The Furies

One of a handfull of classic scifi from my childhood that i have deamed worthy of purchasing in e-format read by me in the 70’s as a high school kid its still as good in 2018

On the internet there are always debates about how could mankind be taken out? Most agree that it would take two major disasters to bring us down. Because of our machines, our science, our intelligence we could not be taken out by a war or a super-germ...but if two things, two great events happened on top of one another...yes, maybe we would be taken down a few pegs. Well before the internet, well before any of these debates, was The Furies by Keith Roberts. Giant wasps appear about the same time we do something really stupid - nuclear tests crack the Earth's crust like an egg shell. The landscape was changed, cities destroyed and new oceans formed where there were none. Now that mankind is down there comes the kick in the side - the wasps attacks! Where did they come form and why are they here? You see, they seem to be able to think also. And unlike man they don't really need machines - or do they?

Sort of Cozy Catastrophe. Loved it. To be enjoyed wearing your velvet smoking jacket and slippers, sitting by the fireplace with a glass of good whiskey.

A highly readable yarn from the "Golden Age" of sci-fi before the genre became less concerned with constructing good "fiction" and more obsessed with science and technology for its own sake. Good sci-fi should primarily be good fiction and avoid pre-occupations with computers and lasers and what ever technology happens to be flavour of the day. It seems that so much contemporary sci-fi falls into this trap possibly because authors today write in the hope of selling the film rights to Hollywood in expectation of seeing the big-budget special effects treatment that has so often dumbed down the genre to appeal to teenager audiences. In Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, for example, one hears references to pre-semiconductor vacuum tubes and so on and while these inevitably date the material they do not obstruct the narrative. The technology that is mentioned plays a marginal role and this is one reason the books have withstood the test of time. The Furies is a story that succeeds on the strength of good storytelling without relying on technological or scientific detail and while much of the style and language dates the material, it remains a tightly controlled and satisfying story. (I found Sam's frequently calling his female companions "love" irritating). Much has been made of parallels with John Wyndham's, The Day of the Triffids but in my view, The Furies owes more to H.G Wells' The War of the Worlds: both are detailed descriptions of societal breakdown and survival following a world wide invasion of vastly superior and implacable aliens. In both cases, the aliens fall victim to their own miscalculations about survival on a planet whose evolution they do not share. One weakness in the story is that no attempt is made to explain anything about the controlling intelligence behind the wasps - the Keepers. We're told the wasps are basically hive minded creatures - little more than machines - but we're not shown who or what is controlling them. They die because they succumb to type - the wasps having evolved over millions of years on earth and are therefore incapable of supporting the intelligence with which the Keepers attempt to endow them. The end is something of an anti-climax, but the book is a recommended good read.

Just prior to the publication of my SF-Horror novel, Vespa, in August 2007, I learned that my book wasn't the only serious science fiction novel exploring what it'd be like if giant wasps emerged to take on mankind. The late Keith Roberts, an accomplished novelist in the genre, had already posed the scenario about four decades earlier in his novel The Furies, which I read in the fall of 2007. Oh well. ... So much for Vespa being the first of its kind, but I take solace in the fact that my wasps are parasitic, and Roberts' are not. That his narrative voice reminds me -- affectionately -- of H.G. Wells' in The War of the Worlds, while mine is more like Crichton's in Jurassic Park. I just so loved Roberts' The Furies, and if he were alive today, I'd tell him that ... even though I read somewhere that he wasn't too proud of the book. And if Roberts were alive today, I'd also send him a copy of Vespa , with a note saying, "Great minds think alike." Wink. (See [...] for more information about Vespa the novel.)

Good book.

This is one of the best novels about alien invasion/apocalypse. It is written by an Englishman and is enlivened with English slang. The writing is damned good. Better than Heinlein. It might be compared to The Day of the Triffids (20th Century Rediscoveries) , The Chrysalids (New York Review Books Classics) , or Earth Abides .

1st book by Keith Roberts - even he can't stand it he said in a 1990's interview. But it has got some thinking behind it - not just giant insects attempting to take over the world. But advanced non-corporal intelligences that made a teeny mistake when they arrived at Earth and choose the wrong form....Essential if your a collector.

This was a really good story with likeable characters. The book came on time and was in good condition.

je vais devoir le lire avec un dictionnaire car il est en anglais,mais pourquoi n'est-il pas réedité en français?dommage de passer à coté à cause de la langue!refaites le! pour les francophones,please!

A great read. A little dated regarding the nuclear threat. Like reading a John Wyndham novel. Scary and exciting - not just bloody!

I read this many years ago - probably in the70s and enjoyed it. I bought it and this time was very disappointed. The plot combines a bit of the Day of the Triffids with War of the worlds adding in giant wasps instead of the others’ perils. Much of it is very implausible even if you take the underlying tenet where insect size is not limited by gas diffusion as it is in reality. The “with one bound they were free” escape from perils during the story is used at the end to stop the story rather than include it. That is the same as Wyndham and Wells though. In all though the story has dated badly and the characters and circumstances have disappeared from modern life. I’d be surprised if this story was enjoyed by many people under 50 who would find it hard to relate to the people and environment.