…That are not Anne Rice or John Saul or Dean koontz, because I think they’re novels are crap.
Or Stepehen King, because chances are I’m going to read it anyway.
How about Robert McCammon? I just saw he came out with a new novel after ten years and saying he’s not going to write again. I enjoyed some of his work, though off the top of my head I can’t really name them. I found him better then Koontz and a easier to read then King.
Peter Benchly was intersting as well, though I wouldn’t say horror, more suspence/action but still good.
Try Bram Stoker’s original Dracula… a little dated in parts, and of course the vampire is pretty much cliche nowadays, but the novel can still send shivers up the spine.
Is it really true you are cecil?
Try Ghost Story by Peter Straub. Scared the crap out of me!
Try some HP Lovecraft.
Anything by Ramsey Campbell (Parasite comes to mind).
Robert Bloch’s “Psycho”
Matheson’s “I am Legend”
Shelley’s “Frankenstein”
There’s always Lovecraft.
Peter Straub.
That’s all that I can think of off the top of my head.
I’ll second the recommendation of anything Ramsey Campbell (I’d say especially Incarnate).
Peter Straub (especially Julia).
I’m going to recommend Cruddy by Lynda Barry for about the thousandth time on this board. It’s a very darkly humorous story about a cross country murder spree, told from the point of view of a teenage girl on some serious halucinogens who is remembering what happened to her when she was younger.
Is there any good Sci-Fi horror out there now-a-days? I remember reading all of the Alien works, they were, so-so.
The Keep by F. Paul Wilson. The movie and the book sequels are not good.
Get Darkwriter in here. She is sure to have an opinion on this.
Clive Barker. I haven’t read his more recent works yet, so can’t recommend them, but I will be reading them soon. It has been quite awhile since I’ve read his work, but he impressed me in terms of storyline and writing style.
I’ll second Clive Barker and Robert McCammon.
Of McCammon, I’ve only read Stinger and Swan Song which is similar to King’s The Stand but is very good in its own right.
Barker has a lot of good ones:
Weaveworld
The Great and Secret Show
Imajica
The Damnation Game
etc.
Definitely Clive Barker-- The Great and Secret Show and Imajica are amazing. I’ll also second the votes for Lovecraft and, to a degree, Ramsey Campbell. I think Campbell is excellent at creating an atmosphere of dread, but the payoff is usually… not so good. The Face that Wouldn’t Die and The Doll that Ate Its Mother are pure crap, but Ghosts and Grisly Things (short stories) and The Long Lost are pretty good.
Also try Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and Smoke and Mirrors.
Seconded. Brilliant book, and is subtly referenced on the first page of Fight Club, too!
Make that a third for I am Legend.
What reference in fight club are you talking about? I had the book (lost it) and I can’t remember.
Yeah, McCammon wrote some fun stuff – Stinger is cool, about an alien critter that takes over a town.
His new book is a straight historical, Speaks the Nightbird.
I used to read nothing but horror but I haven’t found much to recommend lately.
Except Joe Lansdale – he’s writing every kind of horror/dark fantasy you can imagine.
What kind of horror are you looking for? Classic ghost stories? Gothic? Gore?
I’m surprised his name hasn’t come up yet, so I’ll recommend him:
Graham Masterton. British author, likes to write horror stores about old legends (Native American, Japanese, etc.) Gore-wise, he makes most of Stephen King look like Beatrix Potter–in fact, part of the fun of reading his stuff is seeing what new twists on gross he can come up with next. A lot of his books are hard to find, but used bookstores often have them. Some titles include:
The Manitou (and its sequels, Revenge of the Manitou and Burial)
Charnel House
Prey
The House that Jack Built
Ritual (this one made me queasy and that’s hard to do)
The Djinn
There are many more–Masterton is probably one of the most prolific horror writers that not many people have heard of.
Try the works of August Derelith.
Also, there is a collection of Robert E. Howard’s horror stories that was available recently–Nameless Cults.