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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Villano" data-source="post: 1863501" data-attributes="member: 505">In my previous post, I forgot to add another book, Night Of The Crabs, by Guy N. Smith.  Smith is a British horror novelist known for churning out cheesy and sleezy books.  A few friends recommended his series of books about giant, killer crabs.  They described them as homages to the 50s giant monsters, as crabs battle tanks and jets.  They sounded like fun books, so I took to tracking them down.  Sadly, even though he wrote something like 5 or 6 of the series, only 3 were printed in the US.  Luckily, I was able to snag them on eBay from a library unloading its old books.  I managed to get the set for only a couple of bucks.The first book was Origin Of The Crabs.  It was kind of stupid and I was a bit disappointed that the promised crabs vs tanks never occur in this novel (only a few people know of the crabs, they are all dead by the end, and the menace continues unbeknownst to the world), but I found it to be fun. Here's a pretty funny (and spot on) review of this book:  <a href="http://www.geocities.com/paladin_s98/cliff5.html" target="_blank">http://www.geocities.com/paladin_s98/cliff5.html</a>Since I liked the first novel, I immediately jumped into volume 2.  However, Night Of The Crabs was just awful.  This time, the crabs come ashore at a resort island and finally do battle with the military.  Talk about being careful for what you wish.I doubt anyone would accuse Smith of being a good writer, but Origin had its own goofy charm.  Unfortunately, the sequel is populated with unlikeable characters and people doing the dumbest things possible.  And then there are the crabs.  In the first book, the crabs are described as being the size of cows.  Pretty darn big for a crab and certainly enough to present itself as a threat to a man.  However, the crabs are no bigger in this novel.  A crab the size of a cow is not going to be able to carry away a tank or survive artillery fire.Oh, I actually mispoke there.  There are a few crabs bigger than cows in this book.  The big ones are described as being the size of donkeys!  "But, wait", you say as you scratch your head in confusion, "aren't donkeys actually smaller  than cows?"  Yes, my friends, Guy N. Smith has apparently never seen either a donkey or a cow and clearly was too lazy to research them.  If you want a good laugh, check this website.  Scroll down a little bit and you'll see several pictures of men ridding these gigantic creatures known as donkeys!  Surely, you can picture how a crab this size could carry away a tank!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" /> <a href="http://www.imh.org/imh/bw/donkey.html" target="_blank">http://www.imh.org/imh/bw/donkey.html</a>Oh, and before I forget, the ending is truely noteworthy.  You see, Night of the Crabs was printed 2nd in the US because that is when it takes place chronologically.  It was actually published later in the series originally.  The novel ends as the crabs have pretty much killed everyone and are continuing on their way.  Then there's a one paragraph afterward that says that some scientist found a way to kill them.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f615.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":confused:" title="Confused    :confused:"  data-smilie="5"data-shortname=":confused:" />  Honestly, I can't remember is the scientist is even mentioned anywhere else in the book!   He may have had a cameo, but that was about it.   Terrible, terrible way to end a book.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f621.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":mad:" title="Mad    :mad:"  data-smilie="4"data-shortname=":mad:" /></blockquote>

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