Although these novels were popular enough to garner film treatments for many of them, Strieber's fame took a quantum leap with the publication of a new kind of horror tale, Communion: A True Story. The first of his UFO/abductees tales, the book was later made into a 1989 movie, with Christopher Walken starring as Strieber. Although the books have been embraced by many on the paranormal fringe as absolute fact, Strieber himself remains coy about the authenticity of his abduction. He talks about recalling events in vivid details, discusses recalling even more material under hypnosis (including a secret school he attended as a boy), and even claims to have corroborating witnesses in the form of boyhood friends, physicians and so forth. But when pressed about whether the encounters in his books "really happened" he says he is not sure. It would seem that Strieber is trying to establish himself as a kind of "objective observer" as he often speaks pejoratively of New Ager and UFO enthusiasts in an attempt to distance himself from the so-called "kooks" on the fringe.

The effort falls a bit flat however in light of the fact that Strieber cannot even seem to keep the story straight about his own accomplishments and experience. For example his 1986 novel Cat Magic was originally touted a joint project between Strieber and a Jonathan Barry, billed as a practicing witch and a consultant in the aerospace industry. A year later Strieber admitted Barry was merely his alter ego. There is no record of Strieber ever working in the aerospace industry, so that credential was apparently invented in order to sell books. Similarly in the first edition of The Hunger a biographical blurb claimed Strieber had worked "in fields as diverse as intelligence and filmmaking". Strieber later blamed the latter prevarication on his publisher. However it is Strieber himself who claims, in various interviews and articles, to have won a "Caldecott Award in 1985". This claim appears to be false.

It cannot be denied however that Strieber is a talented and influential writer. Since the publication of Strieber's Communion, and his follow-up books Transformation, Breakthrough, The Secret School, and Confirmation, a large number of people have come forward claiming to have experienced very similar experiences. To believers in UFOs and alien abductions, this similarity appears to be proof that something very real is going on. Indeed, interest in the phenomenon gathered enough steam that a notable Harvard psychiatrics professor, John Mack, made extensive studies of those claiming to have undergone abduction experiences. Strieber reportedly has a new book on the abductions, titled The Grays, due out in 2006.

Strieber's other recent endeavors include a series of books allegedly inspired by a mysterious visitor who appeared to Strieber in his Toronto hotel room in June of 1998. The teachings received from this individual, whom Strieber refers to as the "Master of the Key", inspired the self-published works The Key (2001) and The Path (2002), as well as another work co-authored with friend Art Bell, The Coming Global Superstorm (1999). As with the UFO related works, Strieber has vacillated as to whether the "Master of the Key" really exists.

His new novel, The Omega Point, is a novel "based on a hidden connection between 2012 and the Book of Revelation". This title released in 2010 is Strieber's second novel dealing with the subject of 2012, the first being his novel "2012: The War for Souls." "The Omega Point" details the coming events surrounding 2012. Strieber is effectively outlining three ways in which humanity may evolve, each of which are equally disturbing.