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Spider Legs
At a time when Earth's hungry inhabitants demand more than even the ocean's endless boundaries can provide, strange things are born in the oceanic depths--things that the sea throws back up onto the land in retaliation of decades of pollution and abuse. Reprint.
301 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
6 people are currently reading
266 people want to read
About the author
Piers Anthony
442 books4,218 followersThough he spent the first four years of his life in England, Piers never returned to live in his country of birth after moving to Spain and immigrated to America at age six. After graduating with a B.A. from Goddard College, he married one of his fellow students and and spent fifteen years in an assortment of professions before he began writing fiction full-time.
Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.
Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
June 25, 2016
I'm not going to skate around the topic here. This is one of the worst books I have ever read.
I don't even know how I got through this book when I was in high school - I picked it up both because of the giant lobster on the cover and the fact that Piers Anthony's name was on it - because trying to describe this book without sounding like a raving lunatic is an exercise in on itself.
Okay, so because a misanthropist mad scientist with some mild physical deformities has a bone to pick with society and has a very simple idea on overpopulation and wants to keep children from starving in Africa, they decide to make giant lobsters (okay, sea spiders, but the cover showed lobsters and that's what I ended up picturing) in a fish store and send them out to slaughter people on the coasts until the world population is at more manageable levels.
And they can pilot this giant lobster because they somehow built a cabin in the lobster's cavity like a giant crustacean mecha. With scuba gear.
"Well wait a second, That actually sounds like a roaring good time!" you might be thinking to yourself. I can assure you, when most of the book segways into descriptions on how your basic species of octopi cannibalize themselves when trapped in a small aquarium tank when driven to hunger, all while using more terms than my college textbook in Marine Biology, this stops being fun pretty quickly. The tone of this book is dryer than a leftover turkey sandwich with no fun or heart whatsoever.
From the sounds of some articles written about this weird science experiment of a novel, this book supposedly started life as a straightforward "giant monster shows up and eats people" monster story in the original draft but then, through the magic of rewrites, somehow became this absurdist piece of lobster theater where all the characters try to have these big thoughts on environmentalism and how mankind is destroying the world and are trying to fight the ill effects of mankind's effects on the planet through straight up human slaughter. And oh man, do these arguments the characters say reach levels that could be mistaken for parody.
To make matters even more worse than they already were, in the end, after the monster kills several people and is finally destroyed, the mad scientist (who escapes the complete electrocution of her monster completely unscathed...somehow) just brushes the sea monster goo off of her body and is all "hey, maybe if I put some chemicals in the water supplies of select impoverished communities (ie. Africa) so that the people living in them can no longer reproduce, that can cure overpopulation!" while the heroes, one of them being a police officer, are like "yeah, go do that" and just let her go free while the narration is presenting this as an alright solution.
No, Miss Natalie the hardcore yet sensible motorcycle-riding policewoman. How about you arrest the person making killer sea spiders in her basement, the person responsible for at least a dozen deaths, instead of allowing her to practice eugenics on communities she deems "unfit".
I think if this book just delivered what was being shown on the cover, I would've enjoyed it for a brainless read reminiscent of the monster genre from the 1950's. All the elements were there! A mad scientist who seeks comfort from fish more than people and is creating mutant lobsters so she'll "show them all", a policewoman and her nerdy lover, the lovely Newfoundland backdrop...and the clunky writing just murdered all the fun that could've been had with this.
To make matters worse, the writing acts like its way smarter than it actually is. Even without the gross "oh dang, overpopulation" message, the interactions from our smart PH.D toting characters are just awful. If your main characters show up at an aquarium and name the fish by their scientific Latin names over their common names, they don't come off as intelligent. They just come off as pretentious. Especially if they can't make simple logical decisions. It really says wonders about their real intellect when they can recite entire poems by Longfellow but can't think to bring heavy artillery when they're out hunting for a giant sea monster.
Avoid this book. Staring at the cover for five minutes and imagining what cheesy horror flick would have that image as the movie poster makes for some better entertainment.
I don't even know how I got through this book when I was in high school - I picked it up both because of the giant lobster on the cover and the fact that Piers Anthony's name was on it - because trying to describe this book without sounding like a raving lunatic is an exercise in on itself.
Okay, so because a misanthropist mad scientist with some mild physical deformities has a bone to pick with society and has a very simple idea on overpopulation and wants to keep children from starving in Africa, they decide to make giant lobsters (okay, sea spiders, but the cover showed lobsters and that's what I ended up picturing) in a fish store and send them out to slaughter people on the coasts until the world population is at more manageable levels.
And they can pilot this giant lobster because they somehow built a cabin in the lobster's cavity like a giant crustacean mecha. With scuba gear.
"Well wait a second, That actually sounds like a roaring good time!" you might be thinking to yourself. I can assure you, when most of the book segways into descriptions on how your basic species of octopi cannibalize themselves when trapped in a small aquarium tank when driven to hunger, all while using more terms than my college textbook in Marine Biology, this stops being fun pretty quickly. The tone of this book is dryer than a leftover turkey sandwich with no fun or heart whatsoever.
From the sounds of some articles written about this weird science experiment of a novel, this book supposedly started life as a straightforward "giant monster shows up and eats people" monster story in the original draft but then, through the magic of rewrites, somehow became this absurdist piece of lobster theater where all the characters try to have these big thoughts on environmentalism and how mankind is destroying the world and are trying to fight the ill effects of mankind's effects on the planet through straight up human slaughter. And oh man, do these arguments the characters say reach levels that could be mistaken for parody.
To make matters even more worse than they already were, in the end, after the monster kills several people and is finally destroyed, the mad scientist (who escapes the complete electrocution of her monster completely unscathed...somehow) just brushes the sea monster goo off of her body and is all "hey, maybe if I put some chemicals in the water supplies of select impoverished communities (ie. Africa) so that the people living in them can no longer reproduce, that can cure overpopulation!" while the heroes, one of them being a police officer, are like "yeah, go do that" and just let her go free while the narration is presenting this as an alright solution.
No, Miss Natalie the hardcore yet sensible motorcycle-riding policewoman. How about you arrest the person making killer sea spiders in her basement, the person responsible for at least a dozen deaths, instead of allowing her to practice eugenics on communities she deems "unfit".
I think if this book just delivered what was being shown on the cover, I would've enjoyed it for a brainless read reminiscent of the monster genre from the 1950's. All the elements were there! A mad scientist who seeks comfort from fish more than people and is creating mutant lobsters so she'll "show them all", a policewoman and her nerdy lover, the lovely Newfoundland backdrop...and the clunky writing just murdered all the fun that could've been had with this.
To make matters worse, the writing acts like its way smarter than it actually is. Even without the gross "oh dang, overpopulation" message, the interactions from our smart PH.D toting characters are just awful. If your main characters show up at an aquarium and name the fish by their scientific Latin names over their common names, they don't come off as intelligent. They just come off as pretentious. Especially if they can't make simple logical decisions. It really says wonders about their real intellect when they can recite entire poems by Longfellow but can't think to bring heavy artillery when they're out hunting for a giant sea monster.
Avoid this book. Staring at the cover for five minutes and imagining what cheesy horror flick would have that image as the movie poster makes for some better entertainment.
July 15, 2015
2 1/2 stars.
February 16, 2018
Piers Anthony and Clifford Pickover together? What a glorious idea! Science coupled with sardonic wit, and a ginormous psychopathic man-eating spider...there was so much potential here.
Aside from some interesting facts about Newfoundland and its ocean ecosystems, this was one of the worst books I've ever read. Given the caliber of writing from these two authors, I have trouble accepting the fact that either of them could have agreed to ever allow this to reach the public eye.
Aside from some interesting facts about Newfoundland and its ocean ecosystems, this was one of the worst books I've ever read. Given the caliber of writing from these two authors, I have trouble accepting the fact that either of them could have agreed to ever allow this to reach the public eye.
July 8, 2017
“And so, swimming with its eight gigantic legs, the psychotic, serial-killing invertebrate rose slowly in the frigid darkness. It was hungry. Its digestive organs spasmed. It wished to eat.”
Two stars ... and that's being generous.
But before I rant, let me just say how much I love Piers Anthony; his Xanth series has been a perennial favorite for decades. And from his inside-the-book bibliography, Anthony’s co-writer Clifford A. Pickover, seems to have a similarly impressive pedigree. Plus, I love ‘monster-of-the-sea’ stories – especially in July when it’s time to head to the beach. Sharks, giant squids, armies of flesh-feasting crabs, love ‘em all … so I can totally buy into a giant, carnivorous sea spider gobbling up ocean-goers off the coast of Newfoundland.
But this one .. it’s just a mess with a ditheringly dull plotline, a spaghetti strainer’s worth of plot holes, and an insipid cast of wooden characters who are as bland as barnacles and with the brains to match. I try to avoid banging on books I didn’t much like so (as hard as it might be to believe), here’s just a little list of things I didn’t like:
[SPOILERS AHEAD … BUT SERIOUSLY, YOU DON’T WANT TO READ THIS ANYWAY SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUST KEEP READING.]
• The book is poorly paced. After the opening Part 1 (which is actually pretty good as our titular crustacean chomps-up a couple on a pleasure boat – nice B-movie scares), our sea spider doesn’t return until like Part 4, page 200! There are some oblique references to additional sea spider attacks, but instead of that good stuff, we are treated to plenty of dull, meandering backstory, including a ham-fisted romance between policewoman Natalie and scientist Nathan who – to their credit – do deliver the most bumbling, un-erotic sex scene in fiction.
• The dialogue is sometimes painful. When they are not behaving oddly or acting stupidly (see more below), characters tend to speak like they are quoting the Encyclopedia Britannica. For example, while on a first date with her paramour Nathan, Natalie opens up about her Canadian homeland, “The Island of Newfoundland teems with wildlife and fresh-water fish. The chief fur-bearing animals are the otter, beaver, muskrat, fox and lynx. Game animals include hares, moose and caribou, and black bear. I should know, I once came face-to-face with a black bear and had to shoot it.” Ugh … way to lure a boy in, girl. Sounding like a mini-board of tourism is very, very sexy.
• The villain runs (of all things) a tropical fish mart and – aside from selling neon tetras – also conducts genetic experiments in the back room that create gargantuan, man-eating monsters. And -- it gets worse -- she rides around inside her giant sea spiders, creating a hatch in the beast’s shell using “some door hinges and knobs” she bought at the local Home Depot Of course, because she’s a malevolent genius, she carefully paints those hinges, “the same color as the pycno [i.e. sea spider] so to camouflage their presence.” I’m all for a Doctor Frankenstein … but riding around inside your monster … is just dumb.
• Characters act oddly, out-of-character, in ways that make no sense, or just behave stupidly. Natalie, for example, seems rather chummy with the book’s first two spider victims, but the next time we come back to her -- when she’s investigating their murders -- she’s absolutely blasé about their death. She and Nate (think middle-aged couple) have a very creepy conversation with teenage Lisa about hooking with old guy Elmo ... that’s loaded with mega-creepy innuendo. One of our first two victims inexplicably ends up marooned on an iceberg, then gets put in an insane asylum, before the book forgets about him entirely … so that makes no sense either. And by the end of the book, after being maimed and watching friends, family members and a poodle become sea spider sushi,, our four protagonists – one of whom is a sworn law-enforcement officer! – inexplicably throw-in with the bad guy becoming eco-terrorists themselves. Give-up on the whole sea monster manufacturing business, they suggest, and instead go a bit more benign by creating a new world food source … that will make most of humanity sterile? WTF?
• The captain of local ferry boat name is named Captain Calamari. And no one goes, “No way … seriously, Captain Squid?”
• The cover of the book … that’s a lobster … not a sea spider. Sea spiders look like the face-huggers from Alien.
From the two post-script essays, it sounds like this was Pickover’s first piece of fiction – his other books being non-fiction – with Anthony acting more as ghost-writer. Unfortunately, this is a case where less may have been more; I might have been more forgiving to a novice novelist and, had Spider Legs been played more for camp and been structured a bit more like a traditional horror book, this might have worked.
Unfortunately, it just didn’t.
P.S. If you do want a good ‘monster-of-sea’ book, I’d go with Peter Benchely’s seminal Jaws or Beast; Steven Alton’s MEG (or its sequels); or, one of my personal favorites, Guy N. Smith’s Night of the Crabs (and its sequels). Or for real-life screams, Michael Capuzzo’s Close to Shore is a history of the 1916 shark attacks off the New Jersey shore that's sure to keep you out of the water.
Two stars ... and that's being generous.
But before I rant, let me just say how much I love Piers Anthony; his Xanth series has been a perennial favorite for decades. And from his inside-the-book bibliography, Anthony’s co-writer Clifford A. Pickover, seems to have a similarly impressive pedigree. Plus, I love ‘monster-of-the-sea’ stories – especially in July when it’s time to head to the beach. Sharks, giant squids, armies of flesh-feasting crabs, love ‘em all … so I can totally buy into a giant, carnivorous sea spider gobbling up ocean-goers off the coast of Newfoundland.
But this one .. it’s just a mess with a ditheringly dull plotline, a spaghetti strainer’s worth of plot holes, and an insipid cast of wooden characters who are as bland as barnacles and with the brains to match. I try to avoid banging on books I didn’t much like so (as hard as it might be to believe), here’s just a little list of things I didn’t like:
[SPOILERS AHEAD … BUT SERIOUSLY, YOU DON’T WANT TO READ THIS ANYWAY SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUST KEEP READING.]
• The book is poorly paced. After the opening Part 1 (which is actually pretty good as our titular crustacean chomps-up a couple on a pleasure boat – nice B-movie scares), our sea spider doesn’t return until like Part 4, page 200! There are some oblique references to additional sea spider attacks, but instead of that good stuff, we are treated to plenty of dull, meandering backstory, including a ham-fisted romance between policewoman Natalie and scientist Nathan who – to their credit – do deliver the most bumbling, un-erotic sex scene in fiction.
• The dialogue is sometimes painful. When they are not behaving oddly or acting stupidly (see more below), characters tend to speak like they are quoting the Encyclopedia Britannica. For example, while on a first date with her paramour Nathan, Natalie opens up about her Canadian homeland, “The Island of Newfoundland teems with wildlife and fresh-water fish. The chief fur-bearing animals are the otter, beaver, muskrat, fox and lynx. Game animals include hares, moose and caribou, and black bear. I should know, I once came face-to-face with a black bear and had to shoot it.” Ugh … way to lure a boy in, girl. Sounding like a mini-board of tourism is very, very sexy.
• The villain runs (of all things) a tropical fish mart and – aside from selling neon tetras – also conducts genetic experiments in the back room that create gargantuan, man-eating monsters. And -- it gets worse -- she rides around inside her giant sea spiders, creating a hatch in the beast’s shell using “some door hinges and knobs” she bought at the local Home Depot Of course, because she’s a malevolent genius, she carefully paints those hinges, “the same color as the pycno [i.e. sea spider] so to camouflage their presence.” I’m all for a Doctor Frankenstein … but riding around inside your monster … is just dumb.
• Characters act oddly, out-of-character, in ways that make no sense, or just behave stupidly. Natalie, for example, seems rather chummy with the book’s first two spider victims, but the next time we come back to her -- when she’s investigating their murders -- she’s absolutely blasé about their death. She and Nate (think middle-aged couple) have a very creepy conversation with teenage Lisa about hooking with old guy Elmo ... that’s loaded with mega-creepy innuendo. One of our first two victims inexplicably ends up marooned on an iceberg, then gets put in an insane asylum, before the book forgets about him entirely … so that makes no sense either. And by the end of the book, after being maimed and watching friends, family members and a poodle become sea spider sushi,, our four protagonists – one of whom is a sworn law-enforcement officer! – inexplicably throw-in with the bad guy becoming eco-terrorists themselves. Give-up on the whole sea monster manufacturing business, they suggest, and instead go a bit more benign by creating a new world food source … that will make most of humanity sterile? WTF?
• The captain of local ferry boat name is named Captain Calamari. And no one goes, “No way … seriously, Captain Squid?”
• The cover of the book … that’s a lobster … not a sea spider. Sea spiders look like the face-huggers from Alien.
From the two post-script essays, it sounds like this was Pickover’s first piece of fiction – his other books being non-fiction – with Anthony acting more as ghost-writer. Unfortunately, this is a case where less may have been more; I might have been more forgiving to a novice novelist and, had Spider Legs been played more for camp and been structured a bit more like a traditional horror book, this might have worked.
Unfortunately, it just didn’t.
P.S. If you do want a good ‘monster-of-sea’ book, I’d go with Peter Benchely’s seminal Jaws or Beast; Steven Alton’s MEG (or its sequels); or, one of my personal favorites, Guy N. Smith’s Night of the Crabs (and its sequels). Or for real-life screams, Michael Capuzzo’s Close to Shore is a history of the 1916 shark attacks off the New Jersey shore that's sure to keep you out of the water.
January 30, 2008
How does this get anything more than one star (and that's simply for the cover art). This was beyond terrible. From what I hear Anthony was brought in to salvage it, hence why there're two author credits. I think they should have let it sink to the bottom of the sea instead. Better luck next time, guys.
April 24, 2020
I enjoy creature stories so when I saw this one I had to read it. For some reason I'm having a very hard time writing a review of this book. I'm not sure why. Maybe I have mixed views of it? Truthfully I had hoped it would be a lot more suspenseful than it was. Without suspense the story is not really scary. And shouldn't a story about a giant sea spider eating people be scary?
The book is actually very scientific in parts. Lots of details. The author clearly knew a lot about these critters. The story takes place in the city of Saint John's Newfoundland and it's also described very well.
There is a large variety of characters in here, ranging from a lady cop to visiting scientists to a local woman who runs a fish store (aquariums) plus many more. They all have their own different opinions on what's going on. But as it goes in these types of stories, the matter is not taken seriously enough and much trouble is the result! Blood flows. Screams. You know how it goes..no one really believes the giant sea monster will actually DO something until it's attacking them! And this one is the size of an elephant.
When the main action starts near the end of the book, the climax lasts a decent amount of time. Several chapters. This is where the book shines in my opinion..but you have to read a lot of drama to get there. You know, the typical one person dating another when a giant sea spider is supposed to be going on a rampage. Umm...why are you going on an ocean side date when people were killed by the creature at the beginning of the book?!
The story does explain the motives of several characters, which is good..but another thing the book mentions (which I cannot name because it is a spoiler) doesn't make sense to me..it's not believable. It's just too...weird! And it sort of ruins the story.
The theme of the book is about the rapidly vanishing animals across the globe and what humans are doing to them. And maybe it's time that they get revenge on us. Hence the giant sea spider. And that spider truly has awful corrosive spit!
The book is actually very scientific in parts. Lots of details. The author clearly knew a lot about these critters. The story takes place in the city of Saint John's Newfoundland and it's also described very well.
There is a large variety of characters in here, ranging from a lady cop to visiting scientists to a local woman who runs a fish store (aquariums) plus many more. They all have their own different opinions on what's going on. But as it goes in these types of stories, the matter is not taken seriously enough and much trouble is the result! Blood flows. Screams. You know how it goes..no one really believes the giant sea monster will actually DO something until it's attacking them! And this one is the size of an elephant.
When the main action starts near the end of the book, the climax lasts a decent amount of time. Several chapters. This is where the book shines in my opinion..but you have to read a lot of drama to get there. You know, the typical one person dating another when a giant sea spider is supposed to be going on a rampage. Umm...why are you going on an ocean side date when people were killed by the creature at the beginning of the book?!
The story does explain the motives of several characters, which is good..but another thing the book mentions (which I cannot name because it is a spoiler) doesn't make sense to me..it's not believable. It's just too...weird! And it sort of ruins the story.
The theme of the book is about the rapidly vanishing animals across the globe and what humans are doing to them. And maybe it's time that they get revenge on us. Hence the giant sea spider. And that spider truly has awful corrosive spit!
November 30, 2024
Believe it on not, this is my first Piers Anthony book. Of all his colourful collection of work, I picked this up and said, "Yes, I am going to read this book and decide how good a writer Piers Anthony is and if I am going to read his more famous book series or not."
And as you see in the rating, a decision has been made. That I should pick the best book of writer to decide if I like their style. And now on to the merits and demerits of this spiderly tale.
I am a fan of B movies from the VHS era. This book starts the same, and I for first few chapter I felt like I made a good chose. But soon it spins so many sub-plot and info-dumps about side characters that I get tangle in web of boredom that enjoying it became a struggle.
Why you should read this book
Creature feature fun: You enjoy B movie about monstrous creature.
Trivia treasure: You are really into sea and different sea creatures. You don't watch sports/news/Netflix or documentaries about animal on land, but get so engrossed in documentary about life inside the ocean that you forget to check your phone for social media.
Details matter: You enjoy technical details of breeding an insect as much as you enjoy perfectly put plumber's tape around the pipe thread in your porn.
Love should be everywhere: You believe any story should have at least 1 romantic sub plot. Or two or three. or four.
You need to know about life of every character: Even the minor one who are introduced in last act of the book and don't do anything of significance.
Why you should not read this book
You want what the story promises. There is an awful lot going on in this book which does not involve spider. I assume that the other writer of this book had only material for short story but somehow they stretched it to full size novel by adding multiple subplots and unnecessary details.
In summary
You can read this. It's not something so awful that you have to quit in frustration, if you know how to skip through unnecessary details. If you are kind of person who has to read every work then it's gong to be very challenging. I am sure there are better books out there about giant spiders.
And as you see in the rating, a decision has been made. That I should pick the best book of writer to decide if I like their style. And now on to the merits and demerits of this spiderly tale.
I am a fan of B movies from the VHS era. This book starts the same, and I for first few chapter I felt like I made a good chose. But soon it spins so many sub-plot and info-dumps about side characters that I get tangle in web of boredom that enjoying it became a struggle.
Why you should read this book
Creature feature fun: You enjoy B movie about monstrous creature.
Trivia treasure: You are really into sea and different sea creatures. You don't watch sports/news/Netflix or documentaries about animal on land, but get so engrossed in documentary about life inside the ocean that you forget to check your phone for social media.
Details matter: You enjoy technical details of breeding an insect as much as you enjoy perfectly put plumber's tape around the pipe thread in your porn.
Love should be everywhere: You believe any story should have at least 1 romantic sub plot. Or two or three. or four.
You need to know about life of every character: Even the minor one who are introduced in last act of the book and don't do anything of significance.
Why you should not read this book
You want what the story promises. There is an awful lot going on in this book which does not involve spider. I assume that the other writer of this book had only material for short story but somehow they stretched it to full size novel by adding multiple subplots and unnecessary details.
In summary
You can read this. It's not something so awful that you have to quit in frustration, if you know how to skip through unnecessary details. If you are kind of person who has to read every work then it's gong to be very challenging. I am sure there are better books out there about giant spiders.
January 8, 2025
After I was done reading Spider Legs, I felt dumber for having done so.
The world that Anthony and Pickover set up is never truly explained, so the reader is left to assume that neither one had ever visited Canada, nor taken the time to learn about things like, oh, I don't know, the police there.
As a result of reading this brain-numbingly stupid book, I have never purchased, never mind read, another Anthony (nor Pickover) book, so if that was the goal ... congratulations?
[I have to be honest, seeing that Spider Legs has many 5 star reviews and a 2.8 aggregate (as of January 2025), my faith in humanity has been sorely tested yet again. We are truly in the stupidest timeline.]
The world that Anthony and Pickover set up is never truly explained, so the reader is left to assume that neither one had ever visited Canada, nor taken the time to learn about things like, oh, I don't know, the police there.
As a result of reading this brain-numbingly stupid book, I have never purchased, never mind read, another Anthony (nor Pickover) book, so if that was the goal ... congratulations?
[I have to be honest, seeing that Spider Legs has many 5 star reviews and a 2.8 aggregate (as of January 2025), my faith in humanity has been sorely tested yet again. We are truly in the stupidest timeline.]
February 8, 2019
It was boring. At first I couldn't understand how this is science fiction (but that was my mistake). I struggled through the chapter where two of the characters fell in love and then at the end struggled through the chapters where the characters fought the sea spider - over and over the same thing with no real purpose (in my opinion). At last I skipped two chapters so I could read the epilogue (because I were curious what would happen to the mad scientist)... Over all I would not recommend this book.
January 11, 2020
I never thought I'd see Piers Anthony's name on something this poor! Crappy description of Newfoundland and the people thereof. Inuits there when the Newfs had a bounty on native people thus making an Inuit presence pretty unlikely. Police instead of the Newf constabulary or the RCMP. The whole thing is just so totally unlikely as to making the reading a study in impatience with just plain crap!
August 30, 2024
This book was just plain odd. There were parts that were interesting, but the rest not so much. I switched from eBook to Audible after the first few chapters. That helped some, but I don't think I would have finished it otherwise.
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April 4, 2022Full review: http://monsterbookclub.com/2022/04/04...
August 8, 2020
This novel has a good starting premise, one that never fails to make for an exciting story: sea monster ravages sea faring humans. This sea monster itself even comes from a great tradition of sea monster concepts. As a child who thrilled to the contest in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea between the giant squid and the Nautilus, I was happy to read a book that revisits this theme.
Unfortunately, after this wonderful set-up and premise, the story goes wrong. It's not the characters. Piers Anthony is too professional a writer to write a novel without characters a reader can care about. The part that goes wrong is not even any lack of a plot. The book stays true to its menacing monster must be defeated premise in the set-up. It's the other elements to the plot that Anthony's collaborator (I suspect) insisted must be retained.
The human antagonist is unbelievable in the extreme, starting with her physical peculiarities, and finishing with her personality traits. The inconsistency of her portrayal also doesn't work. I at first liked her because of the competent manner in which she handled people who came into her store to rob her. You might say that making a character able to be good sometimes creates depth and verisimilitude, but the initial incident is her only redeeming feature, which makes the writing just look inconsistent and thus incompetent. The plot goes downhill from there.
For those few who might be able to enjoy it, I can't go into the improbable and frankly disgusting plot elements that the authors probably thought original or clever without "spoiling" them. So I won't. The plot theme about man needing to be eliminated because he is harming the environment is beyond trite unless authors have some new slant on it. These two don't. And the conclusion, or deal worked out with the antagonist, is not only improbable but horribly unsatisfying. The antagonist is allowed literally to get away with murder. The term pycnogonid must have appeared in the text at least 100 times, and this was far from the only example of showing off of their superior intellect the authors indulged themselves in.
I gave the book three stars because of its cool starting premise, its characters, and that it has a plot it stays true to, but demoted it two stars for the writing flaws.
Unfortunately, after this wonderful set-up and premise, the story goes wrong. It's not the characters. Piers Anthony is too professional a writer to write a novel without characters a reader can care about. The part that goes wrong is not even any lack of a plot. The book stays true to its menacing monster must be defeated premise in the set-up. It's the other elements to the plot that Anthony's collaborator (I suspect) insisted must be retained.
The human antagonist is unbelievable in the extreme, starting with her physical peculiarities, and finishing with her personality traits. The inconsistency of her portrayal also doesn't work. I at first liked her because of the competent manner in which she handled people who came into her store to rob her. You might say that making a character able to be good sometimes creates depth and verisimilitude, but the initial incident is her only redeeming feature, which makes the writing just look inconsistent and thus incompetent. The plot goes downhill from there.
For those few who might be able to enjoy it, I can't go into the improbable and frankly disgusting plot elements that the authors probably thought original or clever without "spoiling" them. So I won't. The plot theme about man needing to be eliminated because he is harming the environment is beyond trite unless authors have some new slant on it. These two don't. And the conclusion, or deal worked out with the antagonist, is not only improbable but horribly unsatisfying. The antagonist is allowed literally to get away with murder. The term pycnogonid must have appeared in the text at least 100 times, and this was far from the only example of showing off of their superior intellect the authors indulged themselves in.
I gave the book three stars because of its cool starting premise, its characters, and that it has a plot it stays true to, but demoted it two stars for the writing flaws.
August 23, 2009
I was disappointed. I don't know if it was because it was a collaboration or if the subject or characters just didn't seem to connect for me. People operating giant crabs from inside their bodies. Too sci-fic to be set in the real world. Not believable.
January 6, 2014
I like a lot of Piers Anthony's material, but his collaborations aren't very good and this one, Spider Legs, is easily the worst book I've ever read. Why Tor published it is beyond me. Sorry, Piers.
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February 6, 2016okay, this was fucking nuts. There's a part in here where are slightly psycho would be scientist imagines herself operating on and controlling giant sea spiders - she drives them like a giant car with a transparent bubble on the top. It is fucking hilarious.
May 12, 2016
I was REALLY excited for this book. It has a cool cover, the premise sounds awesome, and it was by Piers Anthony. I was so disgustingly disappointed. It was like reading something written by a ninth grader. The relationship between two of the characters made me roll my eyes every other word. Dumb.
November 2, 2008
I read this because it was co-authored by Piers Anthony, and found that it was very well written. I enjoyed reading it, and also enjoyed the unexpected ending.
April 15, 2010
Creepy and disgusting. Killer sea food from the deep. Kind of slow pacing.. and reads like an encyclopedia in sections. I am tossing this fish back into the sea.
March 30, 2017
Worst Book Ever. Awkward dialogue, bizarre plot, impossible characters.
May 3, 2012
barely readable. What utter garbage.
August 10, 2013
the story concept was cool, but the dialogue became laborious and stupid. I didn't finish it but i got through 2/3 of it lol. i just wanna eat some crab legs.
September 21, 2015
Gets my vote for the worst book ever written. Hilariously awful.
January 28, 2016
There's nothing not to like about an immense crab monster emerging from the sea to wreak havoc, really there isn't, but this book is SO painfully bad. Really hard to get through.
February 1, 2016
This is a must read for all Piers Anthony fans. Awesome!!!
February 26, 2015
Bizarre!
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