The Furies

Author: Keith Roberts

Dinosaurs popping up everywhere? How about giant, semi-intelligent wasps? In this novel by the late Keith Roberts we get a different kind of menace, unleashed in apparent consequence of the exploding of H-bombs powerful enough to crack the ocean beds and shift continents. Roberts, like Christopher and Wyndham, is British, and so this story focuses on the British Isles. Innocuous cartoonist Bill Sampson and his girlfriend are attacked by a swarm of giant wasps, the eponymous 'Furies', who soon appear in huge quantities all over the place and procced, with determination and methodicity, to destroy civilization. Law and order go AWOL. As the novel goes in, it develops into a horror story that might have come from the pen of Wyndham. Why it's on the list: It's a thrilling story, told with verve and skill. Wasps are scary enough when they're normal size, but to have them in these monstrous proportions is a stroke of genius. Where they come from? Who knows? People speculate, but there's no evidence to support either semi-scientific or semi-religious theories.The characters are real and flawed, with minimal stereotyping. It's a hard book to find, though it's been rereleased as a Kindle edition, so don't deprive yourself of the experience. Ratings: Grimness: 4, Bizarreness: 1, Hope: 4, Fun-factor: 4.