Tonight I'm going to highlight some series I've been enjoying. I've left out some because I think they are more fantasy than horror.. e.g. fantasy with horror touches. The ones I'm taking a look at I think might be more horror with fantasy and / or Sci Fi sidenotes. Feel free to disagree of course.
Horror Series
1. Mike Carey - Felix Castor. The Felix Castor series is a six book (so far) series by English author Carey featuring exorcist Felix Castor. In some ways it reminds me of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books but I think it's more purely of the horror genre, dealing with possession, demons, etc whereas the Dresden Files features warlock Harry Dresden battling the Fey. I've so far enjoyed the first two books in this series and have the next two on my bookshelf. I'll provide my review of the first book to give you a feel for the series.
"The Devil You Know is the first book in the fantasy / mystery series featuring exorcist, Felix Castor, by English author, Mike Carey. Think of Jim Butcher's Dresden books if you want an idea of the style of this story.
Castor is an exorcist who lives in a dystopic London, where ghosts abound and other supernatural creatures. It's not quite the same as Dresden's Chicago but there are intimations and similarities. Castor has kind of retired from the exorcism business after his last case resulted in his best friend being possessed by a demon. Rafi is now in an insane asylum, possessed by Asmodeus. Castor lives with the third member of their friendship, witch Pen. We don't find out a great deal about Pen, except she is a loyal, good friend and I hope plays a bigger role in the next stories. (mind you, she does play a significant part in one portion of this story)
Castor is brought out of retirement to exorcise a ghost making appearances at the Bonnington, a London museum. He finds himself delving more into the ghost's reason for being, why she is haunting this particular place, how she died, etc. His investigation will bring him up against many foes, a local pimp / owner of strip clubs, loup garous, another exorcist and even fighting for his life against a succubus called up from Hell.
It's an excellent story, tense, action-filled and with interesting exploration of the supernatural. Castor is a gritty, intelligent, imaginative character. The story isn't perfect. Characters appeared with little back story and sometimes left me wondering if I'd missed something. But that was a minor complaint as overall I enjoyed the story and characters very much. I found it difficult to put the book down and at the end which was very satisfying, there were sufficient teasers to make me look forward to the 2nd book. I'm glad to have discovered this series. (4.5 stars)"
2. Justin Cronin - The Passage. Justin Cronin created this three book horror series about the end of the Earth as we know it and the battle of the surviving humans against The Twelve, vampires created in a laboratory, who basically have taken over the world. Well, at leas the US of A as the two stories I've read so far have been set in what remains of the US. Excellent series and I've got #3 on my bookshelf to read. Once again, I'll provide my review of the first book to give you a flavor for the trilogy.
So how to provide a 'brief' outline of the story, which encompasses 100 years or so... OK, here goes.
Current day - Two ex FBI agents travel to various maximum control penitentiaries throughout the US picking up prisoners on death row and having them sent to a secretive military compound in the mountains of Colorado. Some types of experiments are being conducted. There is a maximum number of these prisoners. The same two agents are also sent to a nunnery in the Eastern US to pick up a young girl, Amy (6 years old). It seems this girl has some 'powers'. A nun from Africa recognizes something in the girl but the two still catch her. One of the agents, Wolgast, comes to some sort of revelation and tries to save the girl, but she is still brought to Colorado. Something happens and the prisoners escape, a virus is let loose and America is on the road to destruction. Wolgast escapes and takes Amy to the mountains of Oregon to hide out from what is happening.
The Future (100ish years later) - The US is basically destroyed, overrun by Smokes (AKA vampires). A community survives in California, behind a walled fortress. They live under strict rules. Their power is supplied by an old power station miles away. The walls are guarded constantly, at night, powerful lights shine out keeping the Smokes away. Events begin to happen that will disrupt their lives. There is a critical evening when a young girl, a Walker (someone who hasn't succumbed to the virus) shows up at the gate to the town and at the same time it is attacked by vampires. Can you guess who this young girl might be?
These events will disrupt everything that has been built in the community, resulting in a journey by a small group of the community and the young girl, trying to get to the source of everything that has occurred. It's a journey of often terrifying events that will try all of them.
So there you go, The Passage. It's a fascinating story. It takes a long while to develop but in the long run, your efforts to work through it will be worth it. I will warn you, however, that this is the first book of a trilogy, so everything might not be resolved quite to your satisfaction. And in the same vein of George RR Martin's Game of Thrones series, you might be careful about getting to invested in some characters. Because there are some really well - developed personalities in this story and because the story is so long you will get to know and like them. I 'enjoyed' The Passage very much. Now to find the next book.. Dare I? (4 stars)"
3. James Herbert - Rats. Herbert is sort of the British equivalent of the US's Stephen King. He pumps out horror books by the gallon. The Fog was excellent, a gruesome, terrifying story. I've enjoyed a few of his books. He does know how to spin a tale. The Rats is a 3-part series, with the first two quite related and the final one taking place many years in the future. I've enjoyed the first two books thus far.
This is the basic story line and believe me, it starts off with a bang and just keeps going from their. It starts with one Henry Guilfoyle, a one-time successful salesman. Falling in love with another man, he is shamed out of his company, cycles into drink, losing jobs, working just enough to keep himself in drink. One night in London, he gets his bottle of liquor, hides himself in a wrecked building, and wakes up to find himself under attack by rats... not normal brown rats, but giant black rats. Of course this attack is terminal. The story moves on from there, more and more rats attacking more and more people. The main character of the story is a teacher, Mr. Harris, who gets involved when one of his students is bit and dies quickly from infection. Harris is basically hired by the government to tell what he knows and, because Harris grew up in the infested area, to help advise about it and to locate the rats.
It's a tense, gritty story; it's violent, a violence that grows and grows. The rats are terrifying, their attacks are terrifying and graphic and it's relentless, but so well written and so fluid. There are acts of heroism, but who is winning the war? Various attempts are made to arrest the infestation, but all made difficult because nobody knows where they hide! For a first novel, it's fascinating, nail-biting, but with interesting personalities as well. Harris's relationship with Judy is nicely developed and adds a nice counterpoint to the terror.
All in all, probably my favorite Herbert novel so far and if you like a chill fest, well worth trying. There are 3 other books in The Rats series (Yipes!) so I guess I'll have to find the next.. *shudder* (4.5 stars)"
4. Caitlin R. Kiernan - The Tinfoil Dossier. Irish / American author Kiernan created the Tinfoil trilogy between 2017 and 2020. I've read the first novella in the series so far and enjoyed very much. It may take me finishing the final two books to determine if it is more horror or Sci Fi.
The Signalman, an agent of the government, was sent to a farmhouse in the Salton Sea to investigate what appears to be a cult. The story starts after this event with him going to Winslow, Arizona to meet Immocolata Sexton, an agent of the British (I think). She also seems able to travel between time lines, although that's not totally clear yet. The two exchange information, the Signalman, info on what he discovered at the ranch and Sexton, info from her previous investigations.
It's not totally clear what has been discovered at Salton Sea, except the bodies of cult members who were infected with some fungus? It's changed them and it's infectious and it may have come from outer space, from somewhere beyond Pluto. This has happened many times over the decades and Sexton has investigated them, as well as what happens to the world in the future?? Oh, and what has happened to cult leader Drew Standish? And what is in the Black Book???? Questions!
It's an intriguing opening to this trilogy and leaves more questions than answers. Kiernan is an intelligent writer, very descriptive and she creates a tense, eerie scenario. It's a short story, more a novella but it does draw you in quite quickly. I assume you can get the three stories in one package but now that I've got this on, next in line is Black Helicopters. (3.5)"
5. Dean Koontz - Odd Thomas. Koontz is an American horror / thriller author in the same ilk as Stephen King. I've enjoyed some of his books but really enjoyed the first three books in his Odd Thomas horror series. Between 2003 and 2014 he has written 7 novels and one novella in this series featuring Odd Thomas who sees dead people.
What an excellent book! I love the character of Odd Thomas, the short order cook who can see dead people and gets involved trying to help them. I also liked the characters who make up his unique and interesting friends; lovely Stormy Llewellyn (his soul mate), Little Oswald, his friend who encourages Odd to write this story; Chief Porter, who is a father figure and who believes in Odd's talents and uses them while protecting Odd; and Terri Stambaugh, his boss and Elvis Presley afficionado.
Odd meets a stranger to town and gets a weird vibe off him. Demonic creatures, bodachs, start to swarm around the town and Odd gets a feeling that something bad is going to happen. The story moves along at a nice pace as Odd investigates the stranger to find out what evil he is plotting. There is a skillfully crafted tension that grows and grows. I found icy fingers crawling up and down my back in certain scenes. Such an excellent story and a surprising ending that left me feeling quite bereft. I'm so glad that I finally started this series. I look forward with anticipation to continuing a journey with Odd Thomas. (5 stars)"
6. Jonathan Maberry - Pine Deep. My first exposure to Maberry was Ghost Road Blues the first book in the Pine Deep trilogy. (Now there appear to be a number of other books in this trilogy, short stories it seems. I've also enjoyed Maberry's Joe Ledger thriller / adventure / action / fantasy series. But Pine Deep is definitely horror. I have # 2 on my book shelf.
I can see why I've read so many good comments about his writing. It reminds me of many of the Stephen King books I enjoyed so many years ago, like It and Desperation.. I liked the good characters very much, Crow, Val and Mike; hated the bad characters very much and want bad things to happen to them.
Crow runs a crafty type store that becomes a favourite store for creepy Hallowe'en stuff for Pine Deep residents and also runs the Hallowe'en rides out in the corn fields outside town and gets great joy making them scarier and scarier. Pine Deep has a scary past; a serial killer who was killed by the Bone Man, but isn't really dead. Add a new killer to the mix and various followers of the old evil and you've got a very scary story. I will have to find the next book now... Dead Man's Song (4.0 stars)"
7. Guillermo del Toro - The Strain. The Strain trilogy by del Toro was written between 2009 and 2011. It was turned into a very successful horror series on the tube as well. Basically you've got humas vs vampires and lots of terror. This is one series I have completed.
"A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Ephraim "Eph" Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold.
In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing.So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city - a city that includes his wife and son - before it is too late."
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