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Fiction Review by The Gravedigger
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12.16.09
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author: Sarah Pinborough
This follow-up to BREEDING GROUND is a big disappointment when compared to that book. The premise is that almost all of the women in the world start bloating up, as if they are pregnant, and out come these huge white spider-like creatures.
The majority of the story centers around a criminal thug named Blane and his right hand man, Charlie. Once the world falls apart they manage to maintain a stronghold in the city and have a group of guys working for them, and for protection. However, some of the spiders or "whites", as they call them, are different. The ones that emerged from Blane's drug-addicted prostitutes are smaller and a different color-- and still totally addicted to cocaine. In fact, he believes that these creatures are really the women, only in a new form, since he still feels a connection to his head prostitute, who is now his "pet" spider. He's able to control them as long as he supplies them with drugs. The other, healthy spiders avoid them.
Then there's a group of young kids. One of them was responsible for Blane going to jail, since he was witness in a crime, and Blane is still after him for simple revenge. This gang of kids hide in the nearby buildings, moving from floor to floor, apartment to apartment, to avoid capture by Blane's men and the spiders.
Eventually the two stories converge when Charlie decides that his friend Blane has gone utterly insane. Blane is also transforming, taking on the appearance of the creatures. Charlie skips out and ends up helping the kids--and they attempt to get out of the city where it's presumably safer.
While the story did present some interesting ideas, such as the spiders being human women who have transformed, rather than just incubators for a hideous new species, too many things are still left unanswered, such as where they came from and why. I suppose this is being saved for a third book, which I hope is better than this.
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Rating: nan out of 10.0 - votes cast total
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