The Incubations, by Ramsey Campbell
10 Jan 2025The Book
Synopsis:
When a weight landed on his legs he raised his head from the violently crumpled pillow. The bed already had another occupant, and as Leo flung the quilt back so that it wouldn’t hinder his escape the creature scurried up his body to squat on his chest, clutching him with all its limbs like half a spider…
The English town of Settlesham was twinned with Alphafen in Germany soon after the Second World War. During the war both towns were bombed, even though Alphafen seemed to have no strategic significance. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the postwar reconciliation, pupils at the local schools were set to correspond with their opposite numbers. Leo Parker has been in touch with Hanna Weber ever since but has never previously visited her. As an adult he’s welcomed in Alphafen, but his stay seems idyllic despite the odd incident—a local who blames him for a hostile letter a schoolmate of Leo’s sent, a glimpse of an uncanny figure on an Alpine walk, a flapping intruder that seems to embody Hanna’s night fears, an encounter in a mountain restaurant with an English tourist who turns out to be there for his own disturbing reasons.
It’s only after Leo leaves the town that the nightmares an airport turns into a labyrinth, his own words become treacherous if not lethal, a family meal grows unnaturally active, and what are those creatures that have appeared in the photographs he took? The man he met in the mountain restaurant hasn’t finished with him, and he has to deal with the town councillor who sent the warlike letter when they were teenage classmates. A local police inspector has reason to suspect his actions, even though the policeman is a friend of Leo’s parents. Even the therapy Leo undertakes becomes a source of menace. In his bid to cement international relations, Leo may have roused the source of an ancient Alpine legend and brought a supernatural infection home with him. Even once he understands what has travelled with him, his attempts to overcome its influence may lead into greater nightmares still…
My Review
The Incubations is a thriller horror novel, written by Ramsey Campbell, published by Flame Tree Press. A novel that excels at playing with classic horror tropes, slowly building the tension, with the threat growing in the background while apparently nothing is happening, blending the lines between reality and nightmares.
Our main character, Leo, worked as driving instructor until he had an incident with a student; after that, he feels unable to drive and teach, something that hurts his family business. As he needs to disconnect, he decides to accept the opportunity given by his penpal Hanna, who invites him to visit her on Alphahen, the German town that is sister to Leo's; despite a lovely time, after Leo returns, he finds that those around him are experiencing their own kind of strange affection, with him realizing that something was brought with him from Alphahen. If he doesn't stop it, more people will suffer.
It is interesting how this novel's plot is tied to Leo's journey, how he starts simply struggling, but slowly evolves into something bigger; a character that you can tell is genuinely a good person, and that only wants to alleviate the suffering of those near to him. In comparison, Hanna and her family are a bit more complex, especially because there's more behind their facade; they seem to be good people, but we can see how they are focused on getting vengeance, not caring of who they will damage.
The setting plays with the post-war relationship between England and Germany, exploring the mysticism around the German city, and playing with that frontier between reality and nightmares, that slowly crawls into the story. The pacing is relatively slow, but in this case, it plays in favour of the story, as it complements that quiet horror idea that Campbell is leaning in this novel.
The Incubations is an excellent horror novel, that I especially recommend to read if you like that kind of horror that slowly enters into you, that prefers to build instead of the jumpscares. A memorable novel by a master of the genre.
The Author/s
Ramsey Campbell
Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awards. Three of his novels have been adapted into films.