One hundred thousand years ago, my friends and I attended a huge summer rock’n’roll concert at Tempe Diablo Stadium. We were really excited because the lineup was stacked with a bunch of our favorite metal bands.
The stadium held nearly 16,000 people, and all of us were crammed together at the venue’s entrance waiting for the front gates to open. When they finally did, it unleashed a mad scramble of people running to get the best seats near the stage.
My friends and I were no different. We aggressively pushed and jostled our way through the scrum, just like everyone else. We didn’t pay $7.50 ($42 in today’s money—still a bargain!) to sit in the back of the stadium with all the weenies.
While dashing across the stadium’s parking lot, I witnessed one of my friends step on the face of an unlucky girl in the crowd. She had tripped and fallen, and my friend was running so fast he couldn’t stop himself. The sight (and sound) of a boot smashing someone’s face into the hot Arizona asphalt was disturbing, to say the least. I still remember it to this day, and I’m sure my friend does too.
There’s a story in Giant Bugs, a new anthology from editors Ann Keeran and Kevin J. Kennedy, that’s reminiscent of my personal experience that day. It also perfectly captures the same claustrophobic (and, in this case, deadly) nature of being caught in the middle of a massive concert crowd. The story by Gary A. Braunbeck is titled “Iphigenia,” and if you’re familiar with Greek mythology, you won’t be surprised by the devastating consequences of unruly mob behavior.
Although I didn’t mention it, “Iphigenia” contains a strong “echo of insectile rage.” Other buggy tales in this book feature prehistoric spiders stalking a hiking expedition through southern Chile, giant ants attacking German troops in Egypt during WWII, beetles from a parallel universe and an insect the size of a house that wears the corpses of its human victims.
Overall, there’s no story in Giant Bugs that stands head and shoulders above the rest. I did, however, enjoy three stories in particular. “Into the Valley of Death” by William Meikle is a fine Bran Mak Morn-like adventure; “Open Season” is a prequel to Christopher A. Micklos’ enjoyable Tick Town novel from 2025 (read my review here); and author Tom Blicq creates a compelling supervillain in “The Metamorphosis of Saoirse Holloway.”
Final verdict: As I mentioned, there are no outstanding stories in this giant-bugs anthology. Conversely, there are no bad stories either. But that’s okay. Like someone smarter than me once said: “Nothing is as good as mediocrity.”
[ Giant Bugs / Edited by Ann Keeran & Kevin J. Kennedy / First Printing: September 2026 / ISBN: 9798172552953 ]
