Above: Night of the Crabs, by Guy N. Smith (Grafton, 1989).
This might put you off shellfish for a while!
Beginning in 1976, English horror writer Guy N. Smith penned a succession of pulpy novels that imagined colossal, intelligent, man-eating crabs invading the British coastline. A far-fetched idea, yes, but evidently also a popular one. The blog DLS Reviews describes the series’ first installment, Night of the Crabs (1976), as offering “as much juicy blood spillage as possible” within an “outrageously over-the-top storyline” that was nonetheless satisfying: “An enjoyable read is most definitely the understatement of the century!” DLS Reviews further notes that Night of the Crabs has spawned “five sequels, one insightful prequel, a number of related short stories and a graphic novel …” The most recent of those books, The Charnel Caves, was published just this summer by Sinister Horror Company.
Here’s the full lineup of “Crabs” novels:
• Night of the Crabs (1976)
• Killer Crabs (1978)
• The Origin of the Crabs (1979)
• Crabs on the Rampage (1981)
• Crabs’ Moon (1984)
• Crabs: The Human Sacrifice (1988)
• Killer Crabs: The Return (2012)
• Crabs Omnibus (short-story collection, 2015)
• The Charnal Caves (2019)
I can’t say I have read any books by Smith (who has also produced many other works of horror fiction and soft-core porn), but I’ve certainly spotted a few of the “Crabs” offerings in used book stores through the years. I have always enjoyed their deliberately outrageous covers, three of which I am embedding in this post.
Above: Killer Crabs (Dell, 1959) and Origin of the Crabs (Dell, 1988), both by Guy N. Smith.READ MORE: “R.I.P., Guy N. Smith (1939-2020),” by Will Errickson (Too Much Horror Fiction).
1 comment:
I've only read the second book, KILLER CRABS (I believe the first one to be published in the States, by Signet in 1979). Like a lot of pulp fiction, it was decidedly mediocre. A couple groaner lines and regressive sex attitudes, but nothing so terrible as to be actually fun. The spookiest scene in the book isn't anything to do with crabs, either--it's a swim through an underwater cavern filled with venomous sea snakes!
But the original editions are all highly collectible, particularly the Dell reprints from the late '80s. The cover for CRABS: HUMAN SACRIFICE is especially ludicrous! Really wish I could find out the cover artist responsible...
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