10 of the Best Alien Horror Books in the Universe

Deep beneath the Ural Mountains of Russia lies an underground city carved out of the rock surface by slave labor during the peak of the Cold War. Here, cut off from the surface world, an entire ecosystem of unique species has survived, hidden from the world—until now. Biologists Nell and Geoffrey Binswanger have been lured by a mysterious tycoon to this city where humans dare not tread. Now, these monsters want to break free to the Earth’s surface and wreak havoc. 

Dr. Benjamin Knowlton is a celebrated astrophysicist who is close to achieving their ultimate professional goal when he receives the devastating news that his beloved wife and partner is dying. Overhead, a strange new artefact is hurtling through the solar system and heading towards Earth. The data indicates that the visitor is a black hole, an eons-old devourer of life that cannot be reasoned with. Benjamin is forced to confront his ultimate fears as the black hole reveals itself to be far more than it seems.

In the town of Inferno, Texas, tensions are high thanks to gang violence, a collapsing economy, and racist brutality. But things can always get worse, and they do when an alien craft crash lands in the desert on the outskirts of town. That's followed by a second craft bearing the extraterrestrial being who becomes known as Stinger. Stinger is a hunter on a mission and he intends to fulfil it, regardless of the cost to the humans whose town he has accidentally invaded.

A crew of seven board a special submarine and sink three miles down into the darkest recesses of the ocean. It's meant to be a typical research mission on the oft-unseen animals that thrive in this dark space where the light never shines. But then they bring aboard a rare bacteria that enables certain animals to survive in the seven-hundred degree poisonous water known as the black smoker. It could change the world. What they don't know is that one of the researchers plans on using them as his test subjects.

An extinction-level event has hit Earth. Only a handful of survivors remain, scattered across the land with blood-red skies overhead. An infestation of ravenous aliens now occupy the planet. All that the remaining humans can do is hide or hope to outrun their new captors. When a rumor emerges that an escape at sea might be possible, Karl, one of the few survivors, flees south with two orphans in tow. But it's not just the aliens whose cruelty he must fear.

Many years ago, in a cave on the moon, there lived a giant alien spider. Its silk granted its first worshippers incredible powers. Now, in the year 1923, Veronica Brinkley is touching down on the moon for her  treatment at the Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy. A little bit of spider silk could cure her depression. But the spider has been dead for a while now. Its followers are still alive, and they're not ready to give up their idol's bounty. 

Sally Jansen was NASA’s leading astronaut until a disastrous mission to Mars destroyed her career. Guilt-stricken and ostracized, she lives a reclusive life out of the spotlight, convinced her days in space are over. Things change drastically when a large and unidentified alien object is recorded entering the solar system. It's on a direct course towards Earth. Nobody knows what it is or how it will react once it arrives. Out of time and out of options, NASA turns to Jansen to confront the problem. It could redeem her, or she could risk the fate of the entire planet.

The indisputable titan of horror fiction hasn’t written that many books involving aliens but the ones he did are still terrifying to this day. Inspired by the H.P. Lovecraft story “The Colour Out of Space,” in The Tommyknockers, something strange is happening in Haven, Maine. Bobbi Anderson discovered a metal object in the woods that has started to transform the locals. It’s a spacecraft and it’s started to gain control over Haven. It won’t let anyone leave town. People start growing violent. A child goes missing. Bobbi, with help from her friend Jim, is forced to uncover the sinister truth of these alien forces and what they want with Haven.

Desperately in need of money to get herself off-planet, Gyre Price lied to secure her place on an expedition with a mining crew. But things immediately seem off. There's Em, who sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. And the mission is full of weird errors, like missing supplies and sudden changes in their route. Soon, Gyre is alone, paranoid, and terrified, stuck on a planet forever shrouded in darkness. She can't shake the feeling that someone or something is following her…

If you were reading novelizations of your favorite sci-fi movies in the '70s and '80s then the chances were you were enjoying the work of Alan Dean Foster. He was the ghostwriter of the original Star Wars novelization and has written numerous books in the Star Trek and Transformers universes. His novelization of Ridley Scott’s Alien, released the same year as the iconic space horror, was adapted from the film's shooting script. Foster acutely captures the tension of the movie and its legendary scares.