Crabs on the Rampage

Guy N. Smith's monstrous crabs are back - bigger, more vicious, more deadly and more flesh-hungry than ever. Dying from cancer caused by the undersea nuclear testing that created them in the first place, the crabs go into an uncontrollable rage and set their minds to revenge on mankind. They invade different parts of Britain including London and are soon destroying communities, bridges, tunnels and anything else that lies in their path. Tweedy, pipe-smoking hero Cliff Davenport returns, but given the multiple crab invasions he has little insight into how to stop the rampage. As the cancer begins to kill off the crabs he theorises as to why they are leaving the ocean and surmises that there may be an even greater mutated creature in the show more depths that is striking fear into the hate-filled crabs. "Crabs on the Rampage" is a splatter-fest from beginning to end. Smith goes from one outrageous sequence to the next piling outrage on outrage in a gore drenched plot line that does little to add to the overall crabs mythos established in the first three books - but is hugely entertaining for all that. The story becomes increasingly self-referential with sub-plots involving Loch Merse, Shell Beach, Hayman Island and the tough-guy fisherman Klin - all of which featured in each of the preceding three books. The writing remains clean and smooth; character development remains limited to non-existent and the overall length of the novel remains compact at 150 odd pages. There's little new in "Crabs on the Rampage", but it is still great fun - a short, sharp blast of giant monster pulp lunacy. show less