Book Discussion Occult Novels Recommendations

[Xenophon]

I hope this goes here. I had a book request denied because it was a novel. So this could also go in Lounge I imagine? or Media?

Anyhow, any occult novels that struck your fancy lately? I am reading Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves. Partly it's a tale of a couple who find their new bought home far, far vaster inside than out. (And not necessarily so heimlich after all.) Partly it's satire on the academic/scientific/literary world for dithering endlessly about what they never understood to begin with. (One "footnote" to illustrate a point runs for about three pages of names.) Reactions from others who've read it?

Any other gems out there?

 

[lee smith]

I really enjoyed The Adept Series by Mercedes lackey

 

[Robert Ramsay]

I think I mentioned 'Ra' by qntm, set in a world where magic has become a scientific discipline. The first discovery is the 'empty spell' where all it does is let you know, unequivocably, that a spell has been cast

By the end of the book everything is as mad as mince. But good.

 

[Xenophon]

I think I mentioned 'Ra' by qntm, set in a world where magic has become a scientific discipline. The first discovery is the 'empty spell' where all it does is let you know, unequivocably, that a spell has been cast

By the end of the book everything is as mad as mince. But good.

Reminds me of the kid in Harry Potter, the little s***-magnet. His gram sent him a "Remberall," a device that tells you that you forgot something, but not what. The empty spell could also be likened to the POTUS chief-of-staff telling the boss, "Well, you have enemies and you have friends. No telling who is what." Which, yeah, conduces to madness.

 

[Vandheer]

I mentioned 'Ra' by qntm

Same guy who wrote There is no Antimemetics Division?

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Same guy who wrote There is no Antimemetics Division?

Yup yup. And 'Valuable Humans in Transit' and 'Ed'

 

[Xingtian]

The Hearing Trumpet by the great surrealist Leonora Carrington. I prefer her short stories but this a wild and funny read about a 90 year old woman who gets shunted by her family into a retirement home run by some weird new age Christian cult. Things start out as a somewhat quirky domestic mystery but quickly spiral out into an apocalyptic fantasy.

The Palm Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola. The plot, so far as there is one, is that a rich alcoholic's tapster dies, and the guy is so addicted to palm wine that he goes to the realm of the dead to retrieve him. Written in pidgin English, it reads like a novel-length folktale, by someone totally unspoiled by modern literary pretenses and just throwing in every weird and crazy twist he can invent. And it's beautiful.

The Monk by Matthew Lewis and The Three Imposters by Arthur Machen but I assume everyone has read these.

 

[Mrknshtkaah]

Gilchrist and Big Bad by Christian Galacar (The first is the story of someone who becomes so accustomed to contending with demons that he no longer feels at home in the earthly realm, and the second has to do with the destructive power that can be born when ritual meets obsession)
The Boatman's Daughter by Andy Davidson (Dark charismanic fundamentalist Power meets delta hoodoo witchcraft meets biker gang drug smugglers)
Pine by Francine Toon (the power, seduction, beauty and danger of the world beneath the world - think Castaneda's nagual - tonal distinction)
A God In The Shed and Song Of The Sandman by J-F Dubeau (what happens when a particularly nasty god gets trapped on our terrestrial plane by folks as unequipped to deal with it as a chihuahua biting the tire of a moving semi truck - still waiting on the third novel of the trilogy)
Lammas Night by Katherine Kurtz (A maybe-not fictionalization of the Magickal Battle Of Britain during WW II)
The Dream-Quest Of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson (A feminist take on the Cthulhu Mythos which takes place in the Old Gods' realm)
The Coven by Lizzie Fry (corny/campy but fun tale of a battle between witches and the non-witch world seeking to render them extinct)
Kill Creek and Violet by Scott Thomas (a haunted house history in the first, the malevolence of a dark child-preying spirit in the second)
Blind Voices by Tom Reamy (Bradburyesque tale of two denizens of a traveling carnival freak show who have real supernal powers and what happens when one of them wishes to break ties)

 

[Jsinclair]

My personal favorites. (60s - 90s)

1. The Sorcerer
2. Master of the Temple
3. The Woman Who Slept with Demons
(All three by Eric Ericson & available at annas-archive(.org) )

Dennis Wheatley's The Black Magic Series (an Omnibus of 11 novels including To the Devil a Daughter...and also available at the aforementioned site.)

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons (A more recent coming-of-age horror novel reminiscent of IT...but with a legit occult surprise as the big climactic reveal.)

The Dreaming by Robert D. San Souci (An obscure but affordable 1989 paperback. A masterpiece of surreal horror (IMHO) that brilliantly revolves around Lilith and her daughter. Available as a controlled borrow from Internet Archive but totally worth buying a physical copy of.)

 

[canwizard999]

My personal favorites. (60s - 90s)

1. The Sorcerer
2. Master of the Temple
3. The Woman Who Slept with Demons
(All three by Eric Ericson & available at annas-archive(.org) )

Dennis Wheatley's The Black Magic Series (an Omnibus of 11 novels including To the Devil a Daughter...and also available at the aforementioned site.)

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons (A more recent coming-of-age horror novel reminiscent of IT...but with a legit occult surprise as the big climactic reveal.)

The Dreaming by Robert D. San Souci (An obscure but affordable 1989 paperback. A masterpiece of surreal horror (IMHO) that brilliantly revolves around Lilith and her daughter. Available as a controlled borrow from Internet Archive but totally worth buying a physical copy of.)

Thank you. I just started the sorcerer and can't put it down. Thanks to everyone who shared I will enjoy looking at all the reccomendations here.

 

[neilwilkes]

If Short Stories are your thing, you can do a lot worse than Crowley's 'The Simon Iff Stories & Other Works' - Simon Iff is of course how Crowley wanted to see himself as an old man, and the character also features in the magnificent novel 'Moonchild' (or 'The Butterfly Net' depending on which edition you get).
Also superb is the novel that was used as the basis for Polanski's 'The 9th Gate' - a very under-rated film - Arturo Perez-Reverte's 'The Dumas Club'. I would advise you that the film misses out well over half the plot of the novel and completely changes the story in just about every aspect too, but it's so well worth it just for 'Green Eyes' played by the drop-dead gorgeous Emmanuelle Seiger. But I digress....the film is like a different story compared to the book, and both are worth the effort although it's not easy finding an HD copy of the film that doesn't force Spanish subtitles to the ON setting.
What else can I think of......Wheatley is always fun - The Devil Rides Out, Strange Conflict, Gateway To Hell, They Used Dark Forces etc. He got all his details & info from Crowley as well.

 

[art-vark2323]

I've been reading Dion Fortune's fiction. I have a copy of The Sea Priestess that I started a few months ago and just haven't gotten around to finishing yet. I also got The Demon Lover recently, which I have yet to begin.

 

[Mrknshtkaah]

There are some more occult fiction books for me to recc:

Stephen Mace - The Joining

Blacksun - The Hannut Scrolls, The Once And Future Witch, and Dead Man's Hand

Also, Scott Thomas, who I previously recced, just released a collection of four occult horror novellas titled Midwestern Gothic

 

[Taudefindi]

I've been having a blast reading a lot of Lovecraftian stories.

 

[elphamous]

Does anyone have recommendations for occult fiction written for practitioners as an act of magic? Or even a list really, I'd like to get an overview of the genre.
Historically we have Dion Fortune and Crowley, today there's Lee Morgan mostly, and that Penumbrae anthology Three Hands Press put out. Who else is around?

 

[Morell]

I kind of enjoyed Astral Conversations. It's collection of short stories on occult and spiritual topics taken with humor.