The Three Births of Daoloth, Book 1
Synopsis:
On a school trip to France teenager Dominic Sheldrake begins to suspect his teacher Christian Noble has reasons to be there as secret as they’re strange. Meanwhile a widowed neighbour joins a church that puts you in touch with your dead relatives, who prove much harder to get rid of. As Dominic and his friends Roberta and Jim investigate, they can’t suspect how much larger and more terrible the link between these mysteries will become. A monstrous discovery beneath a church only hints at terrors that are poised to engulf the world as the trilogy brings us to the present day…
Edition:
E-ARC
Disclaimer:
I received a review copy of The Searching Dead from Net Galley in exchange for a review. As always, this does not in any way influence the content of my review.
Triggers:
- The n-word is used one time (it was not necessary to the story per se, but at least its historical [still awful; I’m definitely not excusing it] use was contextualized by the narrator)
Awards:
- Children of the Night Award for Best Novel, 2016 (original printing)
My Thoughts:
First things first, the Flame Tree Press edition of The Searching Dead is a reprint of an earlier edition put out by PS Publishing. That one has a very different cover, which I like much better. I mean, I like the sort of minimalist/mod/pulp fiction-type cover here (I know that’s a whole weird mashup, but I don’t know what to call it, exactly). But the original cover seems to suit the book better. Here, I’ll pop it in here, and you can judge for yourself:
Now tell me – which one of these more clearly says pastoral British cosmic horror to you? The updated cover isn’t bad. I mean, I actually like it a lot. But it doesn’t look like the cover of a cosmic horror book. It’s just one of those choices I won’t pretend to understand, you know?
But I digress (weird, I’m usually so focused). On to the contents of the book itself. This one is a bit of a doozy. Anyone who has been with me for a while probably knows that I’m really into a few kinds of horror in particular:
- slow burn
- cults
- cosmic horror
- pastoral horror
- creepy kids
- sacrilege
This one basically has it all. I mean I guess the cult angle is a little weak, but a cult can be one or two people, right? Right.
“Daoloth, which is the name of that which rends the veils men call reality.”
So, all of my Ramsey Campbell experiences thus far have been slow burn sort of British countryside-type horror novels (you can see another example here, where I reviewed 2020’s The Wise Friend). I’m really into that. To people who are accustomed to the more modern take on horror writing, you may find yourself frustrated at the pacing. But if you’re looking for something paced more like a gothic horror, you’d probably really dig Campbell’s work.
The man writes like he’s penning a gothic novel as well. It’s such a treat to read.
“That which my father roused beneath the field was within me before I was born, and what may have been reborn through him?”
The Searching Dead has a lot of story going on. It’s just shy of 300 pages, and the pacing feels fairly slow (in a good way; I hope I’ve established that), but somehow Campbell still manages to jam pack it with more story than seems possible. I mean, this is a very big story. You might say it is a story on a…cosmic scale.
I’m sorry. Terrible. That was terrible.
But all joking aside, The Searching Dead sets up the beginning of The Three Births of Daoloth trilogy. And it sets it up powerfully. Although the other two books (Born in the Dark and The Way of the Worm) have also previously been published by PS Publishing, they will likewise be reprinted by FTP. Born in the Dark is slated for release in September 2021, and The Way of the Worm arrives at some point after (no release date yet).
The main cast, Dom, Jim and Bobby are a lot of fun. Well, Jim is kind of a wet blanket, but Dom is a budding spec-fic author who writes books about himself and his friends (they’re the Tremendous Three), and Bobby is a budding free-thinking feminist which I absolutely adore. And Mr. Noble and his family are quite the troubling group.
About the Author:
Ramsey Campbell was born in Liverpool in 1946 and still lives on Merseyside. The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes him as “Britain’s most respected living horror writer”. He has been given more awards than any other writer in the field, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association, the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild and the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2015 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for outstanding services to literature. Among his novels are The Face That Must Die, Incarnate, Midnight Sun, The Count of Eleven, Silent Children, The Darkest Part of the Woods, The Overnight, Secret Story, The Grin of the Dark, Thieving Fear, Creatures of the Pool, The Seven Days of Cain, Ghosts Know, The Kind Folk, Think Yourself Lucky and Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach. Needing Ghosts, The Last Revelation of Gla’aki, The Pretence and The Booking are novellas.
His collections include Waking Nightmares, Alone with the Horrors, Ghosts and Grisly Things,Told by the Dead, Just Behind You and Holes for Faces, and his non-fiction is collected as Ramsey Campbell, Probably. Limericks of the Alarming and Phantasmal are what they sound like. His novels The Nameless and Pact of the Fathers have been filmed in Spain, where a film of The Influence is in production. He is the President of the Society of Fantastic Films.
(from the author’s page on Flame Tree Press)
Rating:
The Searching Dead By Ramsey Campbell The Three Births of Daoloth Flame Tree Press Published: February 16, 2021 Originally Published: 2016 by PS Publishing ISBN: 9781787585560 Paperback, Hardcover, E-book 256 Pages
