Read by Dawn: Volume 1

by Ramsey Campbell (Introduction/Contributor), David McGillveray, Jeff Jacobson

Read By Dawn: Volume One was launched in the UK at the 13th annual Dead by Dawn horror film festival in Edinburgh in April 2006. The volume contains fifteen stunning new stories from British and American horror writers, representing the best in contemporary horror writing. 'Dead by Dawn' is a member of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation and closely aligned with the annual Los Angeles and Montreal horror film festivals. The Read by Dawn annual collections will be marketed via horror film networks all over the world, and are set to become the new standards in contemporary horror fiction.

Read By Dawn is the first in an annual international series of contemporary horror writing from new and established authors. The series is curated by Adele Hartley, the influential Festival Director of 'Dead by Dawn', Scotland's International Horror Film Festival. Internationally acclaimed horror author Ramsey Campbell hosts Volume One with an introductory and closing piece, and provides a hugely atmospheric story, "A Place of Revelation."

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories

251 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2006

About the author

Ramsey 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."

Reviews

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection of short stories, some of them refreshingly short, and most of them from writers new to me (only Campbell, Tidhar, and Probert are immediately familiar). Even better, almost all of the stories feature set-up, build-up and pay-off - and a few of them have twists, as horror stories should; higher profile anthologies with a line-up of more established authors could learn a lot from this book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

for the most part an excellent horror collection collected by British horror author Ramsey Campbell. While I have never read anything by Campbell, I am impressed with the selection but I admit that I skipped over the introduction due to its plodding and uninteresting waltz through the collection. I was, also, disappointed by the fact that there was no information included about the authors of each story. I suppose in the age of the internet and instantaneous information, such addendum seems unnecessary, I still enjoy it and would have benefited from at least a few lines about where the authors were from and what they have worked on.

Stand out stories include Rayne Hall's THE BRIDGE CHAMBER which deals with claustrophobia, bullying, and sibling cruelty all to grisly effect. Justin Madison's POPEE twists the undead genre on its head by adding a bit of humor and a touch of reality. Joe L Murr's FINAL GIRL which traps the narrator in a Friday the 13th style haunting which can only be undone with the promise of an unwanted birth. David Turnbulll's THE WOMAN WHO COUGHS UP FLIES where the co-dependent grandmommy of a drug addict exacts her final revenge. Chet Gottfried's BODY HUNT that adds a great wrinkle to the dilemma of the last minute school assignment being completed by parents.

There are a couple of offensively poor poems and at least one story - R.R. Moore's THE LITTLE GIRL IN THE WOODS that was so poorly drawn as to actually collapse under its own ambition. Then there is the completely unreadable THE BLOOM OF DECAY by Patricia MacCormack. The story is pretentious and stupid. I actually stopped reading it because it was a stinking pile of language used against itself, complete incoherence.

[Arthur B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat of a mixed bag, with material often more influenced by then-current fads in cinematic horror than in literary horror. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/200...

[Dark Recesses]

READ BY DAWN: Volume 1

Edited by Adele Hartley
(Hosted by Ramsey Campbell)
Bloody Books
$16.95

This has been a great year for anthologies. First we go Lee and Wilbanks' knock out collection, "Damned Nation", and then Skipp's long awaited zombie anthology, "Mondo Zombie", and now from Bloody Books we have READ BY DAWN. Put together by Adele Hartley, Director of "Dead By Dawn", Scotland's International Horror Film Festival, the anthology showcases writers from around the world, including Finland, America, Scotland, Canada, and Australia. If there is an international language for horror, this anthology is it. Among the 30 stories within, I consider only a few to fall into the mediocre category, most go straight to my favorite short stories of the year list. If this collection doesn't sweep the International Horror Guild and the Stokers awards next year, and get some respectable page space in Ellen Datlow's "Year's Best Fantasy and Horror", there is no justice.
Some of my particular favorites- I mean the ones that downright made me gasp aloud or shiver while reading them- were "Bloodwalker" by Michelle Lee, an alternative universe tale of practical evil, "The Face in the Glass" by Brian G. Ross, and Rayne Hall's "The Bridge Chamber" (take that, The Descent). I'd also like to call attention to Samuel Minier's "Stuck" as a particularly well-written piece, subtle and heart wrenching, even to the bloody end. And I liked the way Lavie Tidhar takes the Alice In Wonderland theme across the world and plops it into war torn Germany in "Eine Kleine Nachmusik (1943)". But I think if I had to choose a favorite it would be "The Kylesku Trow" by Stefan Pearson; the tale's last riddle will haunt me for many years to come.
Bloody Books knows how to package. The austere red, white, black and gray cover draws you in, and the font is easy reading despite the size of the slim volume. I have only one complaint with the book's construction: There are no author names listed with the tales themselves, neither in the Table of Contents or the traditional top of the page of each story. If one needs to find the author, one must either go back to the first page of the story, or scan the tiny print of the copyright page. But this is such a small thing compared to the fine stories this volume gives us. My hope is that subsequent volumes will fix this issue. But in the professional hands of the editor, I think the next volume will be even more engrossing and bring to light some of the new names in horror. And the U.K.'s most respected living horror author, Ramsey Campbell, must think they've got what it takes to become something quite special, as he adds a touching story of his own to the collection and provides a wrap around piece as well. "The Place of Revelations" seems to be his nod to the new voices in the genre and is, as usual, brilliantly written work from a master of the craft.
In the absence of so many beloved ongoing anthology series, this is one to keep your eyes on in the future to give you the well-written, exciting horror fix you need.

--Nickolas Cook

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ramsey has quite a collection here, 29 pieces in all. The one that sticks in my mind the most is The Seventh Green at Lost Lakes by Scott Brendel. These are all good stories that merit rereads at some point...

[Peter Rowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

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