What Horror series is the equal to Lord of the Rings?

[Salsacookies]

I'm pretty sure all of you know about The Lord of The Rings, what is the Sci-Fi counterpart to it? I'm not sure if there is one. Maybe Dune? I just watched the movie, so I'm not sure about the book series, but it seems really weird.

The song that got me thinking about that.

 

[Cpt Toellner]

If by counterpart you mean:
-Something epic.
-With a deep and detailed setting complete with complex lore.
-Telling not one but a number of stories that are instantly classic.
-A clearly-cut story of good-vs-evil.
-Brief references on something out there that is mystical and unknown.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to go with the obvious answer and say; Star Wars.

There are many other great sci-fi settings (some arguably better) but the Star Wars universe is easy the most comparable to Middle-Earth.

 

[Windsong]

It's Dune, I'd say.

But then again LotR isn't even the best fantasy series out there. Just likely the most popular due to the movies and whatnot making it hard to compare to another genre.

 

[Hellis]

"popular due to the movies"

Think real hard. Think again. Think again some hundred times.


Tolkien is considered the father of modern Fantasy for a reason. The books were MASSIVE way, way before the Movies. He shaped how we view fantasy, many of the big races were pretty much all from his depiction of them. LOTR set the tone and the stage for fantasy litterature along with a few others. Everytime someone plays an elf with a bow and love for nature; TOLKIEN. Mining Dwarf, with axe and big beards? TOLKIEN. ORchs in any capaicty, TOLKIEN CREATED THAT RACE IN ITS ENTIRETY.

 

[Darog]

"popular due to the movies"

Think real hard. Think again. Think again some hundred times.


Tolkien is considered the father of modern Fantasy for a reason. The books were MASSIVE way, way before the Movies. He shaped how we view fantasy, many of the big races were pretty much all from his depiction of them. LOTR set the tone and the stage for fantasy litterature along with a few others. Everytime someone plays an elf with a bow and love for nature; TOLKIEN. Mining Dwarf, with axe and big beards? TOLKIEN. ORchs in any capaicty, TOLKIEN CREATED THAT RACE IN ITS ENTIRETY.

^ all of this in a bag and more.

He's inspired and lay down the foundations for Modern Fantasy, there's a reason why people say "Tolkien-esque" when they describe a fantasy setting. He also established the Elvish Language too :p.

 

[Salsacookies]

Okay, so check out Star Wars and Dune. Thank you.

Now what would be the horror equivalent?

 

[Hellis]

Horror. Man. Lovecraf started a whole horror mythos, Edgar allan Poe is considered the Grand daddy of gothic horror. Stephen King is.. well one of the Kings of Modern horror. Those three are a good start.

 

[Darog]

Okay, so check out Star Wars and Dune. Thank you.

Now what would be the horror equivalent?

Okay, okay, there's no real Horror counterpart to lord of The Rings really.

The closest that comes close are HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and the Silent Hill Mythos.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

The Dark Tower Series!!!!

Seriously, if you're looking for a horror equivalent of Lord of the Rings, Dark Tower would be it. It has all the key factors of it, a journey with an unlikely band of travelers, swarms of enemies that throw themselves in the way of the heroes, and lots of little side quests, including time paradoxes. Seriously, it is definitely an awesome series, and one of King's best stories.

Of course it hasn't been made into a movie....Yet! We Dark Tower fans have been waiting for years for it to happen. Ron Howard has been willing to carry out the task of it, but so far no company will back the project. There's been an attempt to get HBO to pick it up and turn it into a series like GoT. The original plan was to turn it into a series with four movies scattered in between, but the last time I've heard anything about it, there was nothing in the works. King and Howard are still game for it, it's just a matter of finding the right people to make it happen.

 

[Salsacookies]

Is The Last Stand part of the Dark Tower series? I watched the miniseries, and I thought it was pretty good. Idk, I guess I like boring stuff if I think it's interesting.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

The Stand is a separate book, but like most of King's work, it links with Dark Tower. There are certain elements of the story of the Stand that are thrown into various books. (I won't say what, because it'll give too much away. :P)

Another one, although it's not quite as lengthy would be The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. It has the same 'adventuring quest' theme to the story, with various horror/sci-fi elements thrown in. It is also indirectly tied to the Dark Tower through various side quests. Now that I'm thinking about it, The Talisman would be more like The Hobbit, and Black House, its sequel, would be a bit more like Lord of the Rings. Either way, the themes are similar, but the settings and characters are vastly different.

I'll admit to being slightly biased though. The Dark Tower is my favorite series of all times, and the main characters of both series are my fictional crushes. XD

 

[dreamshell]

As people have said, in terms of causing a paradigm shift for a genre, Lovecraft definitely deserves a bit of comparison with Tolkien. His cosmicism helped turn horror dramatically away from purely physical and earthly fears and spiritual dread and opened up endless vistas and pitch-black gulfs of nightmare in which every hope and dream of mankind, from the highest to the low, is as insignificant to the universe and the potential alien powers that move through it as are an ant's to us. Powerful, unknowable things have come before and powerful, unknowable things will come again, with humanity's reign on Earth amounting to little more than a negligible blink of the eye.

However, Lovecraft's work and the inclusions of other authors into a "mythos" is largely an after-the-fact creation, not something meticulously planned throughout. You'll see many references peppered across different stories and in the works of different authors, but for the most part, it's not building up to any unified narrative. So in terms of a cohesive, premeditated book series, yeah, as Nydanna said, The Dark Tower.

Horror in general probably isn't 'respectable' enough to really highlight another series without having to admit to its comparative obscurity, especially against The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. That said, you might be able to make a case with the Universal Horror movie monsters, but then we're not talking about literature. Likewise, you could point to Dracula, Frankenstein, et al., but these are individual books you can give some credit to breathing life into particular monster stories, not actual series.

 

[Persephone]

Just likely the most popular due to the movies and whatnot making it hard to compare to another genre.

"popular due to the movies"

Think real hard. Think again. Think again some hundred times.


Tolkien is considered the father of modern Fantasy for a reason. The books were MASSIVE way, way before the Movies. He shaped how we view fantasy, many of the big races were pretty much all from his depiction of them. LOTR set the tone and the stage for fantasy litterature along with a few others.

In a shocking turn of events, I'm actually agreeing with Hellis on this one.
Tolkien's legendarium was immense, and he not only set the standard for the majority of Western Fantasy for years to come, but also helped to define the entire genre of Mythopoeia. To say nothing in regards to how he singlehandedly created the language we call 'Elvish' using his linguistic background.

 

[Peter Feels]

@Nydanna is onto something there. The Dark Tower series is pretty good, from what I hear. The Black House and the Talisman also take place in that same world. Additionally, there ARE links between all the books in small ways. Characters in one story might have a relative who is a minor character in another. Or the same locations or companies. Things like that. The enemies of his books are often linked back to the main bad guy of the Dark Tower series.

 

[Windsong]

Inspiration for modern fantasy as we know it =\= popularity.

Last time I respond to something at 6am with horrid stomach pains.

Also, who changes the title!? Shit threw me off!

 

[Salsacookies]

My last question was answered, had another question, so I changed the title

 

[Hellis]

@Nydanna is onto something there. The Dark Tower series is pretty good, from what I hear. The Black House and the Talisman also take place in that same world. Additionally, there ARE links between all the books in small ways. Characters in one story might have a relative who is a minor character in another. Or the same locations or companies. Things like that. The enemies of his books are often linked back to the main bad guy of the Dark Tower series.

Best link is stil lthe buik..

 

[Hellis]

Inspiration for modern fantasy as we know it =\= popularity.

Last time I respond to something at 6am with horrid stomach pains.

Also, who changes the title!? Shit threw me off!

Actually. In this case, It's been crazy popular with the fantasy crowd since its release pretty much. So yeah.

 

[Windsong]

Actually. In this case, It's been crazy popular with the fantasy crowd since its release pretty much. So yeah.

I'd argue it should be with the fantasy crowd. Same with King and the horror crowd.

As for Horror it's either King or Lovecraft. But maybe not Lovecraft directly since Cthulhu has more pop culture references than.. Something with a lot of references.

 

[Jorick]

This is a really odd question. What exactly do you mean by "equal to Lord of the Rings"? Equal in quality? Equal in type/scope of story told? Equal in how influential it was on the genre? All of the above?

For sci-fi most of what people already said seems to be good, but there's a big name missing that even I, as a person who doesn't get into much sci-fi, have heard of as being one of the best in the genre. Isaac Asimov's books, particularly his Foundation series (which, fun fact, beat Lord of the Rings to win the first and so far only "Best All-Time Series" award given by the Hugo Awards), are very highly regarded and have had a massive impact on sci-fi of all kinds.

For horror, eh, can't think of any that match all the possible criteria. Dreamshell already pointed out how Frankenstein and Dracula were both extremely influential but not really a series or large in scope. Horror tends to not do very well as a series with a large scope because it's hard to keep the tension and fear rolling over such an extended time. The Dark Tower works because it's also fantasy, sci-fi, and western mixed in with the horror to keep it from getting stale. Lovecraft's mythos works because it's a bunch of short stories and novellas set in the same universe rather than a traditional series like Lord of the Rings.