BooksBarbecue
Back The Nest Save as PDF

The Nest

Gregory A. Douglas
Chapters (82)
  1. Cover
  2. Copyright page
  3. Introduction by Will Errickson
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. TREMORS
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. SUSPICIONS
  13. 1
  14. 2
  15. 3
  16. 4
  17. 5
  18. DREAD
  19. 1
  20. 2
  21. 3
  22. 4
  23. 5
  24. 6
  25. WITNESS
  26. 1
  27. 2
  28. 3
  29. ALERT
  30. 1
  31. 2
  32. 3
  33. 4
  34. 5
  35. ENCOUNTER
  36. 1
  37. 2
  38. 3
  39. 4
  40. 5
  41. 6
  42. HAVOC
  43. 1
  44. 2
  45. 3
  46. 4
  47. 5
  48. 6
  49. SEARCH
  50. 1
  51. 2
  52. 3
  53. 4
  54. 5
  55. CLASH
  56. 1
  57. 2
  58. 3
  59. 4
  60. 5
  61. 6
  62. 7
  63. COUNTERATTACK
  64. 1
  65. 2
  66. 3
  67. 4
  68. 5
  69. 6
  70. 7
  71. VICTORY
  72. 1
  73. 2
  74. 3
  75. 4
  76. 5
  77. 6
  78. 7
  79. 8
  80. 9
  81. EPILOGUE
  82. About the Author

Cover

THE NEST

Gregory A. Douglas

Introduction by

WILL ERRICKSON

VALANCOURT BOOKS

Copyright page

The Nest by Gregory A. Douglas

Originally published by Zebra Books in 1980

First Valancourt Books edition 2019

Copyright © 1980 by the Estate of Eli Cantor

Introduction © 2019 by Will Errickson

Published by Valancourt Books, Richmond, Virginia

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without prior written consent of the publisher, constitutes an infringement of the copyright law.

The Publisher has pursued every conceivable line of investigation and inquiry in an attempt to trace the identity of the cover artist and/or the copyright holder of the cover illustration. Anyone with information is requested to please contact the Publisher.

Introduction by Will Errickson

INTRODUCTION

Horror paperbacks published by Zebra Books in the 1980s are some of the most highly sought-after collectibles for genre fans who crave the tacky, lurid, ridiculously creepy—in other words, totally awesome—cover art. But what lies within, many a vintage horror reader will tell you, is quite often less than awesome. Zebra saw a buck could be made, and as long as the cover art—usually by artist unknown, as Zebra left out artists’ credits on the copyright page—struck the potential buyer’s eye, that was all that mattered; the story and the style within were simply an afterthought. They went all in on imagery: Skeleton sniffing a flower? Check. Skeleton in slippers and robe? Check. Satanic hologram faces? Check. Fruit sliced up by knives and razors in a crude visual pun? Check. A lone, precisely rendered cockroach beneath a full moon in a dark forest? Oh check. Like those fly-by-night film producers of yore, who had a movie title and poster prepackaged long before some poor soul was hired to write the script, it was all about that image.

But back to that lone cockroach. This moody, eerie landscape is featured on the cover of Zebra’s 1980 previously unheralded offering, The Nest. This novel is in the grand tradition of “animal attack” fiction, best exemplified by of course the 1974 publication of both Jaws and The Rats, and continued through two more decades. For visceral, unrestrained thrills and chills, I’d put The Nest right up there with those two classic creature horrors. This is one case in which story and cover align in unholy matrimony; it’s the kind of paperback pulp horror that I wish there were more of.