6 Best Horror and Sci-Fi Choices 2018(so far)

This has been a good year for Science Fiction and Horror.  There has already been a myriad of great things to watch and read.  With Father’s Day here, now’s the time to pick up that last minute novel for dear old Dad.  If time will be your gift this year how about a great movie or two for binging?  Your Dad would love a home cooked meal or even a pizza and beer night with some quality viewing time.   We here at Signal Horizon loved all these novels and films for different reasons so there really is something for everyone.  Here’s our best science fiction and horror for 2018(so far).

Cabin At The End Of The World by Paul Tremblay-Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. Their closest neighbors are more than two miles in either direction along a rutted dirt road.  One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologizes and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault”. Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.”Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined. The Cabin at the End of the World is a masterpiece of terror and suspense from the fantastically fertile imagination of Paul Tremblay.

This book is amazing.  There is simply nothing else that can be said, other than you should read it NOW.  It’s beautiful and sad and scary and like nothing, we had ever read before.  It’s thought-provoking in the most complex but never exhausting or ostentatious way.  It will truly stay with you and have you questioning your own decisions.  For our full review click here.

I Wish I Was Like You by S. P. Miskowski-Greta didn’t set out to solve a murder. But if the first thing you see when you come home after a long day at a lousy job is your own dead body, it can make even the most cynical non-starter in 1994 Seattle take an interest. Refusing to believe her dead eyes, the one-time theater editor at the city’s least noteworthy periodical – now a bitter ghost haunting the streets of the Emerald City – will happily break every rule of crime fiction to tell her story and prove she didn’t die a lame-ass, suicidal Cobain imitator. Hauntingly scary, darkly funny and occasionally nostalgic, I Wish I Was Like You is one vengeful spirit’s look at a city learning to embrace narcissism and the dead inhabitants who will always call it home.

This genre-bending novel is an amalgamation of noir, horror, coming of age story, and workplace memoir that is captivating from beginning to end.  This lands on our must enjoy list because of the intense creativity and compelling mystery.  Read our full review here.

Secrets Of The Weird by Chad Stroup-“Trixie loathed her penis.” That shocking revelation begins the emotional and personally horrifying quest for self-realization in a truly messed up world.  Secrets of the Weird has been likened to the David Lynch’s groundbreaking series Twin Peaks, but only if horror master Clive Barker and dark fantasist Neil Gaiman had teamed up to create that iconic 90s cultural masterpiece.  It’s here, within the dark tapestry of Sweetville, where a new designer drug offers the enticing yet dangerous promise of salvation through physical transformation as it makes the rounds of the community of club kids, neo-Nazis, drag queens, prostitutes, and punks who populate the city’s sin-drenched streets. Its chewable hearts and candied lips threaten to change the lives of those in the city’s underground in terrible ways. And on her seemingly herculean struggle to once and for all become the woman she was born to be, Trixie is the ideal candidate to accept its treacherous bargain.  With Sweet Candy poised to ignite the tenuous powder keg that is life, love and lust in Sweetville, could the arrival of the mysterious back-alley surgeon Julius Kast and his cult of peculiar specters be the final spark that lights the fuse?  Take an unforgettable journey with Trixie and a cast of outsiders in Secrets of the Weird, a novel that’s equal parts irreverent social commentary, dark fantasy, and horrifying reality for a counterculture society where frequently dangerous, often deviant and always dark secrets will be revealed.

This novel from independent publisher Grey Matters Press is my personal favorite.  It is the most immersive, bizarre experience I have ever had while reading a novel.  A work of experiential fiction it is unusual and difficult to describe but easy to enjoy.  Read our full review here and then go out and buy it.

They Remain-Two scientists are sent on a mission to investigate strange occurrences on land once occupied by a thrill kill cult. As weeks of isolation pass, they realize they are unable to trust the wilderness around them, the corporation that sent them there or even themselves. From the writer of “Europa Report”; based on Laird Barron’s haunting novella.

A fantastic example of The New Weird genre this is one mind- bender of a movie.  Gorgeous cinematography and smart acting combine to make a wholly enjoyable movie watching experience.  If you loved Annihilation you will also love this movie.  Read our review and interview with director Philip Gelatt here.

2036 Origin Unknown-After a deadly crash, Mission Controller Mackenzie Wilson (Sackhoff) assists an artificial intelligence system, A.R.T.I., to uncover a mysterious object under the surface of Mars that could change the future of our planet as we know it.

I just watched this last week and I was impressed.  Science Fiction movies are at their best when they make us think as well as thrill at the action or futuristic elements.  This does both and on a shoestring budget.  Read my full review with ending explanation, but not until you have seen the movie unless you don’t mind having it spoiled.

The Terror by Dan Simmons and series on AMC-The men on board the HMS Terror have every expectation of finding the Northwest Passage. But what they don’t expect is a monstrous predator lurking behind the Arctic ice. When the expedition’s leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a horrifying end, Captain Francis Crozier takes command, leading his surviving crewmen on a last desperate attempt to flee south across the ice.  But another winter is rapidly approaching, and with it, scurvy and starvation. Crozier and his men may find that there is no escaping the terror stalking them southward.  And with the crushing cold and the fear of almost certain death at their backs, the most horrifying monster among them may be each other.

This novel of historic, supernatural re-imagination is interesting for both the real- life mystery it tells and the recent AMC break out series based on it.  If you haven’t seen the series stay in the AC this weekend and binge the whole thing.  We covered the whole season including what season two might look like here. 

We hope we have given you some ideas for this hot Father’s Day weekend.  Go spend time with your Dad, he will enjoy it.