'SKITTER'.......THE WORLD WIDE WEB NOBODY WANTS TO ACCESS.....

Skitter by Ezekiel Boone (2017).....is the second book in this author's trilogy about the world overrun with hordes of flesh eating spiders.  We'd jump on a chair and yell "Yikes!" at the very thought......but so far these plodding books, (the first one called "The Hatching"), have barely raised our pulse.

            Boone's first book irritated us with its final third. strictly devoted to teasing and stoking us up for the second book.  The second book exists only to kill time and act as an extended trailer for "Zero Day", the eventual concluding part of the trilogy....

            Nobody embraces rampaging bug stories like the BQ.....remember, we were raised on movies like "Them!" (covered in a previous post).....and we thrilled to the sight of young Clint Eastwood napalming a giant spider in "Tarantula".  But Boone's books repulsed us....and not because of the spiders stripping humans to the bone....we love that stuff.  His trilogy embodies everything that's rotten in a corporate-ruled pop culture......the books are nothing but marketing ploys. Boone's not interested in telling a story or engaging his readers......he's after a movie deal.

            You'd think the depiction of a global spider apocalypse would take hold of your imagination like a vise and you'd tear through the pages quicker than a Daddy Long Legs motoring across your basement floor. Not with this book. Boone ambitiously works with a large diffuse cast of characters spread out among multiple locations around the world.......but without any sense of urgency, excitement or suspense.  Using minimal  character dialogue, he forces you to wade through vast gobs of  his descriptive, uninteresting prose. We sighed with bored resignation every time we started a new chapter......and that's not what a book about zillions of people-gobbling spiders should make you do......

             Throughout this long day's journey into wait-for-the-next-book, the novel teases you with the coming attraction of a new generation of truck-sized spiders preparing to hatch.....but we'll all have to wait for "Zero Day" for these Big MamaJamas to make their appearance. Yawn. Whatever.

             We're weren't much impressed with the first book and this second one's a complete waste of time. "Skitter"s the wrong word for it.....'inch along' would fit better. We'll only step on one itsy bitsy star for this one...(*).....Boone better have the equivalent of a napalm-armed Clint Eastwood for the next book........