Recommend me some epic horror books
 

Hello. This is my first post here.

I am a fan of epic fantasy and dark fantasy stories. I have read some stuff from the more horrific end of fantasy, and now I want to read something from the fantastic end of the horror genre.

This is in part just for the reading pleasure, and in part because I am looking for inspiration for my own writing. What I am writing is some very dark, epic fantasy in a medieval-style high fantasy setting.

The kind of stories I prefer are long-winded epic ones with a load of background/setting/world/mythology. I have always found the overall setting/background more interesting than characters and story alone, but those are of course also important elements. I also prefer things with a really dark, evil world view where good does not triumph in the end (although of course I don't want that kind of spoilers in this thread).

I haven't read much horror fiction, so the only good example of what I am looking for is the whole Cthulhu Mythos world by H.P. Lovecraft and others (although that is quite fragmented - I would prefer a more coherent story).

Can anyone recommend some books or (preferably) series that match this? Thanks.

Books I consider epic horror, though they are only a single volume:

The Stand by Stephen King

Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon

I assume you are familiar with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (not horror but fantasy of course)...

Thanks, I'll look into these.

Yes, I know Wheel of Time. I've read the first ten books and am working on the eleventh. It's good (tho it sucks in certain aspects), and it's among my sources of inspiration, but it's not remotely what I am looking for in this thread. WOT is not dark fantasy, not even remotely. It's bright fantasy. Bob Jordan doesn't even have the guts to kill off a single major character, for F's sake! (BTW, can I say the "F-word" on this forum?)

yes and use it with wild abandon:cool:

LOL, OK, thanks, I will.

The Stand and Swan Song are good recommendations.

Also I would recommend Imajica by Clive Barker and The Great and Secret Show by Barker.

Alot of King's books would fit the bill. Three of his best would be:

The Dark Tower series (7 books, over 4,000 pages)
The Stand uncut version (around 1200 pages)
It (around 1,200 pages)

Someone else mentioned Imajica by Clive Barker. It is a good read.

If you pick up all four of these, then that should keep your horror/fantasy appetite satisfied for a few months. ;)

Ugh... I tried to read this one. I got halfway through the Gunslinger before I gave up. I found it extremely uninteresting. :(

Still, thanks for the replies. I'll check out the other ones.

The first book is really slow, but not a long read. The second book Drawing of the Three is fantastic. Alot of action. You'll be glad you forced your way through the first book when you get to the second.

Hm, yeah, OK, I may give it another try some time. But I'll read some of the other things first.

More suggestions
 

Swan Song
Terry Brook's Running with the Demon series (though I hated it)
Have you tried The Keep?
Not really epic, but certainly an awesome period book that one who likes horror should read.
ESB

No, by whom?

The Keep is by F. Paul Wilson and is the first book in the Adversary Cycle.

The Adversary Cycle

The Keep
The Tomb (the first Repairman Jack novel)
The Touch
Reborn
Reprisal
Nightworld

I would recommend them all actually. Except for Reborn, which unfortunately I haven't read yet. :)

Melmoth the Wanderer by Maturin is a classic horror epic. The Keep is definitely recommended, as are Barker's Great and Secret Show and Imajica.

BTW, those of you who are interested in things like what I asked for might want to check out an identical thread I made on the SFReader fora.

Pedidro Street Station by China Meivelle
The Ruins by Scott Smith
The Others by James Herbert
Haunted, Moon, The Ghosts of Sleath by James Herbert
Neverwhere and American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Howzabouts the series by Stephen R Donaldson?:

"The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever"
"The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant"
"The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant"

They're certainly epic, and set in a world being destroyed by evil (Fantasia on a grander and darker scale!).


http://theland.antgear.com/

Oh, gods. I read the first two hundred pages of this, but I hated its guts. I just couldn't stand Thomas Covenant's self-pity and assholeish behaviour, nor the tree-hugging melancholy of the whole setting. No, not giving this series a second try.

But thanks anyway........ :rolleyes:

You're welcome. :P

............:p

........ :D

Carrion Comfort by: Dan Simmons...


Trust me!!!!!!

Dan Simmons, as in, the same guy who wrote the Hyperion series? Hm... I'm not sure about him. He has some idiosyncrasies that annoy the shit out of me. But I might take a look. Thanks anyway.

the stand!

I Will Rise by Michael Calvillo

An astoundingly well written and extremely original debut novel that manages to be epic and personal at the same time.

Best book I've read in over a year.

Well, I tried Clive Barker's Imajica. I read the first 100 pages and hated it. Most of the story was pointless everyday blabla, the characters were mostly worthless ordinary nobodies, the cosmology was ridiculous rather than fantastic. (Merchants traveling the Dominions selling exotic souvenirs? Please. It feels more like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy than any serious fantasy.) It's not even remotely horrific. If it's even "dark", then it's a whining, tree-hugging, moralizing emo kind of "dark".

Awful. Couldn't bear to read any more.

I'll move on to some of the other suggestions. I just wanted to rant.

the prayer
 

try "the prayer" by alraines

http://prayer.abhigyanjha.com/index2.html

http://undercoverpro.abhigyanjha.com/theprayerbook.html

Link number two doesn't work.

My Favorite series right now is Necroscope written by Brian Lumley I'm waiting for the 5th book to arrive so I can start it, they sell out fast here where I am.... Here are the first four I've read there are 15 books to the series:

1. Necroscope
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...oscopebook.jpg

2. Vamphryi !
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...s/vamphryi.jpg

3. The Source
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...lthesource.jpg

4. Deadspeak
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...ldeadspeak.jpg


~ SYNOPSIS:
NECROSCOPE (US)
Copyright © 1986 Brian Lumley

Cover art by Bob Eggleton

ISBN: 0-812-51684-2

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

THE OUTER LIMITS OF HORROR
From the undead vampire in the Romanian mausoleum, Boris Dragosani tries to draw an evil force so powerful he will gain supremacy in the ultra-secret paranormal agency he works for in Russia. His official job is as a NECROSCOPE - his specialty is tearing secrets from the souls of newly-dead traitors.

And England too has her necroscope - her communicator with the dead. When Harry Keogh is recruited from by the British Secret Service to take on the paranormal menace from behind the Iron Curtain, the stage is set for the most horrifying, violent supernatural confrontation ever...
DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES
Except to Harry Keogh, Necroscope. And what they tell him is horrifying.

In the Balkan mountains of Rumania, a terrible evil is growing. Long buried in hallowed ground, bound by earth and silver, the master vampire schemes and plots. Trapped in unlife, neither dead nor living, Thibor Ferenczy hungers for freedom and revenge.

The vampire's human tool is Boris Dragosani, part of a super-secret Soviet spy agency. Dragosani is an avid pupil, eager to plumb the depthless evil of the vampire's mind. Ferenczy teaches Dragosani the awful skills of the necromancer, gives him the ability to rip secrets from the mind and bodies of the dead.

Dragosani works not for Ferenczy's freedom but world domination. He will rule world with the knowledge raped from the dead.

His only opponent: Harry Keogh, champion of the dead and the living.

To protect Harry, the dead will do anything - even rise from their graves!

Yeah, I've read the first Necroscope book and liked it. They don't have more at the library, alas, but I might buy them. At some point.