Best/Worst Horror Read

mickrourke

Well there's a worst horror film thread so how about a best/worst horror book or author. Me I think Richard Laymon/Shaun Hutson are absolutely brutal, so bleeding predictable or just plain rubbish. Stephen king is a good writer but the stories would be a lot better if he didn't waffle so much.

My favourite book was "The Keep" by F.Paul Wilson, crap film though, and the sequels were rubbish too. Edgar Allen wrote some carcking stories too.

So how about your best/worst?

c - 13

Ah good Jesus, Laymon ! I started reading his stuff around age 14/15, I asked the guy working in the library to reccomend me a good horror book and he gave me "Funland" and "The Quake".

Your dead right about his stuff being very predictable, each book seems to involve at least one raping, usually by a monster of some description and most of his books involve an attack with a saw.

Of course when your 14 reading about this kind of stuff puts the shits up you. I suck with Layon, Koontz, King and a few other mainstream writers for years though. There were some good some bad.

I had to give up reading horror because I found most of the books were very hit and miss and hard to find an engrossing one (turned to fantasy instead, still very formulaic but better choice of books), anyway enough rambling.

Best -
Salems Lot (preferred it to the films)
Hannibal Books (cant comment on Hannibal Rising but the rest were good)
Edgar Allen (The best of Old Skool)

Worst -
Laymon

TerrorFirmer

King is by far my favourite. I also thought Shaun Hutson was decent, although tends to be a case of read one, read them all all too often. Slugs was a great one though, have you seen the movie? It's terrible, don't get me wrong, but the sections involving the slugs bursting out of the guys face at the dinner able and the scene where two teengers are deoured alive were horrifically and delightly faithful to the book, a rare occurance in alot of adaptions sadly.

Dean Koontz also writes some excellent stuff, in particular while the name escapes me he wrote a collection of short stories that equal Kings best works any day.

Oh and - I just can't remember his name, but I picked up a dirt cheap book awhile back from a guy called Rex....something. Anyway, it was about a serial killer, not exactly something that from description, sounds anything other then run of the mill but it was a great mix of profanity, unnecessary and graphic sex, and gruesome violence, reminiscent of Stephen King himself actually, and as far as I remember Stephen King was actually a fan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_Miller - Ah here we go, Rex Miller.

c - 13

Oh forgot to mention - I loved James Herberts "Rats" series too.

EDIT - Koontz "Phantoms" was one that I really enjoyed. Couldnt think of the name there for a minute.

garred

Grew up reading King, Laymon, Straub, etc but they have a shelf life. Really liked Steakleys Vampire Inc and needless to say I was so disappointed with the movie. For grose out nothing so far has come close to Ellis's American Psycho and not suprisingly the film was a lot toned down compared to the book.

DeadParrot

llis's American Psycho and not suprisingly the film was a lot toned down compared to the book.

Darkly comic, and very disturbing. The rat and cheese murder.....*shudder*.

King (so many to mention, shining, stand, Salems Lot, IT)
Robert R.McCammon (a couple of amazing books by this bloke, check out Mine and Swan Song)
Koonz
Straub
Barker
Thomas Harris (purely for the Lector series)

............

I'm a fan of those horrible penny dreadfuls that you find on holiday for €3/4...mindless pupl but enjoyable none the less.

jac83

i love anything by clive barker,im reading weaveworld at the moment its a good read!!also a book called neverland by douglas clegg is brilliant,ive read it loads of times! im not mad on dean koontz at all i hav to say i find his books really predictable.

DerekP11

Worst horror read of all time was "Crabs Moon". Ive long forgotten the author, but its about giant crabs attacking a welsh holiday camp.

Seriously.

mickrourke

Actually james herbert is good too, but he's got the same formula in each novel, I suppose it sells. his boook "the Fog" about an intelligent fog that made people go mad, was rubbish. I swear some horror writers are such an insult to your intelligence. You see the thing i really dislike is the predictability of a story, something with a good twist is what i'm looking for, and something aimed at adults not 14 year olds or i am just going to have to give up reading horror, so any recommendations would be greatly recieved. If you haven't read "The Keep" by F.Paul Wilson, I would advise you to, just don't read anything else he wrote....

Yes Koontz is predictable, one of his "winter moon", was rubbish and "life expectancy" about Killer Clowns. I may try some Clive Barker and i'm intrigued by the giant crabs (I take it thats it's about crustacaens and not about an STD) attacking a welsh village.

DerekP11

mickrourke wrote:

I may try some Clive Barker and i'm intrigued by the giant crabs (I take it thats it's about crustacaens and not about an STD) attacking a welsh village.

Eh...yep its about the crustaceans alright. There were a few books in the series. They were pretty bad, but pretty good in an infantile exploititive kind of way. I dug out the 3 books I have by the author. Night of the crabs, crabs moon and the sucking pit. Gonna read them again, because of this thread.

The author is Guy N. Smith.

http://www.guynsmith.com/

ObeyGiant

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record here, but for my money, noone comes close to Richard Matheson. He's got a completely different style to most other horror writers - his stories are a bit more 'pulp' and b-movie-ish - but they're almost all classic works, they've been around forever and influenced many of the authors mentioned here. I'd advise people to start with "I am Legend" (inspiration for the new Will Smith movie of the same name, The Omega Man, Last Man on Earth) and work back towards "Nightmare at 20,000 feet" (which was adapted for the Twilight Zone - the episode with William Shatner seeing a 'gremlin' on the wing of his plane).

Recently read "World War Z", by Max Brooks, which is just awesome. Not strictly a horror book, it's told as a mock-non-fiction account of the zombie apocalypse. How people survived, the major battles in the war against the zombies etc. One of the most entertaining reads I've encountered in a long time.

Worst - can't remember the name of the author, but I remember being apalled by "Monster Island". The idea of a zombie-infested New York is a great premise, but it was completely blown by taking *too many* liberties with the Zombie genre. Like a 'head zombie' who can use mind control on other zombies. Grrr. Annoys me now, just thinking of it.

Necronomicon

Steve Niles is someone I've gotten into a big way recently, I've collected a lot of his 30 Days of Night work. 'Dark Days', the graphic novel sequel to the original story is an excellent piece of work. At the moment I'm reading the novel which follows on again from that, 'Rumors of the Undead'.

ObeyGiant wrote:

Recently read "World War Z", by Max Brooks, which is just awesome. Not strictly a horror book, it's told as a mock-non-fiction account of the zombie apocalypse. How people survived, the major battles in the war against the zombies etc. One of the most entertaining reads I've encountered in a long time.

I have the first part of that, the Zombie Survival Guide, it's terrific

Tusky

ObeyGiant wrote:

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record here, but for my money, noone comes close to Richard Matheson. He's got a completely different style to most other horror writers - his stories are a bit more 'pulp' and b-movie-ish - but they're almost all classic works, they've been around forever and influenced many of the authors mentioned here. I'd advise people to start with "I am Legend" (inspiration for the new Will Smith movie of the same name, The Omega Man, Last Man on Earth) and work back towards "Nightmare at 20,000 feet" (which was adapted for the Twilight Zone - the episode with William Shatner seeing a 'gremlin' on the wing of his plane).

Recently read "World War Z", by Max Brooks, which is just awesome. Not strictly a horror book, it's told as a mock-non-fiction account of the zombie apocalypse. How people survived, the major battles in the war against the zombies etc. One of the most entertaining reads I've encountered in a long time.

Worst - can't remember the name of the author, but I remember being apalled by "Monster Island". The idea of a zombie-infested New York is a great premise, but it was completely blown by taking *too many* liberties with the Zombie genre. Like a 'head zombie' who can use mind control on other zombies. Grrr. Annoys me now, just thinking of it.

Couldnt agree more with 'I am Legend'. One of my favourite books and I highly reccomend it to anyone. Will Smith as the lead could be one of the worst casting choices every though.

faceman

William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist" is an excellent read. QUite freaky, a creates a more horrific scenario than the movie does. Even the famous crucifix scene is more intense in the book, if anything, even just for the last line.

Beelzebub

Bram Stoker's Dracula - when I first read it - made my skin crawl.

niallon

faceman wrote:

William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist" is an excellent read. QUite freaky, a creates a more horrific scenario than the movie does. Even the famous crucifix scene is more intense in the book, if anything, even just for the last line.

Absolutely. Reading this in 5th class alongside seeing Halloween when I was 7 definitely went someway towards making me the head-case I am today! Personally I do enjoy Stephen King though some books can make you cringe! Currently in the middle of the Dark Tower series and am loving it though I get the feeling that if I read LOTR or any other epic series I'd suffer from severe deja vu!

mickrourke

Crikey!!! I forgot about Dracula, yes one of my favourites alright, 1st horror book i read. What i really liked about that was the diary style of writing, i thought it lent it more credibility and believability. Even to this day i still shudder thinking of the coach thundering along trying to get to the meeting point before night fall........ and that would probably explain why i like vampire films/books above all other horror genres.

Anyway thanks to Tusky and Obeygiant, just got "I am legend" and really enjoying it, and "Salems Lot" (can't wait to read that one even though i saw the film about 5 times) Got the Salems Lot DVD too cause it was cheap on Play.com. Anymore good Vampire novels (or others) greatly appreciated.

niallon

I can tell you to steer well clear of the Travelling Vampire Circus by Richard Laymon! Honestly drove me to read Goosebumps again! Dreadful piece!

christophicus

Ok I cant remember which or how many horror novels i have read , so you may have to bair with me.Honestly my memory quite literally is like a seive. If I go more then two or three nights without reading a book I am in the middle of I forget the plot,what has happened and who the characters are, it is really pathetic and quite an impediment, but alas I digress, i'll offer my oppinions now.

First of Ive only read one or two stephen king books, but i didnt find them scary at all, they were more strange really.one of them was a collection of his short stories and the other was about a guy that investigates paranormall events, even though he is a sceptic, he offers non biased judgement and so on.

Secondly, dracula I thought was quite boring indeed. It didnt keep me enthralled at all, infact for alot of it I found it a chore having to read it.

Ok now onto some books that i trully liked.

I think Hell House is an extreamely good read and although it may be thin it really succeeds in drawing the reader into the story, and i did find moments genuinely scary( I woulod have to say it is deffinatly worthwhile waiting untill late into the night to read this when everything around you is quiet. I dont know, is this a well know story?? If no one has ever heard of it , i will try and find out the auther for you.

Someone has already mentioned James Herbert, THe only book of his I have read is "The Others" and while a slow starter( as some of the best books often are) i really came out of it satisfied. It was not actually scary but againn it was a great read.

I finally, Im not actually sure if this book would be considered a horror , but I feel some here may enjoy it.............. Damn i actually cant remember teh name of the book at the moment , but the authers name was karin slaughter

anyway thats my two cents for the moment and hopefully some of you may have never heard of these books and may enjoy reading them in the future.

The only other book that I can remember at the moment

Snake Plisken

Yeah I only read Stephen King, Salem's Lot is great remember reading it after seeing Tobe Hooper's excellent take on it in the early eighties. Enjoyed Cell from last year and still reading through the Tower series.

I did read Bram Stoker's Dracula again when I was seven or eight very spooky read.

I have been tempted to read Richard Matheson as I loved the Omega Man with Charlton Heston and also Loved Somewhere in Time with Chris Reeve's. And loved the nightmare at 20000 feet with John Lithgow in the Twilight Zone the movie.

Snake

mickrourke

Snake Plisken wrote:

Yeah I only read Stephen King, Salem's Lot is great remember reading it after seeing Tobe Hooper's excellent take on it in the early eighties. Enjoyed Cell from last year and still reading through the Tower series.

I did read Bram Stoker's Dracula again when I was seven or eight very spooky read.

I have been tempted to read Richard Matheson as I loved the Omega Man with Charlton Heston and also Loved Somewhere in Time with Chris Reeve's. And loved the nightmare at 20000 feet with John Lithgow in the Twilight Zone the movie.

Snake

Well i can tell you Snake that "I am legend" by Richard Matheson is worth the read but don't read it if you want to be scared. It's very cleverly written mainly. Just got the 3 hour DVD of salems lot off Play.com, still not bad although the acting is terrible, and David Soul is wearing a corset to hide his ample stomach. Got the book too - gonna read that real soon after i finish another one....

super_furry

I absolutly loved The Taking by Dean Koontz. Really creepy and foreboding and far from your typical horror novel.

Mr. Presentable

Best: Ghost Story by Peter Straub

Worst: The Cellar by Richard Laymon

doonothing

gotta love M R James (the Wailing Well especially) and Daphne du Maurier (the Apple Tree)..
TERRIFYING!

Ichi

Best: Ghost Story by Peter Straub

Couldn't agree more - chilling!

Dracula and Salems Lot excellent too. The Shining is a brilliant read too, damn I want to read it again now!

Worst? I got a book from the library called 'The Cloud', a sci-fi horror piece of crap - almost threw it out the window in disgust but remembered it was'nt mine. :rolleyes:

niallon

Snake Plisken wrote:

...and still reading through the Tower series.

Have you reached "Song Of Susannah" yet? Oh my God what a mind f**k that book is!