SNAKES Guy N. Smith

Snakes: Novel Review

Grade: A

Alright--admit it. If you've read Smith, it's because you read his Crabs series. (Night of the Crabs, Killer Crabs, The Origin of the Crabs, Crabs on the Rampage, CRABS' MOON., or Crabs: The Human Sacrifice.) Those are why he's popular, but personally, I like his stand-alone novels better. (Like The Slime Beast, Alligators, Return of the Werewolf) To me, they are just a notch above giant killer crabs. (As cool as they may be!)

Snakes to me just stands out from his other books because he has crafted a fine '80's horror novel here. Where else but the '80's could you find a tale about 8 extremely venomous snakes loose on a small English town? Well, besides London? (I had to order mine from Amazon.co.uk--it's a lot cheaper over in England!)

When a truck carrying the snakes from a closing zoo crashes, the snakes--of course--get out. One of them, a cobra, kills the driver, and then they run off into the nearby village of Stainforth. Well, actually, a giant African Rock Python (my personal favorite) stays behind, and crushes a cop investigating the scene. Oh, and a pair of rattlesnakes who also lag behind bite a girl. The rest--a pair of coral snakes, a viper, the cobra, and a black mamba are busy terrorizing the town. They trap people in garages, sneak up on them in corn fields, hide under cars in driveways, lurk in home gardens, slither in through back doors, crawl into baby carriages, and pose as innocent fire hoses. These snakes are pretty busy throughout the novel.

All of that, and more, is all packed into 176 pages, making Snakes a fast and fun read. There isn't really a main character--the chapters switch off, focusing on different people and how the snakes have been affecting their lives. And most of the time, it's in a bad way.

My only complaint about the book is that the ending seemed to wrap itself to fast. I want more of Snakes, Mr. Smith!! Other than that, Snakes is nearly perfect, playing like one big B-Movie. It's the perfect summer read!