Scott Weinberg

Thought it might be fun to have a thread in which the horror freaks share their favorite books with everyone. Skipping over the more obvious authors (King, Poe, Matheson, Lovecraft) I'd recommend:

The entire Necroscope series, by Brian Lumley. (Especially the "Vampire World" trilogy, which is a whole lot better if you start with the very first Necroscope book.)

Off Season, by Jack Ketchum. (How I discovered this author so late is an absolute mystery to me!)

Clive Barker's six books of short-story awesomeness: Books of Blood V1, 2 and 3, The Inhuman Condition, In the Flesh, and Cabal.

OK, one Stephen King book, but only because everyone seems to hate it but me: Gerald's Game. Probably his most underrated book. (Stupid trivia: My very favorite Stephen King novel is NOT horror! What is it?)

Robert McCammon's Stinger and Swan Song, the latter of which is a fairly blatant take on The Stand, but damn it's a good book anyway.

He's long since turned into a kook, but I used to read a Dean Koontz book in less than three hours. (And had fun while doing so.) The ones I liked best: Phantoms, Watchers, Shattered, Hideaway, and Intensity (I've read about a dozen others, but the guy has a real gift for generic titles, so they all kinda blur together. Suffice to say anything he wrote before 1997 is the horror fiction equivalent of a tasty Big Mac.)

I'm sure I've forgetten a few dozen for now....

Looking forward to some recommendations, but they'll have to wait until I've finished with 4 or 5 more Jack Ketchum books.

horroru

Hey Scott,
For Ketchum check out The Girl Next Door --that novel will stay with you forever... also Hide and Seek which is pretty damn creepy and his amazing short story collection Peaceable Kingdom.

Edward Lee is a favorite of mine, although he's not for the squeamish as he pushes the boundaries of horror as far as possible. Creakers or Coven would be great places to start.

Canadian Michael Slade's books are police procedural/horror. "His" (Slade is really author Jay Clarke and various partners including his daughter) first novel Headhunter is incredible, as are the follow ups Ghoul, Cutthroat and Ripper.

Brian Keene is really worth checking out, as his popularity is growing with each novel. Start with The Rising and it's sequel City of the Dead.

Other horror authors I love are Nancy Collins, Lucy Taylor, F. Paul Wilson, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (they write adventure too but there is always a dash of horror in all they write), and David Schow.

Hopefully there are a few new names there for you to try!

Scott Weinberg

Thanks. I've read some F. Paul Wilson and I did enjoy Preston/Child's The Relic, which I picked up cuz I dig the movie.

Gabriel2

(Stupid trivia: My very favorite Stephen King novel is NOT horror! What is it?)

Would that be "The Eyes of the Dragon"?

horroru

The Relic movie dropped the ball in so many ways, worst offense being it did not include one of the greatest modern fictional characters-- Agent Pendergast! This character steals the book, and yet they decide not to include him in the movie, makes no sense. Also the museum beast did not look anything like how it was decribed in the book. Thinking back Scott, what did you think of movie after comparing it with the book?

Check out the sequel Reliquary if you haven't already -- Cabinet of Curiosities and Still Life with Crows are also Preston/Child books that are more horror than adventure (and both star Agent Pendergast).

Scott Weinberg

Ding! Ding! Yep. I love it. I'd love to see someone make a movie out of it. But only someone good. Not Uwe Boll.

Scott Weinberg

I thought it was a lot like the movie: Simple, fun, diverting, pretty forgettable.

I'll add P&C's other novels to my "read, eventually!" list.

Lt Ripley

I'll second you on the Necroscope series. Great stuff. The only 2 of the 15 I didn't really like were the 2 "Lost Years" books. There is a Necroscope movie in development, but I am not too keen on the idea.

DeputyDave

I'm a huge fan of Anthology horror fiction. Two hardly ever mentioned titles are "Blue World" by Robert McCammon (like his novels it borrows heavily from Stephen King, not that it's a bad thing as his earlier anthologies are great) and "Book of the Dead" edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector (an anthology set in Romero's Zombie infested universe about how average people would deal with the dead walking the earth- it also includes pretty good Stephen King and Robert McCammon stories).
Someone here (Book Talk) mentioned a few Zombie survival type books that they said were pretty good, anyone know of them?

Alien Redrum

One of the most emotionally brutal novels I've ever read.

Scott Weinberg

Well, Off Season fuckin' blistered me. Can't remember the last paperback I read that quickly. I find it amusing that I bought that book at a massive chain store that won't carry unrated movies. Heh.

horroru

In my opinion Scott, you should move on to The Girl Next Door next. If Off Season "blistered" you, Girl will beat you mercilessly!

Girl provoked such a strong emotional reaction in me, probably more than any other book I've read. I wanted to jump in the damn book and save the characters! Ketchum (Dallas Mayr) based it on a true crime case, so that may be why it packs such a punch.

Gotta agree with Deputy Dave on Blue World and Books of the Dead, both excellent anthologies.

Trout

Would House of Leaves be considered horror?

I always loved anthology books. Easier to read with less time invested.

TheOne

Necroscope series are a great read! If they made an epic movie out of it with the special effects nowadays, it would be a kickass movie! (If done right)

And I agree with the older Dean Koontz's books. Favs are Phantoms, Lightning, Strangers, Night Chills and one more which I can't remember the title offhand. Dealt with voodoo.

One series that I've enjoyed is by Christoper Golden. First book in the series is called, Of Saints and Shadows. A whole different take on the vampire genre. Would love seeing that made into a mini series or TV show.

fryinpan1

The Many Faces of Van Helsing is a pretty good anthology. The Underworld books by Greg Cox are all great (especially Blood Enemy).

I have these, but have not had a chance to read them yet. They have good reviews on Amazon though:
Blood Thirst : 100 Years of Vampire Fiction
The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories

These have been on my wishlist for a few months, but I have to catch up on some previous books first:
The Dark Descent
Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural

JCWBobC

If you like Robert McCammon, he's one of my favorite authors, you have to check out "They Thirst". One of the best vampire books I have ever read.

I couldn't get into "Stinger" but "Swan Song" is excellent and much better than "The Stand" IMO.

Another great one by him is "Mystery Walk".

Scott Connors

Among modern writers you can't go wrong with Ramsey Campbell, especially NAZARETH HILL or THE DARKEST PART OF THE WOODS. Campbell is prolific, and unfortunately that all too often spells "uneven," but when he is "on," baby he is ON! Jeffrey Thomas's MONSTROCITY and EVERYBODY SCREAM! are extremely effective fusions of horror, science fiction, and noir. Thomas Ligotti's short stories are so evocative of the existential meaningless of life that they are almost unbearable, but they are probably the finest stories of their type since Lovecraft. Check out his collection THE SHADOW AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD.
Among older writers, besides the late great H. P. Lovecraft, M. R. James' ghost stories are without a doubt the finest examples of that form (see Penguin's COUNT MAGNUS AND OTHER GHOST STORIES, which includes "Casting the Runes," the basis of the classic film CURSE OF THE DEMON). (Incidentally, James was Provost of Eton College when Christopher Lee was a student there, and Lee heard James read his tales to the students.) The California author and poet Clark Ashton Smith also reached new heights both of evocatively weird beauty and gruesome horror in such stories as "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" and "The Dark Eidolon," both of which may be found in the University of Nebraska Press' reprint of OUT OF SPACE AND TIME. And I think that William Hope Hodgson's novel THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND is one of the most powerful weird novels ever written.
Readers who enjoy short horror fiction should check out the World Fantasy Award-winning WEIRD TALES magazine, which is published bimonthly by Wildside Press and may be found at Barnes and Noble B&M stores. (Incidentally, in the interests of total disclosure, I should mention that I write a book review column for them, and am also editing a five volume set of Clark Ashton Smith's stories.)
Hope that this is of some interest.
Scott