Supernatural Fiction Readers discussion

We already have a discussion thread for our favorite supernatural authors, and several of us have posted there. Maybe, though, your favorite(s) were already listed and you don't think you have anything new to add; or maybe you've never actually picked a favorite. (With so many good ones out there, it's hard to pick!) This thread is for you just to recommend a good supernatural author, or a particular book in this genre, that you've read, whether it's a top "favorite" or not. It can be a place to plug lesser-known reads, if you want to, that many of us may not have run across. (Some of you have started threads devoted to particular authors or books, and that's good, too!)

I'll start the ball rolling with a warm recommendation for Frank Peretti's The Oath. Biblical symbolism and Christian art have sometimes portrayed the devil as a dragon. But in the remote Oregon town of Hyde River, the setting for this novel, with its dark secrets of Satanism going back to the 1800s, the dragon is more than figurative, as some of the characters learn (and probably wish they'd stayed ignorant!) You can read more about this book if you click on it on the group bookshelf.

Note added Dec. 8, 2012: Some of us are writers, and we all think our own books or stories are well worth recommending (and, truth to tell, they probably are!) But we're not the most impartial judges of that. :-) So, this thread is really for recommending other authors, and books by other people. But we have a folder for group members to promote their own work, and encourage one and all to do so there!

I love Frank Peretti and this was a good book! Anyone read House by Peretti and Ted Dekker? Once of my favorites!

So far, I haven't read anything more by Peretti, or anything by Dekker. But I definitely want to! :-) I'll keep House in mind.

Elizabeth Massie is always good, and not because she's a friend. But she writes great horror.
Pam

Forgot to add, Shirley Jackson. Her The Haunting of Hill House is one of the best ghost stories and I love her We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
Pam

Werner - Three is my favorite book by Ted Dekker. I simply couldn't get through it fast enough.

I just remembered another book I read not too long ago that I really enjoyed...

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due.

Karl Edward Wagner. "In A Lonely Place" is a collection of short stories that were very good.

Tananarive due has some great books. :-D

I only came across My Soul to Keep by Tananarive by accident. Are her other books similar?

One of my favorites is Season of Passage by Christopher Pike.

Vampires, ghosts, mythology, magic, Mars exploration and a love story (sort of)... what's not to like? =)

I recommend Haunted Lily by Sidney Fox.
It's a great Halloween read that really got me into the spirit. If you like ghosts, ghost hunting or all things spooky...this is it.
I also started a group about it, my first, called Ghost Memoirs if anyone is interested in knowing more about it. While the story hits on very serious subjects, she keeps you lighthearted and having fun with the story. I'm bummed I finished it so fast! lol

A good book I recently read that has supernatural elements in it is A Scattering of Jadesby Alexander C. Irvine.

I second the choice of Karl Edward Wagner's collection of short stories, "In a Lonely Place". I love Wagner's work especially his earlier stuff. I do alway add the caveat that his stories sometimes have adult elements of sex and violence so that those who don't like that are warned. Having said that though, I think some of the stories in the IALP collection, especially "Sticks" are among the best horror stories ever, by anybody.
I'm never read most of the other authors mentioned so far other than Shirley Jackson, but I'm grateful for the recommendations. That's one of the main reasons I enjoy these groups, I learn about new (to me) authors and books.

Another vote for Wagner's "In a Lonely Place". He wrote some great stuff.

I'd vote for "Exorcisms and Ecstasies" which is by & about him, but that book is too expensive & hard to find. I wanted to buy a copy for my son & found that the cheapest copy is over $100 now. I picked mine up for $5 in a 70% off bookstore. I could have had a couple more - if only I'd known!

I've added Haunted Lily to my TBR. Sounds frighteninly fabulous!

I just realized the first vote for Wagner's "In a Lonely Place" was mine. Oops! Sorry about that.

I have Haunted Lily on my TBR, too.

Well Jim, at least we know you really like the book! ;)

Ilove the following:

The Sparrow & Children of God - Mary Doria Russell

Haunted Lily - Sidney Fox
The Stand - Stephen King
The Luciver Wars - Stuart Vowell
All of Sunny's books
The Black Jewels Trilogy - Anne Bishop

Sorry I could go on and on and on...

Fiona

Ikiwiki wrote: "I love Frank Peretti and this was a good book! Anyone read House by Peretti and Ted Dekker? Once of my favorites!"

I picked it up at the library, just cuz of the cover but I'm not into Christian horror. And Yes, it really was a good read

Wow, but this topic has been languishing. Always, thank you for bringing it back to life.

I read Haunted Lily The Nightmare Ball & really liked it. I discussed it with Sidney Fox & she's a love. There's a new edition coming out soon, I think. I hope she also comes out with a second book soon.

I read a book about a house that wasn't bad. I think it was by Perretti but I don't know for sure. This house reaches to lots of different worlds/dimensions. Evil is trying to break in. New owner/master? It seemed like a Christian Horror & I think I even found a second book, but I got rid of them without reading it when I moved.

(I got rid of about 1000 books when I moved & still had twice as many to hump around. I'm never moving again. I'll just slowly sink under the weight of collected books. No need to bury me.)

Re the topic languishing, I suspect that was because people couldn't find it readily --it got buried back in the mountain of 30-some topics in the General folder, most of which you couldn't see unless you clicked on "view all." I'm inclined to think that the higher visibility the arrangement with more folders gives to some topics is already proving its worth!

I belong to too many groups & tend to leave my home page on "Recent Updates to Your Groups". There is too much there to keep up with, much less go looking for more. I really need to trim them down some.

Keeping your group memberships to a manageable number is probably wise (but hard to do :-)). Just don't make this group one of the ones you trim --we like having you around!

I appreciate that, Werner. It won't be. I'm thinking of getting rid of a couple of the huge groups.
;-)

For strictly supernatural I would have to recommend the following:

The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith
The Indifference of Heaven by Gary A Braunbeck.

Braunbeck does allot of supernatural fiction and he is an author of the highest class. Well worth the time and money!

Mercedes Lackey has never been a favorite author of mine, but I have quite a few of her fantasy books & we've all enjoyed them. I recently found that she had a paranormal series "Diane Tregrave".

I read the first one, Burning Water. It was OK. Anyone else read them? I have a second one in that series, but am not in a rush to read it. I was wondering if it got better or not.

Jerrod wrote: "For strictly supernatural I would have to recommend the following:

The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith
The Indifference of Heaven by Gary A Braunbeck.

Braunbeck doe..."
Jerrod :)
I totally have to agree w/you on Braunbeck.... He is 1 of thee better writers out there! I'm never disappointed when I pick up a copy of one of his books. I just wish they were all more affordable. Ya know
:)

Jim wrote: "Wow, but this topic has been languishing. Always, thank you for bringing it back to life.

I read Haunted Lily The Nightmare Ball & really liked it. I discussed it with [author:Si..."

Burning Water was my least favorite, but I loved Children of the Night.

Anyway, my review of Ghost Ocean by S.M. Peters is up on my site: http://otherwherereviews.blogspot.com I know there's some people in this group that will love it, if they haven't found it on their own already. It reminds me of a mix of early Clive Barker and Thomas Ligotti with a pinch of China Mieville.

Zhye, that's an excellent review, and Ghost Ocean sounds like an intriguing book! And thanks for sharing that link; your site looks like one that a lot of our group members would enjoy visiting often.

Any of the novels by Edward Lee. Granted, he is NOT for everyone, due to the graphic nature of his books...but I think he is a uniquely gifted storyteller. My personal Lee favorite is Succubi.

I'll recommend "Afraid" by Jack Kilborn.... It did a great job scaring me....And I'm old

Agreed. That was an excellent book. Look forward to future Kilborn novels...

Always wrote: "I'll recommend "Afraid" by Jack Kilborn.... It did a great job scaring me....And I'm old"

I got to thinking about Sydney & her book "Haunted Lily". Anyone else read it yet? She's supposed to be getting it republished soon, I think.

One of the cool things about it - not sure if it is in the book - is the manor house that Sydney used as a model for the one in her book. Whitemarsh Hall is worth looking over. Lots of photos & plans. Wonderful photos in its prime, after it was abandoned & what's left today.

Jim wrote: "I got to thinking about Sydney & her book "Haunted Lily". Anyone else read it yet? She's supposed to be getting it republished soon, I think.

One of the cool things about it - not sure if it is ..."

Sorry Jim, I read the Summary of Haunted Lily & it didn't appeal to me... :(

Chris wrote: "Agreed. That was an excellent book. Look forward to future Kilborn novels...

Always wrote: "I'll recommend "Afraid" by Jack Kilborn.... It did a great job scaring me....And I'm old"

"

Under the name Jack Kilborn, the writer has another book coming out called "Trapped" don't know when but there was a snippet of it after the ending of Afraid...

Salems Lot- Stephen King- Vampire novel.

The Dark tower- Stephen King- 7 Part series deals with alot of different themes, including a copy of our world but set in another universe/multi universe theme, with all kinds of creepy crawlies.

It- Stephen King- Deals with fear, and its evil form.

These are a few great from Stephen King I would gladly recommend.

Ikiwiki and Always, I just wanted to let you know that I recently snapped up a copy of House by Dekker and Peretti at a flea market, because of your endorsements! It'll be awhile before I read it (I had my wife buy it for me as a Christmas present --so I can't have it until Dec. 25, anyway :-)); but whenever I do, I'll try to post some feedback to this group.

Two books by T.E.D. Klein are favorites of mine since reading them last fall: Dark Gods (consists of 4 novellas) and the novel, The Ceremonies. Ceremonies is long, and definitely of the "Slow Burn" school, but it's excellent. All 4 stories in Dark Gods are really good and frightening stuff. Both books were published in the mid-to-late 80s I think.

Wow, Klein is old school 80's horror, for sure. I read The Ceremonies way back when and liked it.

Chris wrote: "Wow, Klein is old school 80's horror, for sure. I read The Ceremonies way back when and liked it. "

Yeah, I'm way into the old school 70s/80s for sure - but I need to catch up into the modern world too, I guess. I've got Ghost Road Blues on my queue, and hope to get to it soon!

Robert, the "Pine Deep" trilogy by Maberry is one of my favorites from the past few years. You won't be disappointed! :)

Awesome, thanks - I've been putting off picking up GRB only because I feel if I want to read the sequels right after I want to be ready to commit to them...do you recommend reading book 2 right after GRB, or can it wait a bit? Never enough time to read everything...

Great question...and yes, you will definitely want to read 'em one after the other because--timeline-wise--they take place one after the other. Although they weren't published back to back...I think a year a piece...but just a great debut by Maberry. I'd go so far as to say instant horror classics.

Cool. I have this whole pile of horror/supernatural lit books (in between tons of other stuff) and I think after I tackle The Keep by F. Paul Wilson and Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell (I told you - old school), then I will plan on tackling the Maberry trilogy, all three. Thanks for the advice!

Sure thing, man. I love some of the older horror authors, too. One of my favorite things to do is peruse the horror section at used bookstores...

If you ever get a chance, In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner is good horror. Although he's probably best known for his Kane series & some Conan works, I really liked this book of short stories. It's a bit hard/expensive to find now, though.

I agree, Wagner wrote great short stories - "Sticks" in particular is regarded as a classic. I've encountered several of his stories in anthologies like The Dark Descent, Dark Forces and Fine Frights (the latter is a little book of short stories Ramsay Campbell selected - his criteria for inclusion was stories that really scared him!). I'd love to get In a Lonely Place, but yeah - it's expensive.

I'm lucky. I bought a copy of it years back when it first came out in paperback & picked up another at a yard sale. One of those is still in good shape. I think his story about the kudzu was the best, but I did like "Sticks" & "The Pines". Scary stuff.

I also have Exorcisms and Ecstasies, which has a lot of Wagner's stories with bits written in between by writers that knew him. I picked it up for $5 at a 75% off bookstore, a place that got books that didn't sell at the new bookstores. It was new, perfect condition. Now I see it for $100 or more occasionally.

It makes me wonder about publishers when I see prices like that on books. Most of Wagner's books go for very high prices & yet no one is reprinting them. Seems to me that they should. When battered paperbacks are going for $30 or $60, I would think they would want to make a few bucks on a limited run.

WOW!!!

I had no idea. I just looked up "In a Lonely Place" on Amazon. One copy of the mass market paperback that I have, in 'good' condition, is available for $185!!! The hardback is cheaper & more available (5 copies) for only $170! Ebay has a signed paperback for only $93 - but only one. Sheesh! Reprints are definitely needed!

Yes, the prices for some of the great genre writers are indeed insane/prohibitive. For example, I really want to read Lisa Tuttle's 80s paperback collection A Nest of Nightmares, but the price is too damn steep.