Barring the usual suspects (like Lovecraft, CAS, Stoker, Ligotti, etc.)
Also, you can dispense with the haughty criticism over enjoying bloodborne and the gothic horror genre. If you feel that strongly opposed to it, then you are likely a bitter homosexual who doesn't know how to enjoy fun media.
What the frick is bloodborne?
Its a videogame.
Book of the New Sun, at certain points.
I thought BotNS was sci-fantasy?
This was the first thing that came to mind for me too, mainly because of the graveyard I guess
I've been meaning to get into Gene Wolfe soon anyway.
It's probably not really what you're looking for, it's just the first thing that came to mind. The first half of the first book has a kind of dark fantasy vibe to it.
Also the Wizard Knight
How? Wizard Knight is the farthest thing from gothic horror, an Arthurian romance.
>What books are like this Lovecraftian game?
>BUT DONT SAY LOVECRAFT!!!
Hmmm
Bumping with kino music:
I've already read a good deal of Lovecraft's work. I'm looking for new or semi-recent authors.
thanks now i have to go through and listen to my favourite tunes. i swear this game would not be remotely as good as it is without the music
Leonid Andreyev
Fred Lewis Pattee (The House of the Black Ring)
Prosper Mérimée (La Venus d'Ille)
Julius Long (The Pale Man)
Guy de Maupassant
Edogawa Rampo
Northanger Abbey because it's funny
Nikolai Gogol
M.R. James
Mikhail Bulgakov (Heart of a Dog)
Any 19th century vampire story if you want to get the Vileblood atmosphere.
>Still no 60fps remaster/port
Between two Fires is soulsborne in book form.
Is it actually any good? I heard the author is a colossal homosexual.
I liked it. Don’t know much about the author. I would also suggest Gene Wolfe Wizard Knight books but they aren’t as gothic.
Who cares? I've read many great books only to find out the author is a colossal homosexual. Separate the art from the artist and all that jazz.
except in this case his homosexualry bleeds into the book
I like how they managed to not spoil that it wasnt just a werewolf hunter story. People who were unfamiliar with weird fiction got baited hard and some people I knew were terrified by the lategame.
Unfortunately, that is kind of tough to pull off in some books especially in genre where people get pissed if they misunderstand the horror story they are getting into. I recall one guy got really angry about "I am not a Serial Killer" thinking it wasn't about ghosts when the early sections signpost supernatural things really hard.
I will never stop shilling Ambrose Bierce.
He was a big influence on Lovecraft and Chambers (coined the setting of Carcosa in a random one-off short story of a few pages, both of them very clearly ripped off concepts from him) but was, in my opinion, more broadly talented than either. He was the first and maybe only significant American horror author between Poe and the 20th century but could also effortlessly switch over to realistic depictions of his experiences in the Civil War and then directly into oddball "tall tale" comedy.
I'd almost say the tall tale category is actually closer to a Bloodborne feeling than his horror, interestingly enough. Most of those stories take place in bizarre parallel worlds like pic related. Read this story, Oil of Dog, The Widower Turmore, and Revolt of the Gods. Those were the most "otherworldly" that I can recall, you can finish each of them in like ten minutes, and they all have that charming overwrought Victorian voice that fits the setting you're looking for while also being full of shockingly contemporary humor.
This is nigh on exactly what I was looking for. Thanks, anon!
I was reading Lovecraft stories, Dracula, and other gothic horror long before bloodborne ever existed and I loved them.
Japan Studio hardly “plagiarized” gothic horror. Rather, they created the perfect, quintessential homage to the genre itself and effortlessly spliced it with cosmic horror. Western developers and artists cannot compete because the people who understand the genre best are not being funded, and so an outside perspective is the only one meeting the niche. There is absolutely NOTHING that can compete with bloodborne on the masterful levels of its careful artwork, employ of historical and religious elements, themes, and horrific designs. This is to say nothing of the multi-compositional, yet fully unified soundtrack that perfectly encapsulates everything about the genre and gives professional film composers a series of impotent conniptions. There is only one negative to bloodborne and that is that Sony refuses to release it to PC or unlock its shitty 30fps rate.
>Rather, they created the perfect, quintessential homage to the genre itself and effortlessly spliced it with cosmic horror.
Cosmic Horror stops being Cosmic Horror if you can effectively kill said cosmic horrors
What if in doing so, you become a horrifying thing that isn’t human? Would it still be cosmic horror then?
>What if in doing so, you become a horrifying thing that isn’t human? Would it still be cosmic horror then?
No. Once again, actaully "defeating" a cosmic horror makes it not a cosmic horror. I know about the hidden boss fight that you are referring to, and no, thats just not cosmic horror. Cosmic Horrors do not feel, nor are they bound in any way to the physical. They cannot be "killed" via physical violence, and any damage done is wholly irelevant to the enity itself.
>This is to say nothing of the multi-compositional, yet fully unified soundtrack that perfectly encapsulates everything about the genre and gives professional film composers a series of impotent conniptions
Link to film composers talking about it? Only music I remember from the game is Ludwig's theme.
This, and I would add William Hope Hodgson, especially "The House on the Borderlands"
>The book was a milestone that signalled a radical departure from the typical Gothic fiction of the late 19th century. Hodgson created a newer more realistic/scientific cosmic horror that left a marked impression on those who would become the great writers of the weird tales of the middle of the 20th century, particularly Clark Ashton Smith, and H. P. Lovecraft.
Also it has great action writing, of a page-turner quality that's not too common in older literature. I read it in my 20s and felt like a kid engrossed in an adventure story again.
I’ve read “The Night Land” and thought it was pretty fun. The prose really shines when describing interesting sights, scenes, or emotions, but it can occasionally bring the pacing down when Hodgson describes menial actions. Weirdest love story I’ve ever read.
great, my local has several collections of material. bookmarking for October with your recs
How have I never heard of this guy till this post?
He is prevalent and impactful, but social media and most literature sites only talk about novels and neglect short stories, which Beirce excelled at. Highly reccomend his work, dude was also an interesting dude. Didn't want to die a quiet, nothing death in a bed, so he went to Mexico and Joined up with Pancho Villa's Bandit crew. His ultimate fate is unknown, but the last letter he sent said that if the reader were top find that he was killed via firing squad or in a shootout, not to pity him, for that was how he wished to leave this world. Not surprising, as the man fought in 20 civil war battles and had most of his family die well before he did.
Yeah this is all true, his influence is huge and he was probably more well known for his criticism than his own work.
One of those Civil War battles was at Kennesaw Mountain in the town I grew up in, and he got shot in the head fighting under Sherman. One of his war stories was set there, One of the Missing, with a scout who gets trapped and dies under a scaffold destroyed by cannon fire.
In a spooky coincidence, my own great-great-grandfather lived in Philadelphia, joined up under Sherman as well, and fought there himself. I never knew that until my mom did some ancestry shit when I had already moved away for school, then a few years later I picked up a Bierce anthology because of the cool cover and read all this shit in the introduction. Absolutely nuts.
Ambrose Bros' stay winning
Very cool and interesting
How do you know they didn’t read gothic horror, anon? Were you there when they made the game? Clearly they must have since it’s so obvious in nearly every aspect of the fricking visuals.
> the simple fact that 90% of all gothic stories aren't set in the 19th century should show you that bloodborne is shit
So you’d rather they just plagiarize American gothic horror shot for shot? That contradicts your whole point about them plagiarizing since they decided to put the setting into a 19th century world. It’s obvious that you’re either baiting or just really dislike the game for some inane reason. You have no argument other than calling my 29 year old ass a zoomer. Lol
AC doesn't suck because all the games are the same, AC sucks because the game they're copying sucks. Souls games are good because they're copying Demon's Souls, which is a good game. Also Sekiro really doesn't belong with those other From games.
Name 3 of the most popular authors or stories that haven’t already been mentioned in this thread.
>blacklibrary.com
>Warhammer Horror
Seriously, if you are looking for baroque fantasy cities in which lone travelers encounter dangerous werewolves by torchlight, this is absolutely the only answer.
Not reading and that shit but
Bloodborne and gothic horror genre is a complete waste of time I only read Eastern classics like the Baghavad Gita
Have fun reading your curry stories, anon. Just don’t forget to poo in the loo when you’re finished.
The Burrowers Beaneath, The Great God Pan, Food of the Gods (HG Wells), A Voice in the Night
Karl Wagner
Reggie Oliver
William H. Hodgson
Revelations from the Bible
Hellmouth by Giles kristian
Poe even though he's a usual suspect
Paul Feval
Richard Gavin
The penguin book of the dead & book of hell
Miyazaki literally grew up reading western fiction.
There was a guy I used to follow on artstation(?) that designed world maps for fictional earth, such as in Evangelion, Man in the High Castle, etc.
There was one map centered around a vampire story. Vampires actually dominating the world and so on. I can't remember the name of the book, but if you can be bothered, the artist guy is Bruce Munro, I think. On artstation, I think.
>you disrespect my beloved genre by not EXACTLY reproducing the patterns and themes of the classic authors i like so i can get infinite fixes of the same content
enormous homosexual detected
>Weeb cope
Cope for what? I don't particularly care for jap culture, it's just funny what moronic requirements for proper adaptation you posit
Idk, man. Seems more like you’re being too narrow-minded to appreciate something good. BB took some of the most interesting aspects of both genres and made it into something new. The game is popular for a reason, and I don’t exactly hear about any other burgeoning authors, artists, or directors accomplishing what Miyazaki and his team did. The ones that do, quite literally plagiarize bloodborne or ape older stories without creating anything of their own.
Of course, I’d love to be pleasantly disproven with some recommendations.
>BOO HOO! They didn’t do the same exact tropes from the classics! They didn’t cater to the specific setting that I prefer! It’s shit! Shit!
>You don’t know anything about my favorite thing! You didn’t spend the last decade consuming dated literature instead of the newer and better written alternatives! My taste is better!
How many times are you going to talk like a broken record? Everyone fully understands that bloodborne is its own thing and simply takes inspirations from the aforementioned genres in this thread. We all know it’s not a traditional gothic or Lovecraftian horror story, and that’s fine. As I said, they did something NEW and it’s GOOD; I certainly doubt that you could make anything better. You can stop throwing your feces at me for liking something different now and for apparently being among the few on lit with more than a single hobby.
Other hobbies ? List'em
Videogames (obviously)
Writing
Sketching
Tabletop board games
Bike riding
Hiking
Weight lifting
Video editing
Occasional DIY
And shitposting on IQfy
If your truthmaxing on the DIY and weight lifting
then YGMI
Thx, anon. I feel very validated.
The Dark Tower by CS Lewis