Locusts by Guy N Smith
Locusts by Guy N Smith
Published 1979
This version has some history! Take a look at the library stamps!!
Here we are with another of the wonderful Guy N Smith animals, or insects in this case, attack. Using his favourite location and set up, a family moving to an old farmhouse in the Shropshire hills.
So, I’m going to be honest, I was expecting a lot more from this one. The first couple of chapters are about the main couple of the story are not having sex. I wondered what was going on for a moment. The book seems obsessed with people wanting to have sex.
So, the premise of this story is Alan and Sheila Alton, with their son David have moved to an old farmhouse during the hottest summer on record in the UK. They always are arguing according to their son, who comes off a bit creepy. Sheila deeply unhappy, has grown to hate Alan and just wants to move away. Alan is fed up and knows things are bad and is constantly fantasising about his neighbour Paula, who owns horses. Alan seems to spend most of the book in a constant state of arousal.
In between to sordid sex fantasies, we have the terror of the locust creeping across the valley. A tramp gets eaten alive, and his remains are discovered by the Alton’s creepy son. The police are called, but don’t seem particularly interested. Then a forestry commission worker dies in spectacular fashion after a horde of locusts attack his land rover.
Alan somehow seems to figure out these are locusts, not grasshoppers as everyone presumes. He contacts the London Anti Locust Research centre (who knew that was a thing!) They had already had reports from across the country. A scientist from the centre visits and can see the devastation so far and predicts even worse. As the locusts’ swarm across the country, chaos reigns.
There are some wonderful, gore drenched horrific scenes. A bull gores his owner in spectacular fashion, people eaten alive, (a lot of the descriptions are of locusts biting and chewing on genitals), babies eaten in prams, jet fighters explode and enormous fireball on a packed motorway engulf cars and people!
It all comes to a climax with Alan and family trapped in his house as the locust’s swarm and eat the walls and windows. However, all the birds that had been initially frightened off by the swarm have returned and chow down on the bugs., this happens across the country. Thanks to our avian friends, the country is safe. Oh, Alan and Sheila re happy now as they have finally had sex. Hurrah”!
Smith is excellent at short, punchy horror novels alike bats out of hell and night of the crabs. However, I always find when he ups the page count, they lose some of that element. I can only presume he got paid more if he wrote more. I felt like this could have done with losing a couple of chapters. I didn’t even really care about anyone, there were no real characters I wanted to stick up for, apart from the bull and some poor chickens who got chowed non by the locusts.
Not one of Mr Smith’s finest efforts, but it has some great parts. The amount he wrote though, not everyone is going to hit the mark!
The cover artwork is by Welsh artist Terry Oakes. He does not have an active website I can find but is still active today. You can see some of his original work here.
