My Top Ten Horror novels # 7 Kicks off two epic horror series at the same time

And Number 7 is:

I enjoy doing top ten lists and I have meant to do this one for awhile. The art of the horror novel is a very special one for me. My first horror novel that I remember reading was The Stand by Stephen King, it was my seventh grade year(I still have that copy which has note in the inside cover to do a Social Studies report!). Skeleton Crew by King and Clive Barker's Books of Blood had a bigger impact on me personally were talking novels at the moment. Over the years I have grown to love the feeling of closing the book on a well written horror novel.

Generally you have been taken on a journey, often it is one filled with terror. The most important elements often come from well defined characters. For a horror novel to work to have to either care about the characters or imagine yourself in the shoes of the character. No story can be scary if you can't imagine yourself in the moment with the characters.

Imagine for a moment you lying in bed at 2 AM and someone starts to bang on the door. You will likely go to the door confused and sacred. In a novel that might not seem to be a scary moment but if you put yourself in the moment it will scare you. These are novels I find scary, and why. You may have read them already, and if not I hope you'll check them out. Leave a comment tell me what you think I missed.

David Agranoff is the author of two published novels the Wuxia Pan style horror fantasy crossover "Hunting The Moon Tribe," and the satire "The Vegan Revolution With Zombies. He is also the author of the Wonderland award short story collection "Screams From a Dying World." His next novel Bootboys of the Wolf-Reich is due to be released soon by Deadite press.

Number 10: (tie) Testament by David Morrell & The Girl next Door by Jack Ketchum Number 9: A Perfect Union by Cody Goodfellow Number 8: The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner

Number 7 The Keep (Adversary cycle #1) by F.Paul Wilson:

The first thing many must do is shake off the terrible movie that was very loosely based on this novel. Lots of talented people were involved including scott glen, Ian Mckellen and it was directed by the usually first class director michael Mann. Yet, it is a serious turd.

The novel is however a classic for a reason. Lets start with the creepy setting, World War II, in the most gothic of locations a Castle in Transylvania. This castle is controled by Nazi soldiers but something is killing them one by one. Something so evil it has the nazis shaking in their boots. The castle is build with ancient crosses everywhere when one is removed that is when the evil is unleashed.

The writing is great, the characters and the setting outstanding. The Keep is a fantastic high concept horror novel.

While this novel is excellent and stands on it's own it's greatest strength is that it kicks off a saga that is played out over two dozen novels and two series -The Adversary Cycle (six novels) and The Repairman Jack (17 novels). Be Warned if you read this you might get hooked and the story while it stands alone just find get extended inwonderful ways over two dozen books and comes to an end in the amazing Nightworld ( That novel is both Adversary #6 and Repairman Jack #15).

Nightworld is a a stunning climax to this story and could have been on this list easily but The Keep is where it begins!