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Crawlers: A Novel
In a secret government lab somewhere in Nevada, a young scientist cowers in darkness–waiting, listening, and calculating his chances of surviving the unspeakable carnage that has left him trapped and alone. Or almost alone. Soon after, a covert military operation “cleanses” all traces of a top-secret project gone horrifically wrong. Three years later, it begins again–when the quiet of a warm autumn night in a sleepy California town is shattered by a streak of light across the sky, the thunder of impact, and the unleashing of something insidious. Spreading, multiplying, and transforming everything in its path, this diabolical intelligence will not be denied until the townsfolk–and eventually, all living things–are conquered. Until they are all crawling. . . .
402 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2003
13 people are currently reading
234 people want to read
About the author
John Shirley
320 books463 followersJohn Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award for his story collection Black Butterflies, and is the author of numerous novels, including the best-seller DEMONS, the cyberpunk classics CITY COME A-WALKIN', ECLIPSE, and BLACK GLASS, and his newest novels STORMLAND and A SORCERER OF ATLANTIS.
He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books.
His most recent novels are STORMLAND and (forthcoming) AXLE BUST CREEK. His new story collection is THE FEVERISH STARS. STORMLAND and other John Shirley novels are available as audiobooks.
He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings.
John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.
John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES, and LIVING SHADOWS.
source: Amazon
He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books.
His most recent novels are STORMLAND and (forthcoming) AXLE BUST CREEK. His new story collection is THE FEVERISH STARS. STORMLAND and other John Shirley novels are available as audiobooks.
He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings.
John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.
John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES, and LIVING SHADOWS.
source: Amazon
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 12, 2009
(I originally wrote this in 2003; this version is adapted from the one on my website.)
I've got a great book for you, if you like full-bore horror a la Stephen King in his early days, before he got all literary on us. Plus it's by a Pacific Northwestern author, more or less. Plus (full disclosure!), an old buddy of mine who's now a professional editor worked on the book, and shows up in the acknowledgements - not that that changes my opinion.
John Shirley's Crawlers is a science-fictional horror novel, with a take on some new technology that's not always very likely, perhaps, but always on the scary edge of plausibility. It starts out something like The Stand, with a containment failure in a secret military lab deep underground, but this weapon this time isn't biological. It just uses biology... for parts. Chimeras, part animal and part device - mismatched limbs stitched together by chromed joints, bending in impossible ways, crawling like insects or lizards all over the lab, unified by a cold intelligence... and breaking out.
Shirley is at the top of his game here. His prose has great dynamic range, from the delicate frisson of unseen terror to an unflinching full-throttle onslaught of gore. I found myself thoroughly hooked after about page 5, when one guy left hiding in a corner of the lab that spawned these things sees the flayed skull of his buddy pop up over his makeshift barricade, moist brown eyes still in their orbits but now... repurposed... as targeting sensors; the skull rotates smoothly on its shiny metal stalk and >snicks< into place with a sound Shirley makes you hear.
Crawlers is a very visual, cinematic book in general, in fact. Two different people I told about it were reminded of a movie about biomechanical revenants on a derelict ship (which turns out to be Virus, a mediocre sf/horror film starring Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin and Donald Sutherland), but this book bears little relation to that film - Shirley has gone in a whole new direction from that one creepy image.
It hearkens back to Invasion of the Body Snatchers too, or possibly parts of The Stepford Wives; the crawlers can imitate humans to an extent, but there's always something a little bit off about their performance. Sometimes they're off more than a little bit, and these scenes of quiet horror are the ones that really resonate with me.
One scene that stuck with me starts with a 1940s-era Plymouth all tricked out and covered in Christmas lights, in front of a house with no lights - a very human image that Shirley could easily have seen somewhere himself. Then, though, just down the street, the crawlers have strung houses with Christmas lights too - it's what people do - only their lights are hung like the webs of spiders dosed with LSD, stretching from house to house in crazy, drunken loops that ignore both property lines and traditional notions of symmetry.
There are other images just as compelling - Shirley repeatedly captures that edge of wrongness, and he also portrays accurately how willing people are to ignore and deny the wrongness right in front of them until it's too late to escape.
This is not a book for the weak of heart, or stomach. It does all the things you want a horror novel to do, and does 'em well. I know, I'm gushing, but I haven't gotten this delicious creepy feeling from a horror novel in quite awhile - I really couldn't put it down, and I've been recommending it all over the place.
Now I get to try to sleep without dreaming of these things...
I've got a great book for you, if you like full-bore horror a la Stephen King in his early days, before he got all literary on us. Plus it's by a Pacific Northwestern author, more or less. Plus (full disclosure!), an old buddy of mine who's now a professional editor worked on the book, and shows up in the acknowledgements - not that that changes my opinion.
John Shirley's Crawlers is a science-fictional horror novel, with a take on some new technology that's not always very likely, perhaps, but always on the scary edge of plausibility. It starts out something like The Stand, with a containment failure in a secret military lab deep underground, but this weapon this time isn't biological. It just uses biology... for parts. Chimeras, part animal and part device - mismatched limbs stitched together by chromed joints, bending in impossible ways, crawling like insects or lizards all over the lab, unified by a cold intelligence... and breaking out.
Shirley is at the top of his game here. His prose has great dynamic range, from the delicate frisson of unseen terror to an unflinching full-throttle onslaught of gore. I found myself thoroughly hooked after about page 5, when one guy left hiding in a corner of the lab that spawned these things sees the flayed skull of his buddy pop up over his makeshift barricade, moist brown eyes still in their orbits but now... repurposed... as targeting sensors; the skull rotates smoothly on its shiny metal stalk and >snicks< into place with a sound Shirley makes you hear.
Crawlers is a very visual, cinematic book in general, in fact. Two different people I told about it were reminded of a movie about biomechanical revenants on a derelict ship (which turns out to be Virus, a mediocre sf/horror film starring Jamie Lee Curtis, William Baldwin and Donald Sutherland), but this book bears little relation to that film - Shirley has gone in a whole new direction from that one creepy image.
It hearkens back to Invasion of the Body Snatchers too, or possibly parts of The Stepford Wives; the crawlers can imitate humans to an extent, but there's always something a little bit off about their performance. Sometimes they're off more than a little bit, and these scenes of quiet horror are the ones that really resonate with me.
One scene that stuck with me starts with a 1940s-era Plymouth all tricked out and covered in Christmas lights, in front of a house with no lights - a very human image that Shirley could easily have seen somewhere himself. Then, though, just down the street, the crawlers have strung houses with Christmas lights too - it's what people do - only their lights are hung like the webs of spiders dosed with LSD, stretching from house to house in crazy, drunken loops that ignore both property lines and traditional notions of symmetry.
There are other images just as compelling - Shirley repeatedly captures that edge of wrongness, and he also portrays accurately how willing people are to ignore and deny the wrongness right in front of them until it's too late to escape.
This is not a book for the weak of heart, or stomach. It does all the things you want a horror novel to do, and does 'em well. I know, I'm gushing, but I haven't gotten this delicious creepy feeling from a horror novel in quite awhile - I really couldn't put it down, and I've been recommending it all over the place.
Now I get to try to sleep without dreaming of these things...
February 20, 2017
Crawlers is a pretty good horror/sci-fi novel. I have to say it was better than I expected. Nanotech become sentient and a battleground is fought in an isolated town. A fun read.
March 29, 2014
"Crawlers" is a pretty good book. It's basically "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" meets "The Terminator", as directed by David Cronenberg. The crawlers themselves are the most interesting parts of the book, and I was almost rooting for them.
Unfortunately, some of the human characters weren't quite as interesting as the monsters, and the addition of quasi-psychic powers was rather jarring. Also, having read other books by John Shirley, I thought the ending was a bit weak, and a bit too upbeat.
Unfortunately, some of the human characters weren't quite as interesting as the monsters, and the addition of quasi-psychic powers was rather jarring. Also, having read other books by John Shirley, I thought the ending was a bit weak, and a bit too upbeat.
January 31, 2010
Basically a nanotech Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, this is a cute, gory little tale in which a militarized NSA nanotech colony escapes into a quiet southern California town, and a lot of blood is splashed around. Not a particularly complex story, but then again, it really doesn't have to be.
August 23, 2012
Pulpy, dark, and plausible. Not as visionary and Shirely's earlier works, but hey, what does a prophet have left to say when we live in a world he predicted? Adrenal, unique spin on the sky-net parable.
April 7, 2020
Después de muchos meses no leía una buena novela de ciencia ficción y terror. Los que reptan trata sobre el pueblo de Quiebra, en donde cae un satélite cuyo contenido pondrá en peligro a toda la zona pues unas criaturas metálicas e inteligentes saldrán buscando huéspedes. Tiene algunos defectos y momentos convenientes, pero en perspectiva plantes personajes creíbles, momentos realmente terroríficos tanto por el gore, el horror como el terror psicológico. Tiene una atmósfera similar al de la película La invasión de los ultracuerpos.
December 11, 2022
“Crawlers” is a fantastic horror and science fiction book! Starts with a bang as a young scientist is cowering in an underground lab waiting for….something….to come crawling to him. In an isolated town….something….is infecting people and nothing will be the same. Full of scares and action and protagonists who won’t give up. A fun read by one of my favorite authors!
September 6, 2021
Creepy. Not bad for a common theme of take-over-a-body type, "we are legion" villain. Enjoyed it.
November 21, 2015
Fairly unremarkable horror that starts out promisingly but quickly falls to pieces. The Big Bad is revealed too completely too early in the book, and Shirley tries way too hard to make sure everyone understands that what he's really writing about is how technology is bad and controlling all of our lives and the solution is a bit of religion.
Crawlers would still be fairly decent—especially for something coming from someone who mainly writes comic book and video game novels—if not for two things:
First, that Shirley can't write teenagers for shit. That gets less painful as more of them die off and adults start to take centre stage, but too many of them survive for too long, and they all talk the way you'd expect a fifty-year-old white guy thinks teenagers talk.
And secondly—more severely—Shirley's indefensible fondness for racial, homophobic, and ableist slurs. But no, clearly he's off the hook because it's his characters that use them and not him! I don't buy that for a second, and I wouldn't even if it were only the ones clearly written to be shitty people that did it.
I bought this book because another one of his, Demons, was one of my favourites when I was a teenager. Crawlers only made me afraid to re-read it and spoil the memory.
Crawlers would still be fairly decent—especially for something coming from someone who mainly writes comic book and video game novels—if not for two things:
First, that Shirley can't write teenagers for shit. That gets less painful as more of them die off and adults start to take centre stage, but too many of them survive for too long, and they all talk the way you'd expect a fifty-year-old white guy thinks teenagers talk.
And secondly—more severely—Shirley's indefensible fondness for racial, homophobic, and ableist slurs. But no, clearly he's off the hook because it's his characters that use them and not him! I don't buy that for a second, and I wouldn't even if it were only the ones clearly written to be shitty people that did it.
I bought this book because another one of his, Demons, was one of my favourites when I was a teenager. Crawlers only made me afraid to re-read it and spoil the memory.
December 19, 2017
Los comentarios parecían prometedores. El arte de tapa era interesante. El primer capítulo me dejó con ganas de mucho, mucho más. Y entonces empieza la historia de algo que ya he leído, muchas veces, contado de formas superiores a esta.
Es una pena, porque quería darle una oportunidad, y se la di, por más de cien páginas. Llegué a un punto en que salté al final para ver si esas criaturas hacían algo interesante, además de comenzar un proceso ya tratado en "El color que cayó del cielo" (H. P. Lovecraft), Los Tommyknockers (Stephen King) o "El árbol de saliva" (Brian W. Aldiss sin duda se "inspiró" en Lovecraft casi al pie de la letra). La lenta conversión del pueblo a "otra cosa" debido a algo que cae del cielo y que no es de este mundo. El comienzo genial, que te deja ansiosa por saber qué sigue, pronto se disuelve en un mundo que no termina de arrancar, y que deja que una lenta apatía se apodere de la narración.
Es una pena enorme. Daba para tanto y el ritmo hizo que el entusiasmo durase cien páginas, siendo muy generosa. No creo que lo vuelva a leer: hay otros autores, y otras novelas, que merecen más mi tiempo.
Es una pena, porque quería darle una oportunidad, y se la di, por más de cien páginas. Llegué a un punto en que salté al final para ver si esas criaturas hacían algo interesante, además de comenzar un proceso ya tratado en "El color que cayó del cielo" (H. P. Lovecraft), Los Tommyknockers (Stephen King) o "El árbol de saliva" (Brian W. Aldiss sin duda se "inspiró" en Lovecraft casi al pie de la letra). La lenta conversión del pueblo a "otra cosa" debido a algo que cae del cielo y que no es de este mundo. El comienzo genial, que te deja ansiosa por saber qué sigue, pronto se disuelve en un mundo que no termina de arrancar, y que deja que una lenta apatía se apodere de la narración.
Es una pena enorme. Daba para tanto y el ritmo hizo que el entusiasmo durase cien páginas, siendo muy generosa. No creo que lo vuelva a leer: hay otros autores, y otras novelas, que merecen más mi tiempo.
March 17, 2009
I picked this book at random from the John Shirley selection at the local library. It's a good horror novel that gets better as it goes, culminating in some very tense and disgusting action scenes toward the end of the book. Shirley was one of the first writers of cyberpunk (William Gibson called Shirley's City Come A Walkin' the "Protoplasmic Mother of all cyberpunk novels") and I hadn't read him before. I felt I had to because I'm publishing a short story of his and the man is both one helluva writer and very twisted.
And it turns out the library also had a copy of City Come A Walkin', and that's what I'm reading next.
And it turns out the library also had a copy of City Come A Walkin', and that's what I'm reading next.
November 8, 2010
Crawlers was OK. I was intrigued by the blurb on the back cover and it started off storngly enough with a poor soul trapped in an underground military facility trying to avoid some sort of bio-tech monster. But after getting about halfway through the book I realized that I was just reading a modernized, nano-tech version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and nothing in the story from that point on was particularly clever or surprising. I give it credit for some pretty horrific imagery at times but it's a not a book that I would recommend strongly.
May 20, 2013
If one mixed "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" with a bloody high tech thriller (itself a mix) you'd have a good sense of "Crawlers." Something is taking over a small California town. Are the people who suspect something paranoid or do they see the world as it is? It's a page turn and very entertaining but not for the squeamish. (It's not wall to wall gore, but it's there.)
July 20, 2009
This book was worth reading. It isn't as good as Demons but definitely had its disturbing moments (the kind that you will think a lot about because they were that well described).
May 8, 2010
Entertaining cautionary nanotech meets invasion of the body snatchers tale
January 15, 2011
Interesting, creepy but lacking true horror. Fairly believable characters and decently written but perhaps a bit predictable. Worth reading at the least.
October 17, 2011
picked this up in my local library. I'd never heard of it but it sounded interesting. glad I did, it was a good read. well worth investing a few hours in.
March 18, 2016
DOD nanotechnology experiments go rogue, and you know the rest . . . Somewhat predictable in some story lines, but nice and creepy.
December 28, 2019
Good premise. It dragged a bit.
April 26, 2017
Seemed like this book was meant to be YA to me and then someone went through it and added instances with drugs, curse words and gruesome deaths.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews