Customer Reviews

Dawning

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I love "end of civilization" novels, where a band of rag tag individuals from all walks of life come together and try to forge a new utopia of their own. So in picking up "The Dawning" with the statement on the back stating "where can you hide when the earth wants you dead?" I eagerly dived into it.

The premise is this, sometime in the future the US is taken over by crime and pollution and drugs and the busy cities that at one point seemed fortress like and safe are now ominous and crumbling. A Small group of people, who know each other through a friend of a friend of a friend, decide to pack up and leave and enter the wilderness to start a new life. We have a teacher, a pharmacist, a doctor a computer expert, an outdoorsman (who takes the leader role with gusto) a business woman, a student, a former model, and a farm girl, oh and a miniature greyhound named Rambi. The narrator is Don Neal the teacher, who is the only one without a woman to accompany him into the woods. We get the usual preparation, where everyone has to decide what to bring and leave, the sadness the apprehension, wondering just who you are about to go all "Littlehouse" with forever.

I had a hard time getting into the book in the beginning, mostly because we had nine people to meet and know right off. I didn't get a good handle on any one of them not even the main voice. From there we see them travel, and have some hiccups, and I was just waiting for something to happen, anything really, if this is a horror novel. Again I return to the "the earth wants you dead" statement, Ok where is the follow through? It read to me more like a story about some paranoid farm man who has leadership issues and everyone wants to overthrow him but cannot. Their car breaks down, Yawn, they meet some locals, Yawn, the narrator has amazing sex with a "homely waitress" triple Yawn. FINALLY they get to the stinking woods and we start getting mutants...A three eyed frog, which by itself is only scary if you are a jealous Cyclops. We get a kill by an unseen giant hawk which leaves a terrifying giant feather, a skeleton is found and it may or may not have been pushed by a bear or maybe possible murdered? Then we have a smelly but again unseen giant skunk that is possessive about its mushroom patch murder two people, another 3 eyed frog but this time it's gigantic and eats someone, throughout as these people are picked off they just stay where they are!

Ok, they just left a drug infested polluted city where they were maybe in fear of being shot or having eczema and they trade it for a forest full of invisible giant amphibians that kill, I think I would rather deal with the druggies and wear some sunscreen. They all soon figure out, that the leader they hate has been offending nature somehow and nature is biting back, he killed a frog he killed a hawk he shot at a skunk.....and nature is obviously blind so it killed everyone BUT the offender. He gets what is coming to him after he tinkles on the sand by their water source even after being told "we drink this water" and the sand swallows him up whole. Yep, that was the big scary horror ending to this book, the earth opened up like the cave of wonders from Aladdin and ate the bad guy who pee-peed on it.

What is left of the group lives happily ever after mating like bunnies and becoming vegetarian tree huggers for life, the end? What a stupid Politically Correct book! What was the point I ask you? Don't F with nature, don't pee in the sand, meat is murder, say no to drugs? I don't recommend The Dawning to anyone who has a brain, who enjoys real horror or who likes their steak rare.

I'm a great fan of appocalyptic fiction, but the story, characters, and writing falls into the same category as a lousy made for t.v. movie. The story is really about a small band of people under the supervision of a college professor and a drunken bigoted outdoorsman. Look at the outdoors man as a Archie Bunker on steroids. The small band leave the rat race behind with the threat that civilization is soon going to meet an impending doom from pollutions, mismanagement of government, and high crime. They sell off all their posessions and hike off to the Great White North of the Canadian wilderness. While stopping at different portages along the trail, the survivalist are picked off one at a time by some freak of nature, in the form of either a giant hawk, frog or skunk (I'm not making this up). I'm guessing that this is Hugh's first book, since the character developement was left somewhere on the back burner along with a decent plot. The situations where quite predictable, and by page 10 you figure out who in the group is going to be the "bad guy that gets it in the end". The thought of earth itself being the deadly antagonist was promising when mentioned on the back cover, but how the idea was handled within the book was very slipshod. Over all, the story the story stops short with a 2 page epilogue of what happens next. Like the author didn't really know how to end this abysmal story. My recommendation is to skip this clunker.

Who hasn't at least considered the possibility that our actions will one day destroy our planet? In THE DAWNING, prolific writer Hugh B. Cave takes us on a journey to a not-so-distant time when the earth has finally been ravaged by pollution, senseless violence and total disregard for nature. A small group of survivors decides to abandon the dangerous city and strike out for the north Canada wilderness. Equipping themselves with canoes, basic food staples, weapons and small tools, these 10 people start on a quest to find an unpolluted haven to live out the rest of their lives. What they don't anticipate is that nature has taken on a more active role in protecting her remaining resources. Each member of the group soon discovers that a desire for survival is not enough. Cuyler, the group's self-proclaimed woodsman, kills animals with abandon and treats everyone around him with disdain. He, too, soon discovers that his actions have dire consequences for himself and everyone else.

This is a sobering morality tale. The language is somewhat stilted; I'm not sure I know anyone who speaks like these characters. However, the story itself is haunting, and yet manages to provide a sense of hope for human survival. I was surprised at how quickly I became involved in the story, and how I rushed to reach the conclusion. Cave is an eloquent writer, and this latest is a great example of his ability to touch the very subjects most important to us.

The Dawning is not the typical horror novel at all. In fact, its a character study of sorts with spookiness thrown in. It tells the story of a world that is dying, where there is crime, drugs and pollution taking over. A group of people decide to leave their city life behind and start a new life in the wilderness. Only there's something waiting for them there.

I found that I liked the way he took all of these different characters and put them together. The way they interacted was realistic. Cuyler was definitely stereotypical but unfortunately, I have a couple of neighbors who could be his evil twin. There's plenty of adventure and a little romance thrown in all the while telling a story that could possibly come true someday. The concept of nature striking back is a rather interesting and thought-provoking one. It makes you take a look at the way humans treat the planet and reminds us that what we have been doing is not good for our earth.

This book won't appeal at all to people looking for traditional horror but can be enjoyed immensely if you have an open mind. I literally sat there for hours glued to this book and found myself almost wishing that I was there in this new fictional world at the end. I loved it!

This was my first novel by High Cave and it was a "decent" book. It had a different end of the world premise than most others, so I give it points for a unique storyline. However, it just didn't captivate me like most good horror novels.

The characters were fleshed out fairly well and the plot moved smoothly along, so I guess I could classify it as an interesting read, but not great.

Buy it but don't expect miracles. I don't want to come down too hard on the writer since he seems to have accomplished a lot with all the awards he has won. His novels on occult and witchcraft are much, much better.

Everyone's glowing review prompted me to purchase and read this novel, but I was quickly surprized by how stereotypical every character was portrayed, and at how badly written it all was.

Bed hopping, cheap twilight zone twist, even a "super-drug" that the majority of the population is now addicted to made this a silly R-rated Goosebumps knockoff.

Sorry, Mr. Cave, but this stink bomb cleared the room at my house.

In the future cities have become violent wastelands. A band of people decide to get together and seek out a life deep within the woods where they can start their own peaceful community kinda like "The Village". The downside is that nature decides to take revenge on whoever offends her by creating giant forms of the surrounding wildlife to attack and disappear. It was an interesting read that kept me turning the pages waiting for the next attack, but by the end I had a strong feeling of disappointment. I can ignore the overly preachy message and laughable inconsistencies as long as there are some good and frequent attacks. Unfortunately there's only one first-hand animal attack (two sequences are just aftermaths) and one by a patch of possessed sand. Its not really a horror book and not really a sci-fi book. it's a hokey human nature/survival drama with minimal elements of sci-fi and horror. Not absolutely horrible, but one to pass up.

This is the first book I've read by Mr. Cave. Even though it is predictible; I couldn't put it down. The writing is probably one of the most natural I have ever come across. Another for me is Nancy Kilpatrick's writing. The Dawning surprised me on how easy it was to read. I didn't find it boring or scary. But, it does make one think!

Well for starters, it's not really scary. But it does keep you on the edge. It's really intresting and it's a page-turner. Somehow you feel that it's real and that it's possible that someday, mother earth would get angry and try to get even with us. It's scary and this should let us think twice about the things we humans do to her.

In a bleak future where the environment has been destroyed by man's neglect, and half of the populace is addicted do a strange new drug called Hallelujah, a group of survivors lead by a college professor decide to hike into the mountains of Canada to start a new life. The problem? The earth seems to have decided that man is not fit to live, and has begun a campaign to wipe out humanity.

I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic fiction. This story moves along at a brisk pace and I really began to like most of the characters. I found Cave's vision for the future really intriguing.

The downside. There were elements of preachiness especially towards the end. Okay, okay, we get it, humanity needs to be more green, vegetarian and worship nature. Can we get back to the story now?

Also, the character of Eugene Kyler was quite a stereotype. The foreshadowing that this character is a bad seed was thicker than Tammy Faye Baker's makeup. It almost ruined the story for me, the author's constant dwelling on Kyler and his evil became monotonous diatribe that began to become irritating. Finally, I really was shocked at how TSTL (too stupid to live), most of the other characters were. If I knew I was going to live off the land in the mountains of Canada, I would be better prepared than they were...

Overall, an intriguing story, interesting characters and a somewhat heavy-handed PC message I would've toned down a bit.