What Are Your Favorite Cosmic Horror Books and Stories ?
- Thread starter Cicero
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By H P Lovecraft The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and At The Mountains of Madness,
The Great White Space by Basil Copper This novel was written in 1974 and very much lovecraftain This one is . The difference being is the find remnant of an elder world super civilization in another unexplored part of the world. Basil Copper wrote many fine tales of horror one particle Camera Obscura was adapted for Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
The Great White Space by Basil Copper This novel was written in 1974 and very much lovecraftain This one is . The difference being is the find remnant of an elder world super civilization in another unexplored part of the world. Basil Copper wrote many fine tales of horror one particle Camera Obscura was adapted for Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
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Astrocartician
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I haven't read many of these kinds of stories but The Call of Cthulhu by Lovecraft was very good.
A list of short stories and novellas I've enjoyed, though I should admit listing "cosmic" horror stories runs into the problem of distinguishing whether or not the story has cosmic implications or is just a "weird tale" (that's why no "Mr. Gaunt" by John Langan or "Bringing Helena Back" by Sarah Monette). Not really sure I've done a good job of sorting that out but, for instance, I didn't add "Amour Dure" by Vernon Lee; even though it tickles the spot in me that stories generally held to be cosmic horror also tickle, it's really more of a ghost/witch story, but I've included "The Horla" which -- maybe? I suspect there could be long arguments about a given story between fans.
Agents of Dreamland (Caitlin R. Kiernan)
Ancient Sorceries (Algernon Blackwood)
Angels in Love (Kathe Koja)
At the Mountains of Madness (H. P. Lovecraft)
The Autopsy (Michael Shea)
The Ballad of Black Tom (Victor LaValle)
Black Cocktail (Jonathan Carroll)
Black Helicopters (Caitlin R. Kiernan)
Black Man With a Horn (T. E. D. Klein)
The Bureau D'echange De Maux (Lord Dunsany)
The Call of Cthulhu (H. P. Lovecraft)
A Colder War (Charles Stross)
The Color Out of Space (H. P. Lovecraft)
Cleopatra Brimstone (Elizabeth Hand)
The Dark Eidolon (Clark Ashton Smith)
The Dreams of Albert Moreland (Fritz Leiber)
The Events at Poroth Farm (T. E. D. Klein)
The Great God Pan (Arthur Machen)
His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood (Poppy Z. Brite)
The Horla (Guy De Maupassant)
The Hounds of Tindalos (Frank Belknap Long)
An Inhabitant of Carcosa (Ambrose Bierce)
The Interloper (Ramsey Campbell)
The Last Feast of Harlequin (Thomas Ligotti)
Le Peau Verte (Caitlin R. Kiernan)
Les Fleurs (Thomas Ligotti)
Mimic (Donald Wollheim)
The Mist (Stephen King)
Nadelman's God (T. E. D. Klein)
Near Zennor (Elizabeth Hand)
Old Virginia (Laird Barron)
Olida (Bob Leman)
On Skua Island (John Langan)
Onion (Caitlin R. Kiernan)
The Panic Hand (Jonathan Carroll)
Procession of the Black Sloth (Laird Barron)
The River of Night's Darkness (Karl Edward Wagner)
The Shadowy Street (Jean Ray)
Smoke Ghost (Fritz Leiber)
Sticks (Karl Edward Wagner)
A Study in Emerald (Neil Gaiman)
Teatro Grottesco (Thomas Ligotti)
Three Miles Up (Elizabeth Jane Howard)
The Tugging (Ramsey Campbell)
Undertow (Karl Edward Wagner)
The Voice in the Night (William Hope Hodgson)
The Wendigo (Algernon Blackwood)
The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
Window (Bob Leman)
The Yellow Sign (Robert W. Chambers)
Novels are a bit sparse:
The Croning by Laird Barron (good, but not great)
Strange Eons by Robert Bloch (fun, but not great)
The Red Tree & The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan (excellent novels, though maybe a stretch to call them "cosmic horror")
The Beetle by Richard Marsh (Victorian horror, doesn't ever quite explain what "The Beetle" is)
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (really good)
The Mall of Cthulhu by Seamus Cooper (pastiche/parody of Lovecraftian horror with a well-done passage of a character's feeling of dislocation on reaching R'lyeh)
Experimental Film by Gemma Files (excellent, not Lovecraft related)
Grin of the Dark by Ramsey Campbell (excellent, slow burn, tangentially Lovecraftian)
And that's enough of that.
Agents of Dreamland (Caitlin R. Kiernan)
Ancient Sorceries (Algernon Blackwood)
Angels in Love (Kathe Koja)
At the Mountains of Madness (H. P. Lovecraft)
The Autopsy (Michael Shea)
The Ballad of Black Tom (Victor LaValle)
Black Cocktail (Jonathan Carroll)
Black Helicopters (Caitlin R. Kiernan)
Black Man With a Horn (T. E. D. Klein)
The Bureau D'echange De Maux (Lord Dunsany)
The Call of Cthulhu (H. P. Lovecraft)
A Colder War (Charles Stross)
The Color Out of Space (H. P. Lovecraft)
Cleopatra Brimstone (Elizabeth Hand)
The Dark Eidolon (Clark Ashton Smith)
The Dreams of Albert Moreland (Fritz Leiber)
The Events at Poroth Farm (T. E. D. Klein)
The Great God Pan (Arthur Machen)
His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood (Poppy Z. Brite)
The Horla (Guy De Maupassant)
The Hounds of Tindalos (Frank Belknap Long)
An Inhabitant of Carcosa (Ambrose Bierce)
The Interloper (Ramsey Campbell)
The Last Feast of Harlequin (Thomas Ligotti)
Le Peau Verte (Caitlin R. Kiernan)
Les Fleurs (Thomas Ligotti)
Mimic (Donald Wollheim)
The Mist (Stephen King)
Nadelman's God (T. E. D. Klein)
Near Zennor (Elizabeth Hand)
Old Virginia (Laird Barron)
Olida (Bob Leman)
On Skua Island (John Langan)
Onion (Caitlin R. Kiernan)
The Panic Hand (Jonathan Carroll)
Procession of the Black Sloth (Laird Barron)
The River of Night's Darkness (Karl Edward Wagner)
The Shadowy Street (Jean Ray)
Smoke Ghost (Fritz Leiber)
Sticks (Karl Edward Wagner)
A Study in Emerald (Neil Gaiman)
Teatro Grottesco (Thomas Ligotti)
Three Miles Up (Elizabeth Jane Howard)
The Tugging (Ramsey Campbell)
Undertow (Karl Edward Wagner)
The Voice in the Night (William Hope Hodgson)
The Wendigo (Algernon Blackwood)
The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
Window (Bob Leman)
The Yellow Sign (Robert W. Chambers)
Novels are a bit sparse:
The Croning by Laird Barron (good, but not great)
Strange Eons by Robert Bloch (fun, but not great)
The Red Tree & The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan (excellent novels, though maybe a stretch to call them "cosmic horror")
The Beetle by Richard Marsh (Victorian horror, doesn't ever quite explain what "The Beetle" is)
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (really good)
The Mall of Cthulhu by Seamus Cooper (pastiche/parody of Lovecraftian horror with a well-done passage of a character's feeling of dislocation on reaching R'lyeh)
Experimental Film by Gemma Files (excellent, not Lovecraft related)
Grin of the Dark by Ramsey Campbell (excellent, slow burn, tangentially Lovecraftian)
And that's enough of that.
The Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell
Midnight Sun By Ramsey Campbell
Wetbones by John Shirley
The 37th Mandala By Mark LaidLaw
The Weird Company The Secret History of H P Lovecratd 20h Century. by Pete Rawlik
The House On the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
The Shadow At The Bottom of the World ( short story ) by Thomas Liggotti
The Earth Brain( a short story) by Edmond Hamilton
Midnight Sun By Ramsey Campbell
Wetbones by John Shirley
The 37th Mandala By Mark LaidLaw
The Weird Company The Secret History of H P Lovecratd 20h Century. by Pete Rawlik
The House On the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
The Shadow At The Bottom of the World ( short story ) by Thomas Liggotti
The Earth Brain( a short story) by Edmond Hamilton
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I thought Stephen King did a good job of capturing the weirdness & hopelessness of Lovecraft in Crouch End (1980). The story sums it up in the last few lines with the statement that there are still strange occurrences in Crouch End, and that, very occasionally, people are "... known to lose their way. Some of them lose it forever."
It's not officially cosmic horror, it's science fiction, but I find Solaris by Stanislaw Lem and some of his other books really creepy. A story where an intelligent ocean on another planet extracts memories of loved ones from people's brains and then recreates them in the flesh is really scary.
Something like that happened in Robert Holdstock's Mythago, but there human ideas about cultural archetypes were made flesh, not memories of loved ones. So I think Mythago is a wonderful and interesting series and Solaris is a very scary book.
Something like that happened in Robert Holdstock's Mythago, but there human ideas about cultural archetypes were made flesh, not memories of loved ones. So I think Mythago is a wonderful and interesting series and Solaris is a very scary book.
A new author. Andrew C. Piazza. I reviewed both of his books here some time ago. Historical horror fiction. Both excellent tales.
"One Last Gasp" - takes place in the Ardennes forest near the end of WW2 as a US Army platoon chases a rogue Panzer group to a haunted castle. Tightly woven, character driven story.
"A Song for the Void" - takes place during the 2nd Opium War as a new British Steamship chases pirates across the South China seas.
"One Last Gasp" - takes place in the Ardennes forest near the end of WW2 as a US Army platoon chases a rogue Panzer group to a haunted castle. Tightly woven, character driven story.
"A Song for the Void" - takes place during the 2nd Opium War as a new British Steamship chases pirates across the South China seas.
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