This is also a credible and scary story - what would the government really do in a situation like this?

An all-to credible apocalypse. Scares the living daylights out of me. I also find the resourcefulness of the characters uplifting as they aren't just waiting around for someone to get them out of that mess.

A childhood favourite and still remains so.

Poor Tess and I revile that devil Angel Clare!

I love the character of Hester Prynne, who falls from grace in her puritan society but manages to earn back their respect.

This was the first book of this kind of epic multi-general saga that I read and it has never left me. It helps that I know the area so well.

I love books with scope and this is epic. The idea that a whole new human race could come from just seven female survivors of an apocalypse is such an unusual idea.

The first time I read this I was at a impressionable age. The book left me feeling bereft. I have read it many times since and although the feeling has diminished over time it hasn't left me completely. I'm still mourning the human race (and Earth)

If I had known that this was about sentient spiders when I started the book I would have scoffed and put it down again but it was soooo compelling and original.

I bought this when it was on Amazon kindle for £0.77 (self published I think} and it was the best bargain I've ever made. I really rooted for Mark and I found the scene where he inadvertantly stuck his hand to his helmet in the burst airlock really funny because haven't we all struggle with sticky tape at sometime or another?

I first heard this as a radio play when I was about 9 or 10 and remember being riveted. I have since re-read this many times and it's responsible for me and my husband getting together (but that's another story entirely).