Best horror

[kid999]

Who is a horror writer as good as Mr. King

[Sheila]

I love Stephen King, but I do believe Peter Straubb, and John Saul could give him a run for his money

[jaydub6669]

I love King!!! He will always be my favorite but lately i have been into Clive Barker for the more fantasy/horror genre. Also Brian Lumley's Necroscope series has some interesting takes on the whole vampire myth's.

[anita blake]

Not many can beat Graham Marsterton for gore. He is deeply into Native American mythology. His books veer on the Native Americans revenge of the White man. The first book I read of GM's was Manitou. It is a good book, but you have to remember it was written in the 70's and not as sophisticated as his later books.
The manitou is a series, the following books in the series are

1. Revenge of the Manitou
2. Burial
3. Spirit Jump
4. Manitou Blood
5. Manitou Armaggedon

He also wrote another series Night Warrior. In these stories the main character Stanley Eisner contracts the night plague during a very violent mugging. He has to find the source of the plague to save humanity The source - a witch lives in dreams and Stanley Eisner has to travel into peoples dreams to track the source down and kill the witch. far easier said than done.

The books are
1. Night Warriors
2. Death Dream
3. Night Plague
4. Night Wars

[M]

Dean Koontz writes some very scary books and some bizarre ones False Memory, Intensity and Velocity are good scares.

[anita blake]

I have just read a review for Dean Koontz False Memory. Sorry to say it has put me off. I'm not a big fan of DK, but I'm always willing to give authors a try if theres a decent review to drag me in.

The best review I saw was the shortest one, which didn't really explain a thing, but it made me pick up the book and read it. It was for Michael Marshal Smiths debut book. Only Forward. The back cover said

"May we introduce you to Stark
Oh and by the way- Good luck..."

I just had to read it to see why. I absolutley loved the book and consequently became a huge fan of his books. His books are not for the light hearted prudes, who does not like smoking, swearing or violence.

If you love cats you will love MMS they seem to pop up in every book he writes.

[Kosmex5]

I have to agree with Shiela-Peter Straub is one of the best around. His novels trancend mere "horror." Like King, he has the ability to create psychological dread around even the most mundane subjects. (Maybe that's why they partnered up on "Talisman" and "Black House.) He really knows how to tap into those subconcious fears.

He also wrote an excellent mystery/fantasy novel called KoKo that is too unique to explain. I highly recommend it.

[Booklover1981]

An author I feel captures horror well, albeit not as well as Mr King, but one I would really recommend is James Herbert, the detail he includes in his books, the suspense they're great!

[andwithpatience]

Sooo glad this thread is here now I don't feel like such a kid.
I've been in love with Stephen King and Dean Koontz for years now. The Dark Tower series is just amazing. I've never read anything by King that actually scared me, but it's entertaining.
I think I have to say that I actually prefer Koontz over King, though. There's an element of wisdom in his novels somewhere, almost every time. I'm really pretty sure that reading "Fear Nothing" may have changed my life. The Chris Snow books are all good, same with Odd Thomas. Well, all of the Odd Thomas books except the graphic novel he put out...that was a campy waste of my time, and I love comics!


At one point I tried to start reading KoKo, but I just...I'm not really sure what happened, but I didn't get into it. Maybe I didn't actually try, but I'm sure going to give it another shot!

Would you guys consider V.C. Andrews to be horror? Personally, I wouldn't really, but I've seen her classified as such before...

[MoreCowbell]

Dan Simmons...try Summer of Night

[lietoanangel]

There is no one like Stephen King.

[sarascareermail]

I have recently read a series by Brian Keene. The first book is titled The Rising and it is about an outbreak of a type of zombie demons. My husband was originally reading the series and after he read a few excerpts to me, I just had to read it for myself.

[archanadevi]

Stephen king is the best author in my experience.

Thanks

[The Mythwriter]

I like some books by Richard Matheson, "Now You See It" creeped me out in some places. (But stay away from "Hell House").

"Adam" By Ted Dekker is easily the scariest book I have ever read. It's more of a thriller novel than a horror, per se, but if it's scarier than anything I've read by King, I don't see why I can't compare them!

[Amelia]

"Adam" By Ted Dekker is easily the scariest book I have ever read. It's more of a thriller novel than a horror, per se, but if it's scarier than anything I've read by King, I don't see why I can't compare them!

I read "Adam" on this claim, and I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it and I will be seeking Dekker out in the future, but I didn't find it anywhere near as scary as a lot of King's stuff.
I've been trying to figure out why, because it is a scary concept explored in the book, but I think it was just that the concept snuck up on me in such a way that my suspension of belief and immersion in the story was compromised. I thought I was just reading a crime novel, and suddenly a dose of the supernatural was thrown in for good measure. Just a bit too random. [/quote]