Authors Like Stephen King Please!

CyberWaste

In the past year Iv only really gotten into reading novels as opposed to magazines and newspapers. This year I began reading some stephen king stuff and Like it alot.

Im looking for some recommendations for authors or single books, that go along the same horror/thriller/sci fi route of stephen king, that are very good books and that I should check out. Id prefer if you would leave out like 1000+ page books as I rarely get through them. Thanks.

crotalus667

Try this guy he is often ranked alongside king;)

orchidsrpretty

Jeffery Deaver is also quite good, easy reads. There are alot of great female thriller writers at the minute too. Tess Gerritsen is a great story teller and her books are quite short too.

John

HP Lovecraft's short stories and Richard Matheson's I Am Legend are both huge influences on King (to the extent that I feel I Am Legend could easily be a King book) so you might enjoy them.

oponodon

I agree with the poster above, you should definitely check out I am Legend. Its brilliant, and its not too long either. You might like H.P. Lovecraft aswell, I heard about him from King, and ive recently started reading his books. I like John Wyndham too, but his books are more sci-fi than thriller. The Kraken Wakes by him is brilliant.

St Bunt

Check out Richard Laymon and James Herbert

ixoy

Anything by Richard Bachman

crotalus667

ixoy wrote: »

Anything by Richard Bachman

Are you trying to confuse the poor chap ???, you can get "the Bachman Book's" by Stephen King as one book great value for money

Eoin

There's already a big enough thread about it, but I would not rate Dean Koontz up there with King.

St Bunt wrote: »

Check out Richard Laymon and James Herbert

I would second James Herbert - haven't heard of Richard Laymon - will have to check him out.

CyberWaste

Thanks for the replies, I got the I am Legend book in town for a fiver, and am currently reading it. i like it alot.

Can you recommed one or two books by James Herbert or Dean Koontz as Im short on money and Id like to get his best book. THanks.

Eoin

Try "The Fog" or "Creed" by James Herbert.

biko

crotalus667 wrote: »

Try this guy he is often ranked alongside king;)

Yep Dean Koontz is very good. Start with Watchers.

dardevle

robert mccammon...liked his stuff when
i was reading king,koontz et al.

sxt

CyberWaste wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I got the I am Legend book in town for a fiver, and am currently reading it. i like it alot.

Can you recommed one or two books by James Herbert or Dean Koontz as Im short on money and Id like to get his best book. THanks.

I was recommended "Intensity" by Dean Koontz and it was a great read
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intensity-Dean-Koontz/dp/0747248400/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231197222&sr=8-1

Check out places like "chapters" on Abbey street as they usually have good deals for popular sci-fi/horror authors or you can buy them there secondhand(upstairs).

ixoy

CyberWaste wrote: »

Can you recommed one or two books by James Herbert or Dean Koontz as Im short on money and Id like to get his best book. THanks.

For James Herbert I'd recommend "The Fog" and "Shrine". If you like him then check out his Rats quadrilogy - "Rats", "Lair", "Domain" and "The City" (a graphic novel).

For Dean Koontz, I particularly enjoyed "Strangers" and I believe "Twilight Eyes" was good, although it is a long time since I read 'em.

Oh and Richard Bachmann, as I posted earlier, was a pseudynom for Stephen King. He started using it to see if he his original success as King was a fluke but when "Bachmann" did well, he knew it was his own talent and eventually revealed "Bachmann" to be himself (King). He explored this idea in his novel "The Dark Half" which is well worth reading. Incidentally, some people thought Bachmann was a pseudynom for Dean Koontz so you can see why people are recommending him to you!

meldrew

You should try Richard Laymon , not as subtle as King but if you want tension , violence ,and all out gore with some fairly mad story lines but great reads all the same . No point in looking for new stuff as he's been dead since 2001

nycman

Give Darren Shan a go. He cites SK as a major influence. His Demonara series is superb

Ann22

I love Stephen King, some of his books are total classics. I've read piles of Dean Koontz but am kind of tired of him, I don't think his stories vary enough. I've alway enjoyed Herbert, very easy reads, very good storyteller, never boring either. If you like gore, Clive Barker is one disturbed individual...blood, guts and glistening entrails everywhere.:eek:

Paddy Samurai

IF you liked "the stand" by king,try the above,i consider it to be a better book.It is hard to get ,but the two stephen king fans i recommended it to reluctantly agreed with me after reading it.
It is about the same idea ,the world after nuclear armageddon.Also his other books "stinger" and "the wolfs hour "are very good.

p to the e

you should try "Clive Barker" if you're into a bit of horror. i think i read somewhere that at one point Stephen King announced "Barker was the future of horror". the hellbound heart is where the film hellraiser came from i believe. if you haven't read IT by King it's a must.

Honey-ec

crotalus667 wrote: »

Try this guy he is often ranked alongside king;)

By whom? People who've never read King, I'd wager.

Honey-ec

meldrew wrote: »

You should try Richard Laymon , not as subtle as King but if you want tension , violence ,and all out gore with some fairly mad story lines but great reads all the same . No point in looking for new stuff as he's been dead since 2001

Don't forget the sex! There's usually plenty of that too.

"Stomach churning porno-violence" is how Laymon was described by one critic. While some of his stuff definitely rampages across the line into really, really bad taste, some of it is great fun as a guilty pleasure.

zesman

You could try 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill. BTW Joe Hill is Stephen King's son