The 1990 film Arachnophobia hasn’t got anything on Richard Lewis’s novel The Spiders. Published in 1978 not long after The Kingdom of Spiders hit the big screen the year before, Lewis tells a similar story but through a much larger lens and with much scarier spiders.
Though only 170 pages in length, The Spiders is such a fast paced and powerful read it feels truly epic. The story centers around a scientist whose father is one of the first victims to a new type of mutant spider that preys upon humans. As he discovers these new spiders, they’re already invading London. The government and military are fighting a war with the spider that they can’t win, and it’s up to the scientist and his friends to find a means of stopping the creatures before they spread throughout the UK and the world.
The Spiders is a book that’s heavy on both gore and action to the point where you can’t put it down. It is a fast read but also a very, very fun one. If you enjoy animal/insect attack novels, then The Spiders is a book you don’t want to miss out on.
