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Erik
Williams is a former Naval Officer and current defense contractor (but he's not
allowed to talk about it). He is also the author of the novel Demon and
numerous other small press works and short stories. He currently lives in San
Diego with his wife and three very young daughters. When he's not at
his day job, he can usually be found changing diapers or coveting
carbohydrates. At some point in his life, he was told by a few
people he had potential. Recently, he told himself he's the bee's knees.
Erik prefers to refer to himself in the third person but feels he's
talked about himself enough and will grant your eyeballs the freedom they
deserve.
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Cross genre novels? I guess you could say all genre novels, in
some form, are a cross genre novel. I
mean, there is no such thing as a pure horror novel. Often there are elements of historical
fiction (like Interview with the Vampire),
or crime and mystery (like Falling Angel),
or even military fiction (like my recent novel Demon).
The point is, genres overlap. They always have. However, there are that stand out more than
other.
You can see them practically
bleeding multiple genres, and with awesome results.
So, here are five cross genre novels
worth your time:
- Dying of the Light
by George R. R. Martin. I was going
to list Martin’s Fevre Dream
here (historical fiction meets vampires on the Mississippi) but Dying of the Light just sticks out
more as a cross genre whammy of a book. It’s got blood magic, the
resurrection of the dead, the world coursing toward apocalypse, while at
the same time being a “hey, we’re getting the band back together”
story. It’s equal parts horror and
strange love letter to 70’s era rock.
- Song of Kali
by Dan Simmons. Simmons has really
delved, in recent years, into a lot of historical/horror fiction but, for
me, Song of Kali is still his
best. It’s got horror! It’s got mystery! It’s got the most unflattering travel
journal of Calcutta you’ll ever read!
- The Anubis Gates
by Tim Powers. When you think about
it, Tim Powers is probably the greatest cross genre writer ever. You can take his whole catalogue and throw
it up here. But I’ll stick to what
is probably his most popular book.
Time travel, Victorian London, murder, Egyptian mythology mixed
with sorcery, people that might be immortal, disfigured crazy people
living in the London sewers, oh and duplicates of people. Yeah, try classifying this book under a
single genre .
- VALIS
by Philip K. Dick. I don’t even
know how to describe this book.
Sci-fi meets religious thriller?
Modern thriller meets philosophical exegesis? Or simply a fantastical autobiography (I
mean, Philip K. Dick is two characters in this book: the narrator and
Horselover Fat (which is the German translation of “Philip” and “Dick”
respectively). No matter how you
cut it, it’s a strange book but also fantastic.
- A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess. You might say,
“Hey, this is dystopian fiction. It’s not cross genre.” I respectfully
disagree. This is more than
dystopian fiction. You could also
call it a psychological thriller. A
horror novel. Hell, you could call
it social commentary meets sci-fi meets crime. However, to me, it is also an early
rendition of the modern serial killer story. I don’t say that because Alex is a
serial killer (he isn’t). I say
that because he is absolutely a person who has an anti-social personality
(a key ingredient in serial killers).
The novel’s examination of his personality (and attempts to alter
him) is just as effective as any rendered in Thomas Harris’s novels .
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