sci-fi/horror?

[goblinQueen]

Hi,



I am new here, and I performed a search for this but could not find what I am looking for, so I apologize if there is already a thread regarding this.



I was wondering if anyone could help me with some book recommendations. I am looking for novels or anthologies with stories that are equal parts horror and science-fiction. Something along the lines of Clive Barker meets Philip K. Dick. I am not looking for dark fantasy. I would like the stories to be more futuristic than fantasy. Does anyone have any suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!



Thanks so much!

goblinQueen

 

[dwndrgn]

My first thought was China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. Unfortunately, I think that's all I've got. Not a type of book that generally tickles my fancy.

Welcome to the Chronicles Network!

 

[Rane Longfox]

That would be more "dark fantasy", I would have though. A truly excellent book though, and it does really defy classification, so it might fit what you're looking for.

 

[cyborg_cinema]

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

...hi and welcome. One science fiction horror novel that comes to mind is Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

 

[goblinQueen]

Thanks for the suggestion. I was wondering if China Mieville's work was something I might be interested in, so I will give Perdido Street Station a look. Any other suggestions? Maybe something set in the modern world with mutants running amok (but not zombies). I guess I am looking for something with a dystopic slant. I really liked 1984, so something like that but with horror elements as well.

Thanks for the welcome.

 

[cyborg_cinema]

...set in the modern world with mutants running amok (but not zombies). ...something with a dystopic slant. I really liked 1984, so something like that but with horror elements as well.

...the list of possibilities is shrinking.

 

[Leto]

Check for Dan Simmons novels as Carrion Comfort, though mostly sci-fi the
Hyperion serie might fit the bill too, if only for the gritche (?). And K W Jeter's Dr Adder series and Madlands. That's the ones which fit the more the bill.

For different style but still mixing sci-fi and horror, you can also look at the classic Shambleau by Catherine L Moore, or The Vampire tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas.

 

[polymorphikos]

Richard matheson wrote a few sf/horror stories. We read I Am Legend for the book club a while back, and it was quite good. The basic premis is that a disease has turned everyone in the world into vampires, and Neville (who is still human) is holed-up in his house, staking them down by day. It predates the modern zombie cliche it created by a decade, and is not even about zombies.

The horror is psychological more than visceral, but it works.

To add to this, James Herbert's 1948 is a novel set in the titular year, where most human life has been eradicated by a plague engineered by Hitler and launched in the final V-2 to hit England. A man has to survive in a city full of rotting corpses and a host of neo-nazis who are slowly dying from a milder form of the disease. It's amazingly-derivative, but nifty.

Add to this list Day of the triffids.

I can't think of any straight-sf horror novels. Movies about monsters in space are popular, but not so much the books.

 

[goblinQueen]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I will check them all out. I was browsing at Amazon and came across a book that kind of sounds like what I am searching for, I-0 by Simon Logan. Has anyone read this? It is stated as being cybergoth/ Industrial. I will keep looking. Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Jay]

Check out Jeffrey Thomas' Punktown work!

Not to mention, Michael Cisco's Divinity Student, both are brilliant IMHO.

 

[sanityassassin]

would not the original alien by alan dean foster not count as horror/sci-fi as it encompases fear of the unknown

 

[cyborg_cinema]

would not the original alien by alan dean foster not count as horror/sci-fi...

...I thought the sci-fi horror movie Aliens was better than Starship Troopers. Aliens had a budget/gross of $17M/$81M, while Starship Troopers was $100M/$54M—a flop, but not to be confused with the Hugo winning Starship Troopers.

 

[stinking_dylan]

Mathesons 'I am lLegend' was the first thing I thought of too.

What about Brian Lumleys Necroscope series? And for a creepy scifi story, try Michael Moorcocks 'the black corridor'.

 

[Nesacat]

I thought of Lumley's Necroscope books as well as Matheson's I am Legend.

To add to that how how Lumley's Psychomech; Psychosphere and Psychamok.

 

[BAYLOR]

Moonseed by Stephen Baxter

 

[Otis B. Driftwood]

A dead thread brought back by Baylor! Ok, I'll bite: I Am Legend I agree really fits the bill here. And since James Herbert was mentioned, his The Fog and The Rats both work as dystopian horror with some scientific basis. So does Tim Lebbon's Berserk which is mostly horror but is launched by scientific experiments somewhat like King's The Mist. Colin Wilson's Space Vampires and Whitley Streiber's Wolfen both mix science and horror. The work that most perfectly balances SF and horror is undoubtedly Alien, but I don't think Foster's novelization works as well in print.

 

[dask]

Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, perhaps.

 

[Randy M.]

Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, perhaps.

Which brings thoughts of At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft.

You know, at least part of volume 1 of The S.F. Hall of Fame could be described as s.f./horror: "Microcosmic God"; "Mimsy Were the Borogroves"; "The Little Black Bag"; "Born of Man and Woman"; "It's a Good Life"; "The Cold Equations"; "Fondly Fahrenheit."

Then there's always Wells: The War of the Worlds; The Island of Dr. Moreau; "The Invisible Man"; "The Crystal Egg"; "The Sea Raiders" and on and on.


Randy M.

 

[dask]

Especially "It's A Good Life."

 

[tylenol4000]

Old thread, but right now I'm looking for more SF/Horror.

I personally suggest any of Whitley Striebers recent fiction novels. 2012, The Grays, Omega Point- all fantastic and scary.