Sunday, November 30, 2014

West's List of Horror

Today we have UK writer Mark West’s top-twenty book-list of horror fiction. Mark has had dozens of works published over the years and is definitely an author whom readers of quality fiction should seek out (link below). His latest release is the novella Drive from Pendragon Press which has been receiving great reviews.

And now, his fine list:

Boy’s Life, by Robert McCammon
IT, by Stephen King
Falling Angel, by William Hjortsberg
The End, by Gary McMahon
Last Days, by Adam Nevill
Whitstable, by Stephen Volk
I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
The House Next Door, by Anne Rivers Siddons
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
Psycho, by Robert Bloch

The Happy Man, by Eric C. Higgs
The Stepford Wives, by Ira Levin
Throat Sprockets, by Tim Lucas
The Dead Zone, by Stephen King
Cutting Edge, edited by Dennis Etchison
Dark Forces, edited by Kirby Macauley
Skeleton Crew, by Stephen King
Shatterday, by Harlan Ellison
The Dark Country, by Dennis Etchison

The Books Of Blood (pick any one of the six), by Clive Barker

Thursday, November 27, 2014

DEAD EARTH: THE GREEN DAWN REVIEW

Hi,

Matt Cowan of Horror Delve has reviewed Dead Earth: The Green Dawn.

"This is a fast-paced read filled with great characters, eerie dreams, zombies, aliens, action and the occasional touch of humor as well. Give DEAD EARTH: THE GREEN DAWN a read even if, like me, you aren’t a big fan of zombies. I think you’ll find yourself swept along to the very end."

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Bagley's List of Horror

It's all lowercase today on the blog, and that's because today's guest is none other than s.j. bagley: artist, musician and horror scholar extraordinaire. I've been friends with him for at least a decade and can honestly say I've met no one else like him and, as you'll soon see, he's come up with quite a unique and amazing list for this series. 

but enough from me; i'll let him make his own list introduction. --DTW

as a critic, reader, and critical reader i strongly loathe the culturally hegemonic position that the novel holds, being popularly (and incorrectly) considered the only truly valid literary form. in fact, my dislike of the novel as cultural construction is one of the first things most readers discover about me and i thought it would interesting to upend that particular personal narrative, momentarily, and give our illustrious host mssr. wilbanks a list of twenty horror novels of the twenty-first century that i highly recommend.

i have resisted the nigh overwhelming urge to editorialise or evangelise and have decided to let the list stand, alone. please bear in mind that this is not a list of twenty 'favourite' novels and they are listed in alphabetical order, not by order of importance or personal taste.

laird barron- 'the croning.'
jesse bullington- 'the sad tale of the brothers grossbart.'
ramsey campbell- 'the darkest part of the woods.'
michael cisco- 'the tyrant.'
elizabeth hand- 'generation loss.'
caitlin r. kiernan- 'the drowning girl.'
victor lavalle- 'big machine.'
alain mabankou- 'african psycho.'
john mantooth- 'the year of the storm.'
daniel mills- 'revenants.'
s.p. miskowski- 'knock knock.'

adam neville- 'ritual.'
david nickle- 'eutopia.'
joyce carol oates- 'daddy love.'
tom piccirilli- 'a choir of ill children.'
david searcey- 'ordinary horror.'
jeffrey thomas- 'boneland.'
lee thomas- 'the german.'
kaaron warren- 'slights.'
conrad williams- 'the unblemished.'

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Kelly's List of Horror

It is quite remarkable that esteemed horror editor and author Michael Kelly found time to make a list for this series; even though I didn't pressure him, he was kind enough to send me something. It's an amazing list and now that I've seen it, I feel I could have used a couple of his selections in place of some of those on my own. But that is the way with lists, I reckon; they can change from day to day.

A note from Mr. Kelly: "I [...] decided that no author would be represented more than once. I could have easily added more Aickman, Machen, Ligotti, etc."


The Howling Man, by Charles Beaumont
The Dark Descent, edited by David G. Hartwell
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque, by Joyce Carol Oates
The Cipher by Kathe Koja
The Dark Country, by Dennis Etchison
Shadowland, by Peter Straub
The Great God Pan, by Arthur Machen
Sub Rosa, by Robert Aickman
The Willows, by Algernon Blackwood



Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
Hauntings, by Vernon Lee
Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe
The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Nightmare Factory, by Thomas Ligotti
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
The Wasp Factory, by Iain Banks
The Trial, by Franz Kafka
Carrion Comfort, by Dan Simmons

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Cowan's List of Horror

Another day, another list of scrumptious horror fiction, this time served up by that writer of ghost stories, that master of the Horror Delve blog, that lover of all things Ramsey Campbell, Mr. Matt Cowan. (And if you remember, he also wrote reviews for ye olde Page Horrific.)

So here we go...

Alone With The Horrors (collection) - Ramsey Campbell
Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary (collection) - M.R. James
Night Things - Michael Talbot
The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories (anthology) edited by Peter Haining
Summer of Night - Dan Simmons
Incarnate - Ramsey Campbell
Night Stone - Rick Hautala
Haunted - James Herbert
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton (collection) - Edith Wharton
The Penguin Book of Horror Stories (collection) edited by John Anthony Cuddon



Ancient Images - Ramsey Campbell
Ghost Stories for Christmas (anthology) edited by Richard Dalby
Prey - Graham Masterton
A Winter Haunting - Dan Simmons
The Grin of the Dark - Ramsey Campbell
House of Fear (anthology) edited by Jonathan Olive
Midnight Sun - Ramsey Campbell
Out of the Night - Patrick Whalen
100 Wild Little Weird Tales (anthology) edited by Robert Weinberg, Stefan R. Dziemanowicz and Martin H. Greenberg
Haunted by Al Sarrantonio

Friday, November 14, 2014

Raisor's List of Horror

I'm lucky enough to have a list submitted by veteran horror author Gary Raisor, and he has such fine taste too (but he has me curious about that Farmer novel, which I'd never heard of.)


From Wikipedia: Gary Raisor is an American horror author best known for the novels Less Than Human, Graven Images, Sinister Purposes, and his extensive short fiction work. [...] He was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel for Less Than Human in 1992.
He also edited the anthology Obsessions with stories from Dean Koontz, Kevin J. Anderson, F. Paul Wilson, Dan Simmons, Joe R. Lansdale, and featured the story Lady Madonna by Nancy Holder, which won the Bram Stoker Award for Short Fiction in 1991.

Raisor has written numerous short stories, beginning in the 1980s in Night Cry Magazine and The Horror Show, working his way into a lot of "Best Of" anthologies. Today, Raisor concentrates primarily on screenplays and comics.

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
The Shining - Stephen King
I am Legend - Richard Matheson
The Island of Dr. Moreau - H.G. Wells
The Long Loud Silence - Wilson A. Tucker
The Drive-in - Joe R. Lansdale
The Dead Zone - Stephen King
Drood - Dan Simmons
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells




American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Ghost Story - Peter Straub
Christine - Stephen King
Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
Swan Song - Robert McCammon
The Mist - Stephen King
The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
Image of the Beast/Blown - Philip Jose Farmer


Gary Raisor at Crossroad Press

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Read my review of this novel over at Hellnotes.

http://hellnotes.com/the-queen-of-the-tearling-book-review

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Wilbanks' List of Horror

Folks have asked me about my own list of twenty horror fiction books so, with little ado, here it is. First, allow me to say it wasn't easy and I could have gone many different ways in its creation, but in the end I went for a general balance of what I've enjoyed over the years.


Complete Works – Edgar Allan Poe
The Island of Dr. Moreau – H.G. Wells (1896)
Dracula – Bram Stoker (1897)
Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
The Werewolf of Paris – Guy Endore  (1933)
I Am Legend – Richard Matheson (1954)
The Exorcist – William Peter Blatty (1971)
Interview with the Vampire – Anne Rice (1976)
Night Shift – Stephen King (1978)
Red Dragon – Thomas Harris (1981)



Pet Sematary – Stephen King (1983)
The Books of Blood – Clive Barker (1984/1985)
The Dark Descent – ed. by David G. Hartwell  (1987)
The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre (1987)
Lightning – Dean Koontz (1988)
Ancient Images – Ramsey Campbell (1989)
Black Angel – Graham Masterton (1991)
The Nightmare Factory – Thomas Ligotti (1996)
A Lower Deep – Tom Piccirilli (2001)
A Winter Haunting – Dan Simmons (2002)

Monday, November 10, 2014

Freeman's List of Horror

What better introduction to author Bob Freeman and his list of twenty top horror books than to quote the credentials on his Twitter bio?: Author, Artist, Paranormal Adventurer, Psychonaut, Amateur Cartographer, Dungeon Master, & Rune Caster. He also created the art for Randy Chandler's BAD JUJU from our own Acid Grave Press; read it if you haven't; it's a doozy.

Now here's Bob's fine list. Enjoy!


The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard
The Collected Works of Algernon Blackwood
The Great God Pan and Other Weird Stories - Arthur Machen
The Complete John Thunstone - Manly Wade Wellman
Hellblazer (DC/Vertigo)
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Shadowland - Peter Straub



Spectre - Robert Weverka
The Stand - Stephen King
Ghost Story - Peter Straub
The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty
The Witching Hour - Anne Rice
The Devil Rides Out - Dennis Wheatley
Love is the Law - Nick Mamatas
LeHorn's Hollow - Brian Keene
Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist
Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz