Crustaceans

by William Meikle

From Scottish writer William Meikle comes a novel that is a welcome return to those tomes of pure enjoyment that we read with guilt in our early teens, in the tradition of James Herbert’s THE RATS and Guy N. Smith’s NIGHT OF THE CRABS.It begins with a dead whale on a Boston shoreline--not in itself an unusual occurrence. But the things that claw their way out of the blubber are very unusual indeed. A cast of giant crabs, evolved over centuries, descends on a small coastal town and, having feasted, make their way to the city using the sewer system. Soon they are swarming around Manhattan, hunted and harried by a SWAT team tasked with ridding the city of the menace...before the menace gets big enough to rid itself of the city.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Monsters, Audiobook, Fiction

190 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

I'm a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.

My work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and I have recent short story sales to NATURE Futures and Galaxy's Edge. When I'm not writing I play guitar, drink beer and dream of fortune and glory.

For an intro to me, my writing and my accent see my Youtube channel

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

When an alcoholic fisherman pulls a strange crab out of the Atlantic, he has no idea what is about to befall the east coast; giant armored crabs with a taste for human flesh!

This is the seventeenth book in my Kindle Unlimited Experiment. For the 30 day trial, I'm only reading books that are part of the program and keeping track what the total cost of the books would have been.

In some ways, Crustaceans, like Clickers, is an homage to Guy Smith's Crab books, which I confess I have yet to read. Giant crabs hit the coast and go on a killing sprees, slicing people in half and devouring them. Oh, and these crabs are bulletproof.

As per usual, I'll be doing the compliment sandwich in this review, since I did like it more than I disliked it.

Crustaceans was a fun read, full of the carnage one comes to expect from something involving giant monsters. I came in expecting killer crabs on the rampage and that's what I got.

However, there were some issues with the editing. Stark is called Stack the first three or four times he's mentioned. Also, the book doesn't have anything signaling the transition from one viewpoint character to another, making it kind of jarring. Even an extra line break would have helped. The characters are pretty much stock characters: army guy, lady scientist (complete with insta-love) and alcoholic fisherman.

Again, though, I didn't come into this expecting a Michael Chabon book. I loved the underground action, especially when the heroes ran into progressively bigger crabs. The nod to Aliens about nuking the site from orbit was a nice touch. Meikle managed to create an homage to B-movie giant monster horror but still managed to deliver a fairly compelling book that begs to be made into a SyFy original movie.

3 out of 5 stars. I've never wanted to eat crab legs so much in my life.

Current Kindle Unlimited Savings Total: $100.42.

[Latasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun. Nothing too serious, easy to listen to and just enjoy the ride. Giant crabs attacking Manhattan. I listened to the audio book which is narrated by James Conlan. He did good but his woman's voice could use some work. The others were fine.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crabs are creepy. Like spiders with a hard shell. It would suck to get tore up and eaten by a crab. Conversely, they themselves, are quite delicious. Probably not these crabs though, since their bellies are full of human flesh.

Clickety clack motherf@ckers!

[Lora Milton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one had more gore than I personally like in a story, sometimes with surprisingly little pain. You would think it would hurt if a giant crab cut off your limbs.

It's definitely not a subtle story, but the writing was good and it flowed all too well. I didn't find any characters to like apart from the Marine Biologist, but despite the drinking and swearing and general low class of some of them, there was enough intelligence to lead to a suitably dramatic ending that would fit right in with 1950s B-movie Horror.

This was my first Meikle and I'm wondering if he might be a little too graphic violence for my taste, but I will venture another on the basis of good quality sentence use. I would give 4 stars for this but the unsubtle plot holds me back one.

[Karl]

This copy is signed by author William Meikle.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty typical gory monster fest. The story is about oversized crabs that invade NYC and the people sent to stop them. Overall I liked the book but there was some forced romance which felt very out of place in the book.

[Bogdan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Forget Godzilla, forget King Kong, because now we have a new bad ass invader in town.

We`re talking about the scary and mighty Crab!

Easy cheesy read. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Some gore, some people dying.

Weekend horror flick.

[Alaina · Rating 3 out of 5]

You better watch out. You better not cry. You should definitely hide... because the killer crabs are coming out.

Honestly, I didn't even know Crustaceans existed until recently. I think that's why I loved joining challenges because they open my eyes to new books/authors. As for this book, it was interesting and weird. Giant crabs are alive and thriving. They are leaving the ocean and going on a killing spree people.

Just to make things even more obnoxious.. the crabs are bulletproof. I couldn't stop snorting throughout this just because it kept getting weirder and weirder. In some ways, it kind of reminded me of that one movie with giant spiders killing people. So I wasn't really surprised with what down throughout the entire book.

In the end, this should become a sci-fi movie. Just saying.

[Eric]

Full review: https://supermonsternovels.com/2019/0...

[Judy & Marianne from Long and Short Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

When flesh eating crabs chew their way out of a dead, beached whale, it’s enough to draw some very serious attention. A number of unusual events revolving around a new found species of crabs soon has the Armed forces sitting up and taking notice, especially when some of their own are taken. It soon becomes clear the crabs are growing – and converging on Manhattan. A small team race to answer why – and how large will these things grow to?

I have been a huge fan of William Meikle’s for a number of years now and this story did not disappoint. A republishing of a previous novel of his I found this was everything about his writing that I love. Giant, monstrous beasties eating everyone in sight. A small and dedicated team hunting them down. Plenty of action, monsters and a rollicking good pace.

Readers who enjoy B grade horror movies and books along the same lines – ones that are here for a good time with plenty of fun – should find this a thoroughly enjoyable tale. I love this author’s S-Squad series and while this isn’t one of that series he admits it was where some of his earlier ideas for that did germinate. Sit back with a large cold drink, switch off your brain and be prepared for a fun, fast paced and excellently written tall tale. With just enough reality to make you think this is a wonderful monster story and one I will happily reread again soon.

With some memorable and enjoyable characters, giant monster crabs that are determined to take over everything and some exceptional fire power, this is a fun and rambunctious story and a brilliant addition to my Meikle library. Recommended.

[Mya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Killer crabs are right up my alley...okay so any animal gone freakish, out of control or genetically tampered with is a story that I am gonna read. So checking out Mr. Meikle's tale of crabs running roughshod through New York, caught my attention. There is a salty, larger than life (and braver than brave) fisherman with a personal vendetta against the beasties. And there is the plucky scientist who just has to tag along in hyper dangerous situations. Lastly there are the brilliant, plucky and lethal crabs of varying sizes. Pepper in the military and we're off to the races. Let me say in all honesty that that story was good, exciting, had a lot of gore and was overall entertaining....The formatting though sucked. There were no chapter breaks (in Kindle edition), I had to go back and figure out where scenes stopped and started. Now if this is something that doesn't bother you and you're a creature feature fan, then definitely check it out!

[wayne peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of this book.

This was a seriously scary story. So realistic, and graphic!! This book is not for the squeamish! Lots of blood and gore. That is what made this an outstanding book. No holds barred! No sugar coating when things went south. There were tender moments thrown in at just the right time. Allowed the heart to slow down to almost normal. The people in the book were believable and were not ashamed to be scared. The author did an outstanding job of writing this book.

[Sad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Killer crabz from outa whale

. It's just fun, a goofy gore creature feature .

Do you want something fun? Short? But still exciting, here it is!
I mean, the first line of the whole book is "The whale farted." How can you not get immediately sucked in!

. Them some big fucking crab man, big fucking crab dude .

[BARBARA A. RAY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting story!

Loved the book but was constantly irritated by the swing between two groups of people without skipping a few lines. I was thoroughly involved with one group and the next sentence started on the second group. It was disruptive and confusing! Still, the story was very well done.

[J.J. Tuite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly Different

This was very different than what I usually read. I don't know if I will be able to look at crabs the same way ever again. If William hasn't already thought about it and started, I think there is plenty of room for a part two!

[Dixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved this book. the only thing that really bothered me was no notice when changing characters point of view. one paragraph in one and in another paragraph another. something could have marked the change so people didn't get confused. But a wonderful book.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexplainable strange events on the coast, eventually lead to the discovery of joint crabs, that have made underground New York there new breeding ground. The race is on to remove the crabs, before they take over and cause mass carnage. Good story, with some interesting characters.

[Terry and dog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts off with a bang and continues to deliver everything you want in a creepy, crusacean invasion book. Right up there with the best of those that have come before. Crabs bring the gore and disgusting. These are some nasty dudes. Good fun.

[BERNARD ANDREWS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent monster yarn

Enough distinct characters to keep it interesting even though it really is a pulpy giant beasts menacing a big city story (set your expectations). It's fun but nothing too deep.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lack of chapters due to presumably poor layout and formatting on the Kindle really peeved me off, but the story itself, man (and woman) vs giant killer crabs was pretty damn awesome. Loved it!

[Tony Ciak · Rating 4 out of 5]

U.K. view of New York -- interesting

[Gen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creature Feature

Great Saturday night read. Lots of gore, flight and fright. Totally enjoyed it. It would have made a great movie.

[E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great quick read, nicely written. Crab carnage all over the place.

It’s an action packed book and delivers on the expectation. If you expect huge crabs rampaging around, that is..

[John R. Dailey Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

IT'S A SNIPPER, IT IS....

Hello, this is a very good tale of some real nasties. Very well written and entertaining to read. Thank you.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hahahaha. I love these mindless B movie type books.

Lots of gore, lots of creatures, lots of “RUN” and ine sully romance thrown in.

[Kenneth Skaldebø · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a story featuring massive killer crabs, well, look no further!
It’s an enjoyable creature feature romp!

[Lewis Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story

This story moved along very well. The story was very interesting and held my interest all the way through.. to the end.

[Kim Dvorak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crabs attack

A fine crab horror story. Meikle is a great successor to Guy N Smith who started the crab series in the 70's. Just watch out should you hear clickety-clack.

[Allison Eble · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Rounded up. I picked up this book at the beach over the holidays for a short fun read and it delivered. Horse size and bigger crabs in the under grounds of New York. It was Sharknado meets Wreck it Ralph Cy-bugs. A fun read but got a little repetitive.

[Irene Hollimon · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was good