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Radiant Dawn
THE BEGINNING IS NEAR... From a ruined chemical weapons bunker in Iraq to a shallow grave in California's San Andreas Fault, the lines are drawn for a shadow war that will decide who, or what, will inherit the earth and reign as the next dominant species. The escalating conflict engulfs the lives of three born a broken veteran of the Gulf War; a fiercely independent young nurse dying of cancer; and a brilliant novice FBI agent. Plunged into an arena where the stakes are survival or extinction, each must choose a between a militia of rogue government scientists and an enigmatic messiah who holds the cure for death itself, and the key to a new form of life. Trapped in a genocidal war the government will do anything to conceal, where top-secret military technologies vie with the primal power of evolution unleashed, they will struggle to understand and stay alive...and stay human.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
16 people are currently reading
338 people want to read
About the author
Cody Goodfellow
162 books384 followersCODY GOODFELLOW has written nine novels and five collections, and has won three Wonderland Book Awards for Bizarro Fiction. He wrote, co-produced and scored the short Lovecraftian hygiene films Stay At Home Dad and Baby Got Bass, which have become viral sensations on YouTube. He has appeared in numerous short films, TV shows, music videos and commercials as research for his previous novel, Sleazeland. He also edits the hyperpulp zine Forbidden Futures. He “lives” in San Diego. Find out more at codygoodfellow.com.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 26, 2012
Like the man says, "the greatest fear of the religious is that God does not exist, and the greatest fear of the atheist is that 'he' DOES. But if God exists . . . it's not for you, you don't really want to meet him."
Life is the star of Radiant Dawn/Dusk -- life cannot be restrained or controlled on this planet, whether its the Elder Gods filtering and seething down from the stars, or the Old Ones conducting their ill fated experiments condemning them to degeneracy, or shoggoth survivors trying to imbibe and ingest the world, or the by-blow accidents that eventually evolved the opposeable thumb and reared up on their hind legs to arrogantly crown themselves lords and masters of a world they could never understand, lusting for stars in the firmament that will stare down just as blithely at our inevitable extinction.
Add to this Lovecraftian mix the internecine complexities of our monkey politics: a damaged PTSD veteran, a loner Latina with a chip on her shoulder and a tumor baby in her belly, and (my favorite) Mister Cundieffe -- despite being a twisted mutant freak, he's more 'US' than almost anyone else in the book.
Then the power groups, all vying for glory or at least for crumbs: Radiant Dawn, the Enclave, Washington & the military-industrial complex, the Mission . . . you need a player card in this story, and even then it's a gray area sometimes just who's doing what for why. Suffice to say this is NOT a story I'd want to have any kind of starring role in . . . but perhaps I already am, and don't know it.
I was sad when I reached and finished the last page of Dusk, the second volume. This story literally made me gasp a couple times in shock and awe. It's a magnificent achievement.
Read it.
Life is the star of Radiant Dawn/Dusk -- life cannot be restrained or controlled on this planet, whether its the Elder Gods filtering and seething down from the stars, or the Old Ones conducting their ill fated experiments condemning them to degeneracy, or shoggoth survivors trying to imbibe and ingest the world, or the by-blow accidents that eventually evolved the opposeable thumb and reared up on their hind legs to arrogantly crown themselves lords and masters of a world they could never understand, lusting for stars in the firmament that will stare down just as blithely at our inevitable extinction.
Add to this Lovecraftian mix the internecine complexities of our monkey politics: a damaged PTSD veteran, a loner Latina with a chip on her shoulder and a tumor baby in her belly, and (my favorite) Mister Cundieffe -- despite being a twisted mutant freak, he's more 'US' than almost anyone else in the book.
Then the power groups, all vying for glory or at least for crumbs: Radiant Dawn, the Enclave, Washington & the military-industrial complex, the Mission . . . you need a player card in this story, and even then it's a gray area sometimes just who's doing what for why. Suffice to say this is NOT a story I'd want to have any kind of starring role in . . . but perhaps I already am, and don't know it.
I was sad when I reached and finished the last page of Dusk, the second volume. This story literally made me gasp a couple times in shock and awe. It's a magnificent achievement.
Read it.
March 16, 2011
In The Shadow of Swords by Cody Goodfellow
Cody Goodfellow is my favorite writer from my generation of horror writers, I have written at length about his work. I decided to re-read his first trilogy of works the Radiant Dawn trilogy.
It starts with a Chapbook novella(44 pages) prequel called “In the Shadow of Swords.” This insanely detailed a researched novella is a barn burner. It is far more directly Lovecraftian than Radiant Dawn. It tells the story of A UN weapons detection team searching 1998 Iraq for banned weapons. The cool thing is Cody did such a great job with the setting, that if I didn’t know better I would assume he worked in Iraq at one time for the UN.
The story builds to the reveal of a hole in the earth like a bathtub drain that was plugged and holding in crazy-ness of a cosmic horror beyond our imagination. Not beyond Cody’s imagination thankfully. This has a very traditional horror reveal that manages to downright creepy. Super worth the $7 cover price.
Radiant Dawn by Cody Goodfellow
And then Radiant Dawn. This was Cody’s first novel and it was met with a firestorm of hyperbole on release. It is so strong of a first novel that many found it hard to believe. What I find hard to believe is that Cody was not bought out by a big mass market publisher but hey this novel is not only amazing but it is different, unique and probably to smart for New York publishers to understand or market.
Something I didn’t get the first time was the amazing subtext. You see Radiant Dawn is a monster novel sure, and while still fiction the monsters are in sense very real and already feared by millions in our society. How many of us can relate directly to fearing the monster that is Cancer. In this novel a cult wants to use Cancer to jumpstart the next phase of human evolution by using Cancer cells.
Radiant Dawn is Lovecraftian but not in a traditional YogSagothing way, Goodfellow re-invents the mythos in modern way. At the same time he creates a detailed universe populated by cool characters. Not the least of which is Spike Team Texas, a team of former special forces in a secret war is defend humanity. Cody Goodfellow has grown a lot as a writer since then. At times this book is wordy and over written compared to his current work.
That being said this is an amazing first novel, few writers have come out of the gates with such skill and strength. This was my second time and well worth a second spin.
Cody Goodfellow is my favorite writer from my generation of horror writers, I have written at length about his work. I decided to re-read his first trilogy of works the Radiant Dawn trilogy.
It starts with a Chapbook novella(44 pages) prequel called “In the Shadow of Swords.” This insanely detailed a researched novella is a barn burner. It is far more directly Lovecraftian than Radiant Dawn. It tells the story of A UN weapons detection team searching 1998 Iraq for banned weapons. The cool thing is Cody did such a great job with the setting, that if I didn’t know better I would assume he worked in Iraq at one time for the UN.
The story builds to the reveal of a hole in the earth like a bathtub drain that was plugged and holding in crazy-ness of a cosmic horror beyond our imagination. Not beyond Cody’s imagination thankfully. This has a very traditional horror reveal that manages to downright creepy. Super worth the $7 cover price.
Radiant Dawn by Cody Goodfellow
And then Radiant Dawn. This was Cody’s first novel and it was met with a firestorm of hyperbole on release. It is so strong of a first novel that many found it hard to believe. What I find hard to believe is that Cody was not bought out by a big mass market publisher but hey this novel is not only amazing but it is different, unique and probably to smart for New York publishers to understand or market.
Something I didn’t get the first time was the amazing subtext. You see Radiant Dawn is a monster novel sure, and while still fiction the monsters are in sense very real and already feared by millions in our society. How many of us can relate directly to fearing the monster that is Cancer. In this novel a cult wants to use Cancer to jumpstart the next phase of human evolution by using Cancer cells.
Radiant Dawn is Lovecraftian but not in a traditional YogSagothing way, Goodfellow re-invents the mythos in modern way. At the same time he creates a detailed universe populated by cool characters. Not the least of which is Spike Team Texas, a team of former special forces in a secret war is defend humanity. Cody Goodfellow has grown a lot as a writer since then. At times this book is wordy and over written compared to his current work.
That being said this is an amazing first novel, few writers have come out of the gates with such skill and strength. This was my second time and well worth a second spin.
April 19, 2012
Radiant Dawn is really only the first part of a two-book series, followed by its companion, Ravenous Dusk. The story mixes an apocalyptic, paranoid conspiracy thriller with military action, sci-fi and horror. As far as its weird quotient -- you couldn't ask for better -- once again mankind is threatened by forces that may be beyond its control, and the quest to wipe out the enemy to secure a human future on the planet may prove to be beyond mankind's capabilities. But the "good guys" aren't giving up. Starting "somewhere in the Tigris River Valley, Southern Iraq" in 1991 during Desert Storm, then quickly moving ahead in time to 1999 and California's Death Valley, Radiant Dawn tells the story of three people caught up in a bizarre fight where things are never what they seem.
Zane Ezekiel Storch was a Ranger in the army during Desert Storm, and after coming back home with a lot of damage he attributes to Gulf War Syndrome, he takes himself away to Death Valley. He lives there in Thermopylae, a haven of self-styled hermits who just want to be left alone. One July day he and a couple of his very odd friends are just hanging at the store when an RV pulls up, two tourists get out and the next thing he knows, there's a raid on the place by "black Kevlar-suited berserkers" wearing jackboots looking for a weapons cache. Storch knows nothing, but a call from his friend during the raid alerts him to the fact that "the future of our race is at stake" and that the weapons were there because he had "to do something " The second character is Stella Orozco, a Mexican-American ER nurse who blames everything on white people when things go wrong. She also has liver cancer with only another six months to live. She's on hand when a Life Flight chopper brings in a man who by all rights should be dead after losing a leg, a hand and having to wait some time for help to arrive, but who somehow manages to survive. He's also riddled with cancer. It isn't long until the patient is claimed by a Dr. Keogh of the Radiant Dawn Hospice Village. Stella goes out to find this place, awed at how strong the patient is considering his condition, and meets with Keogh to ask if she can stay at the village because she doesn't want to die. She's turned down, but Keogh insists there will be more Radiant Dawn hospices for her in the future. Finally, there's Special Agent Martin Cundieffe, a nerdy FBI agent who looks like the old actor Wally Cox, has no friends except "other geeks on the Internet," and lives with his parents. He's an admirer of J. Edgar, a by-the-book, bookwormy agent who is called to an emergency meeting in the Federal Building of Los Angeles after a security breach at the Naval Weapons Station at China Lake. It isn't long until he is moved up the ladder to take charge of a top secret operation that will ultimately become a life-changing event.
As it turns out, all three are forced to make choices that land them smack in the middle between a strange group of scientists operating out of an underground complex and even stranger forces whose leader has his own plans for the human race, a "foe before which governments, commandments and creeds are nohting but sticks and stones in the paws of dumb animals," ... the Test which humankind must pass to prove its right to exist." Who will win? Who is on who's side? Is the human race doomed? Who are the good guys, and are the bad guys really bad? These are all questions that, sadly, won't be answered in this book -- as the action picks up, as the conspiracy theories run wild, as the characters can't decide who they should trust, the ending comes slamming down to a wild crescendo, only "to be continued" in the next book, Ravenous Dusk. Crap. So I guess I'm not quite finished with Cody Goodfellow just yet.
Radiant Dawn is a fun read, one where the hackles go up on your neck while you're trying to decide where the conspiracies are, who you should trust, and what's going to happen next. There are strange cults, people who don't exist but really do, and nods here and there to HP Lovecraft. It's a very dynamic novel, never stalling in any one place, never getting dull for even a second. While it's very out there, which is a good thing in this kind of fiction, Goodfellow's plotting is solid and he keeps the reader on the edge throughout the book. But it's not all tense -- there's one scene, for example, where Cundieffe meets for lunch with the Assistant Director, which turns out to be egg-salad sandwiches and cookies from Cundieffe's mom, complete with a little note for her boy with lots of Xs and Os. It's a very wild ride, filled with a lot of action, but also highly satisfying for sci-fi and horror fans. But aarrghh!!!! Having to wait for the conclusion is maddening!
Zane Ezekiel Storch was a Ranger in the army during Desert Storm, and after coming back home with a lot of damage he attributes to Gulf War Syndrome, he takes himself away to Death Valley. He lives there in Thermopylae, a haven of self-styled hermits who just want to be left alone. One July day he and a couple of his very odd friends are just hanging at the store when an RV pulls up, two tourists get out and the next thing he knows, there's a raid on the place by "black Kevlar-suited berserkers" wearing jackboots looking for a weapons cache. Storch knows nothing, but a call from his friend during the raid alerts him to the fact that "the future of our race is at stake" and that the weapons were there because he had "to do something " The second character is Stella Orozco, a Mexican-American ER nurse who blames everything on white people when things go wrong. She also has liver cancer with only another six months to live. She's on hand when a Life Flight chopper brings in a man who by all rights should be dead after losing a leg, a hand and having to wait some time for help to arrive, but who somehow manages to survive. He's also riddled with cancer. It isn't long until the patient is claimed by a Dr. Keogh of the Radiant Dawn Hospice Village. Stella goes out to find this place, awed at how strong the patient is considering his condition, and meets with Keogh to ask if she can stay at the village because she doesn't want to die. She's turned down, but Keogh insists there will be more Radiant Dawn hospices for her in the future. Finally, there's Special Agent Martin Cundieffe, a nerdy FBI agent who looks like the old actor Wally Cox, has no friends except "other geeks on the Internet," and lives with his parents. He's an admirer of J. Edgar, a by-the-book, bookwormy agent who is called to an emergency meeting in the Federal Building of Los Angeles after a security breach at the Naval Weapons Station at China Lake. It isn't long until he is moved up the ladder to take charge of a top secret operation that will ultimately become a life-changing event.
As it turns out, all three are forced to make choices that land them smack in the middle between a strange group of scientists operating out of an underground complex and even stranger forces whose leader has his own plans for the human race, a "foe before which governments, commandments and creeds are nohting but sticks and stones in the paws of dumb animals," ... the Test which humankind must pass to prove its right to exist." Who will win? Who is on who's side? Is the human race doomed? Who are the good guys, and are the bad guys really bad? These are all questions that, sadly, won't be answered in this book -- as the action picks up, as the conspiracy theories run wild, as the characters can't decide who they should trust, the ending comes slamming down to a wild crescendo, only "to be continued" in the next book, Ravenous Dusk. Crap. So I guess I'm not quite finished with Cody Goodfellow just yet.
Radiant Dawn is a fun read, one where the hackles go up on your neck while you're trying to decide where the conspiracies are, who you should trust, and what's going to happen next. There are strange cults, people who don't exist but really do, and nods here and there to HP Lovecraft. It's a very dynamic novel, never stalling in any one place, never getting dull for even a second. While it's very out there, which is a good thing in this kind of fiction, Goodfellow's plotting is solid and he keeps the reader on the edge throughout the book. But it's not all tense -- there's one scene, for example, where Cundieffe meets for lunch with the Assistant Director, which turns out to be egg-salad sandwiches and cookies from Cundieffe's mom, complete with a little note for her boy with lots of Xs and Os. It's a very wild ride, filled with a lot of action, but also highly satisfying for sci-fi and horror fans. But aarrghh!!!! Having to wait for the conclusion is maddening!
July 8, 2008
When I met Cody Goodfellow at a local Science Fiction convention, I had him sign my recently purchased copy of Radiant Dawn. He wrote on the front page, "Cancer = Evolution." The novel definitely plays that thought out very well.
There is much more going on than a simple evolutionary tale, many different stories are played out, revealing bits of information that helps sustain the suspense and keeps the reader continuing on, wanting more. I enjoyed how the different organizations intertwine and compete with one another in their unique way.
I found a couple of times I would become lost in the narrative as scenes moved quickly, and Highway 101 turned into Interstate 280 in the San Franscisco Bay Area. However, the issues were minor in comparison with the larger story. A story that is not complete and has many unanswered questions. The reason why Ravenous Dusk was written to complete the story - a book I am currently reading.
If you like suspense, horror or science fiction, not to mention a good military thriller, I would definitely recommend taking a look at this book.
There is much more going on than a simple evolutionary tale, many different stories are played out, revealing bits of information that helps sustain the suspense and keeps the reader continuing on, wanting more. I enjoyed how the different organizations intertwine and compete with one another in their unique way.
I found a couple of times I would become lost in the narrative as scenes moved quickly, and Highway 101 turned into Interstate 280 in the San Franscisco Bay Area. However, the issues were minor in comparison with the larger story. A story that is not complete and has many unanswered questions. The reason why Ravenous Dusk was written to complete the story - a book I am currently reading.
If you like suspense, horror or science fiction, not to mention a good military thriller, I would definitely recommend taking a look at this book.
July 3, 2012
Lock up the house, bring in the dogs, go check the windows you won't be sleeping tonight because you must read this book.
Dark and thrilling, oozing with drama and I love that he made the female Stella a believable tough chick.
The writing is excellent.
Dark and thrilling, oozing with drama and I love that he made the female Stella a believable tough chick.
The writing is excellent.
January 7, 2023
It's Delta Green, the novel. Also Prototype, the novel.
I cannot in good consience call Radiant Dawn a good book - it takes ages to get going, the plot is a bit of a see-saw - but I cannot but admire the shameless conspiracy weirdness and gross all-out splatter horror of it. It's trash, but it's my kind of trash; I only wish the book had had tighter editing.
I cannot in good consience call Radiant Dawn a good book - it takes ages to get going, the plot is a bit of a see-saw - but I cannot but admire the shameless conspiracy weirdness and gross all-out splatter horror of it. It's trash, but it's my kind of trash; I only wish the book had had tighter editing.
April 28, 2018
Radiant Dawn is a mash-up of several styles - weird (as in Lovecraftian without borrowing directly from Lovecraft), military thriller and police procedural. The beauty of this is that it manages to walk on the edge of all these without turning into a total mess. The aspects actually balance out. I'm not really a fan of military thrillers or police procedural literature, but bouncing between them kept me interested. When there was too much police procedural, we'd cut to the military part, which was that much more exciting because we'd just been sitting in an office. It also means, that while the novel is well researched, it doesn't get bogged down in minutia and I didn't have to sift through a bunch of details about guns that I just... don't.. care about.
Another strength is Goodfellow's ability to have certain sentences just hit you in the face like a brick. There were several times in this book when I was reading along and a sentence seemed deliberately calculated to stop me in my tracks. Once or twice I actually gave a physical little jump.
Now, for my taste, the end dragged a little. There was a point where I could tell the decision had been made to write another book so things were not going to resolve in this one. That made the last act a little more work to get through. Also, there's not a lot done with the "enemy" in this book and I wanted to see them in play more.
But if you like your books multi-layered, this is a good one. You've got a police procedural to keep you mentally engaged, military action for excitement, and the nagging questions about the nature of the universe that pop up at the back of your head when you read a well written Weird novel.
Another strength is Goodfellow's ability to have certain sentences just hit you in the face like a brick. There were several times in this book when I was reading along and a sentence seemed deliberately calculated to stop me in my tracks. Once or twice I actually gave a physical little jump.
Now, for my taste, the end dragged a little. There was a point where I could tell the decision had been made to write another book so things were not going to resolve in this one. That made the last act a little more work to get through. Also, there's not a lot done with the "enemy" in this book and I wanted to see them in play more.
But if you like your books multi-layered, this is a good one. You've got a police procedural to keep you mentally engaged, military action for excitement, and the nagging questions about the nature of the universe that pop up at the back of your head when you read a well written Weird novel.
February 18, 2015
After a brilliantly written beginning, I was disappointed to find the rest of this horror/technothriller mashup lose its way in too many plot beats. The quality of the writing also takes quite a hit, not sure what happened there. Some fireworks at the end, but I will proceed cautiously with the sequel.
December 6, 2013
An exciting, breakneck race through conspiracies and genetic mutations. The book has baffling mysteries, fun action sequences and horrid monsters. The climax was exhilarating and scary. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.
September 29, 2020
A perfect Lovecraftian tale set in modern times.
August 31, 2022
Very much enjoyed this, but am going to hold off reviewing it until I read Ravenous Dusk. Not saying it's unsatisfying on its own, but it really sets itself up for a sequel.
August 22, 2023
Kind of like a more lyrical Palahniuk. Or maybe a more gory Neal Stephenson. Good enough to grab the second one.
July 11, 2011
Fun stuff.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews