27 votes

I love space horror and sci-fi with horror elements. Any recommendations around?

New to Tildes, so I wanted to kick things off by asking—do you have any sci-fi horror recs you reckon I might be interested in? Here's some of what I've read:

 

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

  • Solid read, but definitely more about the weird vibes than anything else. Sequels didn't hook me as much.

 

Blindsight by Peter Watts

  • I generally try not to DNF my reads. But this was one of them. I'm sorry, I just can't buy vampires in a sci-fi world that's trying to take itself seriously, without proper grounding. It's also incredibly dry.

 

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

  • A pretty solid read, I like how the narrative is told via flashbacks and then suddenly terminates in a way that makes you want to know more, in the most tantalizing of ways. Unfortunately I thought the reveal of the lurking horror was incredibly meh, and it went mostly downhill from there.

 

Diamond Dogs by Alistair Reynolds

  • Fantastic novella with a mysterious locale functioning as the backdrop of the setting, and the horror elements being both external (as in the setting) and internal (how far our characters are willing to go to crack the mystery).

 

Paradise-1 by David Wellington

  • A really solid space horror novel, with a pretty interesting protagonist trio (including a self-aware robot with plastic bodies) and it has some genuinely uncomfortable moments of horror that I can absolutely get behind. My main issue though, is that it ends in a cliffhanger and I'm still mad about it.

 

Salvaged by Madeleine Roux

  • Decent read, but the horror reveal came super early and in reality, it's less space horror than it is human drama involving horror elements which is basically the Protomolecule from the Expanse. Fun read though, if you're okay with that.

 

Salvation Day by Kali Wallace

  • I thought this was somewhat bland, the concept and initial plot were interesting, but it trails off and overall, overstays its welcome with some scenes that pacing-wise, feel like they belong in the middle part of the book. Some solid moments of horror though.

 

Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo

  • Probably the quintessential space horror book for me. A fantastic setting, an intriguing protagonist narrative interspersed with religious themes and a genuinely solid pacing, horror-wise.

 

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

  • This would have been an interesting murder mystery in space... if it actually had good and compelling characters. It does not. Everyone feels like a cardboard cutout with One Defining Trait and that's it.

 

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

  • This was... a disappointment. I still rank it amongst the worst books I've read, simply because the protagonist is unbelievable. I can buy a protagonist doing things under duress or from being manipulated, but I cannot buy a protagonist who constantly flip flops 5 minutes after making a decision and then
    hooks up with the person who was manipulating her, because yay fucked up sexytimes! Look, I want queer representation in my books too, but this came off too much as just doing it for the vibes. Queer rep deserves better than stupid protagonists.

 

Walking to Aldebaraan by Adrian Tchaikovsky

  • A great novella; it's a retelling of a really well-known story but reframed in sci-fi terms, and I love that approach.

 

We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen

  • A really haphazard book I think; I like some things about it, but others just don't make sense, or contradict it. E.g. the protagonist is a psychologist, but is absolutely horrible at reading human emotion and speech, and a loner who prefers robots. Throw in some Michio Kaku-esque pseudoscience and while it's not a horrible read, it feels like a book that could have been better with a rewrite. The setting and suspense are pretty neat though.

 

So, as you can see, I have met the good, the bad and the ugly of sci-fi horror. I'd love to find more! For non-book horror or horror adjacent works I've enjoyed, those include Alien, The Thing, Event Horizon, Sunshine, Underwater and Dead Space. Please don't recommend tie-in novels though; I can find those myself and generally I've found that they're not really up to par.

13 comments

  1. [2]
    chocobean
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    Tildes is reading Roadside Picnic together! I would love to hear your thoughts on how this novella compares and contrasts with other horrors. I also heard about Mark Z. Danielewski's House Of...

    Tildes is reading Roadside Picnic together! I would love to hear your thoughts on how this novella compares and contrasts with other horrors.

    I also heard about Mark Z. Danielewski's House Of Leaves yesterday from a very highly unsettling Doom mod
    that might tickle your fancy. It's one of those "mess with the reader" type books, with strange font sometimes, sections intentionally clipped out, what is really real is left as an exercise to the reader type of book.

    Edit: thank you for your numerous recommendations and write ups! I have bookmarked this page and hopefully when my attention span heals enough I will return to this list!

    5 votes
    1. andatsofthefall
      Link Parent
      I've never read Roadside Picnic, but I'll let you know my thoughts sometime, once I've picked it up. I have read House of Leaves and I enjoyed it. It's a very unsettling experience, for sure. I'm...

      I've never read Roadside Picnic, but I'll let you know my thoughts sometime, once I've picked it up.

      I have read House of Leaves and I enjoyed it. It's a very unsettling experience, for sure. I'm glad my list helped you! Sci-fi horror is a relatively niche subgenre and I'm always looking for new entries.

      1 vote
  2. drannex
    (edited )
    Link
    To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini, although not particularly horror-focused, it's horror adjacent. His first book since finishing the Eragon/Inheritance series (a fantasy series,...

    To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini, although not particularly horror-focused, it's horror adjacent.

    His first book since finishing the Eragon/Inheritance series (a fantasy series, rivaling LoTR imo) and his first Science Fiction novel, it's really great! I enjoyed it all the way through. Reviews are mixed on it, and since its an 800+ page tome, it has a lot of people who gave up in the first quarter of the book.

    3 votes
  3. [2]
    d_b_cooper
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    It's kinda silly, but I really enjoyed Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber. It's a Star Wars horror novel, which as far as I know, hasn't been done before or since. It's really gross and spooky.

    It's kinda silly, but I really enjoyed Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber. It's a Star Wars horror novel, which as far as I know, hasn't been done before or since. It's really gross and spooky.

    1 vote
    1. CrazyProfessor02
      Link Parent
      The animated show, the Clone Wars,did kind of did the zombie thing, so zombies are cannon again in the Star Wars lore. But Death Troopers did it a lot better than the two episodes that dealt with...

      The animated show, the Clone Wars,did kind of did the zombie thing, so zombies are cannon again in the Star Wars lore. But Death Troopers did it a lot better than the two episodes that dealt with that subject, mostly because those two episodes are very early in the shows run and it is a "kid's" show.

      Death Troopers also shows us a young Han Solo and Chewbacca in it.

      1 vote
  4. [2]
    Coupaholic
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    Maybe the laundry series of novels by Charles Stross? Might be a bit silly for your tastes. It's essentially lovecraftian style weirdness slash modern spy thriller. It's been a while since I last...

    Maybe the laundry series of novels by Charles Stross?

    Might be a bit silly for your tastes. It's essentially lovecraftian style weirdness slash modern spy thriller. It's been a while since I last read the earlier books, but I enjoyed them.

    1 vote
    1. andatsofthefall
      Link Parent
      I love the Craft Sequence, so I don't think those books would be too silly for me. Weird stuff can be very fun.

      I love the Craft Sequence, so I don't think those books would be too silly for me. Weird stuff can be very fun.

  5. TroyMcClure
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    Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It follows a group of travelers on a sort of pilgrimage, retelling their stories along the way. The best part of it to me is how unique the stories are from each other,...

    Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It follows a group of travelers on a sort of pilgrimage, retelling their stories along the way. The best part of it to me is how unique the stories are from each other, spanning multiple genres. But overall I'd call it scifi horror.

    1 vote
  6. Auk
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    Neal Asher's Polity universe can be horror adjacent, The Line of Polity is the first to come to mind due to some rather dangerous wildlife that feature on the planet the book is mainly set on.

    Neal Asher's Polity universe can be horror adjacent, The Line of Polity is the first to come to mind due to some rather dangerous wildlife that feature on the planet the book is mainly set on.

  7. slayer1am
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    There's lots of books in the 40K universe that might qualify, but in particular the short story collection by Dan Abnett, "The Magos" is largely focused on suspense/horror. I highly recommend his...

    There's lots of books in the 40K universe that might qualify, but in particular the short story collection by Dan Abnett, "The Magos" is largely focused on suspense/horror. I highly recommend his other books, just for the quality of the writing and overall narrative, especially the Eisenhorn trilogy.

  8. Tlon_Uqbar
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    It's a classic, so you might have read it already, but I would highly suggest Ubik by Philip K. Dick. It sort of lures you in with a standard sci-fi opening, but ends up as some truly creepy...

    It's a classic, so you might have read it already, but I would highly suggest Ubik by Philip K. Dick. It sort of lures you in with a standard sci-fi opening, but ends up as some truly creepy psychological horror by the end. I'd actually say it's one of the best psychological horror novels I've ever read.

  9. Interesting
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    I have no mouth and I must scream is a classic short story. To kind of state the obvious if you haven't thought of it already, Frankenstein is probably the first sci-fi horror out there. HP...

    I have no mouth and I must scream is a classic short story.

    To kind of state the obvious if you haven't thought of it already, Frankenstein is probably the first sci-fi horror out there. HP Lovecraft's works are down a similar vein, though I haven't personally read that.

  10. Zelmire
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    I just finished The Last Astronaut by David Wellington, and had a great time. I also prefer my sci-fi with a tinge of horror, and this fit that well. After a disastrous mission to Mars, all space...

    I just finished The Last Astronaut by David Wellington, and had a great time. I also prefer my sci-fi with a tinge of horror, and this fit that well.

    After a disastrous mission to Mars, all space programs are shut down. Until decades later, when a huge object is discovered coursing towards Earth. Sally Jansen, the mission commander from that last mission, is tapped to pilot and lead a team to investigate. It's not a smooth trip, and things get even more horrific after they arrive.

    It evoked horror-themed Rendezvous with Rama vibes, and was a fun read.