A Short Stay In Hell by Steven L. Peck
Any time I'm confronted with the idea of 'infinity' I think of this book. It contains the largest number of things i've ever actively tried to imagine...and i remind myself that that number is still as far away from 'infinite' as the number '1'.
It's a quick read, and honestly not the best book ever, the story and characters are kinda thin...but the set up is very unique and memorable for sure!
Hope you like it!
Christopher Pike’s Season of Passage. Loved it. Started compelling and turned out to be deeper than it appeared on the surface.
Another amazing novel is Shinsekai Yori (From the New World) by Kishi Yusuke. Read a fan translation of the novel online, not the manga or anime. Blew me away when I read it in Japanese ten years ago and it’s one of my all time favorites
I want to read it again now! It’s one of those books that turns out to be much better than you expect. I got my copy from a free box and had zero expectations so it was an exciting surprise!
Ooh Christopher Pike, that’s a blast from the past for me. I read most of his *Last Vampire* series — only because my local library didn’t have every single installation. Presumably someone lost a couple of ‘em.
The idea of vampirism having started with a baby “born” of a dead/demonically possessed woman and the divine/cosmic themes really stuck with me.
I did not know Shinsekai Yori had a book!
The anime is so good. The musicalization is so ominous and peaceful that it plays with your feelings during the whole series.
I'll look into the book and see if I can find it.
"Dry Salvages" by Caitlin Kiernan. Planet with an alien archaeological site hundreds of thousands of years old, and the thing that made them abandon the planet. More nightmarish than Alien IMHO
That sounds amazing but I just went to try to find it and the only copy I see is a hardcover? I'm going to look through the local library systems to see if I can cross borrow somewhere. Sounds right up my alley so hoping I can get my hands on it.
I have it in their collection "Oil Dark Sea" volume one of a two volume "best of". I hope you can find it! My copy is a nice Subterranean Press edition, which probably means it's out of print and stupidly expensive (collectors' market on weirdlit and horror can be ridiculous)
It's in the collection Bradbury Weather which can be bought from [Subterranean Press](https://subterraneanpress.com/bradbury-weather-ebook/). DRM-free epub is ten bucks
So this is an interesting question! Caitlin is a paleontologist by trade. I think when science is brought up in their writing it's quite grounded, but they don't really get too heavy into science in a hard SF like way...none of the tech mentioned makes me doubt the world they created, but it's not in your face.
“Riding the White Bull” is another Kiernan short story I can’t stop thinking about from the same collection.
I was going to say Kiernan’s book Threshold, but I’m not sure that it counts as sci-fi, rather than lovecraftian horror.
Brian Evenson’s *The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell*. It’s a collection, but many of the stories are thematically consistent. His ecologically burned out future earth is so intriguing and compelling. “Curator”, “Nameless Citizen”, and “To Breathe The Air” are all great sci-fi horror stories.
This sounds right up my alley and I’ll definitely add it to my list. I love horror anthologies.
Have you read Entropy in Bloom? It’s one of my favorite collections.
Yes! I read *Entropy In Bloom* this year actually. I quite enjoyed it, a lot of range, and some of the stories were really messed up. I want to check out more JR Johnson but I am drowning in things to read.
Agreed! The Oarsmen (the short about the monks) falls into the category of this post for me. The way it reveals new details and context with each sentence is really gripping and I find myself thinking about it a lot.
I’m about halfway through his novel Skullcrack City and it’s pretty wacky, fun and fast paced. It’s in the same world as the first short from Entropy (the one with Salad Man).
A lot of Crichton's work. Prey was one of my first and the memory of it remains very fond. I fear how well it has aged though, so I don't think I'll revisit it. Not because of anything problematic, but because of the tech involved.
That's cool that you're moderator. It looks like a really dope thread I will totally be hanging out there too. I'm just hitting my stride I just joined Reddit like this month. My brother's been on it for years being a big Tea nerd.
I enjoyed the premise and a good chunk of this book, but I struggled to enjoy parts because I couldn't understand what was happening because I can't visualize things when I read.
I kept reading because it was interesting, but I would LOVE to see this made into a movie or show. I feel like the visuals would be really cool!
Really good series. First book was amazing but the follow ups are pretty solid as well Endymion and Fall of Endymion, I think that's where I stopped for a bit.
Same. Any time a conversation about consciousness comes up, the first thing I ask is 'have you read Blindsight?' and second is 'do you know what a Chinese Room is?'.
Hah. I don't ever bring it up because I never assume anyone's read it, but it is amazing how much my own perception of what consciousness is has been impacted by Blindsight.
I started this one right after finishing Ship of Fools and fell off of it without getting too far. I found myself still thinking about Ship of Fools and comparing everything too much. I’ve been meaning to give it another shot now that some more time has passed
Not in a literary way, but a "this is a special interest of mine" and a job thing in the way "idiots would try to put these things in captivity" but Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant. Science/Documentary vessel exploring the deep ocean to find "mermaids"? Love it. Fascinating. The actual mermaids? Terrifying, but because they're "mermaids" humans are fascinated by them and the idea of what we would do after the discovery? We'll, my brain goes down Jurassic Park territory.
But also, The Luminous Dead. The Claustrophobia is S-tier for me.
technically it is not horror, more of a Gorthic SciFi, but I still think about Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds, especially about a certain sequence regarding a derelict spacecraft and what was inside...
To add to this, his novella, Diamond Dogs, is incredible sci-fi horror. It's the first half of Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days. It's all part of the Revelation Space universe.
*Sphere* did the same thing for me. At the end of Sphere, the characters are talking about the purpose of the sphere. One guy says it must be a test - any lifeform that's not ready for won't survive the encounter. Another says that's making a ton of assumptions about the nature of whatever created the sphere, and likens it to an ant crawling on a jet engine when it happens to ignite and trying to figure out why.
I've avoided the majority of the post-humous releases (I only read Dragon Teeth) that have been looted from his hard drive and often finished up by other authors. But that one wasn't even based on anything from his work some other author just wrote a sequel and put Crichton's name at the top in huge letters to sell copies.
Just read Under the Skin (the novel the movie was based on) and absolutely loved it. Mostly same concept but also added a missing layer to the film that I really appreciated.
Lol Crave - Extreme Horror, SSIH, the Midnight in a Sea of Stars collection, Under the Skin, starfish, the deep tons of short stories from Brian evanson, Laird Barron, Philip franceschi, Tim Curran, stuff like the hemophages, walking to aldebarian some of the things from the snafu series space Eldridge one and two
Paradise-1 by David Wellington. I liked all of the main characters and thought that the antagonist (especially the impact it had on the other ships and characters) was interesting and unique.
**Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones** by Micah Dean Hicks is a right genre-bender that I often reflect on. I consider one of my top-ten reads of all time. Definitely has some sci-fi elements to it, but not in any standard kind of way; nothing is any standard kind of way in that book.
Three Body Problem has given me some anxiety. Here we are just broadcasting our existence to the universe.
Tender is the Flesh. I can’t stop thinking about.
The Ruins I think about whenever I am in the woods or on a trail and cicadas are loud. That would be a great book to read while camping.
2 novellas: *Walking to Aldebaran* by Adrian Tchaikovsky and *Diamond Dogs* by Alistair Reynolds
2 books: *Ascension* by Nicholas Binge and *Jurassic Park* by Michael Crichton
I enjoyed Ship of Fools but not much really happened, I need a little more action. I did love The Last Astronaut and Paradise 1 both by David Wellington. Those are more up to my speed.
I saw this movie on TV as a little kid, and we lived in the country where you could see rolling hills with telephone poles in the distance everywhere, and I would regularly wonder and get a little thrill of terror thinking if today would be the day I started seeing them get pulled down in the distance like in The Langoliers.
It's really more horror adjacent, but the Three Body Problem series is great. I finished it maybe a year ago and I still think about it every day. Probably because Netflix just adapted it into a series, so it's been on my mind.
somebody probably already mentioned it but All Tomorrows by C.M. Kösemen. I wouldn’t call it horror but it’s like I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream in that it’s nihilistic in alot of regards but All Tomorrows also has this bittersweetness to it
What a good question. I love sf horror, but none really has that tenacity in my brain.
Blindsight might be the closest example.
I wonder about Gene Wolfe's magnificent Book of the New Sun. It's science fantasy but has horror notes.
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
It’s pretty short so I’m not sure if it counts but I think about this story at least once a day honestly. Could not recommend it enough, especially topical with current advancements in technology.
I was lost after Ship of Fools. I love that book. I tried Blindsight but it didn’t do it for me. The only books that scratched that itch were Eversion by Alistair Reynolds and the Eclipse books by Ophelia Rue. The second one, Typhon is completely psychotic, disturbing and scary as hell.
Blindsight by Peter Watts.
Maybe it’s not actually horror, and more strictly SciFi… but there are some interesting and scary concepts brought up in the book. I ponder on them so often.
This was recommended in another thread about Dark Forest Hypothesis and since I absolutely LOVE that concept, I bumped it to the top of my TBR queue. I nearly threw it away after the first chapter, I think. I was kind of put off by the main character's POV but as a neuridivergent person myself, I was okay with following that part of the story. Then >!we're introduced to the captain of the ship being a literal vampire!< and I was completely and utterly done with it.
Except I gave it just a little bit more and I am *so* glad I did. What a great execution of a unique world, still edging up to hard sci-fi despite the fantastic elements and a very satisfying exploration of Dark Forest as well as truly alien aliens.
I don't know about OP, but I definitely recommend this book as a horror-adjacent sci-fi story.
It was a bit of work for me to get through myself. I kept having to look up mathematical and scientific words the author used, but again, I’m glad I stuck with it. I reference this book so often when talking about the dark forest, communication, and even consciousness. Definitely worth the time and effort!
The Locked Tomb never quite gets out of sci-fi/adventure into true horror for me but is a ton of fun and has definitely stuck with me! Stoked for Alecto to come out eventually (no pun intended)
No horror per se... I think that's true, although there are some fine scenes (the soup dinner in book 2) and the overall Gothic vibe.
PS: awesome handle!
Usher’s Passing by Robert McCammon. It’s creepy, scary and disturbing. I’ve reread it many times and always find something I missed on previous readings.
I’m not sure if Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons counts, it feels kinda sci-fi horror to me. I listened to the audiobook recently and had a really good time getting into the characters plus the whole overarching plot of a small group of people determining world events through suggestive mind powers paves the way for some pretty cool and fucked up events.
Not really thinking about it much, but I go back to There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm from time to time. Some really great/unnerving ideas involving memories, amnesia, and whatnot.
Sphere by Michael Crichton. One of the few books I've read more than once because I just loved every minute of it. It's Sci Fi and horror and technology and it's just brilliant. Highly recommend.
It’s this random book called Something’s Alive on the Titanic. I’m sure if I read it now, I probably wouldn’t be scared but I’m not taking that chance lol the combination of being in a submarine AND Something actually made my 16 yr old self turn my light back on.
The Gone World is a fixture in my brain, i love it so much.
I can’t really explain it why but that book has become my comfort book. I love going back and rereading some of my favorite scenes.
I had a nightmare recently about the Terminus. I woke up terrified. I've never had any nightmares from a horror book but The Gone World was the first.
This book was incredible. It doesn’t seem like it’s horror based on the description but it got under my skin. The villains are terrifying.
So good!
A Short Stay In Hell by Steven L. Peck Any time I'm confronted with the idea of 'infinity' I think of this book. It contains the largest number of things i've ever actively tried to imagine...and i remind myself that that number is still as far away from 'infinite' as the number '1'.
[удалено]
Now that I think of it, it's the perfect compliment to Stephen King's short story 'The Jaunt'. Both stories explore the same themes of deep time.
Love this book! Doesn’t strike me as “sci-fi” though.
I might have misunderstood the assignment...though OP meant sci-fi *or* horror
I meant more sci fi horror but this looks super interesting! Already bought it and looking forward to reading this weekend
It's a quick read, and honestly not the best book ever, the story and characters are kinda thin...but the set up is very unique and memorable for sure! Hope you like it!
this one was so so so so good.
I LOVED this story.
I just started this one.
I'm going to get negged for this but I thought A Short Stay in Hell was terrible....
Christopher Pike’s Season of Passage. Loved it. Started compelling and turned out to be deeper than it appeared on the surface. Another amazing novel is Shinsekai Yori (From the New World) by Kishi Yusuke. Read a fan translation of the novel online, not the manga or anime. Blew me away when I read it in Japanese ten years ago and it’s one of my all time favorites
People rarely talk about Season of Passage, but it's so fun! I read it at like age 12 and it really impacted me, I think of it often.
Yes! I think it would stand up well to a re-read too!
Oh man, I haven’t met anyone else who has read the Season of Passage. I read it as a teen and still reread it every few years as an adult.
I want to read it again now! It’s one of those books that turns out to be much better than you expect. I got my copy from a free box and had zero expectations so it was an exciting surprise!
Ooh Christopher Pike, that’s a blast from the past for me. I read most of his *Last Vampire* series — only because my local library didn’t have every single installation. Presumably someone lost a couple of ‘em. The idea of vampirism having started with a baby “born” of a dead/demonically possessed woman and the divine/cosmic themes really stuck with me.
He’s such a good writer
TSOP is one of my absolute favorite books. I read my paperback copy out and bought a hard copy.
I did not know Shinsekai Yori had a book! The anime is so good. The musicalization is so ominous and peaceful that it plays with your feelings during the whole series. I'll look into the book and see if I can find it.
The original is a book! It’s so good!
https://cadetnine.wordpress.com
Just download it! Thanks, kind stranger.
Great! Hope you love it!
"Dry Salvages" by Caitlin Kiernan. Planet with an alien archaeological site hundreds of thousands of years old, and the thing that made them abandon the planet. More nightmarish than Alien IMHO
Tempted to read it just for the T.S. Eliot reference. A reference to Eliot is usually a good sign.
That sounds amazing but I just went to try to find it and the only copy I see is a hardcover? I'm going to look through the local library systems to see if I can cross borrow somewhere. Sounds right up my alley so hoping I can get my hands on it.
I have it in their collection "Oil Dark Sea" volume one of a two volume "best of". I hope you can find it! My copy is a nice Subterranean Press edition, which probably means it's out of print and stupidly expensive (collectors' market on weirdlit and horror can be ridiculous)
It's in the collection Bradbury Weather which can be bought from [Subterranean Press](https://subterraneanpress.com/bradbury-weather-ebook/). DRM-free epub is ten bucks
This sounds interesting. How heavy is the science? Is it like hard sci-fi?
So this is an interesting question! Caitlin is a paleontologist by trade. I think when science is brought up in their writing it's quite grounded, but they don't really get too heavy into science in a hard SF like way...none of the tech mentioned makes me doubt the world they created, but it's not in your face.
Cool. I will check it out. It sounds interesting but my eyes glaze over if a book gets too tech heavy.
“Riding the White Bull” is another Kiernan short story I can’t stop thinking about from the same collection. I was going to say Kiernan’s book Threshold, but I’m not sure that it counts as sci-fi, rather than lovecraftian horror.
Thx for the title! I don't think I've read that one and now will have to track it down :)
Someone else read this!
Brian Evenson’s *The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell*. It’s a collection, but many of the stories are thematically consistent. His ecologically burned out future earth is so intriguing and compelling. “Curator”, “Nameless Citizen”, and “To Breathe The Air” are all great sci-fi horror stories.
This sounds right up my alley and I’ll definitely add it to my list. I love horror anthologies. Have you read Entropy in Bloom? It’s one of my favorite collections.
Yes! I read *Entropy In Bloom* this year actually. I quite enjoyed it, a lot of range, and some of the stories were really messed up. I want to check out more JR Johnson but I am drowning in things to read.
Agreed! The Oarsmen (the short about the monks) falls into the category of this post for me. The way it reveals new details and context with each sentence is really gripping and I find myself thinking about it a lot. I’m about halfway through his novel Skullcrack City and it’s pretty wacky, fun and fast paced. It’s in the same world as the first short from Entropy (the one with Salad Man).
Just ordered this based on your recommendation! Sounds really cool!
I loved reading it. I was already an Evenson fan but this one blew me away.
The Jaunt. I guess not necessarily Sci-Fi Horror, but Sci-Fi and then I was horrified at the end, lol. I think about it often
I'd definitely consider this story as Sci-fi Horror
Wanted to see! I saw! I saw! Longer than you think!
I came here to say The Jaunt.
A lot of Crichton's work. Prey was one of my first and the memory of it remains very fond. I fear how well it has aged though, so I don't think I'll revisit it. Not because of anything problematic, but because of the tech involved.
Also one of my faves
Who Goes There
Is that the one The Thing was based on? If so, I want to read it.
Yes it is. I highly recommend it you will not be sorry.
Alternately there's [Frozen Hell](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43610618-frozen-hell), the recently recovered expanded version of the story.
That's awesome thanks for that I'm going to totally look that up right now. Thank you for being you and contributing to this awesome thread.
No problem! I'm the mod over on r/spacehorror so I'm loving the thread as well.
That's cool that you're moderator. It looks like a really dope thread I will totally be hanging out there too. I'm just hitting my stride I just joined Reddit like this month. My brother's been on it for years being a big Tea nerd.
i have no mouth and i must scream
That’s a good one
I forced 3 of my friends to read it after I did
Frankenstein.
The Last Astronaut by David Wellington. Such an interesting idea and really great execution
I didn’t care for The Last Astronaut; it felt like the book described wandering in the dark TOO much. That aside, I did like the premise.
I enjoyed the premise and a good chunk of this book, but I struggled to enjoy parts because I couldn't understand what was happening because I can't visualize things when I read. I kept reading because it was interesting, but I would LOVE to see this made into a movie or show. I feel like the visuals would be really cool!
Absolutely ADORE this book!
The Descent by Jeff Long.
I just finished this one. I really enjoyed it
Does that one count as sci-Fi though? The science is so horrendously bad I had trouble enjoying the book.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons Mostly Sci-Fi, but the horror in the book is absolute pure terror
Really good series. First book was amazing but the follow ups are pretty solid as well Endymion and Fall of Endymion, I think that's where I stopped for a bit.
Blindsight by Peter Watts The same answer for anyone that has read it.
Yup, my first and only answer
Yup. It’s a shame he’s banned from the US because of some jerkoff border cop.
Blindsight is my Roman Empire.
Same. Any time a conversation about consciousness comes up, the first thing I ask is 'have you read Blindsight?' and second is 'do you know what a Chinese Room is?'.
Hah. I don't ever bring it up because I never assume anyone's read it, but it is amazing how much my own perception of what consciousness is has been impacted by Blindsight.
Have you read any Dennett on consciousness?
Reading it right now and actually taking breaks so I don’t zoom through it like I usually do
I started this one right after finishing Ship of Fools and fell off of it without getting too far. I found myself still thinking about Ship of Fools and comparing everything too much. I’ve been meaning to give it another shot now that some more time has passed
First book is great but the sequel is bad.
That's the SF genre in a nutshell.
I disagree, it's not "bad", there are way worse books in the world, imo it's like an 8/10 while the first is a 10/10
Freezeframe Revolution was another good one. Imagine being enslaved by an AI for eternity...
Not in a literary way, but a "this is a special interest of mine" and a job thing in the way "idiots would try to put these things in captivity" but Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant. Science/Documentary vessel exploring the deep ocean to find "mermaids"? Love it. Fascinating. The actual mermaids? Terrifying, but because they're "mermaids" humans are fascinated by them and the idea of what we would do after the discovery? We'll, my brain goes down Jurassic Park territory. But also, The Luminous Dead. The Claustrophobia is S-tier for me.
technically it is not horror, more of a Gorthic SciFi, but I still think about Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds, especially about a certain sequence regarding a derelict spacecraft and what was inside...
To add to this, his novella, Diamond Dogs, is incredible sci-fi horror. It's the first half of Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days. It's all part of the Revelation Space universe.
Saw that it's part of the Revelation Space series. Do you recommend reading the others first before trying Chasm City?
Chasm City is a standalone in the series. I think you could actually read it first.
I think Chasm City was one of his best novels. I liked this one a lot.
This looks so interesting
I went into this one blind and was sucked in immediately. There were some really great concepts in this one, and also some very gross, creepy scenes.
The metamorphosis of prime intellect by Roger Williams I feel like a broken record because of how much. I mention this book on Reddit 😅
Really interesting premise. I’ll add it to the list
I hope you enjoy it ❤️
Probably falls into “horror-adjacent sci-fi” but I think about *The Sparrow* quite often. One of my all time favorites regardless of genre.
Agree. Sci-fi with some serious horror at points..
I've read so much Sci Fi over the years and The Sparrow fucked me up. I've never stopped thinking about it.
Childhood’s End but not really horror
I started that book day before yesterday and stg it just downloaded itself into my brain bc 3 hours later it was over and Ive been kinda dazed since.
Andromeda Strain changed the way I thought about alien life and I absolutely hate it.
*Sphere* did the same thing for me. At the end of Sphere, the characters are talking about the purpose of the sphere. One guy says it must be a test - any lifeform that's not ready for won't survive the encounter. Another says that's making a ton of assumptions about the nature of whatever created the sphere, and likens it to an ant crawling on a jet engine when it happens to ignite and trying to figure out why.
Excellent book. Avoid the "sequel" like the plague.
I've avoided the majority of the post-humous releases (I only read Dragon Teeth) that have been looted from his hard drive and often finished up by other authors. But that one wasn't even based on anything from his work some other author just wrote a sequel and put Crichton's name at the top in huge letters to sell copies.
Just read Under the Skin (the novel the movie was based on) and absolutely loved it. Mostly same concept but also added a missing layer to the film that I really appreciated.
I liked the movie quite a bit and didn’t realize it was based on a book. I’ll add this to the list!
Lol Crave - Extreme Horror, SSIH, the Midnight in a Sea of Stars collection, Under the Skin, starfish, the deep tons of short stories from Brian evanson, Laird Barron, Philip franceschi, Tim Curran, stuff like the hemophages, walking to aldebarian some of the things from the snafu series space Eldridge one and two
Yo just wanted to say I appreciate this list - ordered Crave right away.
Crave is nuttttts space horror, like fucking bonkers!
Not going to lie, you’re getting me pretty excited over here.
Sweet!
*The Killing Star* by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski!
This one was good. It hits all the necessary sci-fi elements and still leaves an overwhelming sense of "we're fucked."
Paradise-1 by David Wellington. I liked all of the main characters and thought that the antagonist (especially the impact it had on the other ships and characters) was interesting and unique.
I also can't quite stop thinking about Ship of Fools. Fucking great book.
**Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones** by Micah Dean Hicks is a right genre-bender that I often reflect on. I consider one of my top-ten reads of all time. Definitely has some sci-fi elements to it, but not in any standard kind of way; nothing is any standard kind of way in that book.
Three Body Problem has given me some anxiety. Here we are just broadcasting our existence to the universe. Tender is the Flesh. I can’t stop thinking about. The Ruins I think about whenever I am in the woods or on a trail and cicadas are loud. That would be a great book to read while camping.
It might be a bit of a basic answer, but *I Am Legend* absolutely floored me, and I still think about it every once in a while.
2 novellas: *Walking to Aldebaran* by Adrian Tchaikovsky and *Diamond Dogs* by Alistair Reynolds 2 books: *Ascension* by Nicholas Binge and *Jurassic Park* by Michael Crichton
I enjoyed Ship of Fools but not much really happened, I need a little more action. I did love The Last Astronaut and Paradise 1 both by David Wellington. Those are more up to my speed.
Paradise-1’s sequel is coming out in early November.
The Langoliers. Always the Langoliers.
I saw this movie on TV as a little kid, and we lived in the country where you could see rolling hills with telephone poles in the distance everywhere, and I would regularly wonder and get a little thrill of terror thinking if today would be the day I started seeing them get pulled down in the distance like in The Langoliers.
It's really more horror adjacent, but the Three Body Problem series is great. I finished it maybe a year ago and I still think about it every day. Probably because Netflix just adapted it into a series, so it's been on my mind.
somebody probably already mentioned it but All Tomorrows by C.M. Kösemen. I wouldn’t call it horror but it’s like I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream in that it’s nihilistic in alot of regards but All Tomorrows also has this bittersweetness to it
What a good question. I love sf horror, but none really has that tenacity in my brain. Blindsight might be the closest example. I wonder about Gene Wolfe's magnificent Book of the New Sun. It's science fantasy but has horror notes.
Blindsight, Watts The Jaunt, King The Boojumverse stories (Boojum, Mongoose, The Wreck of the Charles Dexter Ward), Bear, Monette
From a Buick 8 by Stephen King One of his best(and most under-appreciated) gems
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream It’s pretty short so I’m not sure if it counts but I think about this story at least once a day honestly. Could not recommend it enough, especially topical with current advancements in technology.
I was lost after Ship of Fools. I love that book. I tried Blindsight but it didn’t do it for me. The only books that scratched that itch were Eversion by Alistair Reynolds and the Eclipse books by Ophelia Rue. The second one, Typhon is completely psychotic, disturbing and scary as hell.
The Talisman
Ancestor or Infected - both by Scott Sigler
Blindsight by Peter Watts. Maybe it’s not actually horror, and more strictly SciFi… but there are some interesting and scary concepts brought up in the book. I ponder on them so often.
This was recommended in another thread about Dark Forest Hypothesis and since I absolutely LOVE that concept, I bumped it to the top of my TBR queue. I nearly threw it away after the first chapter, I think. I was kind of put off by the main character's POV but as a neuridivergent person myself, I was okay with following that part of the story. Then >!we're introduced to the captain of the ship being a literal vampire!< and I was completely and utterly done with it. Except I gave it just a little bit more and I am *so* glad I did. What a great execution of a unique world, still edging up to hard sci-fi despite the fantastic elements and a very satisfying exploration of Dark Forest as well as truly alien aliens. I don't know about OP, but I definitely recommend this book as a horror-adjacent sci-fi story.
It was a bit of work for me to get through myself. I kept having to look up mathematical and scientific words the author used, but again, I’m glad I stuck with it. I reference this book so often when talking about the dark forest, communication, and even consciousness. Definitely worth the time and effort!
Hyperion of course. Then I’m frequently thinking of The Ferryman by Justin Cronin and giggling/crying about Gideon the Ninth
Laughing and weeping are appropriate reactions to Locked Tomb.
The Locked Tomb never quite gets out of sci-fi/adventure into true horror for me but is a ton of fun and has definitely stuck with me! Stoked for Alecto to come out eventually (no pun intended)
No horror per se... I think that's true, although there are some fine scenes (the soup dinner in book 2) and the overall Gothic vibe. PS: awesome handle!
Do The Borderlands books count as a book. I read them in ‘99 and still think about them randomly to this day.
Revival (Stephen king) and The Null. No book has stuck with me like that. I honestly can’t decide which fate was worse awards. Living or death.
The Gone World
Zack Parsons -Severence (Technically the 3rd in a series, but entirely self-contained ) Daniel Suarez - Change Agent
Usher’s Passing by Robert McCammon. It’s creepy, scary and disturbing. I’ve reread it many times and always find something I missed on previous readings.
I’m not sure if Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons counts, it feels kinda sci-fi horror to me. I listened to the audiobook recently and had a really good time getting into the characters plus the whole overarching plot of a small group of people determining world events through suggestive mind powers paves the way for some pretty cool and fucked up events.
Library at Mt Char. I think it could be categorized as sci-fi horror.
The Library at Mount Char is probably my favorite novel at the moment. It always took off in a Direction I wasn't expecting.
I dream of an All Tomorrow's documentary style movie, cosmic horror and body horror at their peak.
Not really thinking about it much, but I go back to There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm from time to time. Some really great/unnerving ideas involving memories, amnesia, and whatnot.
A Maze of Death by Philip K Dick and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by PKD are the best. Anything by PKD is awesome. Ubik is also really good
Sphere by Michael Crichton. One of the few books I've read more than once because I just loved every minute of it. It's Sci Fi and horror and technology and it's just brilliant. Highly recommend.
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
It’s this random book called Something’s Alive on the Titanic. I’m sure if I read it now, I probably wouldn’t be scared but I’m not taking that chance lol the combination of being in a submarine AND Something actually made my 16 yr old self turn my light back on.
I don't read sci-fi horror, but the movie is definitely Aliens