Excerpting from a list posted elsewhere:
3. I'd recommend King's short story collections SKELETON CREW (which,
among many other well-written stuff, has this completely off-the-wall
story called 'Survivor Type' about a guy who is marooned on an island
and forced to eat parts of himself to survive) and NIGHT SHIFT (It
has a lovely Lovecraft tribute called 'Jerusalem's Lot', the totally
weird 'Lawnmower Man', 'Children of the Corn' – both of which had
terrible movies made on them, but the stories are darn good and even
the bad stories are comfortingly bad as opposed to being annoyingly
so, heh).
4. Look for stuff by Thomas Ligotti. I've just read a couple by this
guy but they are ******* awesome, he's a kind of modern Lovecraft but
tremendously more skilful in maintaining the sense of awe and
mystery.
5. Collections of classic horror generally have a lot of very good
stories – look for collections with Ambrose Bierce ('The Damned
Thing', 'Incident at Owl Creek Bridge'), JS Le Fanu ('Green
Tea', 'Carmilla'), Dickens , Maupassant ('Night in Paris', 'The
Horla', 'Who Knows?').
6. H.G.Wells' short stories fit more comfortably in the
horror/macabre mold rather than the science-fiction bracket that he
is saddled with. Also, for those that haven't read these yet,
INVISIBLE MAN and ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU.
7. For modern horror anthologies, the Stephen Jones edited
collections are one of the safest bets. The stories may not be too
ambitious but the authors are skilled at taking an idea and weaving
an extremely well written short piece of it. Look for Neil Gaiman, Steve Rasnic Tem,
you'll also find Richard Matheson (I AM LEGEND, which inspired
Romero's 'Night of The Living Dead') and Co. in some of these
collections.
8. Some individual IMO entertaining novels, not necessarily path-
breaking or anything like that, but rather well-written and certainly
worth the look:
THE OMEN – David Seltzer
THE SHINING, CARRIE, FIRESTARTER – Stephen King (THE STAND is an
extremely ambitious end-of-the-world book and has some great parts
but I wouldn't recommend it unless you can take tons of crap with the
good stuff)
ROMSEMARY'S BABY – Ira Levin (it's a book where you know the plot
from a mile off but it's still entertainingly written and eminently
readable)
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES – Ray Bradbury (more dark fantasy
than straight horror but this one, even with its bits of mawkishness
towards the end is one of Bradbury's most fantastically written
works, and anyone who has read Bradbury knows that this is high
praise)
I have read a good deal more after I had put this up and I shall inlcude those later
3. I'd recommend King's short story collections SKELETON CREW (which,
among many other well-written stuff, has this completely off-the-wall
story called 'Survivor Type' about a guy who is marooned on an island
and forced to eat parts of himself to survive) and NIGHT SHIFT (It
has a lovely Lovecraft tribute called 'Jerusalem's Lot', the totally
weird 'Lawnmower Man', 'Children of the Corn' – both of which had
terrible movies made on them, but the stories are darn good and even
the bad stories are comfortingly bad as opposed to being annoyingly
so, heh).
4. Look for stuff by Thomas Ligotti. I've just read a couple by this
guy but they are ******* awesome, he's a kind of modern Lovecraft but
tremendously more skilful in maintaining the sense of awe and
mystery.
5. Collections of classic horror generally have a lot of very good
stories – look for collections with Ambrose Bierce ('The Damned
Thing', 'Incident at Owl Creek Bridge'), JS Le Fanu ('Green
Tea', 'Carmilla'), Dickens , Maupassant ('Night in Paris', 'The
Horla', 'Who Knows?').
6. H.G.Wells' short stories fit more comfortably in the
horror/macabre mold rather than the science-fiction bracket that he
is saddled with. Also, for those that haven't read these yet,
INVISIBLE MAN and ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU.
7. For modern horror anthologies, the Stephen Jones edited
collections are one of the safest bets. The stories may not be too
ambitious but the authors are skilled at taking an idea and weaving
an extremely well written short piece of it. Look for Neil Gaiman, Steve Rasnic Tem,
you'll also find Richard Matheson (I AM LEGEND, which inspired
Romero's 'Night of The Living Dead') and Co. in some of these
collections.
8. Some individual IMO entertaining novels, not necessarily path-
breaking or anything like that, but rather well-written and certainly
worth the look:
THE OMEN – David Seltzer
THE SHINING, CARRIE, FIRESTARTER – Stephen King (THE STAND is an
extremely ambitious end-of-the-world book and has some great parts
but I wouldn't recommend it unless you can take tons of crap with the
good stuff)
ROMSEMARY'S BABY – Ira Levin (it's a book where you know the plot
from a mile off but it's still entertainingly written and eminently
readable)
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES – Ray Bradbury (more dark fantasy
than straight horror but this one, even with its bits of mawkishness
towards the end is one of Bradbury's most fantastically written
works, and anyone who has read Bradbury knows that this is high
praise)
I have read a good deal more after I had put this up and I shall inlcude those later
