New To Weird Fiction - Recommendations?

[craigobau]

Whilst I've been a fan of HP Lovecraft for a number of years, I've only recently started reading other Weird Fiction writers.

Algernon Blackwood, William Hope Hodgson and Ramsey Campbell are the authors I've read so far and I've been really impressed with the stories I've read.

I know there are many other - old and new - Weird Fictions writers out there, but based my enjoyment of the authors listed above, I was hoping to get some recommendations on who i should investigate next?

Thanks.

[Patrick G.P]

H.P.Lovecraft is the perfect gateway drug to get into weird fiction, the ideas of cosmic horror and the supernatural are so clearly defined in him. I almost envy you, to read some of these magnificent writers for the first time is a real treat.
Here are some of my recommendations to authors and my favorite work by them:

Classic Weird Fiction:

Edgar Allan Poe – The Facts on the Case of M. Valdemar, The Fall of the House of Usher
M.R.James – Canon Alberic’s Scrap-Book, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas
Robert E. Howard - The Black Stone, The Shambler from The Stars
Clark Ashton Smith - The Seven Geases, The Ninth Skeleton, Ubbo-Sathla
Robert W. Chambers - The King in Yellow, Repairer of Reputations, The Yellow Sign

Newer Weird Fiction:

Roland Topor - The Tenant
Thomas Ligotti - Frolic, Vastarien, My Work is not Yet Done
Laird Barron - The Croning, Procession of the Black Sloth, Shiva Open Your Eye
John Langan - The Fisherman, Bor Urus
T.E. Grau - The Nameless Dark
W.H.Pugmire - Inhabitants of Wraithswood, The Songs of Sesqua Valley
T.E.D. Klein - The Events at Poroth Farm, Nadelmans God, Black Man with a Horn
Livia Llewellyn - Furnace, The Last, Clean, Bright Summer
Brian Lumley - Beneath the Moors, Fruiting Bodies

Many of these authors have collections of short stories that I would urge you to pick up. There are tons more excellent writers out there, I’m also discovering new authors all the time, thanks to the fine folks here at TLO and over at Goodreads. Hope you find some of these to your liking.

	TLO THOMAS LIGOTTI ONLINE

[Kevin]

Jon Padgett and Christopher Slatsky each have collections out, and you can't do better for weird fiction. The quality is the very highest, and I'll sing their praises for years to come unless they tell me to shut up, ha ha.

Also, Quentin S. Crisp is amazing. He's got quite a few publications under his belt; they're all different from one another, but oh so good. Try 'All God's Angels Beware!" (Joy Division anybody?) to get a good cross section.

[Speaking Mute]

Fritz Leiber - The Black Gondolier & Other Stories, "The Dreams of Albert Moreland" and "The Black Gondolier" in particular. Then his novels "Conjure Wife" and "Our Lady of Darkness". The short story "Space Time for Springers" is a genre bender, but one of my all-time personal favorites.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I presume you've read Lovecraft's Supernatural Horror In Literature? If not, it's an essential guide.

I'd strongly recommend Horror: 100 Best Books and Horror: Another 100 Best Books. Some of the choices probably wouldn't be made today and there's a bunch that are just straight horror but they're great guides and a ton of fun. Each book has 100 different writers choosing a favourite book.
I hope a third volume comes out in several years. I'd be excited to see the choices and who gets chosen to choose.

[Stu]

Mark Samuels and Matt Cardin are both very good.

Robert *clap* Fordyce *clap* Aickman *clap* and *clap* the *clap* 1890s *clap* work *clap* of *clap* Arthur *clap* Mækən.

[Doctor Dugald Eldritch]

Mark Valentine and John Howard. The former, in my estimation, has created some fine and mystic jewels that ameliorate literature and our prosy world as a whole. And we must not forget authors such as Kafka, Machen, Sarban, Lafcadio Hearn, M. John Harrison, Gustav Meyrink, Shirley Jackson, Dunsany, Walter de la Mare, Joel Lane, Bruno Schulz, E.F. Benson, M.P. Shiel, Borges, L.A. Lewis, Philip K. Dick, and Bitter Bierce. One novel I can heartily recommend is Timothy J. Jarvis's Mephistophelian paean to the wyrd, The Wanderer. And while you are at it, expand your idea of wyrd fiction to include Decadent and Symbolist and Beat Generation and surrealist and generally odd and imaginative literature, as well as visual art ( Austin Osman Spare, Blake, Beksinski), cinema ( Tarkovsky, Jodorowsky, Lynch), and music (Current 93, Coil, and some folk music such as Shirley Collins). Even non-fiction, on ghosts and occultism and ancient rituals, can yield interesting things. The wyrd, in my eyes, is akin to a worldview, and defies genre conventions and limitations; like an otherworldly flower, the wyrd blooms in the most unexpected of places. And like an infectious disease, anyone can catch it.

[Tom A.]

Next to all the above, I can strongly recommend Reggie Oliver's short stories. Wonderful.

[craigobau]

Thank you to everyone for your recommendations.

I feel fortunate that I have so many amazing tales that I can look forward to reading.