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Thread: Top 10 Horror Books

  1. #26
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Yeah, Carrion Comfort was great - reading it made me want to be able to control others!

    I also really liked Stephen King's "Gerald's Game" - a nice combination of horror and suspense. Of course, he includes a lot of other interesting stuff as usual. I really enjoy his latter-day stuff but there's just so much of it. In a way I feel like I've read a lot of it, and in a way I've barely scratched the surface.

  2. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    Yeah, Carrion Comfort was great - reading it made me want to be able to control others!
    Another shout out for Carrion Comfort and Dan Simmons in general. Also loved Song of kali, and his more recent tact of taking historical events and reimagining them as horror stories...The Terror, Drood, Black Hills and the new Abomination. Also, Children of the Night may be the best modern day vampire novel, one that postulates it's a retrovirus. One thing about Simmons: he always does his homework so if he has a premise like that, the research is so good that it becomes thoroughly conceivable.

  3. #28
    I liked the Necroscope series a lot. Generally I don't read horror. That was sort of a horror-fantasy-action series.

  4. #29
    Member hippypants's Avatar
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    Well, I'd agree King may not be all that terrifying, but I think with him it's his characters and he's a bit like comfort food to me anyway. You can read him and there's a quick identifying: characters, motivations, Americana, something. Perhaps some of his books are longwinded, but hard not to include him. I've enjoyed many of his books. I think of him and he helped shape the late 70's and 80's for me.

  5. #30
    Member Guitarplyrjvb's Avatar
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    I've got to say that I've really never liked most of what King does. Way too much padding! However, his sequel to "The Shining" is very good! It's called "Dr. Sleep" and is relatively brief and to the point, which can't be said for most of King's stuff.

  6. #31
    I'm here for the moosic NogbadTheBad's Avatar
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    It by King gave me nightmares for months when it first came out.
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  7. #32
    Member hippypants's Avatar
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    Haven't read Dr. Sleep but sounds interesting. If you want brevity, might be better to stick to his short stories. But I'd say most of his novels aren't too overly long. Another one you might want to try is The Girl Who Love Tom Gordon.

  8. #33
    Member No Pride's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hippypants View Post
    Well, I'd agree King may not be all that terrifying, but I think with him it's his characters and he's a bit like comfort food to me anyway. You can read him and there's a quick identifying: characters, motivations, Americana, something. Perhaps some of his books are longwinded, but hard not to include him. I've enjoyed many of his books. I think of him and he helped shape the late 70's and 80's for me.
    Yeah, he's great at creating characters. He's got a good sense of humor too; I've laughed out loud at some of his passages. A very creative story teller that's great at building tension and suspense, though not quite as great at resolving it. But what can I say; I'm a fan!

    Quote Originally Posted by Guitarplyrjvb View Post
    I've got to say that I've really never liked most of what King does. Way too much padding! However, his sequel to "The Shining" is very good! It's called "Dr. Sleep" and is relatively brief and to the point, which can't be said for most of King's stuff.
    Actually, I found Dr. Sleep to be one of his lesser novels. Among his more recent work, I enjoyed "Joyland" much more. Different strokes!

  9. #34
    Member Guitarplyrjvb's Avatar
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    ^^ Yeah! This stuff is all subjective! Come to think of it, just like music!

  10. #35
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    Some are short stories, some novels, but as an HP Lovecraft maniac my 1st few selections are predictable...

    1) The Shadow Over Innsmouth - HPL
    2) At the Mountains of Madness - HPL
    3) The Case of Charles Dexter Ward - HPL
    4) The Festival - HPL
    5) Dracula - Bram Stoker
    6) The Stand - Stephen King
    7) The Shining - Stephen King
    8) The Monkey's Paw - WW Jacobs
    9) Shadowland - Peter Straub
    10) Carmilla - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
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  11. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by NogbadTheBad View Post
    It by King gave me nightmares for months when it first came out.
    I'm with you. That book scared the living shit out of me. I hate clowns anyway and Pennywise really caused me some trouble.
    For that which is not,
    there is no coming into being
    and for that which is,
    there is no ceasing to be;
    yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end.
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  12. #37
    Member Bungalow Bill's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hippypants View Post
    Well, I'd agree King may not be all that terrifying, but I think with him it's his characters and he's a bit like comfort food to me anyway. You can read him and there's a quick identifying: characters, motivations, Americana, something. Perhaps some of his books are longwinded, but hard not to include him. I've enjoyed many of his books. I think of him and he helped shape the late 70's and 80's for me.
    Agree 100%.

    The only books I've truly enjoyed by him are Eyes of the Dragon, It, Misery and Night Shift. However, even though super-padded, I thought the Dark Tower series was excellent. The second and fourth novels (Turning of the Three? Wizard and Glass?) were strong. And I thought both of the endings were the best I've ever read in an SK novel...endings are his weak point.

    Good writer, though, all things considered. Any writing that produces movies like Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile is noteworthy!
    For that which is not,
    there is no coming into being
    and for that which is,
    there is no ceasing to be;
    yea of both of these the lookers into truth have seen an end.
    Bhagavad Gita

  13. #38
    Although not horror, 11/22/63 was excellent by King. I also enjoyed Dreamcatcher

  14. #39
    Member No Pride's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Polska View Post
    Although not horror, 11/22/63 was excellent by King.
    Yeah, I really liked that one, though it got a little slow for a while about 2/3rds of the way through. But of course it picked up the pace again and it was one of his better endings.

    Another one of his more recent ones that I liked a lot was "Duma Key."

  15. #40
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Yeah, King's later work is not pure horror, and sometimes not horror at all. I agree The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was good, also Dreamcatcher. Dreamcatcher was a really weird combination of typical King and science fiction. A fascinating read, but the movie sucks so skip it.

    Hearts in Atlantis wasn't at all horror, but a handful of stories woven together in an interesting way. I've mentioned it before here, but the title story is actually one of the more upsetting things I've read, and it's just about college students getting so addicted to the game Hearts that they blow off their studies and are all getting expelled.

    How can you NOT want to read his book "Gerald's Game": a couple are having bondage sex in a remote cabin, and the guy dies while she's handcuffed to the bed, naked. She needs to escape, while at the same time deal with a starving, wild dog. Go King, you sicko!

  16. #41
    Member Digital_Man's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Polska View Post
    Although not horror, 11/22/63 was excellent by King. I also enjoyed Dreamcatcher
    I'm currently reading "Bag of Bones" by him. It's over 700 pages long so I don't know how long it will take me or if I'll even get through it at all. I started to read "Hearts of Atlantis" several years ago and didn't get past page 50. We'll see.
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  17. #42
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    One of the books/authors mentioned in the original list is Seductions by Ray Garton. Anybody a fan? He is just about my favorite horror/suspense guy. He used to be lumped in with a group called the Splatterpunks (included R.C. Matheson and David Schow) because his stuff was so brutal. He's kind of mellowed a bit over the years, but he still pulls no punches. He had a short story in the Hot Blood series called "Punishments" that was really hard to take as far as the almost sadistic descriptions, but I just couldn't put it down. He has an older novel called Lot Lizards about truck-stop prostitutes who turn out to be vampires (before the whole vampire craze) who face the then-new disease AIDS. The most out-there and graphic of his stuff is the novel The New Neighbor. It is about a succubus who moves into a nice middle-class neighborhood, and, well, there goes the neighborhood.
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  18. #43
    Quote Originally Posted by Lopez View Post
    One of the books/authors mentioned in the original list is Seductions by Ray Garton. Anybody a fan? He is just about my favorite horror/suspense guy. He used to be lumped in with a group called the Splatterpunks (included R.C. Matheson and David Schow) because his stuff was so brutal. He's kind of mellowed a bit over the years, but he still pulls no punches. He had a short story in the Hot Blood series called "Punishments" that was really hard to take as far as the almost sadistic descriptions, but I just couldn't put it down. He has an older novel called Lot Lizards about truck-stop prostitutes who turn out to be vampires (before the whole vampire craze) who face the then-new disease AIDS. The most out-there and graphic of his stuff is the novel The New Neighbor. It is about a succubus who moves into a nice middle-class neighborhood, and, well, there goes the neighborhood.
    I liked Garton's book Live Girls a lot. I have a few others of his I've yet to read. He wrote some YA horror as "Joseph Locke".

    Two authors whose books I've dug are Edward Lee and Jack Ketchum (maybe considered Splatterpunks?). Their books are very dark and graphic.

  19. #44
    Quote Originally Posted by philsunset View Post
    I liked Garton's book Live Girls a lot. I have a few others of his I've yet to read. He wrote some YA horror as "Joseph Locke".

    Two authors whose books I've dug are Edward Lee and Jack Ketchum (maybe considered Splatterpunks?). Their books are very dark and graphic.
    Love Ketchum, grew tired of Lee...liked him at first but they all began to sound the same. Ketchum, otoh, has not just written some pretty high on the gross-o-meter stuff like Off Season and Off Spring, but fictionalizations based on true stories like The Girl Next Door and The Lost. Strong character writer, especially in Red.

    Lee seems largely about the gross-out, but if I'm in that mood I go for Wrath James White, whose Succulent Prey is the first novel I've read about cannibalism that truly made me gag.

    Jeff Strand is hit and miss, but his book Pressure was outstanding.

    The splatter punk gods, at one time were John Skipp and Craig Spector, and the series of novels they wrote together remain seminal (The Light at the End, The Scream, The Cleanup and three others).. John Shirley, at times, does it for me.

    But I keep going back to F Paul Wilson, Robert McCammon, King (when he's good he's great, when he's bad, he's truly awful but thankfully not that often..and for those who criticize his book lengths, actually he's only written a handful of epic length novels - and most are great' including the recent 11/22/63, not horror, but a great time travel story surrounding the Kennedy assassination...but a lot more,and well worth the read. I also loved Dr. Sleep, a sequel to The Shining (which scared the bejesus outta me back in the day) that was a truly believable future for Danny Torrance.

    I also love King's son Joe Hill, whose three novels have been uniformly excellent. Heart-shaped Box a great ghost story...albeit with plenty of twists; Horns one of the funniest opening lines to one of the most ultimate tragedies I'd read in some time, and NOS42 absolutely not what it's title might suggest it is. His other son, Owen King, has a novel that I've yet to crack, but has had good press, so soon.....

    ...and Justin Cronin's soon to be trilogy, beginning with The Passage and followed by The Twelve is a great twist on genetically created vampirism.

    There's a lot of great horror out there. Just like picking ten best records, I cannot pick ten best novels. I've just read too many great ones, each in their own time, perhaps, some more timeless.....

    I wish Clive Barker would get seriously back in the game, Coldheart Canyon was decent, Mister B Gone a short larf, but nothing to match Books of Blood' Damnation Game, Weaveworld or his best novel, The Great and Secret Show. And Peter Straub peaked early with Ghost Story and Floating Dragon (Shadowland was mentioned elsewhere and is good, but I prefer the other two); his Blue Rose trilogy is great, but not horror.

  20. #45
    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    Yeah, he's great at creating characters. He's got a good sense of humor too; I've laughed out loud at some of his passages. A very creative story teller that's great at building tension and suspense, though not quite as great at resolving it. But what can I say; I'm a fan!
    Me too. And his Bachman books are pretty damn good too...though apparently the single line that gave away it was him in Thinner, apparently, was 'she sucked like an Electrolux." Only King could write a line like that, and not just get away with it, but make it a knee-slapper!

    And btw, just did a count. Out of all his books, not counting short story anthologies, only 14 exceed 600 pages .... Given the size of his bibliography, that's far from the preponderance of his output, maybe 20-25% by my reckoning....
    Last edited by jkelman; 03-08-2014 at 03:18 AM.

  21. #46
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jkelman View Post
    And his Bachman books are pretty damn good too...
    I always loved "The Long Walk".
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  22. #47
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    I haven't read any of the Bachman books, and from the sound of this thread there are many other King books I'd like to read given the time. A lot of other good suggestion as well which I'll have to look up while in the library or a used book store. I started Joe Hill's Horns, but have yet to finish it, but enjoyed what I've read already. I didn't know his other son was writing too.

  23. #48
    THE STAND (unabridged) a truly monumental work and very Progrock ;-)

    I also really enjoyed "The Talisman" which he wrote with Peter Straub. I agree with the [postings above - he's a master at portraying a vast array of interesting and colorful American characters. In the sequel to "Talisman", "Black House", there's a fascinating college educated biker gang who run a brewery and discuss philosophy. I also get the feeling when reading King that he must have had to put up with many bullies while growing up.

  24. #49
    If anyone is interested in where Stephen King got his gripping, compulsive writing style, check out the author Don Robertson. Robertson wasn't a horror writer per se but he did write one novel about a killer called The Ideal, Genuine Man. Most of his books were either civil war novels or modern dramas (and some comedy). But his gripping style, absorbed by King, makes you keep reading, like King. King acknowledged it and in return published the first edition of Robertson's The Ideal, Genuine Man.

  25. #50
    Member No Pride's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by the winter tree View Post
    THE STAND (unabridged) a truly monumental work and very Progrock ;-)

    I also really enjoyed "The Talisman" which he wrote with Peter Straub. I agree with the [postings above - he's a master at portraying a vast array of interesting and colorful American characters. In the sequel to "Talisman", "Black House", there's a fascinating college educated biker gang who run a brewery and discuss philosophy. I also get the feeling when reading King that he must have had to put up with many bullies while growing up.
    ... and that he's had a couple of unsavory run-ins with fundamentalist Christians.

    I've read "The Stand (unabridged)" and "The Talisman" and enjoyed both. Gosh, I guess I've read a lot of King's books! Then again, there's so many out there!

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