Spider Horror

Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author known for his works of horror and the fantastic. He is recognized as an influence on modern writers of supernatural fiction. Holy Terrors (published in 1946, a year before his death) is a collection of 14 short stories of which nine are very short and are included in this recording. They are: “The Rose Garden”, “Psychology”, “The Soldier's Rest”, “The Cosy Room”, “The Ceremony”, “Holy Things”, “The Turanians”, “The Happy Children”, and “Munitions of War”.

It is the morning hours in the small town of Hammond and, as the town wakes up it finds that there is something spreading. Something that is not seen until it is too late because by then, you are already infected. At that point, they are already... Hatched.

It is said that if ghosts were real, they'd be everywhere - at shopping malls, parking lots, in the parlor, the bathroom, on the sidewalks and boulevards. (After all, how many people have lived and died throughout human history?) But maybe, just maybe, they are everywhere - on your lap at this very moment, in the walk-in closet, in the grand oak tree just outside your window, in the shower, the cellar - mumbling, grinning, stumbling about, screaming - but only a chosen few of the living have been blessed with the awful gift of being able to see them, hear them, interact with them, tormented by them.

A third collection of 18 classic tales of the weird and supernatural by some of the best known writers in these genres.

Firemountain Chronicles is a dark lovecraftian fantasy set on the back drop of Ragnorac. Dinah Steele didn't know what she was getting in for when she found herself in the sleep town of Firemountain, but a chance meeting with a playboy heir and an encounter with cultists trying to kill an entire night club, Dinah, with Jake's help, faces down a demon from another dimension to save the town by start the end of days.

In the morning, the invisible spiders had hatched and had spread. Now the small town of Hammond is under quarantine and the inhabitants are fighting to survive. They face something they can't see, and no one, not even the military has answers. They just know they must escape before it's too late. They must stop themselves from being caught in the web.

Ariana has a problem. Arachnophobia. This abnormal fear of spiders - big, little, any kind of spider - keeps her from living the life she wants to live. But then, Bobby Daniels appears in her life with a solution. He runs a spider school for people just like her. People who want to take control of their lives. People who want to laugh at their fears. Ariana, after much negative introspect, embraces the idea of the school - and Bobby Daniels. She is determined to rid herself of the dreaded phobia. But there is something sinister about the school. And it just may be too late for Ariana to kick the spider habit.

E.F. Benson (1867-1940) is probably best known today for his sparkling, comic Lucia novels. In his own day, it was his ghost stories which were his most popular works. This collection of 10 stories exemplifies Benson's fine literary style and his ability to create the most frightening of ghostly and macabre tales.

Francis Marion Crawford (1854-1909) was an American writer, born in Italy and educated in the USA. He also studied at the universities of Cambridge and Heidelberg. He was a prolific writer in many fields, but it was his novels that were most popular, commanding a large following. His stories of the macabre and supernatural are very highly regarded. Roy Macready reads five of them from Uncanny Tales.

Dr. Silas Muffet devoted his life to arachnology along side his daughter, Eleanor Muffet, discovering cures to the most lethal venom these creatures could produce. When a new specimen is presented to him, they began studying it with vigor. They had the protocols. They had the protection. But specimen 9958 had a defense that would put their minds and bodies to the ultimate test. It takes one mistake to lose everything. Can they beat the clock and solve the mystery of specimen 9958? Or will they be out witted by the deadliest spider known to mankind?

Flynn's work as an arachnologist is interrupted by a teenager insisting he has stumbled across a new species. Having given in to the teen's hounding, Flynn realizes he might be onto something. So, he treks into the mountains, his wife, Steph, and their faithful German shepherd, Solomon, in tow for a weekend of spider-hunting and tourism. Instead, what Flynn uncovers rips their world apart.

Spiders. Magic. Horror. Guts. Sisters Skylar and Mia drive deep into the countryside to clean up their dead father's house. Little do they know that they've been followed. Listen to this story for the spider shaman magic. Remember this story in flashes during the night. Better buy some bug spray.

The journal leads the explorers to the site of the ruined village in the shadow of a mountain—a hollow mountain with a colossal ziggurat inside. It is a temple built to honor one of the Moche religion’s chief deities—a building-sized spider known as The Decapitator. Once revered for its strength and protection, this colossal Spider is now a caged monster driven insane by centuries of isolation. The massive beast stalks the group through the cavernous temple, ready to torture and slay the entire academic expedition.

She is humanity's last hope. Sasha lives in a world destroyed by giant spiders - big as semitrucks and venomous enough to kill. What remains of humanity won't last much longer. Not unless someone can save them. This 5,000-word short story the perfect Halloween listen!

George has always hated dirt, but somehow now into his retirement it feels like all he does is work with it. His days seem to fall into a pattern of working his garden to bring in its fruits and vegetables and make his wife happy. Today, though, is different and something else is brought in from the garden.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) was born in Dublin, Ireland and is acknowledged as an influential writer in the genre of gothic and supernatural fiction of the 19th century. Many of his short stories were originally published in various magazines. Here are six of them: “The White Cat of Drumgonnial”, “Dickon the Devil”, “The Drunkard's Dream”, “The Secret of the Two Plaster Casts”, “The Vision of Tom Chuff”, and “An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House”.

Ambrose Bierce's collection of short stories of the supernatural and macabre Can Such Things Be? was first published in 1893 and republished in a revised edition in 1910. This selection contains two of his most famous tales: "The Moonlit Road" and "The Death of Halpin Frayser" together with 10 others.

Herbert George Wells was an English writer. He was prolific in many genres, writing dozens of novels, short stories. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called a "father of science fiction". Discover H. G. Wells best short stories and science fiction classics.

A classic H. G. Wells short story about two men that wander into a valley of giant spiders.

Fitz-James O'Brien, born in Cork, Ireland, in 1826, is considered an important early writer of science-fiction. His three probably best-known stories are included in this volume. They are “The Diamond Lens”, “What Was It?”, and “The Lost Room”.