Best Weird Fiction & Cosmic/Eldritch Horror (without H.P.) ?

[Tun Kai Poh]

Ramsay Campbell and Joe Hill, for a start. Some of Terry Bisson's short cosmic horror is exceptional while also being warmer and more humane.

But if you're feeling truly brave, read some Junji Ito. Start with The Enigma of Amigara Fault. And, ahead of time, let me say: I'm so, so, sorry.

 

[MGibster]

Stephen King touches on cosmic horror frequently. The underlying mythology and cosmology of his world(s) is an incomprehensible chess game between cosmic horrors, even though his horror tends to ground itself much further down the hill.

King’s novel Revival is heavy with the cosmic horror and would make a decent adventure.

 

[TheIdeaOfGood]

Juniji Ito is a good example. " Uzumaki" is one of his biggest works and it is amazing.
Getting past the Mythos is hard, given how influential HPL was (and denying his influence is just as ignorant as steadfastly pretending there was nothing wrong with his views...yeah, right).
Clark Ashton-Smith was one of his contemporaries and his writing does veer into cosmic horror often enough (though I am just as much in love with his Zothique cycle).
Roger Zelazny's A night in the Lonesome October is also heartily recommended.
Ruthanna Emry's fiction uses the Mythos but puts a different spin on it, with the main character being a Deep One hybrid.
Charles Stross mixes parts of the mythos (heavily changed) with spy fiction in his Laundry series.
Mary Sangiovanni writes cosmic horror fiction (and she has her own podcast where she talks about all kinds of media related to cosmic horror, so you could get much more out of that) without direct links to HPL. Check out her novel Thrall for some pulpy goodness or her novella For Emmy for something shorter and very haunting.
Laird Barron not only has an awesome name and the looks to pull it off (just look at photos, you'll know what I mean), but he also writes some cosmic horror. Check out " The Croning".
Norman Partridge also did some cosmic horror. I recommend the short story " Lesser Demons" from the collection of the same name.
Brian Keene has built his own mythos that borrows somewhat from HPL but only marginally.
Peter Watts does sci-fi cosmic horror, often on a very existential level. I recommend Blindsight, Echopraxia and his short story " The Things".
If you do not mind absolute bleakness and dreamlike (some might say overwrought) writing, have a look at Thomas Ligotti's works.
Speaking of bleakness....the graphic novel " Nameless" by Grant Morrison is not just mind screwy but very dark...

And finally do yourself a favour and watch the first season of True Detective. That's how you do a subtle cosmic horror story!

 

[Azzy]

Funny enough, I saw a NYTs article about H.P. Lovecraft and his legacy. It doesnote some derived works, some of which that tackle with some of Lovecraft's disgusting worldviews.

 

[dragoner]

Is Clive Barker bad now? I read his books of blood back in the day, and many of his movies have a sort of "Cosmic Horror" type feel, like "Lord of Illusions".

Lord of Illusions (1995) ⭐ 6.0 | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

1h 49m | R

www.imdb.com

 

[Mallus]

The best written cosmic horror I’ve ever read is Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy: Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance.

 

[Nytmare]

Is Clive Barker bad now? I read his books of blood back in the day, and many of his movies have a sort of "Cosmic Horror" type feel, like "Lord of Illusions".

Lord of Illusions (1995) ⭐ 6.0 | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

1h 49m | R

www.imdb.com

I don't know how much I would have personally classified his writing as cosmic horror. Lots of body horror, but it always felt like when the veil was pulled back in his stories, it was more about the wonder and fantasy about the forgotten reality that mankind had lost somewhere along the way, and the terror took more of a back seat. It HAS been about 20 years though, so I might be misremembering,

I think that maybe cosmic horror needs more of that feeling of helplessness and just being overwhelmed, and I remember his stories being rife with allies and weapons and talismans. Granted those allies are usually angry, unwilling, or both. The weapons are just as likely to hurt you as harm someone else. And the talismans are more than willing to protect you for a price.

 

[dragoner]

I don't know how much I would have personally classified his writing as cosmic horror. Lots of body horror, but it always felt like when the veil was pulled back in his stories, it was more about the wonder and fantasy about the forgotten reality that mankind had lost somewhere along the way, and the terror took more of a back seat. It HAS been about 20 years though, so I might be misremembering,

I think that maybe cosmic horror needs more of that feeling of helplessness and just being overwhelmed, and I remember his stories being rife with allies and weapons and talismans. Granted those allies are usually angry, unwilling, or both. The weapons are just as likely to hurt you as harm someone else. And the talismans are more than willing to protect you for a price.

Same, haven't read it in a long time, though I remember reading stories like "Midnight Meat Train" (on the NYC subway no less) and it's about the ancient inhuman city that NYC is built on, sort of a similar vibe to At The Mountains of Madness, that there was a prehistoric evil to the world. Hellraiser, and the Damnation Game, also sort of have a cosmic horror feel, maybe not the same as HPL. Though people have said that Lovecraft was a schizophrenic, and that is why a lot of his stuff is the way it is.

 

[Nytmare]

Yeah, I guess I'm remembering more of the novels that fell into the "There's a secret race of people with magic powers that used to live hand in hand with humanity, but then mundane people turned into jerks and forced the magic people into hiding. Also the magic people were the ones who protected us from some ancient evil that mankind is about to loose upon the world again due to its own hubris."

The symbolism of those stories made a lot more sense once we crept out of the 80s and Barker's sexuality was, if not accepted, at least less than taboo.

 

[dragoner]

The symbolism of those stories made a lot more sense once we crept out of the 80s and Barker's sexuality was, if not accepted, at least less than taboo.

Reading his stuff, maybe one could tell he was gay? A friend's wife was convinced early on, I never really could tell. I know his later books were more fantasy than anything else, which I was not terribly interested in, vs the sci-fi, and horror as my guilty pleasure type reading.