Thursday, November 29, 2007

Fantasy and Horror

I stepped out of lurking on the SFReader and nanowrimo blogs to ask around about fantasy stories with strong horror elements. So far these are the results of my inquiries.

The main person who gets mentioned most is Michael Moorcock. I will admit that I had a hard time with the Elric stories when I was younger because basically I was too immature to understand the point of Tragedy. I did enjoy the Corum books. I think that is the right name. It's the one with the necromantic hand and eye. As a teenager I wanted everything to have a happy ending. Now that I am much older, the happy ending is still good, but I realize there is much more to life than happy endings, and sometimes Tragedy is Truth.

So, I need to check out Elric again.

Other authors mentioned:
China Mieville - I picked up The Scar and I'm enjoying it already. Need more.
Steven Erikson - I bought Gardens of the Moon and I am looking forward to it. Bauchelain and Korbal Broach books were also mentioned, about some Necromancers.
Tim Lebbon's novels Dusk and Dawn sound like they are exactly what I am looking for, but I have to order them.
Tanith Lee and her books on Paradys?
James Barclay' Raven novels
David Gemmel, of course
Christopher Golden
R. Scott Bakker
Heroes Die, by Matthew Woodring Stover
THE NIGHT LAND by William Hope Hodgson

Someday that list will include Cauldron of Shadows by Bryan Lee Hitchcock!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi,

My name is Reinart der Fuchs, and let me invite you to join me at www.multiverse.org, the Michael Moorcock website. Three are others who have enjoyed Elric, and have come to the site to ask Mr. Moorcock questions about Elric and Mike's career.

Cheers,
RdF

Unknown said...

Thanks for visiting RdF. I will bookmark the MM site and take a look around.

Jim Melvin said...

I hugely recommend Steven Erikson. He now ranks among my favorites. I've never read anyone with such an immense imagination.

KentAllard said...

Fantasy/Horror mixtures. Hmmm. To add my own ignorant opinions:

Tim Lebbon's The Everlasting
Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch quartet (Night Watch, Day Watch, Twilight Watch and Final Watch)
Robert R. McCammon's Boy's Life
You are probably familiar with Tim Powers, but on the offchance, Last Call is amazing.
Peter Straub's Shadowland