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I love horror novels but can’t stand the smut that Laurel K. Hamilton peddles and King hasn’t been good in years.  Barker has moved on to some kind of gay fiction.  Are there any good horror fiction writers out there?  I’m looking for some new stuff.  The last good horror book I read was The Ruins.  Right now I’m finishing up Pig Island by Mo Hayder.  She’s great.

Well, Barker is very gay. I think he’s been with his partner for like fifeteen years. But he’s going to be tackling the last word on Pinhead soon, and it involves the main character from Lord of Illusions. I tend to prefer The Great and Secret Show, especially the second one. I’ve got Sacrament around here somewhere, I just haven’t read it.

King hasn’t been worth reading in some time. My cousin and my aunt and me have been bitching about him for years (we’re mostly the only members of my family who are literate. We got bored with King and moved on to Lovecraft).

I keep going back to some of the darker Sherlock Holmes stories. Some of them are pretty scary. The Adventure of the Creeping Man springs to mind.

Graham Masterton.
Especially Master of Lies.
He writes some stuff.
If you want some quick, easy fun horror, Bentley Little.

I don’t read much horror anymore, since I’ve come to the conclusion that the real world is horrible enough.  I used to read quite a bit of King, but, like everyone else, I think his stuff has gone downhill over the last few years.  I guess that when you write 70 something books or whatever, you eventually start recycling.  Plus, he could never write a good ending.  The ending to the Dark Tower series made me want to throw King off a tower.

When I want to reach for a little horror, I usually head for short stories.  Here are a few I can recommend:

“Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” by Robert Bloch
“The Middle Toe of the Right Foot” by Ambrose Bierce
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce
“Pickman’s Model” by H.P. Lovecraft
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner
“Shut a Final Door” by Truman Capote
“A Teacher’s Rewards” by Robert Phillips
“The Road to Mictlantecutli” by Adobe James
“Who Goes There” by John W. Campbell (the story “The Thing” came from)
“The Father-Thing” by Phillip K. Dick
“Hell-Fire” by Isaac Asimov
“Nightmare Gang” by Dean Koontz
“Orange Is for Anguish, Blue for Inasnity” by David Morrell
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving
“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe
“The Lady, or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton
“The Outcasts of Poker Flats” by Bret Harte
“The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James
“Heart of Darkness” by James Conrad
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
“Welcome to the Monkey House” by Kurt Vonnegut

Brian Keene is a great horror writer. Known for ‘The Rising’
I met him at Staple, and bought ‘The Conqueror Worms’ and ‘Ghoul’ from him.
Both books were amazing reads, but I have to say ‘Ghoul’ brought to mind Stephen King.
Coming-of-age story mixed with horror. Definitely worth it

Dlphntat - 24 March 2007 09:54 PM

Brian Keene is a great horror writer. Known for ‘The Rising’
I met him at Staple, and bought ‘The Conqueror Worms’ and ‘Ghoul’ from him.
Both books were amazing reads, but I have to say ‘Ghoul’ brought to mind Stephen King.
Coming-of-age story mixed with horror. Definitely worth it

Keene is awesome! I loved The Ghoul. If you like coming-of-age stories by horror authors you should check out The Bottoms by Lansdale, Boy’s Life by McCammon, Shadowland by Peter Straub, and The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. Ultimately my favorite is The Talisman by King and Straub

While I can understand the general frustration with King’s stories over the last 10 years I have to say I still like reading him. His structure, dialog, and character detail are amazing. I often look at what he writes in a deconstructive manner to try and find out how he ticks as a writer. While the total package may be less then its parts I think the parts are still worth looking at. I thought The Cell was a fun read.

Try out, David Wellington, (http://www.brokentype.com/davidwellington).

I did a feature/book review on him last year. He’s written a series of Zombie novels (Monster Island, Monster Nation ) that are great. Some of them are online at his website.  He’s also got a new vampire book out 13 Bullets that I will be reviewing soon.

More than a horror writer, I’d say he’s a great writer who happens to write horror, which I think is pretty rare.

He put some cool twists on the Zombie Genre

I would like to read a zombie novel.  I’m sure it would be interesting.

World War Z was interesting. A new way to tell a zombie story