Space Horror recommendations please

bearilou · May 6, 2013

*dips toe in*

Um. Hi. Some of you may know me from other parts of the forum. If you don't... :hi:

I've dug around a bit and loaded up on recs for horror reading to expand my horizons but now I'm coming for specifically targeted reading recommendations if you please.

I'm looking for not just science fiction horror, but horror based in space. On ships, on orbiting platforms, on space stations, on distant moons and planets. I'd like to start with short stories but will eventually extend into novels.

Monsters, paranormal activity are my main focus but will take anything you offer. Further specifics, I'm looking for the 'atmospheric'. How to build up of suspense and the sense of horror (which I know I can get from non-space-specific reading and I will do that, I promise). Online magazines, anthologies, authors....anything!

Thanks so much!

*hopes this is in a good, right place. apologies if it isn't*

Rhoda Nightingale · May 6, 2013

You mean like Alien or Event Horizon, but in written form? Hm... I know I've read several short stories like that. Complete novels, eh, that's gonna be harder to think of...

One section of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is extremely creepy, but actually that part of it takes place on Earth. There's a lot of old, classic sci-fi that comes across really dark and disturbing, since so much of it is speculative in a worst-case-scenario kind of way.

*after looking through my binder of sci-fi stuff--yes, I have one of these*

Okay, there's a story called "The Quest for Saint Aquin" that might be kinda, sorta what you're looking for. The author is Anthony Boucher. If this is one I think it is (it's been awhile since I read this stuff), it's about this guy searching for proof of the existence of the titular saint, and discovering something that makes him lose his faith entirely. That's not really horror though...

bearilou · May 6, 2013

Rhoda Nightingale said:
You mean like Alien or Event Horizon, but in written form? Hm... I know I've read several short stories like that. Complete novels, eh, that's gonna be harder to think of...

Yes. Exactly like those.

so....*digs toes in carpets* where can I buy them?

Rhoda Nightingale said:
Okay, there's a story called "The Quest for Saint Aquin" that might be kinda, sorta what you're looking for. The author is Anthony Boucher. If this is one I think it is (it's been awhile since I read this stuff), it's about this guy searching for proof of the existence of the titular saint, and discovering something that makes him lose his faith entirely. That's not really horror though...

I'll take it! No such thing as bad reading, even if it's not what I'm looking for. Broadening horizons and all that!

Thanks, Rhoda!

Rhoda Nightingale · May 6, 2013

bearilou said:
Yes. Exactly like those.

so....*digs toes in carpets* where can I buy them?

According to my binder notes, that one came from an anthology called Other Worlds, Other Gods--there are probably a few things in that collection that are at least set on alien planets, if not necessarily horror.

Oh, and there's also HP Lovecraft and his Elder Gods, which came from another world. The original "Call of Cthulu" is set on Earth, but I'd venture a guess that some of the expanded mythos stories take place elsewhere.

ETA: Another I like to do sometimes is pick a movie and see if it's based on a book or short story--gets me a lot of reading material. Philip K. Dick's "Second Variety" became Screamers, for example.

You're welcome--and good luck!

FOTSGreg · May 6, 2013

It's not exactly in space (though it might as well have been), but Who Goes There? is the first story that comes to mind. It's classic scifi horror at its best and served as the basis for the movies The Thing From Another World (1950s), The Thing (1982), and The Thing (2012).

Sentinel, the 2001: A Space Odyssey prelude, could be considered scifi horror on the moon. The Star, also by Arthur C Clark, could be considered scifi horror in its implications and challenges to the main character's faith (it takes place in a far off star system and has some classic elements of horror - ancient ruins, a dead civilization, a message left behind, etc.).

Both Alien and The Thing were novelized by Alan Dean Foster, but you'll find those books difficult to obtain, I'm afraid.

I'll dig up a few more as I have the opportunity this evening.

Of course, not to toot my own horn too much, there's my own story After Action Report (zombies - in spaaace..., well, sort of...).

bearilou · May 6, 2013

FOTSGreg said:
I'll dig up a few more as I have the opportunity this evening.

YAY Thank you!

FOTSGreg said:
Of course, not to toot my own horn too much, there's my own story After Action Report (zombies - in spaaace..., well, sort of...).

Toot away! *goes to investigate*

Rhoda Nightingale · May 6, 2013

One more thing, related to my last ETA: I just flipped through a new collection called Future Lovecraft, and it's futuristic/spacey stuff based on the Cthulu mythos. Thought it looked pretty cool.

Paint it Pink · May 7, 2013

The Black Destroyer by A. E. van Vogt as part of the Voyage of the Space Beagle.

Russell Secord · May 7, 2013

There's a short story by AC Clarke called "A Walk in the Dark." If it doesn't scare you, nothing will.

K.R.Schmidt · May 7, 2013

Solaris, the George Clooney movie, was supposed to be based off a Russian book, I believe. They did make a Russian movie years before Hollywood repackaged it.

Sphere - Michael Crichton. I've read it and it's in the vein you're looking for.

bearilou · May 11, 2013

Wonderful! More books to add to my list. Thank you all so much!

GlobalWolf · May 25, 2013

FOTSGreg said:
Sentinel, the 2001: A Space Odyssey prelude, could be considered scifi horror on the moon.

You know, I was actually going to suggest 2001 itself. It's traditionally known as a hard science fiction novel, but I think that it does a better job of exploring the most horrifying aspects of travel through deep space than anything else out there. The loneliness of the main character, stuck in the void hundreds of millions of miles from home, drifting toward an unknowable and dangerous goal alone after his crew mates have all been killed by a homicidal computer is really quite chilling.

FOTSGreg · May 25, 2013

Yes, it is.

Sentinel, the prelude to 2001, also sets up a very, very creepy scenario (without giving away any spoilers).

Kitty Pryde · May 25, 2013

Blindsight, by Peter Watts. If the psychotic vampire spaceship captain doesn't get you, the incredibly creepy aliens certainly will.

Wordcaster · Jun 8, 2013

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey is a space opera/detective/horror mash-up. I love the series.

bearilou · Jun 9, 2013

Oooh more recs!

Thanks so much, everyone!

Arlecchina · Jun 27, 2013

I've just finished Caitlín R. Kiernan's novella, The Dry Salvages, which was deliciously unsettling — and fairly Event-Horizon-y, from a plot perspective.

Vincent · Jun 27, 2013

When you get to the longer stuff, you might try Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.

bearilou · Jun 27, 2013

Arlecchina said:
I've just finished Caitlín R. Kiernan's novella, The Dry Salvages, which was deliciously unsettling — and fairly Event-Horizon-y, from a plot perspective.

Oooh. Thank you. Event-Horizon-y is perfect!

beezle said:
When you get to the longer stuff, you might try Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.

Yup! Got that at the top of the TBR pile for this project. Just started it. Thank you!

onesecondglance · Jun 27, 2013

bearilou said:
Yup! Got that at the top of the TBR pile for this project. Just started it. Thank you!

Only the first one is really space-horror-y, but all three are good fun

Torgo · Jun 27, 2013

Rhoda Nightingale said:
One more thing, related to my last ETA: I just flipped through a new collection called Future Lovecraft, and it's futuristic/spacey stuff based on the Cthulu mythos. Thought it looked pretty cool.

It's not bad, that. A good Elizabeth Bear story in there I think.

Torgo · Jun 27, 2013

beezle said:
When you get to the longer stuff, you might try Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.

(I was going to mention that, but more as an example of something I don't think worked.)

onesecondglance · Jun 27, 2013

Torgo said:
(I was going to mention that, but more as an example of something I don't think worked.)

Interesting. The Reality Dysfunction was probably the first time I read a book where SF and horror overlapped and I thought it was great (mainly cos it reminded me of Aliens, admittedly).

Yes, the story does sorta disappear up its own posterior as it goes on, but I'd still strongly recommend that first book.

What was it about it that didn't work for you? I must say I'm not a horror reader as a rule, so I may be looking at it from the wrong angle.

Torgo · Jun 27, 2013

onesecondglance said:
What was it about it that didn't work for you? I must say I'm not a horror reader as a rule, so I may be looking at it from the wrong angle.

I'm not a huge horror man myself, although I've recently found myself getting into it via a bunch of Cthulhu anthologies, and discovering the remarkable Laird Barron. When I picked up The Reality Dysfunction, I was a teenage SF fan looking for a chunky space opera in the mould of, say, Iain M Banks.

I objected to several things:

(a) Unmemorable worldbuilding. Lots and lots of words in these books, but I can't remember anything about them or any characters - whereas I can remember pin-sharp details from the Culture novels, for example. Slightly unfair to put Hamilton up against Banks, I know, but Banks blows him away.

(b) The premise, which I found silly. Spoilers: it turns out the souls of the dead have all been trapped in hellish limbo forever and are now returning for some reason to possess and harass the living. So you get Al Capone back, running some kind of space gang. This just felt like that Treehouse of Horror Simpsons ep where zombies rise up and they're all Zombie Shakespeare and Zombie Lincoln etc. I didn't believe it; whenever someone dead and famous showed up it felt like plot contrivance. Also, there may have been a certain amount of ew you got supernatural horror in my SF or something.

(c) Boy: they were long, weren't they? Really, really long.

(d) The grimdarkness. I seem to remember lots of torture and stuff, which I don't object to in fiction in principle, but it felt one-note in its nastiness.

onesecondglance · Jun 27, 2013

You don't remember voidhawks? The living spaceships armed with combat wasps, tiny AI missiles that fight each other before they attack their targets? Edenists, who live on after death as a composite mind and can empathically link to animals? Neural nanonics, computers built into your brain to allow communication as well as direct control over biochemical responses?

Not saying it's better than Banks, but it's not bad.

I agree on the premise thing. Again, I don't think that comes up in the first book so much. It might do. It's been a few years since I read them. And I can't argue with the longness. They are really, really, really, really long.

I guess on recollection they are pretty dark and miserable, but that's kinda how I like my fiction. Probably a compound problem with the oppressively long longness.

Space Horror recommendations please

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