Lulu Lulu Category:  Horror Publisher: Gregory M. Smith Pages: 124 Copyright: Feb 24, 2009 Price: $3.99 (eBook) The state police and National Guard battle monsters, while residents trapped in a small town struggle to survive.

Jeffrey Jaxper
A creepy tale with a surprising twist. Instead of a small band of adventurers trapped in a town by spiders, we have the entire National Guard and state police fighting the spiders while scattered survivors within the town try to stay alive until help breaks through. The action is intense and relentless. The characters come alive, especially state police detective Kelly Gray Wolf. Most of the subplots are involving and the whole narrative has enough frightening stops and starts to send heartbeats revving. The only real weakness is the explanation for the spiders' appearance. It involves some kind of mumbo jumbo about...well, I won't spoil it. But, it is convoluted, to say the least. You expect absurd premises like that in science fiction/horror but you also want to see them explained enough to make you halfway believe them. The author, who now goes by his full name -- Gregory Marshall Smith -- has gotten better with his newer stuff like "For G.O.O.D.," "Dark Tidings Vols. I & I" and "Onward," which have appeared in several recent anthologies. Apparently, he has been in the writing game for some 30 years or so (though mostly as a journalist and sports writer). Only recently has he had fiction published, so it's good to read him in his "raw" years. Maybe one day we'll all be able to compare "Crawl" to his latest New York Times bestseller.