The Furies

This was a rip roarin yarn all right enough. No, all the science doesn't make sense but who cares? It's a lot of fun and the hero is a decent enough chap. It has the flavor of what was written half a century ago: decent guy tells a good story.

This is one of the best novels about alien invasion/apocalypse. It is written by an Englishman and is enlivened with English slang. The writing is damned good. Better than Heinlein. It might be compared to The Day of the Triffids (20th Century Rediscoveries), The Chrysalids (New York Review Books Classics), orEarth Abides.

I still have the original paperback version of this book. The pages are yellowed and the binding is falling apart. Good story, characters you can care about and a villain scary enough to worry about

Just prior to the publication of my SF-Horror novel, Vespa, in August 2007, I learned that my book wasn't the only serious science fiction novel exploring what it'd be like if giant wasps emerged to take on mankind. The late Keith Roberts, an accomplished novelist in the genre, had already posed the scenario about four decades earlier in his novel The Furies, which I read in the fall of 2007. Oh well. ... So much for Vespa being the first of its kind, but I take solace in the fact that my wasps are parasitic, and Roberts' are not. That his narrative voice reminds me -- affectionately -- of H.G. Wells' in The War of the Worlds, while mine is more like Crichton's in Jurassic Park. I just so loved Roberts' The Furies, and if he were alive today, I'd tell him that ... even though I read somewhere that he wasn't too proud of the book. And if Roberts were alive today, I'd also send him a copy of Vespa, with a note saying, "Great minds think alike." Wink. (See www.deanlombardo.com for more information about Vespa the novel.)

1st book by Keith Roberts - even he can't stand it he said in a 1990's interview. But it has got some thinking behind it - not just giant insects attempting to take over the world. But advanced non-corporal intelligences that made a teeny mistake when they arrived at Earth and choose the wrong form....Essential if your a collector.