| Author | Message | ||
     Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
http://www.mania.com/top-20-greatest-horror-writers-alltime_article_113153.html | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.190.122 |
Notice how overwhelmingly American and recent the list is, and how recent authors like Ketchum, Laymon and so on are listed, but not Robert Aickman, Arthur Machen, Sheridan Le Fanu, Fritz Leiber, Manly Wade Wellman, Walter de la Mare or Shirley Jackson... what a joke. The top ten is a bit more realistic, at least. That's the internet for you - anyone can post an article, story, list, whatever - regardless of merit. It's hard to take such things seriously. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.190.122 |
Brian Lumley, better than Machen, Leiber and Aickman? I think not! At least Shaun Hutson wasn't in there! | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 94.194.134.45 |
I agree, there's a lot less to quibble with once you get into the top ten, but damn, John Saul? He wouldn't even make it into my top 100. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
I think this line gives away the author's mindset: "Even though many of the stories are over one hundred years old, they are still powerful and relevant." | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
My dad once said to me while watching an adaptation of Wuthering Heights: "She wrote a powerful story for her time, didn't she?" But he's a mortgage broker. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
That list has made me realise what a fussy sod I must be... either that or I'm hopelessly out of touch! The only two modern horror authors that would make it into my Top 20 are "the man himself" and Clive Barker. Having said that the greatest modern horror novel I have read to date is hands down 'The Ceremonies'... so once I get round to reading the rest of his stuff Klein could well make it in there as well. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
King and Campbell for me. The rest those older guys who've aged remarkably well. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
I was quite surprised to see my name just outside the top...200,000: Steve Bloody Jensen UK-based author Steve Jensen has written over 400000 novels, some of which have been translated into English. His latest opus features perhaps Jensen's most famous literary character, DC Wolfgang Pipkins. Accused of a crime he didn't commit & confronted by the ghosts/demons of his past, DC Pipkins must crack the cryptic codes a brilliant (but sadly) psychotic serial killer leaves on old Top Of The Pops albums sleeves at the crime-scenes. Haunted by visions of Myleene Klass and assailed by hayfever, Pipkins has 24 hours to solve the case, before the opera-loving nutjob strikes again. Steve Jensen is available for weddings, children's parties and Bar Mitzvahs. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.190.122 |
Okay, without thinking too much on it, my top twenty (for the moment), in no particular order, are: Arthur Machen J. Sheridan Le Fanu Walter de la Mare H.P. Lovecraft Fritz Leiber Shirley Jackson M.R. James Algernon Blackwood William Hope Hodgson E.T.A. Hoffmann Edgar Allan Poe Robert Aickman Ramsey Campbell Lucius Shepard Lisa Tuttle Theodore Sturgeon T.E.D. Klein Ray Bradbury Manly Wade Wellman Richard Matheson Stephen King Jack Cady Take that, Mr. List Compiler! | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
Good list, mate. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.190.122 |
Oops, that twenty somehow became twenty-two... if I could make it twenty-five I'd add Jean Ray, Thomas Ligotti and maybe L.P. Hartley or Charles Beaumont... or Davis Grubb... or Ambrose Bierce... or... Anybody else want to list their favourites? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.190.122 |
Thanks, Gary! | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Its a little known fact but John Saul actually invented thesaurus software. After he struggled through writing that first novel, he decided it would be easier to invent this programme whereby after find/replacing the character names he throws the book through the thesaurus to change all the adjectives and nouns to similar meaning words and there you have it his next book. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
The 10 greatest horror writers Huw forgot all about: Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison, Henry James, John Metcalfe, Joseph Payne Brennan, Nicholas Royle, Karl Edward Wagner, Dennis Etchison, Charles L. Grant, M. John Harrison. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
HA! | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.32.69.29 |
Why are we, as human beings, so obsessed with lists? (And I'm not excluding myself - I have just as much need to analyse and quantify.) What does such a list mean? What makes a "greatest" horror writer? One who scares you? One who scares you consistently? One who can write well or one with not all that much talent but who nonetheless unsettles you? And how do you fold authors into genres anyway? Sure, King made his name in horror, but he's not confined to it. Neither is Clive Barker, who's rather left it behind. Harlan Ellison's written some seriously disturbing stories, but as he's more in the SF camp, does he really belong in a list of horror WRITERS? Or is he just a writer of occasional horror STORIES? I'd have an easier time compiling a 20 Scariest Stories list but of course that would be entirely subjective. As most of these lists are anyway. Ahhh... ignore me. I'm just obsessing about obsessing. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
>>>Why are we, as human beings, so obsessed with lists? Well, I think, there are several reasons: 1) we like order 2) we like to express our affiliations 3) this joke is rubbish | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
I wonder if anyone here would consider Thomas Harris as one who should be on the list? Although, admittedly, some of his recent work is perhaps not so great (in comparison with earlier novels), he has some quite wonderful moments...many of them, in fact. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Great crime writer. Rule 1 of list-making is to not blur genres. Harlan Ellison may be better known as an SF writer but he has actually written more and (on the whole) better horror fiction. Really. I re-read practically the whole of Ellison last year. When you look at his best short stories, for every five stories three are horror, one is SF and one is mainstream. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Joel's List Rule: 'non-supernatural horror' is crime fiction and nothing else. It just tends to be rather GOOD crime fiction. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.235.36 |
Joel's List Rule: 'non-supernatural horror' is crime fiction and nothing else. It just tends to be rather GOOD crime fiction. This comes off to me as actually a radical statement. You'd have to jettison so much of what's been knee-jerk accepted as horror. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Joel, does that count the landlord's non-supernatural horror? | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
I would say that Harris's novels (aside from Black Sunday) could be classed as horror...a particularly modern horror at that; Hannibal is practically a diatribe against the intrinsically horrific/horrifying nature of Man, I think. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.20.22 |
Everyone loves playing the List game. Even those crappy 'pot noodle' TV shows are like the new opium of the masses. My Top 20 horror/dark fantasy authors (and fav work of each at the min): Robert Aickman : Ringing The Changes Clive Barker : The Damnation Game E.F. Benson : Negotium Perambulans Algernon Blackwood : The Wendigo Robert Bloch : Notebook Found In A Deserted House Ray Bradbury : Something Wicked This Way Comes Ramsey Campbell : Obsession Jonathan Carroll : Voice Of Our Shadow (4 modern authors!) Guy de Maupassant : The Horla William Hope Hodgson : The House On The Borderland Shirley Jackson : The Haunting Of Hill House M.R. James : Casting The Runes T.E.D. Klein : The Ceremonies (he made it!) J. Sheridan Le Fanu : Carmilla H.P. Lovecraft : The Shadow Over Innsmouth Arthur Machen : The Great God Pan Richard Matheson : I Am Legend Oliver Onions : The Beckoning Fair One Edgar Allan Poe : The Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym Of Nantucket Bram Stoker : Dracula ...all entirely subjective of course and no apologies for being an old traditionalist. Still discovering new older authors all the time as well. My criteria would be for genre writers whose stories/novels stay with me and affect me on a deeper (subconscious?) level than just entertainment value while still being entertaining/thought provoking/exciting at the same time. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
Yes would very much like to claim that Thomas Harris is a horror writer first and foremost, who uses the tools of the police procedural for his psychological, philosophical investigations into human aberrant behaviour. But then again I wouldn't want 'to bisect him with this lil' blunt tool.' | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
not disect- 'bisect' it should be still- as the very early Lector has very little to do with the later Lector. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.163.6.13 |
with a double s.- unless you refer to 'bi-sect' in which case this would be something else, also in relation to Lector. I'd better have a friday pint now... | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.169 |
Richard Laymon leaves me cold. His fiction does absolutely nothing for me. I maybe missing the point. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.169 |
I mean - I may be missing the point (damn that hidden edit button). | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.159.85 |
You mean it was a typo rather than you being down with the kidz, Steve? | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.210.209.169 |
For real. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 62.31.153.8 |
I remember Richard Laymon's story from Best New Horror Volume One - 'Bad News'- being an excellent fast paced if essentially one-dimensional horror story. I have his 'Dreadful Tales' on the shelf but I've not read anything else by him except that one story | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.128.40 |
Laymon is certainly readable he has a good visual sense, and more regard for his characters than most writers of 'explicit' horror fiction but his stories are kind of minor, too easy to get to grips with. Jack Ketchum does that kind of thing with more depth and intesity. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.128.40 |
Or even intensity. The missing 'n' found its way into a Stephen King book. Everything connects you know. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.26.90.161 |
Layman writes descriptive screenplays. What's the point of spending five hours on a novel when you can get the same from a two hour film? An issue of basic economics, dear boy. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 213.158.199.77 |
Were it not for the looming shadow of Stephen King, Peter Straub...writes this ever so enlightened chap...well, looking at Mr Straub's bio photo, his actual shadow is looming indeed. Christ, he's become a big lad. Great writer, though. No, I'm not a sizest, can't afford to be a five foot five (: | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 213.158.199.77 |
Not being funny, but I didn't even make honourbale mentions. John Saul over Algernon Blackwood. Saul himself he was a craftsman not an artist. |