darker fiction recommendations

So lately I've been going through a phase of wanting to read dark fantasy/sci-fi. Not really horror stories, obviously dark, or emo, but the kind that just kind of creep you out a bit. Even better if there's some BDSM in it.

Dean Koontz has some good ones. Like the Odd series, Darkest Evening of the Year, One Door Away From Heaven, The Good Guy. And Nora Roberts has some good series too, the Circle Trilogy and The Sign of 7 trilogy. Don't know if those are exactly what you are looking for but they are pretty good.

Gene Wolfe has some pretty dark stuff. Try The Book of the New Sun which is actually 4 novels. His archaic style might turn you off though.

Clive Barker always interests me.

Song of Ice and Fire is the best series/book I've ever read and happens to be very dark as well.

Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake series has all that you want. Bondage, torture, murder, vampires, werewolves, blood, guts and lots and lots of sex. lol

There are 19 books in the series now. Start with the first one. Anita is all chaste and uppity, but as you read more and more, she is quite the kinky perv!! lol

I agree with anggrace. Clive Barker has some great books. Try Mister B. Gone.

You might try Broken April by Ismail Kadare. It's not actually fantasy... it's actually historical fiction which makes it a heck of a lot darker. It's not really creepy, per se. It's just very disconcerting, I guess. I loved it.

It's not sci-fi/fantasy, but it's dark in a more visceral way: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing.

Gone Series by Micheal Grant

God, I love this series. It's about this town where suddenly a barrier cuts them off from the outside world and everyone over 15 disappears. Suddenly the kids start developing strange powers. The cruelest and most cunning start vying for control of the town against the average kids.

It's like Lord Of The Flies meets X-Men. It's well written and can be read by older people (Stephen King has given the book good reviews), it's not kiddie stuff. It's dark and explores what people can do when there's no one there to stop them, but isn't outright horror and is very exciting.

Gone is the first book, the second is Hunger, and the third and most recent is Lies. There will be six in all. (Plague, Darkness, Light come next.)

"The Grotesque" by Patrick McGrath

try richard laymon,flesh no matter how many times ive read it it never dissapoints ive read all his shame he passed away other people finishing his novels off just aint the same RIP RICHARD

Before the recent vampire craze, I really liked stuff by a guy named Brian Lumley ... very original and NOT twilight ... Sci-Fi + BDSM huh ? I'll be watching this thread for sure

Maalox, have you read Terry Goodkind's series? In the first book, the main character gets tortured for a couple of weeks by a dominatrix. You might like it.

LOL Yes! Mord sith ... Those ladies are hardcore. I found out they did a couple of seasons of a TV show too, and watched those...

I"m currently reading The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. I guess it could be compared to Lord of the Rings but darker with a bit less fantasy and more character development. It's a series though so it's kind of long (~11 000 pages)

"The Book of Lost Things" by John Connolly

This book is pretty dark. It was really difficult for me to get through. It was too violent and gory. I absolutely hated it and almost stopped reading mid-way through. However I purchased it for $15 and that was a lot of money for me at the time, so I decided to keep reading. I'm really glad I did because I can't believe how the ending changed everything! Let me tell you it is sooooo wonderful in the end! I don't even know how the book takes you from such a dark place to a place of enlightenment.

I let a friend at work borrow it, and she couldn't get through it. I don't blame her, if I hadn't bought it myself I would have never finished reading that book. I can't describe it because the ending making all the suffering through it worth it.

If you like fiction/fantasy, gore doesn't bother you, and you can withstand the darkness, I think you'll absolutely love it all the way through. No matter what you'll definitely love the ending!

I read the book maybe two or three years ago (found it on google books), and I still remember it. It's one of my favorite books. Although, I haven't read it a second time because it was so dark. It doesn't start off super dark but it definitely gets that way.