Horror Recommendations!

[Randy M.]

There is the Ring series by Koji Suzuki. I think they're great, but of course it depends on whether Japanese horror is your thing.
If you're unsure whether you'd like them, the quickest way to find out might be to watch the films first. I highly recommend watching the original Japanese films, since the American remake has little in common with the books. The books are much superior to the films in my opinion, but it should give you an idea what you're in for. The order in which to read them is Birthday, Ring, Spiral and Loop. The order of the films are Ring 0:Birthday, Ringu and Rasen.

The short story collection Dark water by Koji Suzuki also has some good creepy stories.

No other horror series spring to mind (aside from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, but I assume you know those). My guess is that they're not that common, since horror tends to work best in standalone novels. It's difficult to stretch something over several books and keep it scary, I suppose.

Huh. Somehow the original request got past me. Haven't read the Suzuki, but the Rice is a good suggestion, though I've heard the series begins to trail off after the third book. I do have a few other suggestions.

This is a bit tricky depending on how you define 'series'. As Oubliette points out, horror is an emotion more easily evoked when the reader doesn't know the characters, any of them could be at risk, and the ending isn't pre-ordained by having a series character who always survives to go on another adventure -- this is why relatively few TV series are truly scary or even creepy except for an occasional episode.

That said, there have been 'supernatural detectives' for over a century. and it appears to me that Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have picked up the format and used it in The Relic, Reliquary, The Cabinet of Curiosities and their other novels. I haven't read these, but many horror fans love 'em. They also love F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series which appears to me to be along the same lines (I only read The Keep years ago and I think Jack was only a fairly minor character in that one.)

More often horror series revolve around the bad place: Stephen King, outside the Dark Tower series, uses the setting of Castle Rock and surroundings for most of his novels. I believe there are some characters who pop up in different books, but this isn't a series that features the same character(s) over and over. Gary Braunbeck does something along this line, too, basing several stories and novels in Cedar Hill, these seemingly circling around a killer from early in the 20th century known as Hoopsticks (think that's right). I read Coffin County and wasn't strongly inclined to read more; although Braunbeck writes well enough, the trick of the plot felt a bit old to me and I didn't think he did enough with the concept or the people or the story-telling for the novel to work (I enjoyed the two short stories packaged with CC more; they were also Cedar Hill stories). I had similar reactions to Douglas Clegg's Mischief, one of several novels set at Harrow House and around which Clegg seems to be building a mythology; on the other hand, an off-shoot novella, Isis, was quite good and has tickled my interest in reading more. Mischief, by the way, is one of the few novels I've read I thought would have profited by being longer, giving Clegg more room to build the story.

One series I have read, and would strongly recommend is Peter Straub's Blue Rose novels: Koko, Mystery, The Throat, lost boy lost girl, In the Night Room. Most but not all feature a recurring character -- whose name I won't mention; no spoilers -- and a recurring place, sort of, since Straub is interested in the differences and discrepancies between reality and fiction. I wasn't as fond of the last novel as of the others; it was good, just not up to the standard the others had set. One caveat: The first three lean more toward mysteries than horror novels, but they all have their moments.


Randy M.

[Mark Lawrence]

I read these quite a while ago but I enjoyed them a lot at the time:

Charnel House - Graham Masterton
Furnace - Muriel Grey
It - Stephen King

[Barkly]

Do anyone know of a good horror book that fits into any of these types? Im not really into gore and would prefere it if the horror came from the creepy atmosphere rather than blood and guts flying everywhere.

A european or american explorer who travels to Africa and gets involved with some mystery surrounding the natives/ a tribe. I would prefer the story to be placed in the years when africa was being explored for the first time by the white man, but thats not really a must. What got me intrested in this theme was a book called The man eaters of tsavo, a book by John Patterson where he tells about his experiences while building a bridge in Africa and how the entire workforce was terrorised by two lions who had a unnatural skill in avoiding capture and also a strong taste for human flesh.

The second theme I would like to read about are "monsters in the woods". I always like to read about cryptozoology animals like Bigfoot, the chupacabra, mothman and the jersey devil, but all i can find are just the same legends on different websites. So im wondering if anyone know of a book that is about people running into some kind of monster when they are in the forest? Maybe campers that experiences that something is stalking them.

The third theme are stories inspired by lovecraft, I really like lovecraft, and cthuluh stories are my favorites, but its mostly short stories and I havent been able to find any books that can compare.

I havent read many horror books but to give you guys a idea of what i do like and dont like.

Liked: HP Lovecraft, Dean Koontz - Phantoms, Robert E Howard - most of his horror short stories.

Disliked: Bram Stoker - Dracula (it started great but quickly boored me to the point I had to stop) James Herbert - The rats. (dont remember much about this but I belive I thought it to be to gory and depressing if that makes any sence)
Thanks for any recommondations and english is not my first language so please excuse my errors

[Randy M.]

Do anyone know of a good horror book that fits into any of these types? Im not really into gore and would prefere it if the horror came from the creepy atmosphere rather than blood and guts flying everywhere.
[...]
The third theme are stories inspired by lovecraft, I really like lovecraft, and cthuluh stories are my favorites, but its mostly short stories and I havent been able to find any books that can compare.

I havent read many horror books but to give you guys a idea of what i do like and dont like.

Liked: HP Lovecraft, Dean Koontz - Phantoms, Robert E Howard - most of his horror short stories.

Disliked: Bram Stoker - Dracula (it started great but quickly boored me to the point I had to stop) James Herbert - The rats. (dont remember much about this but I belive I thought it to be to gory and depressing if that makes any sence)
Thanks for any recommondations and english is not my first language so please excuse my errors

I don't really have good answers for the first two types. For the first type, I thought of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and H. Rider Haggard's She, but they are older works (from the 19th century) and I don't think they are quite what you're looking for. For the second type, Stephen King's Pet Semetary, but that only has a little of what you seem to be seeking, and David Morrell's The Totem, but I haven't read it and so I'm not really sure of the setting.

Some more general answers and some specifically about Lovecraftian works, may be found in this thread:

http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showt...hlight=october

Randy M.

[algernoninc]

for the second "creepy in the woods with mythical animals" I'm thinking Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock. I haven't read the sequels.

[Randy M.]

for the second "creepy in the woods with mythical animals" I'm thinking Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock. I haven't read the sequels.

Oh, duh.

Yes. Great suggestion.


Randy M.

[Barkly]

Thanks for the great suggestions, most of these seems to be what im looking for and im going to check them out some more.

[bio]

For the third theme I can recommend Colin Wilson's The Mind Parasites
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/...-parasites.htm

[Randy M.]

You sound like the opposite of me, I don't think my recommendations would suit you. I loved all of The Dark Tower but the last three books are my favorites, no one can out-Lovecraft Lovecraft, I absolutely love the Wheel of Time series as well as The Name of the Wind. Lieber and Moorcock are on my TBR list so I can't comment on them and perhaps I will come to love them more than LotR but I doubt it, it holds too special a place in my heart.

Hi, Bob.

I can't recall from previous discussions, have you read Thomas Ligotti? If there's anyone who could be said to out-Lovecraft Lovecraft, I'd say it was him.

(Then there's Caitlin Kiernan, who folds Lovecraft into a mix of Arthur Machen and Shirley Jackson and, maybe, Ramsey Campbell and Peter Straub, and delivers something I think is unique. Reading her new novel, The Drowning Girl now and it is both fascinating and challenging.)

Randy M.

[Bob Gray]

Until I read Ligotti or Kiernan I can't say that, who knows maybe they will. My point was that I don't think I could offer any recommendations considering that we seem to enjoy the exact opposite of each other.

[Randy M.]

Until I read Ligotti or Kiernan I can't say that, who knows maybe they will. My point was that I don't think I could offer any recommendations considering that we seem to enjoy the exact opposite of each other.

Okay and, yeah, you and Paul seem to have very different tastes. What I meant, without exactly being clear about it, was that if you enjoy Lovecraft, Ligotti and possibly Kiernan might be of interest to you. They feed off his work and the work that he was influenced by and their work goes in, for me, often fascinating directions.

Randy M.

[Bob Gray]

I definitely want to check out Ligotti, I only hear great things about him but I haven't found him in any of the used bookstores I haunt, it's only a matter of time before I do though. Any recommendations of books by Ligotti? Now this is actually the first time I have heard of Kiernan so I appreciate you mentioning her.

[Randy M.]

I definitely want to check out Ligotti, I only hear great things about him but I haven't found him in any of the used bookstores I haunt, it's only a matter of time before I do though. Any recommendations of books by Ligotti? Now this is actually the first time I have heard of Kiernan so I appreciate you mentioning her.

I've read two of his collections from cover to cover. Grimscribe is an attempt to pull several stories together with briefer piece between to link them. It's not altogether successful in that way. As a collection, there are some terrific, strong stories in it: "The Last Feast of Harlequin", "Nethescurial", and "The Shadow at the Bottom of the World", among others.

The other collection, My Work is Not Yet Done is powerful but also more gory than his previous work. I'd recommend starting with one of his earlier collections first.

The Nightmare Factory compiles his first three collections with some previous uncollected stories: In this collection (originally in Songs of a Dead Dreamer) is "The Frolic," easily one of the most unsettling stories I've ever read in adulthood. Teatro Grottesco is a relatively recent collection that might be the easist thing by him to find. (It's been a while since I read it, but I recall the title piece of that latter collection as excellent.)

About Kiernan, I just read a good story collection, To Charles Fort, With Love, but her story collections have so far come out from the specialty publishers and I'm not sure you'll find them used. Of her novels I've read Threshold, The Red Tree and am now about 100 pages into The Drowning Girl. I thought Threshold was really good until I read The Red Tree and saw what she was capable of; now Threshold feels a bit overwrought, though I suspect I'll read it again in the future. The Drowning Girl is quite good so far. When I finish I'll comment on it in the "Reading in ..." thread.


Randy M.

[tarkiomo48]

I've noticed H.P. Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness mentioned on a several lists. Tim Curran has written two books he calls unofficial sequels named Hive And Hive 2:The Spawnig. I've read and liked them both.