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[Zanzetkuken The Great]

What is yours?  I'm thinking about reading a few books in the genre, and I am curious as to Bay 12's favorites.

[nenjin]

Stephen King is pretty good. Not the highest form of literary achievement, but I find most of his books...."wholesome", in the sense they're complete stories, competently written and have a decent premise. It's like the goodness of a home cooked meal vs. a fancy dinner at a restaurant.

I also like Clive Barker, although his work is closer to Gothic than straight horror. He also writes some stuff that is less horror and closer to romance, although there is usually a horror and/or magical angle in there somewheres.

[gigaraptor487]

H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe are great.

[Reelya]

I don't read much horror fiction, so idk really, I read a few Clive Barker novels and they were good.

And this girl once lent me a book of short stories by Poppy Z Brite. That was pretty good.

And of course, Lovecraft is the best out there.

[Gnorm]

Depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for sinister, macabre stories, Poe is your man. Should you be looking more for stories that involve the hopelessness and meaninglessness of human life and existence, Lovecraft is the way to go.

[RedKing]

I'd echo the support for Lovecraft and Barker. I have yet to read a Stephen King story that genuinely scared me. I think his dark fantasy stuff (i.e. Dark Tower mythos) is far better than his horror.

[XXSockXX]

Thomas Ligotti, by far the most interesting contemporary horror author, if you're into philosophical horror à la Lovecraft.

[Yoink]

I'm interested in seeing what people come out with.
Do stories involving no real supernatural elements, but which elicit a lot of fear in the reader, count?
I haven't read that many Horror novels either way. I've had a few books of short horror stories, some of which have been good, but a short story is always, well, short. It'd be nice (well, maybe kinda scary) to read some full stories, heh.

[Xantalos]

I'd echo the support for Lovecraft and Barker. I have yet to read a Stephen King story that genuinely scared me. I think his dark fantasy stuff (i.e. Dark Tower mythos) is far better than his horror.

This. I've read some King that was fascinating due to its explanation of its supernatural events, but nothing ever scary.
Also his writing voice is annoying for some reason.

[RedKing]

I'm interested in seeing what people come out with.
Do stories involving no real supernatural elements, but which elicit a lot of fear in the reader, count?

Sure. Some of Lovecraft's best stuff were the ones with no overt supernatural elements....just crazy people. (thinking of The Picture in the House here)

I've best heard horror described as "the irruption of abnormality onto normality". When that abnormality is wondrous and even positive, you have fantasy. When it's negative and destructive, you have horror. When there's no "normality" to begin with, you have dark fantasy.

[Euld]

I loved the cosmic and supernatural elements of Lovecraft :<

[Xantalos]

I loved the cosmic and supernatural elements of Lovecraft :<

Yeah, but as any type of horror but cosmic nihilism they weren't so much scary as fascinating. Take Journey to Kadath or whatever it was called, for example.

[RedKing]

Oh, I do too. But I think some of the best writing, the stories that most affected me, were the ones that were most believable. Yog-Sohoth be one scary motherfucker, but its inclusion automatically stretches the suspension of disbelief.

The Picture in the House, on the other hand, just has a stranded traveler and an old guy in a house. And a drip. And a conversation preceding it which lays bare all the implications of that, and lets one's own mind fill in all the horrid details. Your own imagination is far more effective at scaring the fuck out of you than tons of lurid description. The best horror writers (and movie directors) give you hints and glimpses of the horror and let your own mind fill in the shadows.

That's one reason the original Alien movie is so damn good at what it does, imho. You never get a good look at the xenomorph until the very end.


@Xantalos: The Dreamlands stuff wasn't intended as horror, imho. It was more a weird fantasy cycle, influenced by his friendship with guys like Lord Dunsany and R.E. Howard.

[Euld]

Yeah I think you have a point there.  I suppose I may be mistaking suspense for horror.  <3 Journey to Kadath though, that one really is my favorite.

Back to your regularly scheduled horror.

[nenjin]

I'd agree that Stephen King stories aren't scary per se. (But honestly, what have you read in the last decade that actually left you scared?)

I think Stephen King has well-constructed ideas for his stories. Not a ton is left dangling by the end, monsters don't generally pop out of nowhere for their own sake. So, like I said, I find his horror wholesome and holistic if not exactly scary. The story structure is solid. And yeah, I too found Stephen King's voice as an author kind of annoying in the beginning. But the more I read, the less I started to mind it. Rather than diving into a full length Stephen King novel, try some of his short story compilations, because I think that's where he shines. () If you like those, venture into his full length books. (And personally, I'm not a fan of The Dark Tower. It's a briefly sketched dark fantasy world, where very little is explained, things just happen because AUTHORIAL NECESSITY, and there's an undercurrent of eroticism throughout that I could do without. Of course, that's one of King's earlier works, when he was on a tttoooooonnnnnn of drugs. So I forgive him.)

Re: Lovecraft. Sort of the same story. I think his shortest stories are some of his strongest. The prose in his longer stories tends to get more tortured the longer the story goes on. Some stories, like Colour Out Of Space, are well-paced and end when they should. Some, like The Whisperer In The Darkness, drag on forever with a lack of tension like an amateur detective novel. So while I do really enjoy Lovecraft, I think repeated readings tend to weaken rather than strengthen my appreciation of his work. (Although that's at least partially due to the fact you can never be exposed to the Mythos as something new more than once.) Again, his shortest stories tend to be his best IMO, because he stays focused.

Poe is good if you can get used to the voice of the times he wrote in. Pit & The Pendulum is perhaps my favorite of his.