KING IS A GREAT WRITER I'LL GIVE YOU THAT BUT ''THE MASTER'' I DON'T THINK SO.

I agree with dmihatmttl, King goes into TOO much detail sometimes.

Anyway, top five, in order:

Robert R. McCammon
Clive Barker
Stephen King

well, I really don't stray too far from those three.

many favorate authors but heres FIVE:
1.Laurell k Hamilton
2.Amelia Atwater Rhodes
3.Edger Alan Poe
4.John Saul
5.Dean Koonts (i think I spelled this one wrong)

1. Joe R. Lansdale
2. Wayne Allen Sallee
3. Clive Barker
4. Richard Laymon
5. Markus Mayer (a german one)

H.P. Lovecraft (his poetry especially)
Neal Stephenson
Clive Barker
Dan Simmons
Stephen King

Admittedly, Neal Stephenson and Dan Simmons aren't horror authors, but there you go.

CLIVE BARKER

A lot of the "horror" books I like are true crime stories about serial killers and crazy moms who go ape shit on their kids. Also, some of the stories I read, I don't know who wrote them because I read them in anthologies and pay more attention to the story than the title or author. They could have all been written by the same person for all I know most of the time.

I don't really much like Stephen King, too much. I like the concept of a lot of his stories, though. If there were a middle ground between the crappy movies and the long winded books, I'd be a Stephen King fan. But until then...

I have to agree with rikkita about Stephen King he is really long winded and the movies are horrible, besides that I dont really like him all that much anyway, but everyone has there own oppion about what they like and dislike.

1. Edgar Allan Poe
2. Poppy Z. Brite
3. Anne Rice
4. Annette Curtis Klause
5. Stephen King

My top 10 ( i know it said top 5..but i thought..what the hell..lol)

10.Ramsey Campbell
9.Dan Simmons
8.Rick Hautala
7.John Saul
6.Bently Little
5.Stephen King
4.Robert R. McCammon
3.H.P.Lovecraft
2.Clive Barker
1.Dean Koontz

1. H.P. Lovecraft
2. Edgar Allan Poe
3. Clive Barker
4. Anne Rice
5. Stephen King
6. Robert Bloch
7. Dean Koontz
8. Simon Clark
9. Poppy Z. Brite
10. R.L. Stein (when I was about eight years old, he was my favorite)