Find me a Survival Sci Fi Story/Novel

[Samuel]

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. First Contact results in humanity face-to-face with the most feared archetype in its religious traditions.

There isn't really any horror. They just look demonic, which isn't a big deal. Except for the psychic terror going into the collective unconciousness of course. But it isn't scary to the reader.

[Count Chocula]

Ah, but I read it when I was 12 and a churchgoing Catholic. It frightened me more than any Tolkien I read at the time. I could handle a Balrog, but a supposedly benevolent alien who looked like Satan? No. Fucking. Way.

As far as a more survival-oriented tome goes, I recommend Tunnel in the Sky by Heinlein, and Footfall by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle.

[Raptor]

I've just read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, highly recommended. Can't really see a more unsettling, bleak survial story.