(Part 3) Best occult fiction books according to redditors
We found 2,275 Reddit comments discussing the best occult fiction books. We ranked the 521 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
https://www.amazon.com/Kaiju-Battlefield-Surgeon-LitRPG-Adventure-ebook/dp/B07ZY25KDW/
Fantasy meets horror in this gore-soaked, standalone LitRPG adventure!
It had seemed like a dream offer. Paint a mural. $15,000. How could Duke not jump at the chance?
But it came with a catch, as these things often do. He had to first see what his client wanted him to paint.
A private server. A digital playground. An alliance of the world’s most sadistic, most depraved minds. A place to bring their prey, to hone their skills.
Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon. Survival horror. One of the most brutal, most terrifying full-immersion games ever made. A place where fantasy characters such as elves and dwarves clash with technology, where giant monsters roam the hills, entrusted with protecting the gates of heaven from the demons who would tear it all down.
A game where one plays the last of the battlefield surgeons: a healer tasked with keeping the behemoths alive at all costs.
But on this server, they don’t care about the game. That’s not why they’re here. They’ve come because of the game’s most unique feature: Full pain. Realistic anatomy. The ability to bring their victims well beyond the body’s normal breaking point. And most importantly, the ability to bring them back and do it all over again.
Trapped in a bloody, merciless nightmare, Duke only has one goal. To survive. And in order to survive, he must play the game. He must win the game. And to do that, he must become the most cruel, most ruthless monster of them all.
This brutal, 200,000 word, standalone LitRPG novel features the following:
All on Amazon. I think they're up to 11 books now, translated.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947194313/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_V-e7BbD73NJG4
Try some Laurell K. Hamilton with Guilty Pleasures. It has vampires and werewolves in it, so it's in the neighborhood of what she likes. However, the female protagonist is powerful and well-drawn, so it's a step up from Twilight in that regard. It's basically a hard-boiled detective novel, with vampires and zombies. It's the first book in a long series, and while the series does take a nose-dive in quality down the road, the first six books or so are very solid, and are pretty fun reads.
I have to say The Lord of the Rings is my favorite of all time. What I like is how it has a Catholic feel, even though there is nothing explicitly Catholic in it. It is hard to put a finger on, but part of it is the fact that the good is really good, and evil is really evil, and even though the circumstances might be dire, you get the idea that somehow good will ultimately triumph. However, since others have also mentioned Tolkien, I am going to give you some others.
A book I read in the last year that had a similar feel was The Anubis Gates by Catholic writer Tim Powers. It is a kind of historical fiction with a crazy but believable fantasy twist. The world of Anubis Gates may not have quite the depth that Tolkien's has, but there is a similar theme of good triumphing over evil via the path of adversity. I've got two other books of his, Last Call and On Stranger Tides that I want to read as soon as I can. Last Call is said by many to be Powers' best book, and On Stranger Tides was used as a basis for the fourth "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.
I also recently read The Moviegoer by Catholic author Walker Percy. It is not a good versus evil adventure, but is much more introspective. It is about some every day people struggling to make sense of life, but like Tolkien and Powers, I still get the sense of the hand of God in the background, working all things for good with those who love him (Romans 8:28). I want to read more of Percy's work.
Finally, I also loved Brideshead Revisited, The Brothers Karamazov, as well as C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, Narnia books, and The Screwtape Letters.
https://www.amazon.com/Nisemonogatari-Nisiosin/dp/1942993986/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472831441&sr=1-10&keywords=nisemonogatari
According to Amazon, Vol. 1 will be out on June 27, 2017 while Vol. 2 will be out on August 22, 2017
this reminds me of a book i found in the back of a thrift store. its called meddling kids and its like scooby doo mixed with h.p. lovecraft and the elder gods
heres a link: https://www.amazon.com/Meddling-Kids-Novel-Edgar-Cantero/dp/0385541996
Link for the lazy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1942993994
Torment. One part zombies (not the flesh eating kind... also not really zombies), one part Dante's inferno.
> Small town reporter, Mia Durante, finds herself having brunch with the President of the United States on the day civilization comes to an end. An electromagnetic pulse blinds the U.S. Cars crash. Planes fall. Chaos reigns. Power is restored within minutes, but it’s already too late. Russian nukes are falling. U.S. allies around the world are all ready wiped out. The United States will cease to exist inside of five minutes.
> After giving the order to launch a full-scale retaliation, dooming the planet, the president, White House staff, Secret Service and those lucky enough to be visiting the white house, are whisked below ground where they board several Earth Escape Pods. As the EEPs launch into Earth orbit, missiles descend.
> Less than forty survive the end of the world. When they return, they’re greeted by survivors of a different sort. The bloodbath that follows leaves Durante and nine other survivors on the run. They find themselves fighting for survival in a world in which only torment remains and where death is the only escape.
WARNING: As I was reading it, I kept going, "There has to be a happy ending... Things are so bad... There is going to be a turn..." It. Did. Not. Happen. If you must have a happy silver lining in your horror, do not read this book. There is certainly a twist, it is just horrifying. This book has one of the best interpretations of Hell I have read.
The Song of Kali by Dan Simmons was pretty scary when I read it about ten years ago. I also remember being scared by Salem's Lot and freaked the fuck out by Pet Cemetery.
Yeah... especially Pet Cemetery.
Fucking cats.
Read any of China Miéville's Bas-Lag books - Perdido Street Station being an excellent place to start. Dark, strange urban fantasy in a world of his own design.
Also, if you like fantasy that's based in the real world, more or less, you might like Tim Powers's works; he writes what he refers to as "secret histories", which basically look at some event in recent (e.g. 20th-century) history where the historical record doesn't quite add up, and then he goes "How could I weave this all together by claiming there was magic going on behind the scenes?". Last Call and Declare are probably my favorites of his (although Last Call does use a certain amount of European mythology, it doesn't do so in the same way most fantasy, being set in pseudo-medieval-Europe, does; Declare uses Middle Eastern mythology instead).
Amazon links for all the books announced for translation–nothing beyond Nisemonogatari has been confirmed.
Kizumonogatari (Released)
Bakemonogatari 1 (Released)
Bakemonogatari 2 (February 28th)
Bakemonogatari 3 (April 25th)
Nisemonogatari 1 (June 27th)
Nisemonogatari 2 (August 22nd)
This is cover art for the forthcoming novel Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon by Matt Dinniman. You can see the final art with the title at https://www.amazon.com/Kaiju-Battlefield-Surgeon-LitRPG-Adventure-ebook/dp/B07ZY25KDW
The artist’s website is https://www.artstation.com/rivaro
Despite the fact that it's got comedic elements, there are plenty of parts in John Dies At The End that are pretty wonderfully creepy.
House of Leaves always needs mentioning, it works its magic on numerous levels.
The absolute scariest ghost story I've ever read, and I never hear anyone talking about it, is Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel.
You can't go wrong with Stephen King, but if you haven't cracked into his books yet it can be a daunting task, he has a huge bibliography. For me, IT, The Shining, Salem's Lot, and Pet Sematary are some of the scariest, plus pretty much any of his short story collections are golden. In fact, any one of his short story collections might be the best place to start with King, I would recommend Skeleton Crew.
And while I wouldn't necessarily categorize it as strict "horror", one of the books that's scared me the most is Alan Moore's graphic novel From Hell. It's an absolute beast (and it's pretty much nothing like the film adaptation with Johnny Depp, so don't let that color your perceptions).
That is NOT my experience in shopping for ebooks.
Chosen at random from my recommendations on amazon.com:
Breathless, same price as paperback
Full Dark, No Stars, Same price as paperback
Daniel X, -$1 from hardcover
The Art of Fielding: A Novel, +$1.88 over paperback
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever. = to hardcover
The Heroes of Olympus, Book Two: The Son of Neptune, -$1.41 over hardcover
Hell House, -$0.18 over paperback
Fight Club, -$2.57 over paperback
Prices are only slightly lower, if at all over physical books. Obviously this is a small sample, but whenever I go looking it is typically what I find.
Your overhead arguments are mostly false as well:
edit: formatting
My favorite horror authors are Bentley Little, Richard Laymon, and Edward Lee.
Novels I'd like to see as films:
The Clickers series by J.F. Gonzalez
Brian Keene's The Conqueror Worms. Maybe it's just me, but it seems to me that giant worms make for an awesome horror monster. You know they're underground somewhere, but you can't see them. They can strike without warning.
Richard Laymon's One Rainy Night
Survivor by J.F. Gonzalez
The House by Bentley Little
The Vanishing by Bentley Little
The Resurrectionist by Wrath James White
Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
amazon.com.au
amazon.in
amazon.com.mx
amazon.de
amazon.it
amazon.es
amazon.com.br
amazon.nl
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.
Here's a link to a box set with them all.
If you don't want to wait until December 17th for the set, here's each of them individually: Neko White, Kabuki, Hana, Otori, Oni, and Koi.
Demon Accords Series. First book link here
The House by Bentley Little?
https://www.amazon.com/House-Bentley-Little/dp/0451192249
If you are still looking for books to read, I have recently started a series known colloquially as "The Alphabet Mysteries" by Sue Grafton. It is a murder mystery series set in California and the main character is a woman PI in her 30s. She's very independent and I love to find longer series - I think she's up to V right now, so it's a pretty good series. Even if you don't normally like the mystery genre, just give it a shot. The first book in the series is 'A is for Alibi' and was really good.
http://www.amazon.com/Is-Alibi-Kinsey-Millhone-Mystery/dp/0553279912
Second, I'd like to recommend author Laurell K. Hamilton. She is famous for two series, both with strong female characters. Her more popular series is "Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter" and is a fantastic alternative to the twilight-esque tween romanticized version of vampire novels. It is pretty graphic and has a lot of sex, so be warned in advance. It has some really great thought-provoking themes and I think it's well written. Also there is some pretty graphic sex especially later on in the series but I find it a turn-on. The first book is "Guilty Pleasures." (I also read that they've started making a color "graphic novel" out of the series, which looks really cool if you prefer comics).
http://www.amazon.com/Guilty-Pleasures-Anita-Vampire-Hunter/dp/0425197549/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343582698&sr=1-1&keywords=guilty+pleasures
Her second series is the "Merry Gentry" series which is a fantasy style book with faerie and elves and the modern day world as well. This one is very smutty and chock full of sex and to be honest, even to me the sex started to get overpowering, but I still really enjoyed the series. However a new one hasn't come out in a few years and I have to say I am a little disappointed in that. The first one is "A Kiss of Shadows."
http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Shadows-Meredith-Gentry-Book/dp/0345423399
Thirdly, my all-time favorite author is Mercedes Lackey. Her series are mixed with female and male characters but one of the most well-known and popular books she wrote early in her career is the "Arrows of the Queen" trilogy introducing the world of Valdemar. The entire Valdemar series is fantastic, and Arrows specifically focuses on a woman.
http://www.amazon.com/Arrows-Queen-Heralds-Valdemar-Book/dp/0886773784/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343582295&sr=1-1&keywords=arrows+of+the+queen
There are other trilogies in the series about women, as well as men. I am also very fond of her "Elemental Masters" series, which typically has one female and one male protagonist. It's a fantastic series. The first book in this series is "The Serpent's Shadow." I love everything she writes, really!!
http://www.amazon.com/Serpents-Shadow-Elemental-Masters-Book/dp/0756400619/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343582580&sr=1-2&keywords=elemental+masters
EDIT: formatting
Badwater: A Horror Story - FREE on Amazon Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Badwater-Horror-Story-Shattered-Mythos-ebook/dp/B0818BFJMS
"I've been a search and rescue diver for twelve years. We see a lot of strange and disgusting things. But what I saw last week has me questioning both my job and reality."
There's a place in the river where not even search and rescue divers are supposed to go. It's called Badwater.
But when Joseph Albright dives into this forbidden region, he discovers something beyond comprehension.
Intent on solving a mystery as old as the earth itself, he comes into contact with forces beyond fathom.
Get this riveting new horror story and learn of the terrors that pervade our world.
Torment by Jeremy Bishop. It's a weird one, but kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I read it.
Man, I could go on forever. You basically already listed my favorite books from high school. Mirror Sight woo!
We need an atheists book club, and a thread for atheist-friendly fiction.
Another novel with related themes is Tim Powers' "Declare". I own several of Powers novels, this is only the second of his books which I've read all the way to the end.
have you read the Fever Series?
The first book is darkfever it is one of my favorite series. The core series is only 5 books long. There is a spin off series afterwards though
Answered:
Healer (December 1972 Analog as "Pard"; exp 1976), which was elected to the Prometheus Award Hall of Fame in 1990 - Great First Novel and I don't recall seeing anything by F. Paul Wilson else since.
Current versions:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1588810089/ref=nosim/speculativefic05
Steven Dalt should have died in that cave on the planet Kwashi. After all, as the natives say, of a thousand people attacked by the cave-dwelling alaret, nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine will die. Dalt survives, but not without personal cost: he has picked up a passenger: an alien intelligence transferred itself from the alaret to take up residence in his brain. Steven Dalt will never be alone again. But Pard, as Dalt names the alien who shares his life, doesn’t believe in freeloading. He pays his rent by using cellular-level consciousness to maintain Dalt’s body in perfect health—no disease, no aging. And now Dalt appreciates the full meaning of the Kwashi natives’ saying: Of a thousand struck down by an alaret, nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine will die. But the thousandth will not die . . . ever.
Stop what you are doing right now and go check out this book. Darkfever, Karen Marie Moning I was super skeptical at first too. But I gave it a chance and now I have spent the summer reading the entire series. I can't wait to find out how it ends (I just started the last book). Strong Female Lead Character, Revenge Story, Dublin, Fae, Coming of Age. She's a super girly girl in the beginning and by the end is a tough no nonsense warrior.
The Demon Accords by John Conroe, it has vampires, werewolves, witches, angels and demons.
Witches of Eileanan. They're all so good! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Witches-Eileanan-Kate-Forsyth/dp/0451456890
Read "Declare" by Tim Powers. It'll give you a whole new feeling for djinn and related desert spirits and how to use them!
Have you looked at Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series? Kind of fits the bill, and the sex content increases a lot as the series goes on. Pretty much all of the paranormal romances I've read feature a strong, seductive male love interest, but I can't say I'd really recommend any of them.
Fifty Shades of Grey was pretty extreme? Maybe someone will know of a good self-pub erotica author?
Thank you for the thorough explanation. I can see why OP can be a conflict for many people, but having the protagonists kicking the bad guy's ass seems like an enjoyable change.
Fyi for anyone else interested in this book, the Kindle version costs $4.99, and $1.99 audiobook add-on, which is basically the same as the Audible sale, but with the bonus of having both versions. Whispersync is my favorite reading method. https://www.amazon.com/God-Touched-Demon-Accords-Book-ebook/dp/B003G2ZCW0
I like the narrator for this story, clear voice, and a fun tone.
ps - I added this one to my wishlist to get soon, hope you didn't just get me hooked into a 15 book series! ;)
I haven't read either of the books you listed, but I take it they're historical supernatural thrillers? If so, you'd probably like Declare by Tim Powers. It's an alternate history cold war espionage thriller with magic and whatnot.
The two Sunrunner trilogys by Melanie Rawn, Dragon Prince and Dragon Star. I've loved these for a long time.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Prince_and_Dragon_Star_trilogies
Also the Witches of Eileanan, Kate Forsytg. Celtic style witchcraft in an alternate world during the Burning Times.
https://www.amazon.com/Witches-Eileanan-Kate-Forsyth/dp/0451456890
Yes. May I suggest this book? http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Jesus-Corpse-Carlton-Mellick/dp/0971357285/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302833548&sr=8-1
Aw yeah. Great contest. I'd love Stephen King's 'Full Dark No Stars'. Feel free to buy used!
Obligatory wiki links: Dystopian Literature. Although, some of the titles listed don't seem to fit (The Dispossessed?). Nuclear holocaust fiction, and your general apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction.
Some of the better/more popular ones:
Zombies: World War Z, Raise the Dead, Marvel Zombies, Zombie Survival Guide, Day By Day Armageddon, I Am Legend.
Also, just for kicks, some of my favorite dystopian movies:
Brazil, Soylent Green, 12 Monkeys, Blade Runner, Akira, Children of Men, Dark City, A Boy and His Dog, Logan's Run, Idiocracy, Equillibrium.
perhaps you could get him I Am Legend and I, Robot - the novel/short stories that the movies were based on
I have an interesting idea...everyone gets annoying and downright angry at I am Legend because at the end--and without warning--the author stops telling the story, and adds a compilation of his short stories. I wonder though if these short stories would stand on their own if people didn't hate them so much because it wasn't part of the book. Maybe as a thought experiment, you could read the short stories first and see if they're enjoyable if you didn't read them because you had bought the book for the main story?
Here. Make the pain go away.
My partner sent me this and I had to start guessing immediately. I picked our Fevre Dream, Sandman Slim, and Last Call right away. Then I had to come here to read the comments and see what other people thought.
I am still banging my head against the Queer Magic Circus, though. I should have read it, and if I haven't I should read it.
If you haven't already you should check out some of Wilson's books. There's some really nutty shit in them (e.g., aliens with pancakes, little green men, psychic powers/clairvoyance) but quite intriguing.
I've only read Masks of the Illuminati (fiction: James Joyce and Albert Einstein discover a plot to take over the world) and Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secrets of the Illuminati which is a collection of essays on many different subjects.
Great reading!
I liked "Masks of the Illuminati" better. Shorter and with a steampunk touch.
If you're looking for a really interesting take on Jesus, try Electric Jesus Corpse by Carlton Mellick III.
The Healer by F. Paul Wilson
>Steven Dalt should have died in that cave on the planet Kwashi. After all, as the natives say, of a thousand people attacked by the cave-dwelling alaret, nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine will die. Dalt survives, but not without personal cost: he has picked up a passenger: an alien intelligence transferred itself from the alaret to take up residence in his brain. Steven Dalt will never be alone again. But Pard, as Dalt names the alien who shares his life, doesn’t believe in freeloading. He pays his rent by using cellular-level consciousness to maintain Dalt’s body in perfect health—no disease, no aging. And now Dalt appreciates the full meaning of the Kwashi natives’ saying: Of a thousand struck down by an alaret, nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine will die. But the thousandth will not die . . . ever.
One of my favorite sci-fi novels but I've never met anyone else who's even heard of it.
The novella "Fair Extension" in Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars might be my favorite revenge story. Just a great story.
Don't miss Poe's The Cask of Amontillado, naturally.
Try:
This should be perfect for you
https://www.amazon.com/Meddling-Kids-Novel-Edgar-Cantero/dp/0385541996
You might try Bentley Little's The House.
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero Its essentially Scooby Doo meets Lovecraft.
Edward2020 found it, and it appears to have been both a single novel and part of a collection! Awesome.
Sematary. FTFY.
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0743412273?cache=d8e11a541013a985d6e951d49f532828&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1409302490&sr=8-2#ref=mp_s_a_1_2