Being a lifelong fan of fantasy and horror, I've always embraced stories of creepy monsters and vainglorious gods, especially novels that mash-up genres, like Stephen King's Gunslinger, Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow. But my fascination always circles back to the supernatural, especially sorcerers who raise the dead. After writing my dark fantasy Shackled Verities series, I decided to venture into the Old West with a twist—monsters, magic, and mayhem, featuring, of course, a necromancer gnome. So let me present a spellbinding list of stories about these doers of the dark arts that span genres, from spine-chilling to lighthearted—because who says raising the dead has to be serious?
The Necromancer is simply utter perfection, as is the whole Johannes Cabal series. I don’t know if it’s fate, but I happened on this book in a used bookstore one day, both the title and the author completely unknown to me, and immediately had to read the rest of his novels and short stories.
The Necromancer’s protagonist, Johannes Cabal, is a perfect antihero—a 19th Century necromancer and misanthrope whose adventures are scathingly funny, dramatic, and macabre all at once. Beyond raising the dead, Cabal also smoothly outwits the devil, and with the help of his deeply charming vampire brother, he opens a carnival of the damned.
If you enjoy morbid tales mixed with razor-sharp dialogue and clever twists, I can't recommend this series highly enough.
The page-turning first novel in the charmingly gothic, fiendishly funny Faustian series about a brilliant scientist who makes a deal with the Devil, twice. • "The spot-on work of a talented writer." —The Denver Post
Johannes Cabal sold his soul years ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. Now he wants it back. Amused and slightly bored, Satan proposes a little wager: Johannes has to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will be damned forever. This time for real. Accepting the bargain, Jonathan is given one calendar year and a traveling carnival to…
This rollicking set of whip-smart short stories through a supernatural Wild West is guaranteed to engage readers, with tales ranging from uncannily magical cards to steampunk bordellos to undead outlaws.
Delivering chaotic gunslinger fun from start to finish, Dead Man's Hand explores the intersecting worlds of the living and undead in many delightful and unforeseen ways. As a supernatural storyteller myself, I couldn't stop turning the pages to see what new fantastical creature or magical spell the authors would envision next.
It was my faithful companion through many late nights crafting my own novel, inspiring me with its spirited inventiveness of mysterious beings and magical mayhem.
HOW THE WEST WAS WEIRD! From a kill-or-be-killed gunfight with a vampire to an encounter in a steampunk bordello, the weird western is a dark, gritty tale where the protagonist might be playing poker with a sorcerous deck of cards, or facing an alien on the streets of a dusty frontier town. Here are twenty-three original tales - stories of the Old West infused with elements of the fantastic - produced specifically for this volume by many of today's finest writers. Included are Orson Scott Card's first "Alvin Maker" story in a decade, and an original adventure by Fred Van…
Fourth and Long is a novel written in the first person with dual POVs.
Ellie: When I meet Slater, an infamous quarterback trying to salvage his career, I know better than to form expectations. Our relationship starts out casual, but I can’t help falling for him. The problem is, that…
If you're looking for something truly different, I recommend Gideon the Ninth.
This novel follows two necromancers training to serve their immortal overlord, but dangerous secrets lurk in their dark domain. The setting is one of the most unique I've ever read: a mysterious Gothic palace in deep space, giving readers sci-fi elements blended with classic horror tropes. But Muir's words are what really sing.
Her vivid descriptions will wrap you up in this strange, yet sticky and uncomfortable, world. With a snarky protagonist in Gideon, captivating twists, and monsters of such an unpleasant makeup that you’ll want to shower after reading about them—but in a good way—I promise Gideon the Ninth will keep you hooked.
15+ pages of new, original content, including a glossary of terms, in-universe writings, and more!
A USA Today Best-Selling Novel!
"Unlike anything I've ever read. " --V.E. Schwab
"Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!" --Charles Stross
"Brilliantly original, messy and weird straight through." --NPR
The Emperor needs necromancers.
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.
Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense.
Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth, first in The Locked Tomb Trilogy, unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as…
T. Kingfisher could write stereo instructions and I’d read them. Her prose is straightforward and absolutely refreshing, but she does creepy in ways that will make you keep your lights on at night.
While The Twisted Ones isn’t the typical necromancer story, there’s some raising-the-dead shenanigans in it that will make your skin crawl—and also maybe pull on your heartstrings a little. In this novel, a young woman discovers dark secrets in her recently-deceased grandmother’s rural home that shed new and horrific light on what might have really happened to her dead loved ones.
Focusing more on psychological scares than action, Kingfisher imbues her characters with a surprising amount of empathy amidst the creeping unease. And once you’ve finished The Twisted Ones, like me, you won’t be able to stop yourself from buying her whole marvelous oeuvre.
When Mouse's dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother's house, she says yes. After all, how bad could it be?
Answer: pretty bad. Grandma was a hoarder, and her house is stuffed with useless rubbish. That would be horrific enough, but there's more-Mouse stumbles across her step-grandfather's journal, which at first seems to be filled with nonsensical rants...until Mouse encounters some of the terrifying things he described for herself.
Alone in the woods with her dog, Mouse finds herself face to face with a series of impossible terrors-because sometimes the things that go bump in the night are…
The Valor of Valhalla series by Martin Kearns is a pulse-pounding dark urban fantasy trilogy that fuses the raw power of Norse mythology with the grit of modern warfare. Set in a world where ancient gods and mythical creatures clash with secret military organizations and rogue heroes, the series follows…
This book is a little different from most of the horror/supernatural books I read, but so well written that I’ve continued to read the series.
Widdershins is an engaging mix of Lovecraftian Mythos, unlikely heroes, and early 1900s Gothic horror, with a nontraditional romantic twist. In the story, a shy, withdrawn academic teams up with a dashing and heroic Pinkerton agent in Arkham to stop a dark cult from raising an evil sorcerer from the dead. And that’s just book 1!
The whole series is one fun adventure after another. Best suited for fans of super-steamy MM romance.
A reclusive scholar. A private detective. And a book of spells that could destroy the world.Love is dangerous. Ever since the tragic death of the friend he adored, Percival Endicott Whyborne has ruthlessly suppressed any desire for another man. Instead, he spends his days studying dead languages at the museum where he works. So when handsome ex-Pinkerton Griffin Flaherty approaches him to translate a mysterious book, Whyborne wants to finish the job and get rid of the detective as quickly as possible.Griffin left the Pinkertons after the death of his partner. Now in business for himself, he must investigate the…
The West wasn’t won with grit and guns. It took a sawbones with fae blood to git ’er done.
Lula Cullen is a sassy Boston surgeon who’ll let no man stop her career, not even her fiancé. But when her uncle mysteriously dies, his last words send her on a rollicking Wild West misadventure. Aided by the not-exactly-human Toxicore Darkheart, she learns shocking family secrets tied to her uncle's murder and the disappearance of her parents when she was just an infant. Worse yet, she discovers she’s being hunted. Caught between a werewolf, a necromancer, and two fae queens of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Lula has to trade her scalpel for a Colt .45 and do it fast. Because they’re not just after her—they’re after her blood.
In 1662, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. Awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it.
Liam was orphaned at the age of two by a group of giant carnivorous insects called the chitin. Taken in by High Councilor Marcus and his wife, Lidia, Liam was raised with their older son, Randolf in New Olympia, the last remaining city on the planet Etrusci.
