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The Dawning
In a world where crime, drugs, and pollution have made the world uninhabitable, a small band of survivors heads off to the wilderness of northern Canada to make a new start, but the forces of nature are anything but welcoming.
359 pages, Paperback
First published July 17, 2000
3 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Hugh B. Cave
248 books34 followersHugh Barnett Cave was a prolific writer of pulp fiction who also excelled in other genres.
Sources differ as to when Cave sold his first story: some say it was while he still attended Brookline High School, others cite "Island Ordeal", written at age 19 in 1929 while still working for the vanity press.
In his early career he contributed to such pulp magazines as Astounding, Black Mask, and Weird Tales. By his own estimate, in the 1930s alone, he published roughly 800 short stories in nearly 100 periodicals under a number of pseudonyms. Of particular interest during this time was his series featuring an independent gentleman of courageous action and questionable morals called simply The Eel. These adventures appeared in the late 1930s and early 40s under the pen name Justin Case. Cave was also one of the most successful contributors to the weird menace or "shudder pulps" of the 1930s.
In 1943, drawing on his experience as a war reporter, he authored one of his most highly regarded novels, Long Were the Nights, telling of the first PT boats at Guadalcanal. He also wrote a number of other books on the war in the Pacific during this period.
During his post-war sojourn in Haiti, he became so familiar with the religion of Voodoo that he published Haiti: High Road to Adventure, a nonfiction work critically acclaimed as the "best report on voodoo in English." His Caribbean experiences led to his best-selling Voodoo-themed novel, The Cross On The Drum (1959), an interracial story in which a white Christian missionary falls in love with a black Voodoo priest's sister.
During this midpoint in his career Cave advanced his writing to the "slick" magazines, including Collier's, Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and the Saturday Evening Post. It was in this latter publication, in 1959, that "The Mission," his most popular short story, appeared—subsequently issued in hardcover by Doubleday, reprinted in textbooks, and translated into a number of languages.
But his career took a dip in the early 1970s. According to The Guardian, with the golden era of pulp fiction now in the past, Cave's "only regular market was writing romance for women's magazines." He was rediscovered, however, by Karl Edward Wagner, who published Murgunstrumm and Others, a horror story collection that won Cave the 1978 World Fantasy Award. Other collections followed and Cave also published new horror fiction.
His later career included the publication in the late 1970s and early 1980s of four successful fantasy novels: Legion of the Dead (1979), The Nebulon Horror (1980), The Evil (1981), and Shades of Evil (1982). Two other notable late works are Lucifer's Eye (1991) and The Mountains of Madness (2004). Moreover, Cave took naturally to the Internet, championing the e-book to such an extent that electronic versions of his stories can readily be purchased online.
Over his entire career he wrote more than 1,000 short stories in nearly all genres (though he is best remembered for his horror and crime pieces), approximately forty novels, and a notable body of nonfiction. He received the Phoenix Award as well as lifetime achievement awards from the International Horror Guild, the Horror Writers Association, and the World Fantasy Convention. (From Wikipedia.)
Used the pseudonyms John Starr and Justin Case
Sources differ as to when Cave sold his first story: some say it was while he still attended Brookline High School, others cite "Island Ordeal", written at age 19 in 1929 while still working for the vanity press.
In his early career he contributed to such pulp magazines as Astounding, Black Mask, and Weird Tales. By his own estimate, in the 1930s alone, he published roughly 800 short stories in nearly 100 periodicals under a number of pseudonyms. Of particular interest during this time was his series featuring an independent gentleman of courageous action and questionable morals called simply The Eel. These adventures appeared in the late 1930s and early 40s under the pen name Justin Case. Cave was also one of the most successful contributors to the weird menace or "shudder pulps" of the 1930s.
In 1943, drawing on his experience as a war reporter, he authored one of his most highly regarded novels, Long Were the Nights, telling of the first PT boats at Guadalcanal. He also wrote a number of other books on the war in the Pacific during this period.
During his post-war sojourn in Haiti, he became so familiar with the religion of Voodoo that he published Haiti: High Road to Adventure, a nonfiction work critically acclaimed as the "best report on voodoo in English." His Caribbean experiences led to his best-selling Voodoo-themed novel, The Cross On The Drum (1959), an interracial story in which a white Christian missionary falls in love with a black Voodoo priest's sister.
During this midpoint in his career Cave advanced his writing to the "slick" magazines, including Collier's, Family Circle, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, and the Saturday Evening Post. It was in this latter publication, in 1959, that "The Mission," his most popular short story, appeared—subsequently issued in hardcover by Doubleday, reprinted in textbooks, and translated into a number of languages.
But his career took a dip in the early 1970s. According to The Guardian, with the golden era of pulp fiction now in the past, Cave's "only regular market was writing romance for women's magazines." He was rediscovered, however, by Karl Edward Wagner, who published Murgunstrumm and Others, a horror story collection that won Cave the 1978 World Fantasy Award. Other collections followed and Cave also published new horror fiction.
His later career included the publication in the late 1970s and early 1980s of four successful fantasy novels: Legion of the Dead (1979), The Nebulon Horror (1980), The Evil (1981), and Shades of Evil (1982). Two other notable late works are Lucifer's Eye (1991) and The Mountains of Madness (2004). Moreover, Cave took naturally to the Internet, championing the e-book to such an extent that electronic versions of his stories can readily be purchased online.
Over his entire career he wrote more than 1,000 short stories in nearly all genres (though he is best remembered for his horror and crime pieces), approximately forty novels, and a notable body of nonfiction. He received the Phoenix Award as well as lifetime achievement awards from the International Horror Guild, the Horror Writers Association, and the World Fantasy Convention. (From Wikipedia.)
Used the pseudonyms John Starr and Justin Case
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 26, 2018
Cave was one of the great early pulp writers whose career spanned over seven decades. He was best known for his horror stories, and though The Dawning was published as a horror novel it isn't a typical work of the genre at the time, but more of a dark fantasy/cautionary tale with science-fictional post-apocalyptic overtones. It's a very good character study of a group of people who set off from a decaying city to try to found a new society and survive in the Canadian wilderness. It's an enjoyable read, and perhaps even more timely now than when it first appeared.
July 16, 2013
Cave was such an expert of Carribean culture that it was surprising to read a book of his where those themes weren't an aspect of the story. Instead in The Dawning the readers get an apocalyptic survival story where Nature herself is a force to be feared and really can you blame her, after all that humans have put her through. The book was a quick (as seems to be the case with all of Cave's work due to his fast pacing and very accessible writing style) and entertaining (particularly for postapocalyptic fiction fans) read. The main problems here were the flat two dimensional characters and possibly some chauvinistic attitudes. The latter just made it feel sort of dated, which makes sense considering it was written by an elderly writer, a man from a different generation, so the book ended up having a classic (as in old not so much as in universally beloved and recognized as superb) vibe, of sorts. Anyway, despite that, the book's moral was very current and on the money and even without the added value of character development this was a pretty fun read.
September 9, 2013
Although published as part of the Leisure Horror line, not sure if it really qualifies as horror. Like the postapocalyptic world he set up but feel like the premise could have been developed a little further. Feels like a sequel - the development of the "end of civilization" as he developed it would be a fascinating "prequel" to this story.
April 15, 2012
Overall good book... People dealing with the end of the world, and Nature is taking revenge... Not a new premise, but quick , fun read...
November 18, 2019
The best book ever written where a woman is killed off by being eaten alive by a giant, three-eyed toad.
December 3, 2015
Dawning is my first Hugh B Cave book, and it has some great elements to it, but never really came together for me, and the "horror" for lack of a better term seemed almost like an afterthought, peppered in for effect. I liked his style and will read more, but may go directly towards his Haiti and voodoo themed books.
July 22, 2011
Pretty good book. There wasn't a ton of action but it was enjoyable in a different sort of way. Would have liked more information as to what led up to the situation these characters were in. This book almost felt like a sequel (maybe it was?).
Read
September 27, 2007not too exciting
July 5, 2013
Good Book
October 25, 2019
Not a bad read.
Had the big "twist" figured out well before the end.
Had the big "twist" figured out well before the end.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews