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So I recently started a possibly regrettable undertaking: reading H.P. Lovecraft's entire body of work in chronological order. And it's starting to drag. I love Lovecraft's work, I've been crazy about Cosmic horror for a while now, but I actually haven't run into that much. So who else exists in the genre? Has anybody been writing compelling Lovecraftian horror in recent years? I have some August Derleth on the way and I haven't hit his predecessors (Blackwood and Machen, for example), but I'm curious if there's much representation in the genre right now. Or maybe it's better to say that I know there's lots of Lovecraft-esque authors out there, but are any of them good? EDIT: If you just stumbled on to this thread, great! Feel free to post about Cosmic Horror or Weird Tales, as the title suggests. But hey, did you know that there's a general horror thread, too? Well there is! It's here! MockingQuantum fucked around with this message at 02:48 on May 15, 2018 |
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Jan 20, 2012 23:43
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Ogmius815 posted:I love Lovecraft. Lovecraft is decades ahead of his time. I'll always think reading Lovecraft is worthwhile. That said, Lovecraft is a pretty lovely writer. I couldn't imagine reading that much of him at once. It's not bad, since once you pass a certain point you start getting a lot of his good stuff with fair frequency (starting around 1925 with The Horror at Red Hook) but it can be ponderous with the early, dream-cycle stuff.
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Jan 21, 2012 03:12
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Lifor posted:I could look at the ones I've read and tell you which authors I liked best. I'd definitely appreciate that-- I've never had a problem with the 40k universe, just never had the $$ to play the game.
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Jan 21, 2012 03:13
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Linnear posted:Stephen King. You could make an (albeit fuzzy) argument for The Mist as well.
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Jan 21, 2012 18:01
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For those interested in reading some Thomas Ligotti, one of his short stories (I'm told it's one of his best) can be found here: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=433
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Jan 21, 2012 19:02
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Jedit posted:Would it be completely outlandish to suggest Mignola's Hellboy? It's more Titus Crow than HPL, to be sure, but it's fun to look at it from the perspective of a lead character who is himself an agent of Extradimensional Tentacular Evil. Hellboy is DEFINITELY "Weird Tales" material, if not outright Mythos. The Ogdru Jahad have a real Lovecraft flavor to them though.
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Jan 22, 2012 07:45
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Kerbtree posted:If you're having trouble reading HPL, how about listening? I've occasionally considered doing something like this-- I've run into audio adaptations before, and the vast majority of them seem to come off dry and uninteresting. There are good ones out there, though. Just not always the ones that I think work best read aloud.
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Jan 24, 2012 06:08
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MyNameIsAlex posted:C'mon guys no love for House Of Leaves? It is kinda subjective though on that but still its a bloody ace read. It is, though it strays pretty far from the sort of "weird tales" template I'm thinking of. The Minotaur and the House itself definitely qualify as "cosmic horror" though. I definitely didn't trust my walls after reading it.
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Jan 25, 2012 07:19
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If you don't have trouble with heightened language, just about any Arthur Machen or Algernon Blackwood that is readily available is great, though less on the order of "Mythos" horror. Both of them were major influences on Lovecraft, and it's pretty apparent when you read them. Ambrose Bierce had some that he drew influence from; The Damned Thing comes to mind.
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Jan 27, 2012 06:28
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arinlome posted:This sums it up perfectly. Lovecraft had an amazing imagination, and he's definitely worth reading, but his writing borders on abysmal. At the Mountains of Madness is pretty brilliant though. The quality of his writing really is dependent on when he wrote it. The quality has been steadily improving as I've progressed through his works. It'd make sense that AtMoM would be better than most, it being one of his later ones.
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Feb 13, 2012 21:15
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GrandpaPants posted:Weren't they actually friends and corresponded with each other, along with Robert E. Howard? Some of Lovecraft's stories even refer to some wizard or something named Klarkash-Ton. They were. Them, along with August Derleth, Robert Bloch (at a very late point) and a couple others were called the "Lovecraft Circle" at one point.
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Feb 17, 2012 21:38
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The Capm posted:I did this a couple years ago. Try using The HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast as a reading guide/book club. It's a great podcast and it's nice to commiserate with someone else when you get to "The Street." Ygh. The Street and its brethren are what make it really tough to read the complete works.
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Mar 13, 2012 01:09
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Dropbear posted:Though not exactly Lovecraftian, I'd say the Dead Space novel (http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Space-Martyr-Brian-Evenson/dp/0765325039) could fit this thread. It's based on a game, yes, but I didn't find it too terrible; the writing is bad to mediocre at best, but the plot itself is interesting enough. It focuses around a truly alien artifact found in an ancient crater, and people who don't know better (of course) messing with it until things turn very, very sour. I have to give the whole Dead Space universe props for being the first piece of fiction in the video gaming world (besides maybe Silent Hill) that's gotten close to that Lovecraftian feeling of "Dude, seriously, don't gently caress with that. It's got too many dimensions."
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Mar 23, 2012 04:58
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Rough Lobster posted:Also, the plotline of the games Lovecraftian, literally. Us mere mortals were not meant to understand it. Some of the anime-esque tie-ins are really good, in a late-90s-amazingly-squicky kind of way.
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Mar 23, 2012 05:02
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abske_fides posted:There's been a few mentions of Thomas Ligotti already who's quite an amazing author but sadly most of his works are incredibly expensive. Is there anyone who knows about another author who's more along his lines? Instead of having cruel gods like The Old Ones, Ligotti just has a really dreadful world and he's less gratifying when it comes to the horror. I don't remember him often going into big huge monsters with tentacles everywhere and such which was what made his work so terrifying. I had no idea there were new editions. I have an old edition of Grimscribe, so I'll have to compare when I have the chance.
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Mar 27, 2012 02:11
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Ornamented Death posted:Ligotti is certainly a talented writer, but the way he approaches keeping his poo poo in print is loving infuriating. I'm all for signed limited editions, god knows my shelves are full of them, but put out a drat trade paperback or an ebook, too. Apparently Ligotti's extreme antisocialism extends pretty far into his business model. My film company's artistic director actually managed to get his "press agent" on the phone, and I guess it was one of the most intensely strange experiences the guy's ever had. I can only imagine what it's like communicating with the man himself.
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Mar 28, 2012 03:55
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End Of Worlds posted:I just ordered this and holy poo poo does Barron seriously have an eyepatch? I also just ordered The Croning, and I feel my experience will be immeasurably improved after seeing this picture.
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May 4, 2012 07:52
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I know this isn't technically relevant, but I think it's a good venue for this question: Anybody have any recommendations (or whatever the opposite of a recommendation would be?) of good comic book/graphic novel adaptations of Lovecraft? Or any graphic novels with a distinctly Cosmic Horror flavor?
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Aug 18, 2012 03:07
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Wow, I started looking for a copy of the first Fall of Cthulhu TPB and it seems like new copies are quickly soaring above the $200 mark. Used it is! Were the comics that popular when they came out, or is this just taking advantage of a niche market?
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Aug 31, 2012 02:12
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Mr.48 posted:Just a heads up, everyone here need to drop everything and go watch Cabin in the Woods. Its basically Laundry Files: The Movie. Well I've seen the movie, but that makes me feel as though I need to bump Laundry Files up my required reading list.
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Sep 1, 2012 07:55
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Since this thread is now kind of encompassing any sort of weird horror print media, I feel it's worth it to recommend Broodhollow by webcomic creator Kris Straub. It's a Lovecraftian and humor comic, which is an odd mix, but it shows a lot of promise. The first comic can be found here. It's still very new (maybe a month old now) so there's not much of an archive built up, but like I said, it could turn out really well.
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Nov 4, 2012 21:09
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I bought John Hornor Jacobs's Southern Gods when it was on sale a while back, anybody read it? I'm going to start it soon, and I'm wondering whether I should get my hopes up.
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Aug 2, 2013 00:32
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Ornamented Death posted:I thought it was a lot of fun. The climax leave a bit to be desired, but overall it's a pretty strong Mythos book. Wow, not the response I expected, especially from a thread regular. I'm looking forward to it now.
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Aug 2, 2013 02:00
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I just finished The Beautiful Thing that Awaits Us All and I was pretty happy with it, though I will say it's actually my first foray into Barron's work. There weren't any that I didn't enjoy (Men from Porlock stood out, as others have said) though they didn't all knock it out of the park, generally speaking. I don't think it's great writing, but I did thoroughly enjoy More Dark because I find it hilarious how much he lampoons the overly tight-knit and kind of silly community of modern horror writers. I also think he (maybe good-naturedly?) does a decent job of capturing the less credible and more unfortunate elements of Ligotti's work and personality. In addition, it's hilarious to read the reactions to the story on the forums on Ligotti's site-- The author he refers to as having stalked a woman to the point where she goes insane and kills him is a regular poster, and is seemingly the only person to take it with a bit of grace. I'm curious, has anybody else figured out who some or all of the authors mentioned in that story are? Some were obvious, I've hunted a couple down, and I'm kind of enjoying sleuthing the rest out.
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Nov 17, 2013 09:41
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Since somebody mentioned webcomics on the last page, and I can't remember if it's been mentioned yet, it's worth bringing up Broodhollow. It's from the guy who did Starslip Crisis, so its art is pretty cartoony-- but to Straub's credit, he does a pretty good job of using that to his advantage. He paces pretty well between simple light-heartedness and pretty creepy Lovecraftian moments.
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Nov 20, 2013 07:47
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I just got my copy of The Children of Old Leech in the mail, along with accompanying chapbook :drool:. I'm excited to dig into it, because while I agree with all of the criticisms of Barron's writings being the product of a hairy-chested Xerox machine, I love his stuff and I'm excited to see what other people do with it. On another note, I know this is probably two years too late to matter, but I'm thinking about combing through the thread and turning the OP into a first-stop recommendation spot for some of the more... "accessible" weird fiction writers. So in everybody's opinion, what's the best stuff to highlight for newcomers? I'd like to point to a sample of various people's stuff if it's online, too, so if you know where it can be found, that would help. Lovecraft's easy, and I know Nethescurial is somewhere out in the internet, but I haven't done any digging for anybody else.
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Jul 10, 2014 07:11
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Ornamented Death posted:Honestly, if your goal is to introduce people to weird fiction, the only real recommendation to make is The Weird edited by the Vandermeers. I was thinking this, plus one or two more accessible HPL stories, A Colder War, and Nethescurial. Just to give some kind of starting point. And while The Weird is a great collection, I think the first story is a weak introduction to the genre, and kind of a casualty of the book being arranged according to publication date.
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Jul 11, 2014 07:07
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Ornamented Death posted:You seem to be focusing more on cosmic horror than weird fiction. I suppose it can be argued that cosmic horror is a subset of weird fiction, but I don't entirely agree with that sentiment. What would you add/remove? I'll admit I'm much more of a cosmic horror fan, I'll admit that my own tastes are more narrow than a lot of the thread regulars. But I'd rather represent the whole spectrum, assuming I ever get around to changing the OP.
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Jul 17, 2014 06:13
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So I don't know if this thread really gets enough traffic to warrant it, but I figured I'd throw this out there: I've mentioned that I'd be willing to edit the OP so it's got some decent recommendations for people new to weird fiction/cosmic horror/etc. I think, though, that I'm probably not nearly as well read in these genres as a lot of people who post in this thread. So if someone has any interest in writing up a solid OP or just has some quick and dirty recommendations I can list, hit me up.
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Jan 8, 2015 22:11
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Ornamented Death posted:I guess Patreon is the new hotness for indie horror writers. A few people dipped their toes in it last year, but Brian Keene jumped in and is making a reasonable chunk of change for letting patrons read chapters of his books as he writes them (he still plans to do a traditional release once they are complete). Now it seems like everyone is rushing to get their account set up. I can see it working really well for Keene, he seems like he has a pretty ravenous fanbase among his hardcore followers. I wish I liked his stuff, because I met him once and he was absolutely hilarious, but I've never cared much for his books. I saw a panel he was in at a sci-fi con where he told an absolutely obnoxious fan that he'd kill them off in his next book, I wonder if that ever happened.
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Jan 12, 2015 04:25
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Anyone have a good book or collection that kind of captures a Twin Peaks flavor of weirdness? I recently read [b]American Elsewhere[b/], which kind of scratched the itch of "there's something wrong with this vaguely friendly town" but I'd like some more of that if it's out there.
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Feb 20, 2015 04:31
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CuddleChunks posted:Play the game "Alan Wake", it's a lot of fun and is appropriately Lynchian weirdness. As you progress through the game you'll pick up pages of the main character's manuscript. There's a creepy novel they wrote for background to the game. I actually have played it, and it's definitely in that vein. There were six(?) promotional videos that they released before the game came out that were probably the most Twin Peaks things I've encountered. Very creepy in a fantastic way.
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Feb 20, 2015 19:30
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So I'm sure they've come up in the past in this thread, but what's everybody's opinion on the Southern Reach trilogy? I just finished the first book and enjoyed it, though I wasn't blown away by it. I've heard that the second and third books depart somewhat from the style of the original, can anybody confirm this? Is the rest of the trilogy worth a read?
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Mar 30, 2015 05:22
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The Rat posted:It was definitely weird fiction, but it never once gave me the creeping horror feeling that Lovecraft or Barron. Same here, thus my hesitation. I don't always buy what Lovecraft and Barron do either, but the occasional story of theirs will still raise the hairs on the back of my neck. I think there was only one moment (or image, I guess) in Annihilation that really gave me the creeps in a fun way. Though the concept of Area X was intriguing, at least.
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Mar 30, 2015 18:02
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mdemone posted:Was it the bit where she sees the letters being written? That's the one that sticks out most to me, some months after finishing it. No, though that was good too. I was thinking of what she finds at the lighthouse. Actually the whole lighthouse sequence-- I feel like it gave more of a sense of how screwed up Area X is than the Tower did, in some ways.
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Mar 30, 2015 21:31
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Is this Children of Old Leech we're talking about? If that's the case I may do the same.
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May 3, 2015 23:37
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Talmonis posted:Is this the thread for general horror discussion, or should I make a thread for it? I'd be in favor of a general thread, if for no other reason than I like really well constructed OPs where people can find recommendations/starting points, and I have neither the time nor the compunction to do one for this thread at the moment. I'm okay if this thread dies out because of it.
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May 8, 2015 20:51
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hopterque posted:I liked them a whole lot, yeah. This reminded me that I should put the second and third books on the top of my to-read pile, I liked the first one but was kind of skeptical of where it could go.
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May 14, 2015 22:31
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Bolverkur posted:I feel the exact opposite. I'd have preferred just the surreal and mysterious trip of the first one. I mean, I liked it for that aspect, but I felt like there wasn't really a payoff to the novel, at least not in a way that I would have enjoyed. Basically it felt very much like the first novel in a trilogy.
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May 22, 2015 20:05
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ravenkult posted:I'm not a fan of The Festival. Is it significant in some way? Personally I would swap Cool Air for Dunwich Horror, I've never been that big a fan of the former. History of the Necronomicon isn't that entertaining of a read either, IMHO, though I understand why you'd want to include it.
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May 24, 2015 19:38
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