Before I Wake

David Morrell

Jun 2019 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Cassandra Campbell and Danny Campbell

About this audiobook

Before I Wake is David Morrell's third short-story collection and his first since the 2004 publication of Nightscape. It's been a long wait between these volumes, but the wait has now ended in spectacular fashion.



Morrell, of course, has long been an acknowledged master of the authentic, edge-of-your-seat action thriller, and that aspect of his talent is on full display in such stories as "My Name Is Legion" and "The Interrogator." But there are other types of stories here as well. Some, such as "Time Was" and "The Companions," reflect the early influence of such seminal writers as Rod Serling and Ray Bradbury. An assortment of literary figures, among them J. D. Salinger ("The Architecture of Snow"), Arthur Conan Doyle ("The Spiritualist"), and Laura Ingalls Wilder ("They") make vivid, often surprising appearances in this volume.



Before I Wake is a thriller fan's dream, a rich, resonant collection that reminds us, once again, of its author's enduring and unmistakable importance. This is popular fiction as it should be written. It doesn't get better than this.



Note: Due to licensing conflicts, the stories "The Abelard Sanction" and "The Opium-Eater" do not appear in this audio recording.

About the author

David Morrell, an award-winning Canadian writer of horror fiction, was born in 1943 in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He was educated at the University of Waterloo and earned his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. Morrell is best known as the creator of John Rambo, the hero of his first novel, First Blood. The novel was adapted for screen and starred Sylvester Stallone. Although Morrell was not happy with the depiction of the Rambo character in the movie, he did write several sequels to First Blood and two further scripts for the sequels to the original movie. He also wrote a number of other books including The Brotherhood of the Rose which became a best seller in 1984. David Morrell has written one scholarly work, John Barth: An Introduction, published by Pennsylvania State University in 1977 and has taught at the University of Iowa. He now lives in the United States with his wife and daughter (another child, a son, is deceased). Actress and director Cassandra Campbell has narrated nearly two hundred audiobooks and has received multiple Audie Awards and more than twenty AudioFile Earphones Awards, including for Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman. A classically trained actor, director, and teacher with many regional Shakespeare plays to his credit, Danny Campbell has narrated over 150 titles and directed at least that many. He is a multiple AudioFile Earphones Award winner and was named one of AudioFile's Best of the Year 2017.