder are being successfully helped. Lesley wants to enroll Toby immediately since his doctor also has her infant son enrolled as well. Dominic has reservations because he wants to research the center more but Lesley has already made the commitment without discussing it with him and this becomes a huge point of contention between the couple. As time goes on, Toby seems to be doing better yet he tells these frightening stories and draws pictures which scare other children about what he sees when he's asleep. Dom becomes nervous and somewhat paranoid because some of these stories are nightmarish reminders of some horrific things he was witnessed and became involved in when he was only thirteen years old at a supposedly Christian school and no-one believed what he claimed to see and hear except his two friends at the time with whom he stays in touch. He wants to take Toby out of the center but Lesley fights him tooth and nail saying Dom doesn't want the best for their son. Lesley thinks there is something mentally wrong with her husband and wants a separation. (What the heck is wrong with this woman). Dominic keeps digging and finds out who the pediatrician really is along with her devil of a father and there is something very wrong and creepy about her infant son Toph (Christopher). The more Dominic digs and the subtofuge he discovers may not leave much time if any to bring his son back from the developing evil that is taking place within the sinister yet small group that have control over the minds of many children along with his wife who appears to have fallen under their spell. Strange and eerie sights and sounds begin to take hold of Dom every day so he now must rely on his friends Bobby (Roberta), a journalist and Jim, a police officer to help save the young children, especially his son before it's too late because pervading evil is residing in their small town and it wants to devour everything and everyone in ITS GRASP.
I really enjoyed this slow-burn horror story which starts out nice and easy with a loving family who are well liked and respected in their community while slowly and eerily building with the feeling of horror just slightly out of sight and reach. The word and world building was very special in creating a sense of creepiness and impending doom within my imagination. The women in this story were completely unlike able for me, I found many very dispicable and obnoxious in their mannerisms. Lesley (I couldn't stand her), she was a terrible mate (imo), she seemed to undermine everything Dominic would say or do especially concerning Toby and she was completely unsupportive and lacked any affection even when he was injured and completely vulnerable. She took advantage of the situation and kept Toby in the program against all of Dom's pleas and then, even contacted a lawyer about divorce! (What a wacko and a cold fish.) It seemed all the women were this way. Lesley was a mess in every way to me and I don't know why he wanted to keep this farce of a marriage together. Lesley seemed to hold all the power and didn't seem to love Dominic (imo, again). So, I guess this made the story all the more intriguing to have all these unlikeable, irritating and strong characters that didn't seem to care about anyone's opinions or feelings except their own. With all that said, the story was atmospheric, psychological eerie, intense, creepy and imaginative. All the spookiness simmers below the surface waiting for your own imagination to take hold of the horrors that lie underneath. This was a 2nd book in a trilogy which I didn't realize at first yet definitely can be read as a stand-alone and I plan to read the first book and can't wait to read the third book in this series. There isn't any fast action until the last 20% of the book and then you won't want to out the book down even for a second. If you enjoy slow-burn horror or just a good horror story without all the bloody gore and slashing that is written in other stories then please, Pick Up This Book!
Warning: There is a character who does exude racism at times so this could be found offensive to some readers but it is only from one character and sadly this was a true fact of life for many people to express themselves openly back in (1985).
I want to thank the writer "Ramsey Campbell", the publisher "Flame Tree Press" and Netgalley for the plot to read this wonderful novel and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!
I have given this book a rating of 4 SINISTER AND INTRIGUING 🌟🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!
I really enjoyed this slow-burn horror story which starts out nice and easy with a loving family who are well liked and respected in their community while slowly and eerily building with the feeling of horror just slightly out of sight and reach. The word and world building was very special in creating a sense of creepiness and impending doom within my imagination. The women in this story were completely unlike able for me, I found many very dispicable and obnoxious in their mannerisms. Lesley (I couldn't stand her), she was a terrible mate (imo), she seemed to undermine everything Dominic would say or do especially concerning Toby and she was completely unsupportive and lacked any affection even when he was injured and completely vulnerable. She took advantage of the situation and kept Toby in the program against all of Dom's pleas and then, even contacted a lawyer about divorce! (What a wacko and a cold fish.) It seemed all the women were this way. Lesley was a mess in every way to me and I don't know why he wanted to keep this farce of a marriage together. Lesley seemed to hold all the power and didn't seem to love Dominic (imo, again). So, I guess this made the story all the more intriguing to have all these unlikeable, irritating and strong characters that didn't seem to care about anyone's opinions or feelings except their own. With all that said, the story was atmospheric, psychological eerie, intense, creepy and imaginative. All the spookiness simmers below the surface waiting for your own imagination to take hold of the horrors that lie underneath. This was a 2nd book in a trilogy which I didn't realize at first yet definitely can be read as a stand-alone and I plan to read the first book and can't wait to read the third book in this series. There isn't any fast action until the last 20% of the book and then you won't want to out the book down even for a second. If you enjoy slow-burn horror or just a good horror story without all the bloody gore and slashing that is written in other stories then please, Pick Up This Book!
Warning: There is a character who does exude racism at times so this could be found offensive to some readers but it is only from one character and sadly this was a true fact of life for many people to express themselves openly back in (1985).
I want to thank the writer "Ramsey Campbell", the publisher "Flame Tree Press" and Netgalley for the plot to read this wonderful novel and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!
I have given this book a rating of 4 SINISTER AND INTRIGUING 🌟🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!
September 26, 2021
This story takes place in the year 1985 Dominic Sheldrake and his wife Lesley have a five year old son (Toby) of superior intellect but has suffered nocturnal seizures from almost his birth. They have tried everything to help Toby with his condition but nothing has worked until Tony's pediatrician recommends a center called "Safe To Sleep" where other children with his same disorder are being successfully helped. Lesley wants to enroll Toby immediately since his doctor also has her infant son enrolled as well. Dominic has reservations because he wants to research the center more but Lesley has already made the commitment without discussing it with him and this becomes a huge point of contention between the couple. As time goes on, Toby seems to be doing better yet he tells these frightening stories and draws pictures which scare other children about what he sees when he's asleep. Dom becomes nervous and somewhat paranoid because some of these stories are nightmarish reminders of some horrific things he was witnessed and became involved in when he was only thirteen years old at a supposedly Christian school and no-one believed what he claimed to see and hear except his two friends at the time with whom he stays in touch. He wants to take Toby out of the center but Lesley fights him tooth and nail saying Dom doesn't want the best for their son. Lesley thinks there is something mentally wrong with her husband and wants a separation. (What the heck is wrong with this woman). Dominic keeps digging and finds out who the pediatrician really is along with her devil of a father and there is something very wrong and creepy about her infant son Toph (Christopher). The more Dominic digs and the subtofuge he discovers may not leave much time if any to bring his son back from the developing evil that is taking place within the sinister yet small group that have control over the minds of many children along with his wife who appears to have fallen under their spell. Strange and eerie sights and sounds begin to take hold of Dom every day so he now must rely on his friends Bobby (Roberta), a journalist and Jim, a police officer to help save the young children, especially his son before it's too late because pervading evil is residing in their small town and it wants to devour everything and everyone in ITS GRASP.
I really enjoyed this slow-burn horror story which starts out nice and easy with a loving family who are well liked and respected in their community while slowly and eerily building with the feeling of horror just slightly out of sight and reach. The word and world building was very special in creating a sense of creepiness and impending doom within my imagination. The women in this story were completely unlike able for me, I found many very dispicable and obnoxious in their mannerisms. Lesley (I couldn't stand her), she was a terrible mate (imo), she seemed to undermine everything Dominic would say or do especially concerning Toby and she was completely unsupportive and lacked any affection even when he was injured and completely vulnerable. She took advantage of the situation and kept Toby in the program against all of Dom's pleas and then, even contacted a lawyer about divorce! (What a wacko and a cold fish.) It seemed all the women were this way. Lesley was a mess in every way to me and I don't know why he wanted to keep this farce of a marriage together. Lesley seemed to hold all the power and didn't seem to love Dominic (imo, again). So, I guess this made the story all the more intriguing to have all these unlikeable, irritating and strong characters that didn't seem to care about anyone's opinions or feelings except their own. With all that said, the story was atmospheric, psychological eerie, intense, creepy and imaginative. All the spookiness simmers below the surface waiting for your own imagination to take hold of the horrors that lie underneath. This was a 2nd book in a trilogy which I didn't realize at first yet definitely can be read as a stand-alone and I plan to read the first book and can't wait to read the third book in this series. There isn't any fast action until the last 20% of the book and then you won't want to out the book down even for a second. If you enjoy slow-burn horror or just a good horror story without all the bloody gore and slashing that is written in other stories then please, Pick Up This Book!
Warning: There is a character who does exude racism at times so this could be found offensive to some readers but it is only from one character and sadly this was a true fact of life for many people to express themselves openly back in (1985).
I want to thank the writer "Ramsey Campbell", the publisher "Flame Tree Press" and Netgalley for the plot to read this wonderful novel and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!
I have given this book a rating of 4 SINISTER AND INTRIGUING 🌟🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!
I really enjoyed this slow-burn horror story which starts out nice and easy with a loving family who are well liked and respected in their community while slowly and eerily building with the feeling of horror just slightly out of sight and reach. The word and world building was very special in creating a sense of creepiness and impending doom within my imagination. The women in this story were completely unlike able for me, I found many very dispicable and obnoxious in their mannerisms. Lesley (I couldn't stand her), she was a terrible mate (imo), she seemed to undermine everything Dominic would say or do especially concerning Toby and she was completely unsupportive and lacked any affection even when he was injured and completely vulnerable. She took advantage of the situation and kept Toby in the program against all of Dom's pleas and then, even contacted a lawyer about divorce! (What a wacko and a cold fish.) It seemed all the women were this way. Lesley was a mess in every way to me and I don't know why he wanted to keep this farce of a marriage together. Lesley seemed to hold all the power and didn't seem to love Dominic (imo, again). So, I guess this made the story all the more intriguing to have all these unlikeable, irritating and strong characters that didn't seem to care about anyone's opinions or feelings except their own. With all that said, the story was atmospheric, psychological eerie, intense, creepy and imaginative. All the spookiness simmers below the surface waiting for your own imagination to take hold of the horrors that lie underneath. This was a 2nd book in a trilogy which I didn't realize at first yet definitely can be read as a stand-alone and I plan to read the first book and can't wait to read the third book in this series. There isn't any fast action until the last 20% of the book and then you won't want to out the book down even for a second. If you enjoy slow-burn horror or just a good horror story without all the bloody gore and slashing that is written in other stories then please, Pick Up This Book!
Warning: There is a character who does exude racism at times so this could be found offensive to some readers but it is only from one character and sadly this was a true fact of life for many people to express themselves openly back in (1985).
I want to thank the writer "Ramsey Campbell", the publisher "Flame Tree Press" and Netgalley for the plot to read this wonderful novel and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!
I have given this book a rating of 4 SINISTER AND INTRIGUING 🌟🌟🌟🌟 STARS!!
Want to read
September 9, 2018(Brichester Mythos #2)
October 28, 2017
If you haven't read the first in this trilogy - The Searching Dead - don''t worry. This works perfectly well as a standalone, although I would suggest that, having read Born to the Dark, you will most certainly want to read the first story. Thirty years on from the events of The Searching Dead, the central character - Dominic Sheldrake - is now a university lecturer, married with a young son, Toby. The boy is precocious yet troubled with frequent night-time seizures so, when the Sheldrakes hear of Safe to Sleep - an organisation specialising in treating conditions such as Toby's, how could they not enrol Toby?
But from the first, Dominic is concerned about the personnel in charge of his son and the practices they are using to treat him. Something isn't right. In fact something is very wrong indeed and as he begins to unravel the mysteries, events draw memories from deep within him. Memories of a teacher who proved to be everything a child doesn't need. Thirty years ago, Dominic and his two best friends were thrust into the dark and terrifying world of Christian Noble. Now it is all beginning again - only this time it is much worse. This time his child's life and soul are at stake.
But from the first, Dominic is concerned about the personnel in charge of his son and the practices they are using to treat him. Something isn't right. In fact something is very wrong indeed and as he begins to unravel the mysteries, events draw memories from deep within him. Memories of a teacher who proved to be everything a child doesn't need. Thirty years ago, Dominic and his two best friends were thrust into the dark and terrifying world of Christian Noble. Now it is all beginning again - only this time it is much worse. This time his child's life and soul are at stake.
October 26, 2017
This book is a sequel to 2016's The Searching Dead, and the second book in Campbell's ongoing The Three Births of Daoloth trilogy. The setting is once again Liverpool, only now it is 30 years after the events of the first book, which places it in 1985. Returning as the narrator from the first book is Dominic (or "Dom") Sheldrake, who is now in his early 40's in terms of age and who is making a living doing lectures on films at the local university. Dom is also married and has a five year-old boy named Toby. When Toby begins suffering from strange sleep seizures, Dom and his wife enroll the boy at Safe to Sleep, a local institution which practices a mysterious treatment believed to cure those who suffer from the same ailment Toby has. But when Toby's dreams and visions become increasingly disturbing, Dom takes it upon himself to begin investigating Safe to Sleep and the people who run it. This puts him on a collision course with his own dark past, as both friends and enemies alike from his teenage years in the 1950's reappear in his life. It's fun to see the (often unexpected) ways in which some of the characters from the first book have changed, and the malevolent cosmic menace that was only hinted at in the first book is slowly unveiled in slightly greater detail in this middle volume.
Like the first book in the trilogy, I found Born To The Dark to be an entertaining read, with some exciting plot twists and the usual solid writing. As to be expected, Campbell's prose is lucid and un-hysterical, and he still hasn't lost his knack for setting the reader's hair on edge: two chapters towards the end of the book which see Dom and a friend exploring a seemingly abandoned house is a nightmarish masterpiece of of suffocating atmospheric horror, and ranks as one of the most terrifying set-pieces I've encountered in Campbell's work: like Thomas Ligotti he has the ability to make shadows and darkness a palpable and menacing threat, and he's also one of the few writers I can think of who can make something as mundane as a character searching through desk drawers into an experience that has one holding their breath. I greatly look forward to the third and final book in the series, which I presume will be set in modern times and find the characters in the last stage of life.
Like the first book in the trilogy, I found Born To The Dark to be an entertaining read, with some exciting plot twists and the usual solid writing. As to be expected, Campbell's prose is lucid and un-hysterical, and he still hasn't lost his knack for setting the reader's hair on edge: two chapters towards the end of the book which see Dom and a friend exploring a seemingly abandoned house is a nightmarish masterpiece of of suffocating atmospheric horror, and ranks as one of the most terrifying set-pieces I've encountered in Campbell's work: like Thomas Ligotti he has the ability to make shadows and darkness a palpable and menacing threat, and he's also one of the few writers I can think of who can make something as mundane as a character searching through desk drawers into an experience that has one holding their breath. I greatly look forward to the third and final book in the series, which I presume will be set in modern times and find the characters in the last stage of life.
March 20, 2025
3.5 Born in the Dark is an enjoyable cosmic horror story hindered by being a follow-up to a masterful first novel and being a little indulgent with the author’s idiosyncratic obsession with language.
Where the first novel was set against the backdrop of a puritanical post war Britain, the second book shows there hero as an academic and a parent in the mid 1980s. The main character’s small child is placed within a new-agey sleep center which is actually the front for a cult run by the daughter of the bad guy from the first book.
The problem here is that instead of satirizing the wave of new age and Scientologist thinking of the time, the book focuses on misunderstandings between husband and wife, who herself is under the toxic influence of other women. And everything the hero says is misconstrued or makes him look crazy, leading the wife to eventually consider divorce. Instead of the contrast of puritanical patriotism and occult knowledge from the first book, we get a dynamic between the hero’s sense of danger with the women in his his life who don’t believe him; discrediting him and threatening to take his son. It just seems like an odd choice that the real threat in the story appears to be misguided feminism and anti-male anger.
That said, it does a pretty good job and captures the sense of going insane when no one around you believes a word your saying. It’s a little heavy on the word play and double meanings to the point that it sacrifices belief. But retains some of the dynamic of “conventional sanity” vs “occult wisdom” of the first book. And the threat is real enough that I look forward to the third book. The book is clearly stylized that the threat of various gaslighting women is ominous for the well-intentioned hero; but you can’t help but feel like it is a little too farcical, especially the unsettling divorce lawyer.
I still rate it well because it achieves what it’s trying to do and is at times pretty scary. I got the impression of the story were removed from the context, you could make a good film out of this because as a stand-alone it’s a good story. It’s just a little bit of a weird call. The threat of having one’s child taken away because no one else believes in the danger of his indoctrination is a good one though. So you can see it’s a little divisive.
Where the first novel was set against the backdrop of a puritanical post war Britain, the second book shows there hero as an academic and a parent in the mid 1980s. The main character’s small child is placed within a new-agey sleep center which is actually the front for a cult run by the daughter of the bad guy from the first book.
The problem here is that instead of satirizing the wave of new age and Scientologist thinking of the time, the book focuses on misunderstandings between husband and wife, who herself is under the toxic influence of other women. And everything the hero says is misconstrued or makes him look crazy, leading the wife to eventually consider divorce. Instead of the contrast of puritanical patriotism and occult knowledge from the first book, we get a dynamic between the hero’s sense of danger with the women in his his life who don’t believe him; discrediting him and threatening to take his son. It just seems like an odd choice that the real threat in the story appears to be misguided feminism and anti-male anger.
That said, it does a pretty good job and captures the sense of going insane when no one around you believes a word your saying. It’s a little heavy on the word play and double meanings to the point that it sacrifices belief. But retains some of the dynamic of “conventional sanity” vs “occult wisdom” of the first book. And the threat is real enough that I look forward to the third book. The book is clearly stylized that the threat of various gaslighting women is ominous for the well-intentioned hero; but you can’t help but feel like it is a little too farcical, especially the unsettling divorce lawyer.
I still rate it well because it achieves what it’s trying to do and is at times pretty scary. I got the impression of the story were removed from the context, you could make a good film out of this because as a stand-alone it’s a good story. It’s just a little bit of a weird call. The threat of having one’s child taken away because no one else believes in the danger of his indoctrination is a good one though. So you can see it’s a little divisive.
June 22, 2021
The second in Campbell’s Brichester Mythos trilogy, this novel takes up the ongoing story of Dominic Sheldrake’s engagement with nefarious Christian Noble about 30 years after the first book’s events (for my review of THE SEARCHING DEAD, see here). It’s now the 1980s; Dominic has a family and a job as a lecturer in film studies. He hasn’t been involved with the Noble family since the 1950s, but all that changes when his son develops a sleeping disorder in need of specialist treatment. Dominic’s wife is drawn to an organisation which, on the surface at least, purports to practice revolutionary new methods but, it soon transpires, has a less benevolent intention.
That’s the basic story of BORN TO THE DARK, and Campbell spends 270 pages dredging compelling tension from such minimalist parts. While THE SEARCHING DEAD (the first of the trilogy) drew on a wide range of supernatural episodes, both suggestive and concrete, this novel is altogether quieter, building to a crescendo of unease rather than presenting frights throughout in an episodic fashion.
After informing the reader (both familiar with and new to the series) of previous events in a deftly handled opening chapter, Campbell takes us to the main scene of the drama: Dominic’s family. He’s married a smart, protective woman called Lesley, and they have a fine son, Toby. It’s the dynamics between these three, along with other characters such as Dominic’s father and his old friends, that form the basis of the novel’s anxieties. After securing a place for the boy at the aforementioned institution, Dominic begins to suspect malpractice there, whereas his wife questions such accusations. Matters grow so strained that their marriage is jeopardised, and it’s down to Dominic to prove that his concerns are genuine.
What follows are countless scenes of gradually escalating subterfuge involving covert telephone calls, surveillance, infiltration, and even engagement with medical treatments (this latter results in a wonderful passage of visionary prose, all blackness and silence and packed with mouth-watering portents). With such an accumulative approach, the novel exudes a form of menace heightened by all that’s at stake on a personal level for Dominic. There’s a lot of dialogue in the book, perhaps more than is common in Campbell. Set-pieces are dramatized via interaction, even the extended, evocative conclusion. In previous novels, Campbell would have just a single character exploring “that place”, but in this one there’s a companion, and it works just as well.
The ending is both spectacularly complete and indicative of developments to be explored in the final novel. It leaves the reader feeling both satisfied and hungry for more. Campbell’s skills in building tension here are second to none. He draws upon a wide range of suggestive techniques to create a hypnotic atmosphere. Inside “that place”, shadows of banisters beyond a flashlight beam become a giant centipede scurrying along the wall. A sound beneath a dressing table (rats, perhaps) becomes the whisper of a face trapped in one of its top drawers. Mirrors never quite show what they should. And so on. Coupled with Campbell’s peerless command of rhythm, the whole section wields the power of hypnosis. I loved it, just as I’ve relished previous end-games in the likes of THIEVING FEAR and CREATURES OF THE POOL.
Earlier on in the book, Campbell’s dextrous command of other literary methods intensify and deepen its textures. Both literature and film serve as thematic quilting points; by virtue of Dominic and his wife’s academic professions in the humanities, the novel becomes enmeshed in artistic materials it explicitly addresses. Political developments examined in the first novel are similarly addressed in this one, with the spectre (or, depending on your affiliations, the necessity) of Thatcherism lurking behind many public exchanges. I suspect there are parallels between British economic history and the Nobles’ aspirations over the 50-year course of the trilogy, but until I read the final novel it’s too early to draw conclusions. I also have suspicions about the role of the number three in the books –Three Investigators, a game called Trio, the three syllables (and imminent births) of Daoloth – but again, that’s for later.
As in THE SEARCHING DEAD, a changing cultural landscape presents characters with unfamiliar situations to tackle. A dyed-in-the-wool feminist solicitor perhaps oversteps her professional remit with ideological blinkeredness. The police – well, certainly some of the police – are corrupt. The medical world isn’t to be trusted, either. And is the church really keeping up with such a mutated modern world? This sense of society’s principal engines, its essential institutions, being infiltrated by furtively invisible hands lends the novels’ depiction of the imminent collapse of stuff on which we all rely – folk at the end of emergency service calls, or even the land and sky – additional fragility, a tainted atmosphere that grows more pungent at every turn.
Indeed, it’s this mix of the personal and the universal, of Dominic’s familial woes and his tenuous place in the world at large, that prove to be the novel’s finest achievement. This is a book that eschews the standard horror novel’s reliance on regular “scary” set-pieces, focusing instead on an evocation of fear that inhabits and invades all aspects of everyday lives: marriage, parenthood, employment; memory, spiritual orientation, dreams; the future, death, the cosmos. BORN TO THE DARK finishes with a staggering set-piece, but it’s taken 270 pages to build to that, and for me that makes the whole immensely more satisfying.
Is there anything else I can say to convey my feeling that the novel is an essential read? How about this: I started it at 8am and finished at 3pm the same day. Everything about it held me solid in my seat. It’s another deft and compelling masterwork.
That’s the basic story of BORN TO THE DARK, and Campbell spends 270 pages dredging compelling tension from such minimalist parts. While THE SEARCHING DEAD (the first of the trilogy) drew on a wide range of supernatural episodes, both suggestive and concrete, this novel is altogether quieter, building to a crescendo of unease rather than presenting frights throughout in an episodic fashion.
After informing the reader (both familiar with and new to the series) of previous events in a deftly handled opening chapter, Campbell takes us to the main scene of the drama: Dominic’s family. He’s married a smart, protective woman called Lesley, and they have a fine son, Toby. It’s the dynamics between these three, along with other characters such as Dominic’s father and his old friends, that form the basis of the novel’s anxieties. After securing a place for the boy at the aforementioned institution, Dominic begins to suspect malpractice there, whereas his wife questions such accusations. Matters grow so strained that their marriage is jeopardised, and it’s down to Dominic to prove that his concerns are genuine.
What follows are countless scenes of gradually escalating subterfuge involving covert telephone calls, surveillance, infiltration, and even engagement with medical treatments (this latter results in a wonderful passage of visionary prose, all blackness and silence and packed with mouth-watering portents). With such an accumulative approach, the novel exudes a form of menace heightened by all that’s at stake on a personal level for Dominic. There’s a lot of dialogue in the book, perhaps more than is common in Campbell. Set-pieces are dramatized via interaction, even the extended, evocative conclusion. In previous novels, Campbell would have just a single character exploring “that place”, but in this one there’s a companion, and it works just as well.
The ending is both spectacularly complete and indicative of developments to be explored in the final novel. It leaves the reader feeling both satisfied and hungry for more. Campbell’s skills in building tension here are second to none. He draws upon a wide range of suggestive techniques to create a hypnotic atmosphere. Inside “that place”, shadows of banisters beyond a flashlight beam become a giant centipede scurrying along the wall. A sound beneath a dressing table (rats, perhaps) becomes the whisper of a face trapped in one of its top drawers. Mirrors never quite show what they should. And so on. Coupled with Campbell’s peerless command of rhythm, the whole section wields the power of hypnosis. I loved it, just as I’ve relished previous end-games in the likes of THIEVING FEAR and CREATURES OF THE POOL.
Earlier on in the book, Campbell’s dextrous command of other literary methods intensify and deepen its textures. Both literature and film serve as thematic quilting points; by virtue of Dominic and his wife’s academic professions in the humanities, the novel becomes enmeshed in artistic materials it explicitly addresses. Political developments examined in the first novel are similarly addressed in this one, with the spectre (or, depending on your affiliations, the necessity) of Thatcherism lurking behind many public exchanges. I suspect there are parallels between British economic history and the Nobles’ aspirations over the 50-year course of the trilogy, but until I read the final novel it’s too early to draw conclusions. I also have suspicions about the role of the number three in the books –Three Investigators, a game called Trio, the three syllables (and imminent births) of Daoloth – but again, that’s for later.
As in THE SEARCHING DEAD, a changing cultural landscape presents characters with unfamiliar situations to tackle. A dyed-in-the-wool feminist solicitor perhaps oversteps her professional remit with ideological blinkeredness. The police – well, certainly some of the police – are corrupt. The medical world isn’t to be trusted, either. And is the church really keeping up with such a mutated modern world? This sense of society’s principal engines, its essential institutions, being infiltrated by furtively invisible hands lends the novels’ depiction of the imminent collapse of stuff on which we all rely – folk at the end of emergency service calls, or even the land and sky – additional fragility, a tainted atmosphere that grows more pungent at every turn.
Indeed, it’s this mix of the personal and the universal, of Dominic’s familial woes and his tenuous place in the world at large, that prove to be the novel’s finest achievement. This is a book that eschews the standard horror novel’s reliance on regular “scary” set-pieces, focusing instead on an evocation of fear that inhabits and invades all aspects of everyday lives: marriage, parenthood, employment; memory, spiritual orientation, dreams; the future, death, the cosmos. BORN TO THE DARK finishes with a staggering set-piece, but it’s taken 270 pages to build to that, and for me that makes the whole immensely more satisfying.
Is there anything else I can say to convey my feeling that the novel is an essential read? How about this: I started it at 8am and finished at 3pm the same day. Everything about it held me solid in my seat. It’s another deft and compelling masterwork.
November 4, 2018
A masterpiece, from someone whom the Oxford Companion to English Literature calls “Britain's most respected living horror writer”. Respected, maybe, but I really can't understand why he's not the most *popular*. Or perhaps I can: I have, myself, struggled with Campbell's dense and meaningful prose, worried about every emphasis—or lack of it—particularly when characters converse in purposefully ambiguous terms. Over time, however, I've grown to love it. If his deft but potentially overpowering approach to language has troubled you in the past, I can't assure you this novel is devoid of it—quite the opposite—but I feel it's accessible all the same.
I loved the first part of this trilogy, which possibly edged a previous favourite out of first place, and I'm delighted to announce that this ranks amongst them as one of his absolute best—it's a real corker of a novel, combining the best bits of Incarnate, The Pretence, The Darkest Part of the Wods (sorry!), and his beautifully dark Brichester Mythos, and merging it with his currently focused themes of ageing, sanity and death.
I won't say more. If your kind of horror is dark, less-splattery, more existential, this is the one...
Roll on Part 3!
I loved the first part of this trilogy, which possibly edged a previous favourite out of first place, and I'm delighted to announce that this ranks amongst them as one of his absolute best—it's a real corker of a novel, combining the best bits of Incarnate, The Pretence, The Darkest Part of the Wods (sorry!), and his beautifully dark Brichester Mythos, and merging it with his currently focused themes of ageing, sanity and death.
I won't say more. If your kind of horror is dark, less-splattery, more existential, this is the one...
Roll on Part 3!
June 15, 2022
An excellent second novel in Campbell's The Three Births of Daoloth trilogy, this book finds Dominic Sheldrake all grown up, employed as a university lecturer, and married with a precocious young son with a sleep disorder. As the parents seek to find a remedy for Toby's illness, they fall in with Christian Noble and an adult Tina Noble, from the first book thirty years prior. Things get weird, and creepy, and dark, as they often do in Campbell's books. I enjoyed Dom's character, but I really despised the wife, Leslie, and her self-serving behaviors. The growing sense of dread as the story progresses, and the lack of any real ending, mean I need to dive into the last book as soon as possible.
Excellent good stuff.
Excellent good stuff.
February 4, 2022
Unfortunately, I just didn't along with this story. It had potential to start with but I found it very slow going and it just didn't have that hook for me. I couldn't really appreciate the characters, they were both annoying and they grated on me a little. I would also like to point out that the author didn't write female characters in a very favorable light. Overall, not a story for me but I appreciate the publishers providing me with a review copy.
January 11, 2018
Born To The Dark, the second book in the Brichester Mythose Trilogy by Ramsey Campbell, follows Dominic Sheldrake into adulthood. Set in the 1980’s, thirty years or so following the events of The Searching Dead (book #1), Dominic is married to his wife Leslie, and together they have a young son named Toby who’s been experiencing bizarre dreams and seizures when he sleeps. To help combat this, Leslie enrolls Toby in a program called Safe To Sleep, an organization that works with children with similar issues. Unfortunately, Dominic comes to discover his old school teacher, the occultist Christian Noble, and his daughter Tina are the architects of the group. They’ve been using the children to accomplish their own dark deeds. Leslie, however, does not believe her husband’s claims. In fact, she’s been exceptionally pleased with the progress their son has made during his time there. As Dominic continues to pursue his relentless investigation into Safe To Sleep, his relationships with both Leslie and Toby become strained. He and Leslie end up undergoing divorce proceedings which introduces us to one of the most loathsome characters in the novel, Leslie’s aggressive and manipulative lawyer Colleen Johns. Colleen seems to have a real axe to grind against Dominic, always twisting his words against him and pushing for every sort of maximum punishment she can conjure up. Ramsey’s mastery of language really shines through her as Colleen continually digs the knife in against Dominic.
It takes a bit longer to get to the supernatural elements in this one than in the first book. There’s more a focus on Dominic’s personal life, such as his martial problems, difficulties dealing with his son’s experiences at Safe To Sleep and the struggles of his ailing father in the hospital, which I found a tender reminder of the bond between a father and his son. Several mysteries are at play throughout. What exactly are the Noble’s doing with the children at Safe To Sleep? What was the malleable thing that suddenly appears inside the back of Dominic’s moving car? Then, there’s Tina’s toddler son Toph who acts far older and wiser than he should for his age. The story climaxes in an intense finale, as Dominic and his childhood friend Jim come face to face with a formless power that seems to warp the world around them.
All in all, this is another excellent book by Ramsey Campbell. I’m enjoying watching Dominic during these different stages of his life in these first two books. I was also impressed at how different the supernatural menace appears this time. It’s grown in its power and influence over reality. I’m very much looking forward to the third and final installment of this excellent trilogy.
It takes a bit longer to get to the supernatural elements in this one than in the first book. There’s more a focus on Dominic’s personal life, such as his martial problems, difficulties dealing with his son’s experiences at Safe To Sleep and the struggles of his ailing father in the hospital, which I found a tender reminder of the bond between a father and his son. Several mysteries are at play throughout. What exactly are the Noble’s doing with the children at Safe To Sleep? What was the malleable thing that suddenly appears inside the back of Dominic’s moving car? Then, there’s Tina’s toddler son Toph who acts far older and wiser than he should for his age. The story climaxes in an intense finale, as Dominic and his childhood friend Jim come face to face with a formless power that seems to warp the world around them.
All in all, this is another excellent book by Ramsey Campbell. I’m enjoying watching Dominic during these different stages of his life in these first two books. I was also impressed at how different the supernatural menace appears this time. It’s grown in its power and influence over reality. I’m very much looking forward to the third and final installment of this excellent trilogy.
September 10, 2021
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC!
This book is the second in the series and follows Dom, Jim and Bobby as adults.
Well who should pop up again? Christian Noble and his “all grown up” daughter Tina. And they are up to no good….again. This time they are using children instead of the dead. Dom’s own child, Toby is caught up in their newest cosmic plot.
I didn’t like the Tremendous Three (Dom, Jim and Bobby) as much as adults. Jim was the same; very much a rule follower and hyper religious, Bobby, now a journalist called Bob, is pretty naive for for an investigative journalist and Dom who unfortunately picked the most unsupportive partner. Dom’s wife, Lesley, was my least favorite character. She was stubborn to the point of me throwing the book across the room.
I did love the setting as always. Dreary and dismal atmosphere that fit perfect with the Nobles and all their creepy rituals. Probably the most terrifying thing for me was their attachment to the children and the strange sleep therapy they had developed. And the end left the reader on a cliff, dangling. I need to know what happens next!
This book is the second in the series and follows Dom, Jim and Bobby as adults.
Well who should pop up again? Christian Noble and his “all grown up” daughter Tina. And they are up to no good….again. This time they are using children instead of the dead. Dom’s own child, Toby is caught up in their newest cosmic plot.
I didn’t like the Tremendous Three (Dom, Jim and Bobby) as much as adults. Jim was the same; very much a rule follower and hyper religious, Bobby, now a journalist called Bob, is pretty naive for for an investigative journalist and Dom who unfortunately picked the most unsupportive partner. Dom’s wife, Lesley, was my least favorite character. She was stubborn to the point of me throwing the book across the room.
I did love the setting as always. Dreary and dismal atmosphere that fit perfect with the Nobles and all their creepy rituals. Probably the most terrifying thing for me was their attachment to the children and the strange sleep therapy they had developed. And the end left the reader on a cliff, dangling. I need to know what happens next!
November 2, 2017
In The Searching Dead (2016), narrator Dominick Sheldrake told of his early teen-aged years in 1952 Liverpool. Along with friends Roberta (Bobby) and Jim, Dominick encountered increasingly weird occult occurrences, though by the end of the book he alone faced the final horrors.
Now it's 1985 and Dominick is all grown up, teaching film studies at a Liverpool college, married, with a five-year-old son. But the son has a curious sleep disorder. A nurse recommends a new clinic specializing in successful treatment of this disorder. And Dominick finds himself plunged into new iterations of the horrors of the past.
Ramsey Campbell is at the height of his multitudinous powers in this, the middle novel of The Three Births of Daoloth. Narrated again at some time after the events of the novel by Dominick, Born To the Dark is cosmic horror amplified by Sheldrake's fears for his son, his friends, and his sanity. We view much of the cosmic terror through Sheldrake's son's descriptions of his dreams and the strange things and events lurking there. Somehow, this makes it worse.
Like many protagonists of horror novels, Dominick struggles to find someone -- anyone -- who will believe his story. And he also struggles with the consequences of telling his wife and others about the cosmic threat that seemingly only he sees: paranoia, abandonment, the threat of divorce, the threat of police action, public humiliation...
But this isn't simply psychological horror about an unjustifiably paranoid narrator. Something is coming, something worse than whatever it is that's already there. The novel climaxes with a lengthy journey into a place being undermined by an invading reality. And with a third book to go, there are (as Manly Wade Wellman once observed) Worse Things Waiting.
The characterization of Dom and the other characters is sharp, the mood and description unnerving throughout. As in many of H.P. Lovecraft's seminal tales of cosmic horror, Born To the Dark gives us a protagonist who continues to attempt to stop a rising tide of horror that is almost certainly beyond his powers to stop. Yet he persists.
Now it's 1985 and Dominick is all grown up, teaching film studies at a Liverpool college, married, with a five-year-old son. But the son has a curious sleep disorder. A nurse recommends a new clinic specializing in successful treatment of this disorder. And Dominick finds himself plunged into new iterations of the horrors of the past.
Ramsey Campbell is at the height of his multitudinous powers in this, the middle novel of The Three Births of Daoloth. Narrated again at some time after the events of the novel by Dominick, Born To the Dark is cosmic horror amplified by Sheldrake's fears for his son, his friends, and his sanity. We view much of the cosmic terror through Sheldrake's son's descriptions of his dreams and the strange things and events lurking there. Somehow, this makes it worse.
Like many protagonists of horror novels, Dominick struggles to find someone -- anyone -- who will believe his story. And he also struggles with the consequences of telling his wife and others about the cosmic threat that seemingly only he sees: paranoia, abandonment, the threat of divorce, the threat of police action, public humiliation...
But this isn't simply psychological horror about an unjustifiably paranoid narrator. Something is coming, something worse than whatever it is that's already there. The novel climaxes with a lengthy journey into a place being undermined by an invading reality. And with a third book to go, there are (as Manly Wade Wellman once observed) Worse Things Waiting.
The characterization of Dom and the other characters is sharp, the mood and description unnerving throughout. As in many of H.P. Lovecraft's seminal tales of cosmic horror, Born To the Dark gives us a protagonist who continues to attempt to stop a rising tide of horror that is almost certainly beyond his powers to stop. Yet he persists.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 20, 2021
After years of reading experience, I approach any Ramsey Campbell production clothed in trepidatious awe, rather as one would tiptoe into the nave of a temple, trembling in approach to an idol. I only have this reaction in approaching a very few authors: in writing, there are good, there are great, then there are Masters [either gender applies]. I am thinking right now of 3 authors [2 in the U.K., one in the U.S.], each a Master, each highly prolific, each of whose writing changes me with every title--no, with every page. Of course Ramsey Campbell is one of the 3.
BORN IN THE DARK is the second in Mr. Campbell's new THE THREE BIRTHS OF DAOLOTH Trilogy. Set 3 decades after Book 1, THE SEARCHING DEAD, the novel focuses on children again, this time through the lens of the young son of Dominic, THE SEARCHING DEAD'S protagonist. BORN TO THE DARK can be read as a standalone; but do yourself a favor and read both, in consecutive order: you'll be glad you did!
BORN IN THE DARK is the second in Mr. Campbell's new THE THREE BIRTHS OF DAOLOTH Trilogy. Set 3 decades after Book 1, THE SEARCHING DEAD, the novel focuses on children again, this time through the lens of the young son of Dominic, THE SEARCHING DEAD'S protagonist. BORN TO THE DARK can be read as a standalone; but do yourself a favor and read both, in consecutive order: you'll be glad you did!
November 17, 2025
This took what felt like an interminable amount of time to pull its finger out and really only delivers the vertiginous cosmic goods in the last third. Prior to that we’re treated to page after page of passive-aggressive conversations between the protagonist and his wife/his boss/his friends/his wife’s friends/her solicitor that largely go nowhere, and to be honest it all becomes a bit of a bloody slog. Really hoping Campbell pulls the lead out in the final book.
September 6, 2021
Born Into Darkness is the second book in the Daolath trilogy. The reader meets up with Sheldrake as a middle-aged adult with a young child. He has gotten married and has a family. He has a young child that is plagued with night seizures. All treatment has been futile. They find a place call Safe To Sleep that says they have a cure. However, Sheldrake learns some terrible secrets and must work to save his son.
This book plays on fears of being helpless against a great terror but also on common fears found in adulthood, married life, and parenting. The reader feels a real sense of dread and helplessness that builds up throughout the story. This book has a different feel from the first, mostly because the main character is now an adult and the stakes are higher. Campbell has a masterful way with words and I don’t know any other author than could make me feel creeped out by describing a simple landscape.
The story arc is not predictable which adds to the terror and dread. There were a few parts that I was able to anticipate, but overall the ending was quite satisfying. I wouldn’t call it a happy ending but it wraps things up while still leaving enough to keep you curious about the third book. Campbell is a true master of modern cosmic horror.
This book plays on fears of being helpless against a great terror but also on common fears found in adulthood, married life, and parenting. The reader feels a real sense of dread and helplessness that builds up throughout the story. This book has a different feel from the first, mostly because the main character is now an adult and the stakes are higher. Campbell has a masterful way with words and I don’t know any other author than could make me feel creeped out by describing a simple landscape.
The story arc is not predictable which adds to the terror and dread. There were a few parts that I was able to anticipate, but overall the ending was quite satisfying. I wouldn’t call it a happy ending but it wraps things up while still leaving enough to keep you curious about the third book. Campbell is a true master of modern cosmic horror.
September 13, 2021
Ramsay Campbell is just so reliable. I've been reading his books for years. He rarely has a misstep.
I didn't realize that this was part two of a series so even though you could fairly easily pick your way through the connections to the first book, it did somewhat diminish the experience. You can't help wondering what you've missed or at least which references/connections you're missing.
I just love the period in more recent history (1960s-80s) in which he sets his books, I can really relate to them and the simpler times means that he can get away with stretching the limits of believability.
It may be unfair of me but I've given it three stars mostly because of what I could be missing from not reading part one so I'd really recommend that you read the first book before tackling this one. It's more of a 3.5 stars but I couldn't push it to a four.
I appreciate the opportunity to read it, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.
I didn't realize that this was part two of a series so even though you could fairly easily pick your way through the connections to the first book, it did somewhat diminish the experience. You can't help wondering what you've missed or at least which references/connections you're missing.
I just love the period in more recent history (1960s-80s) in which he sets his books, I can really relate to them and the simpler times means that he can get away with stretching the limits of believability.
It may be unfair of me but I've given it three stars mostly because of what I could be missing from not reading part one so I'd really recommend that you read the first book before tackling this one. It's more of a 3.5 stars but I couldn't push it to a four.
I appreciate the opportunity to read it, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.
April 7, 2023
Campbell’s return to his Lovecraftian roots feels as much a personal journey as it does a weird one. Campbell’s style suggests something odd even before the supernatural elements hit. This has a cumulative effect so that the denouement is pleasingly nightmarish.
September 13, 2021
Fun read. Campbell knows just when to throw you a curve. Creepy, atmospheric, really good. Thank you Flame Tree Publishing and NetGalley for my copy.
July 28, 2020
Born to the Dark by Ramsey Campbell is the second volume of The Three Births of Daoloth trilogy. It continues the development of the plot that began in The Searching Dead.
“Go to the dark where the dead people grow.”
Even though this is the second of a trilogy, those who have not read the first can still enjoy Born to the Dark. Campbell drops in bits of back story with great care, using just enough to ground new readers without relying on the use of the dreaded info dump. As with the first volume, Campbell’s superb writing skills are sure to create a pleasant read. His use of symbolism as harbingers in Born to the Dark is impressive, especially when he finds a way to take one symbol and morph its nature from light to dark to enhance the mood or atmosphere.
The novel takes place over thirty years after the first of the series. The plot is complex with many moving parts that will keep readers guessing. The danger trickles in one drop at a time, which allows it to creep up on the reader and pounce when least expected. Many of the main characters from the first novel return and are just as likable. Jim is married with two sons and has become a police officer. Bobbie lives in London with her partner, Carol, and is a noted journalist. However, Dominic’s wife is an exception. She is rigid and sometimes judges Dominick harshly. However, he loves her anyway.
Dominic Sheldrake is married with a young. He and his wife Lesley teach at a local college. His only connection with the past is his collection of journals, some of which were his handwritten copies of Mr. Noble’s nefarious diary. What could be a perfect life is marred by the fact that their son Toby is one of a number of children who suffer from nocturnal seizures with no known cause or treatment. Both Dominic and his wife are desperate for a cure for what they refer to as nocturnal absences.
When Dominic returns from a reunion with his childhood pals Bobby and Jim, Lesley tells him that she has located a clinic that treats nocturnal absences with great success. Soon, even though the employees at the clinic are vague about what the treatment includes, little Toby is being treated at the Safe to Sleep clinic and appears to be improving. However, appearances can deceive. Toby begins saying things that disturb Dominick. In part because the operators of Safe to Sleep refuse to explain their methods, Dominick becomes suspicious. When his copies of Noble’s journal disappear, his suspicions are validated. He begins to search for evidence that will compel his wife to agree to remove Toby from Safe to Sleep. Campbell includes an episode where Dominick sneaks through a forest so that he might spy on the operators of the clinic. Here, the author includes a wonderful episode where the vegetation appears to become sentient, similar to scenes from The Darkest Part of the Woods and The Wise Friend.
“You don’t eat the gods, the gods eat you.”
Born to the Dark is a well-organized, clearly written, and mysterious story that ends with a dramatic denouement. It comes highly recommended. Avid reads of cosmic horror will be satisfied with the read and will no doubt find themselves ordering the next and final volume, The Way of the Worm, as soon as possible.
RougeskiReads.com
“Go to the dark where the dead people grow.”
Even though this is the second of a trilogy, those who have not read the first can still enjoy Born to the Dark. Campbell drops in bits of back story with great care, using just enough to ground new readers without relying on the use of the dreaded info dump. As with the first volume, Campbell’s superb writing skills are sure to create a pleasant read. His use of symbolism as harbingers in Born to the Dark is impressive, especially when he finds a way to take one symbol and morph its nature from light to dark to enhance the mood or atmosphere.
The novel takes place over thirty years after the first of the series. The plot is complex with many moving parts that will keep readers guessing. The danger trickles in one drop at a time, which allows it to creep up on the reader and pounce when least expected. Many of the main characters from the first novel return and are just as likable. Jim is married with two sons and has become a police officer. Bobbie lives in London with her partner, Carol, and is a noted journalist. However, Dominic’s wife is an exception. She is rigid and sometimes judges Dominick harshly. However, he loves her anyway.
Dominic Sheldrake is married with a young. He and his wife Lesley teach at a local college. His only connection with the past is his collection of journals, some of which were his handwritten copies of Mr. Noble’s nefarious diary. What could be a perfect life is marred by the fact that their son Toby is one of a number of children who suffer from nocturnal seizures with no known cause or treatment. Both Dominic and his wife are desperate for a cure for what they refer to as nocturnal absences.
When Dominic returns from a reunion with his childhood pals Bobby and Jim, Lesley tells him that she has located a clinic that treats nocturnal absences with great success. Soon, even though the employees at the clinic are vague about what the treatment includes, little Toby is being treated at the Safe to Sleep clinic and appears to be improving. However, appearances can deceive. Toby begins saying things that disturb Dominick. In part because the operators of Safe to Sleep refuse to explain their methods, Dominick becomes suspicious. When his copies of Noble’s journal disappear, his suspicions are validated. He begins to search for evidence that will compel his wife to agree to remove Toby from Safe to Sleep. Campbell includes an episode where Dominick sneaks through a forest so that he might spy on the operators of the clinic. Here, the author includes a wonderful episode where the vegetation appears to become sentient, similar to scenes from The Darkest Part of the Woods and The Wise Friend.
“You don’t eat the gods, the gods eat you.”
Born to the Dark is a well-organized, clearly written, and mysterious story that ends with a dramatic denouement. It comes highly recommended. Avid reads of cosmic horror will be satisfied with the read and will no doubt find themselves ordering the next and final volume, The Way of the Worm, as soon as possible.
RougeskiReads.com
September 28, 2018
As the middle installment in a trilogy, Born to the Dark does a good job of building further upon the threat established in The Searching Dead. Ramsey Campbell excels when establishing a feeling of unease and paranoia on the part of his protagonists, and central character Dominic really goes through the ringer here. The villains of the piece are suitably unsettling without being overtly grotesque and the story builds to a satisfyingly dark climax that threatens broader ramifications and impending cosmic doom.
So, this is weird fiction of the highest standard but with one caveat that stops me going 5 star. The dialogue between characters, mainly from Dominic's perspective, all seems very similar in tone. None of the characters really emote, and therfore don't entirely come to life in my imagination. This took me out of the book on occasions, as almost everyone addressed Dom's concerns in almost exactly the same cold and analytical way.
Nevertheless, I'm very much looking forward to the conclusion and I still can't help but devour everything Ramsey turns out.
So, this is weird fiction of the highest standard but with one caveat that stops me going 5 star. The dialogue between characters, mainly from Dominic's perspective, all seems very similar in tone. None of the characters really emote, and therfore don't entirely come to life in my imagination. This took me out of the book on occasions, as almost everyone addressed Dom's concerns in almost exactly the same cold and analytical way.
Nevertheless, I'm very much looking forward to the conclusion and I still can't help but devour everything Ramsey turns out.
May 3, 2020
I went over my review for the first book in this trilogy, The Searching Dead, and wrote about hopelessness in abundance. In hindsight I should have added powerlessness in addition to hopelessness, as the two feed into one another. This novel, Born to the Dark, continues Dominic Sheldrake’s confrontation with both hopelessness and powerlessness.
Set 30 years after the events of the first novel, Dominic is now in his 40s, has a wife, works at a university, and has a son with a strange sleeping ailment. After finding an alternative medicine treatment to treat his son, Dominic quickly finds himself entangled with the antagonist (if that’s the correct word. Subject may be more fitting) of the first novel.
Here is where the hopelessness and powerlessness come into play throughout. Where once we accompanied an early teens Dominic who was lost adrift in school, religion, and adolescence, being battered around like a pinball since no one would believe him about the sinister machinations of Christian Noble, we now follow Dominic as an established adult, where we would hope he has some power over his surroundings.
This is not the case. While Dominic has come to terms with his religion (or lack there of) as well as various other facets of his childhood, a new set of circumstances beset him. We know the fundamental rightness of Dominic’s quest to stop the Noble’s from interfering with his life and family; however, like his childhood, as soon as someone starts talking rationally about something as inherently irrational as a Lovecraft/Occult associated person/entity, that creeping sense of hopelessness and powerlessness rear their head.
This time around those senses come from a disbelieving wife, a child who is torn between two worlds, as well as a child who is the victim of a strange affliction that may have been cast upon him. There are other cases in this novel that continue that theme, and a secondary antagonist of sorts (not really tied to the supernatural theme) that casts an all to real sense of hopelessness/powerlessness in juxtaposition to the supernatural elements.
I love Lovecraft. I love this sort of cosmic horror. Love this book even more than I loved the first book. I am highly anticipating the conclusion to this trilogy
Set 30 years after the events of the first novel, Dominic is now in his 40s, has a wife, works at a university, and has a son with a strange sleeping ailment. After finding an alternative medicine treatment to treat his son, Dominic quickly finds himself entangled with the antagonist (if that’s the correct word. Subject may be more fitting) of the first novel.
Here is where the hopelessness and powerlessness come into play throughout. Where once we accompanied an early teens Dominic who was lost adrift in school, religion, and adolescence, being battered around like a pinball since no one would believe him about the sinister machinations of Christian Noble, we now follow Dominic as an established adult, where we would hope he has some power over his surroundings.
This is not the case. While Dominic has come to terms with his religion (or lack there of) as well as various other facets of his childhood, a new set of circumstances beset him. We know the fundamental rightness of Dominic’s quest to stop the Noble’s from interfering with his life and family; however, like his childhood, as soon as someone starts talking rationally about something as inherently irrational as a Lovecraft/Occult associated person/entity, that creeping sense of hopelessness and powerlessness rear their head.
This time around those senses come from a disbelieving wife, a child who is torn between two worlds, as well as a child who is the victim of a strange affliction that may have been cast upon him. There are other cases in this novel that continue that theme, and a secondary antagonist of sorts (not really tied to the supernatural theme) that casts an all to real sense of hopelessness/powerlessness in juxtaposition to the supernatural elements.
I love Lovecraft. I love this sort of cosmic horror. Love this book even more than I loved the first book. I am highly anticipating the conclusion to this trilogy
January 2, 2024
As a sequel to
The Searching Dead
, this felt relatively unsatisfying to me, a much more predictable and repetitive book. I say relatively unsatisfying because it still has plenty of good ideas and unsettling imagery... it's just that The Searching Dead was so good and had more of a feeling of something unfamiliar unfolding in a memorable setting, whereas here we're in more of a generically rendered '80s world and, after a little setup to establish what the occult conspiracy is and how it'll personally affect our hero, the book spends an awful lot of time spinning its wheels as our hero utterly fails to make any real progress. A big part of his lack of progress is because (and here's where I started to feel like my familiarity with Campbell's other work might be a problem, because this part felt way too familiar) he's very ineffective at communicating with people, and also people are amazingly predisposed to interpret everything he says in the least helpful way possible; this kind of social horror can be one of Campbell's strengths, but here it came across to me as more artificial, like the kind of sketch-comedy premise where every interaction has to be designed around the end goal of conflict even if that requires some contrived dialogue, and where the protagonist has to always be totally right and unjustly hindered by idiots. I think the premise is still good and it works in principle as a transition between the first and third books, but for that transition to fill a whole novel feels to me like a stretch.
July 15, 2021
Thirty years after the gruesome encounter with Christian Noble, Dominic Sheldrake is a grown man with a son of his own. While he may not have forgotten his past, he somewhat managed to banish his memories to the furthest corner of his mind. However, when his son, who suffers from nocturnal seizures, starts visiting a private medical center intend on helping children with such sleep disorders, the past seems to repeat itself. While Dom's wife does not believe his suspicions, he is convinced that the Noble family has returned, intent to finally accomplish what they started so long ago and what he prevented back then. Fighting to get his son back, Dom loses it all when his wife throws him out, wanting a divorce and accusing him of being delusional. Dom turns to his old childhood friends for help. In a desperate race against time, Dom must stop Christian Noble once again and rescue his son before it is too late.
While I enjoyed the first book, I loved this one much better, maybe because the writing felt more comprehensible to me this time. While I'm an avid English reader, I still encounter authors whose sophisticated wording makes me struggle - interestingly, they are all British English authors. Also, I got a much better understanding of the mysterious Christian Noble 'cult'. Now I am eager to find out how it all comes together in the final installment of this fascinating trilogy.
(thanks to netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book, all opinions are my own)
While I enjoyed the first book, I loved this one much better, maybe because the writing felt more comprehensible to me this time. While I'm an avid English reader, I still encounter authors whose sophisticated wording makes me struggle - interestingly, they are all British English authors. Also, I got a much better understanding of the mysterious Christian Noble 'cult'. Now I am eager to find out how it all comes together in the final installment of this fascinating trilogy.
(thanks to netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book, all opinions are my own)
July 27, 2021
Brooding, Lovecraftian, and Ultimately Horrifying
Ramsey Campbell, a master storyteller, leads readers step by step into a nightmare in this second book of his series, set 30 years from the events in The Searching Dead. Now a husband and father, Dominic Sheldrake has put the terrifying events of his teen years behind him. He seems to have a fulfilling life, a wife, a child.
But, can such a dark threat really be vanquished? Or does the fear of it only get lulled to sleep?
I don't really care for Dominic. He's prickly, repressed, and impulsive. It's hard to tell if his personality is naturally bent that way or if he's been irrevocably damaged by his brush with darkness.
And it does seem as if he's been sleepwalking through life, which only makes his awakening more shocking.
His past impulses have led to far reaching consequences that will surely wake him up.
I was delighted to have the opportunity to read an advance review copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley. I've been left with an uneasiness since I finished -- and I love every minute of it!
Ramsey Campbell, a master storyteller, leads readers step by step into a nightmare in this second book of his series, set 30 years from the events in The Searching Dead. Now a husband and father, Dominic Sheldrake has put the terrifying events of his teen years behind him. He seems to have a fulfilling life, a wife, a child.
But, can such a dark threat really be vanquished? Or does the fear of it only get lulled to sleep?
I don't really care for Dominic. He's prickly, repressed, and impulsive. It's hard to tell if his personality is naturally bent that way or if he's been irrevocably damaged by his brush with darkness.
And it does seem as if he's been sleepwalking through life, which only makes his awakening more shocking.
His past impulses have led to far reaching consequences that will surely wake him up.
I was delighted to have the opportunity to read an advance review copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley. I've been left with an uneasiness since I finished -- and I love every minute of it!
February 28, 2022
I read the first one and liked it, but only gave it three star. Now I see we were just gearing up in the first act.
This book picks up twenty odd years later, now in the 80s. Again, the authentic Liverpool 80s feel is excellent. This time, though, the horror elements are more thoroughgoing; the feeling of constant dread more penetrating.
Spoilers follow.
What really works is the horrific element of dreaming of the gods devouring planets. Every bit of that seemed... real, to me. And the cult, blithely unimpressed by being *worried* about such a thing, captures that Lovecraft-style horror. Having it all fed through the mouth of his own son, and his best friend, is what brings it home.
I don't know where this series goes or how it plans to stick the landing--I can see that this is hard to do. (Does he defeat the evil? Then it's a let down. Does the evil turn up and kill everyone? Then it's breaking that sense of dread and suspension of disbelief.) But I'm really hoping that it builds on this book to an awe inspiring climax.
This book picks up twenty odd years later, now in the 80s. Again, the authentic Liverpool 80s feel is excellent. This time, though, the horror elements are more thoroughgoing; the feeling of constant dread more penetrating.
Spoilers follow.
What really works is the horrific element of dreaming of the gods devouring planets. Every bit of that seemed... real, to me. And the cult, blithely unimpressed by being *worried* about such a thing, captures that Lovecraft-style horror. Having it all fed through the mouth of his own son, and his best friend, is what brings it home.
I don't know where this series goes or how it plans to stick the landing--I can see that this is hard to do. (Does he defeat the evil? Then it's a let down. Does the evil turn up and kill everyone? Then it's breaking that sense of dread and suspension of disbelief.) But I'm really hoping that it builds on this book to an awe inspiring climax.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 9, 2021
Just finished the novel almost in one go!
I felt quasi compelled to know how the book ends.
Having grown up and a family of his own, Dom and the Treamendous Three have to face Christian Noble, his daughter and grandson. But also something far more potent and omnious.
Tobey‘safety his sons threatened, to resolve this Dominic Sheldrake has to find a way to not lose his family and sanity.
This leads to a conflict with his wife Lesley, who seems unable to fathom that Safe To Sleep is up to schemes of their own, as well as having little trust in her husband, thinking him delusional.
As a reader I thought was Dom really happy with her?
I thought the conflict well done, giving me itches...
The tension builds slowly and steadily to reach a satisfying end.
Till the Way of the Worms!!!
I felt quasi compelled to know how the book ends.
Having grown up and a family of his own, Dom and the Treamendous Three have to face Christian Noble, his daughter and grandson. But also something far more potent and omnious.
Tobey‘safety his sons threatened, to resolve this Dominic Sheldrake has to find a way to not lose his family and sanity.
This leads to a conflict with his wife Lesley, who seems unable to fathom that Safe To Sleep is up to schemes of their own, as well as having little trust in her husband, thinking him delusional.
As a reader I thought was Dom really happy with her?
I thought the conflict well done, giving me itches...
The tension builds slowly and steadily to reach a satisfying end.
Till the Way of the Worms!!!
May 14, 2019
In the best sense this book is an exercise in frustration, Carrying on the story begun in The Searching Dead but moving several years ahead when the protagonist is now an adult encountering the strange Christian Noble again. The threat, now largely aimed at his son, Dom cannot shake off the vexation of having no one believe him, least of all his wife. With more insight to the great overall peril, a deeper mystery dragging Dom and his family and his friends into an impossible darkness…I hope the third book in this trilogy has the payoff the series deserves.
October 17, 2021
The second entry in this trilogy was more engrossing than the first, maybe because it's from a parent's perspective looking to protect his kid. Despite the frequently frustrating dialogue -- I hate the way characters talk to each other in Campbell's books -- and sometimes overly dramatic actions/responses to things, I was really interested to see where this entry would take me. I especially enjoyed the final sequence in which we visit the sinking house. I am eager for book three to come my way.
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