Fans of old-school horror will want to check out Clive Barker’s 6-volume Books of Blood series of short stories to keep you turning pages and looking under the bed. Volumes 1-3 are on io9’s list of 10 Novels That Are Scarier Than Most Horror Movies, and as of this writing all six books in the series are priced at just $3.99 each.
These highly-rated short story collections are a bargain but they’re definitely not for the faint of heart: the stories within are oftentimes grisly and gory, very much intended to haunt your dreams. From the publisher:
EVERYBODY IS A BOOK OF BLOOD;
WHEREVER WE’RE OPENED, WE’RE RED. — Clive Barker
Few authors can claim to have marked a genre so thoroughly and personally that their words have leaked into every aspect of modern pop culture. Clive Barker is such an author, and the Books of Blood marked his debut – his coming out to the world – in brilliant, unforgettable fashion. Crossroad Press is proud to present Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood” in digital for the first time.
The Books of Blood combine the ordinary with the extraordinary while radiating the eroticism that has become Barker’s signature. Weaving tales of the
everyday world transformed into an unrecognizable place, where reason no longer exists and logic ceases to explain the workings of the universe, Clive Barker provides the stuff of nightmares in packages too tantalizing to resist.
Never one to shy away from the unimaginable or the unspeakable, Clive Barker breathes life into our deepest, darkest nightmares, creating visions that are at once terrifying, tender, and witty. The Books of Blood confirm what horror fans everywhere have known for a long time: We will be hearing from Clive Barker for many years to come.
The Books of Blood – Volume 1 (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99)
This first volume contains the short stories:
“The Book of Blood”
“The Midnight Meat Train”
“The Yattering and Jack”
“Sex, Death, and Starshine” and
“In the Hills, the Cities”
…as well as the original introduction to volumes one, two, and three by Ramsey Campbell, and a new introduction by author David Niall Wilson.
The Books of Blood – Volume 2 (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99)
This second volume contains the short stories:
“Dread”
“Hell’s Event”
“Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament”
“The Skins of the Fathers” and
“New Murders in the Rue Morgue”
…as well as a new introduction by author Steven Savile.
The Books of Blood – Volume 3 (4/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99)
This third volume contains the short stories:
“Son of Celluloid”
“Rawhead Rex”
“Confessions of a (Pornographer’s) Shroud”
“Scape-Goats” and
“Human Remains”
…as well as a new introduction by author Chet Williamson.
The Books of Blood – Volume 4 (4/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99)
This fourth volume contains the short stories:
“The Inhuman Condition”
“The Body Politic”
“Revelations”
“Down, Satan” and
“The Age of Desire”
…as well as a new introduction by author Al Sarrantonio.
The Books of Blood – Volume 5 (4/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99)
This fifth volume contains the short stories:
“In the Flesh”
“The Forbidden”
“The Madonna” and
“Babel’s Children”
…as well as a new introduction by author Joe R. Lansdale.
The Books of Blood – Volume 6 (5/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99)
In this, the sixth and final volume of Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, with a new introduction by Mark Miller, five new stories of darkness unleashed:
THE LIFE OF DEATH – Hidden in the crypt of a derelict church she found Decay and Corruption in its terrible glory. But such glamour can prove infectious….
HOW SPOILERS BLEED – They commited a crime no jury could convict them for. But there were other judges…other punishments…
TWILIGHT AT THE TOWERS – Ballard was the perfect spy. A man with all the cunning of an animal. Or was it vice-versa?
THE LAST ILLUSION – (A Harry D’Amour novella) – New York had shown Harry horrors enough for a dozen lifetimes. He thought he’d seen the worst that flesh could suffer. Then the beautiful widow walked into his life, with a husband who wouldn’t lie down dead, and all Hell on her heels. And suddenly Harry was face to face with forces that could teach Manhattan a lesson in depravity.
ON JERUSALEM STREET (a Postscript) After the end, a new beginning: walking the highway of the dead…