Clive Barker

>Clive Barker is the new prince of horror
>t. Stephen King

>>9822418
If you're trying to distance yourself from King, Barker may not be your best choice

try Laird Barron instead

>>9822418
His short stories are his best horror work (I have not read his fantasy books). Just start with Books of Blood, vol. 1. He's very good.

>How does his style compare to King's?

That's a nice question that a better lit crit could answer than can I.

His style is not radically different from King's - it's not like reading Faulkner vs. Hemingway - yet Barker does have a distinctive voice, and a distinctive set of dramatic moves and motifs -- a certain existential horror which is likely familiar even to those who haven't read his work from the first two parts of Hellraiser movie series. A fear and fascination with the possibility of eternal damnation, likely arising from the tension of his being raised a rather pious Catholic, with all the smells and bells (or so I gather) and then becoming a gay man.

So, a gifted writer whose talent has been formed and shaped and racked, so to speak, on that particular table. This beautiful excruciation, gathered drop by drop in the blood bucket, not without screams and tears, informs his narratives and is the spirit behind them - the ink with which they're written - that distinguishes him from King.