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Author Topic: Looking for horror authors  (Read 7000 times)
Joe the Destroyer
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« on: October 19, 2009, 02:54:52 PM »

I write a lot of horror, and I need to branch out from the several handful of authors I read.  I'm always up for pleasant discoveries, but I seem to have a hard time finding new ones to enjoy. 

Thus far, I've discovered:

HP Lovecraft, Stephen King, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allen Poe, Dean Koontz, Bentley Little, Jack Ketchum, Peter Straub, William Schoell, Jeff Rovin, Kathe Koja, Clive Barker, and Brian Keene. (Although what I have read from Rovin, Schoell, and Koja has been less than satisfactory so far).

I'm not necessarily looking for the very top, just other authors.  Anyone know of any good ones?
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« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2009, 02:56:14 PM »

James Herbert
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« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2009, 03:03:41 PM »

John Shirley is really good.

I have one of his short story collections titled "Black Butterflies" and it's totally sick and twisted.   Thumbup
It won the Bram Stoker Award.



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« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2009, 08:48:57 PM »

Brian Lumley's original NECROSCOPE series was awesome, although he has kinda sequelled it to death by now.  Very kick-A vampires . . . not a buncha whiny soap opera stars like Anne Rice's undead.
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« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2009, 05:52:02 AM »

For a slightly different direction, I'd suggest Michael Slade. He's more psycho thriller than horror, but his human monsters and their activities are pretty horrifying, and fascinating at the same time. He (actually a writing team) has written over a dozen books in the last 25 years or so, of which I've read about half so far. The guy primarily responsible for the books, Jay Clarke, is a criminal lawyer with a lot of experience representing the criminally insane. I'd say the best comparison for these books is Stephen King meets Thomas Harris meets Dan Brown in Canada, but even that doesn't quite capture it.
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« Reply #5 on: October 20, 2009, 08:10:56 AM »

Also, don't dismiss authors who mainly write other genres but who have written horror novels.

Piers Anthony's Firefly is nicely spooky. Be warned, however that it is an "erotic" horror story, and it gets fairly graphic.
James P. Blaylock's The Rainy Season is an excellent ghost story from an author that is otherwise hit-or-miss for me. Winter Tides is another good one by the same author.

Then there are authors who mix genres, such as P.N. Elrod, who mixes vampires with hard-boiled detectives in The Vampire Files series, or the (possibly) over-popular Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris, who mixes mysteries and vampires, werewolves, etc.
Diana Wynne Jones has written a couple of genre-bending horror novels as well: The Time of the Ghost and Hexwood.

I'll try to list others as they come to mind.
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« Reply #6 on: October 20, 2009, 08:57:03 AM »



I'm surprised no one's mentioned Richard Matheson yet. R.M. is THE MAN!!!


You might also want to give a look to John Skipp or Del James. Edward Lee is good too, especially if you enjoyed what you read of Ketchum. Speaking of which, if you haven't read Ketchum's The Girl Next Door yet, you really must. DON'T see the movie unless you've read the book first.

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« Reply #7 on: October 20, 2009, 10:00:25 PM »

Also, don't dismiss authors who mainly write other genres but who have written horror novels.

Piers Anthony's Firefly is nicely spooky. Be warned, however that it is an "erotic" horror story, and it gets fairly graphic.
James P. Blaylock's The Rainy Season is an excellent ghost story from an author that is otherwise hit-or-miss for me. Winter Tides is another good one by the same author.

Then there are authors who mix genres, such as P.N. Elrod, who mixes vampires with hard-boiled detectives in The Vampire Files series, or the (possibly) over-popular Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris, who mixes mysteries and vampires, werewolves, etc.
Diana Wynne Jones has written a couple of genre-bending horror novels as well: The Time of the Ghost and Hexwood.

I'll try to list others as they come to mind.

FIREFLY was just sick.  I have no interest in a novel that features an explicit sexual encounter between a grown man and a five year old!  I threw the book away and took a long shower and still felt dirty when I was done.
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« Reply #8 on: October 20, 2009, 10:34:45 PM »


FIREFLY was just sick.  I have no interest in a novel that features an explicit sexual encounter between a grown man and a five year old!  I threw the book away and took a long shower and still felt dirty when I was done.

It's been a long time since I read it, and I must have blocked that part out. I remember thinking it was too graphic, but that's all I really remember about it. As much as I like a lot of Anthony's work (mostly the Xanth novels), he struck me as a sad example of humanity in a lot of ways, so I'll defer to indy's opinion here.
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« Reply #9 on: October 20, 2009, 11:46:05 PM »

Some of my favorites include:

Edward Lee
Sarah Pinborough
Richard Laymon
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« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2009, 02:29:34 AM »


FIREFLY was just sick.  I have no interest in a novel that features an explicit sexual encounter between a grown man and a five year old!  I threw the book away and took a long shower and still felt dirty when I was done.

It's been a long time since I read it, and I must have blocked that part out. I remember thinking it was too graphic, but that's all I really remember about it. As much as I like a lot of Anthony's work (mostly the Xanth novels), he struck me as a sad example of humanity in a lot of ways, so I'll defer to indy's opinion here.

I agree as well.  Piers Anthony has some good books, but Firefly isn't one of them. 

One horror book I enjoyed was The Keep.  F. Paul Wilson writes good action scenes and good horror.  I suggest both The Keep and the Repairman Jack series, which seems to vary from horror to supernatural mystery/action.
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« Reply #11 on: October 21, 2009, 07:15:24 AM »

FIREFLY was just sick.  I have no interest in a novel that features an explicit sexual encounter between a grown man and a five year old!

Repeated, explicit sexual encounters.  Consensual, no less.  And the child seduced the man!

Firefly is ... interesting, but it is not a good book by any means.  And not just because it includes sex with a seductive five year old.  It's just a s**tty book, man.

"Oh, my god.  The monster is crawling up my ass!  But it feels kinda good ... I'll leave it for a second, then pull it out and kill it."
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« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2009, 12:31:34 PM »

Here are some of my favorites

HP Lovecraft
Richard Matheson
Clive Barker
John Skipp & Craig Specter
Robert R. McCammon
Brian Lumley
Dan Simmons
Tanith Lee
Frank Herbert

a lot of these suthors also do sci-fi/fantasy stuff as well. I haven't read a horror novel in awhile I've been mainly sticking to short story anthologies.
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« Reply #13 on: October 22, 2009, 12:48:06 AM »

Brian Lumley's original NECROSCOPE series was awesome, although he has kinda sequelled it to death by now.  Very kick-A vampires . . . not a buncha whiny soap opera stars like Anne Rice's undead.

I'm a bit indifferent towards Necroscope (although Lumley's vampires are pretty neat), but I would recommend Brian Lumley's excellent short story collection Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi to anyone with an interest in horror.  It's great stuff.

William Hope Hodgson's The House on the Borderland is fantastic.  It tells a story of two men who, while visiting a small village in Ireland, come across the diary of a man who writes of the strange and frightening things that happened to him; part of which involved being besieged by demonic "swine-things" that emerge from underground.
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« Reply #14 on: October 22, 2009, 12:57:45 AM »

Jack Ketchum was my first thought. The Girl Next Door still makes me sick to my stomach. He's visceral, but maybe not the best author. GND, though... Only recommended if you thought Requiem for a Dream was a bit too tame.

Dan Simmons is great! I've mostly read his sci-fi, but Song of Kali is an outstanding debut, and The Terror is one hell of a book.
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