(1992) is Colin Wilson’s nineteenth novel and the third in a science fantasy quartet that, as a whole, aims to provide his deepest and most extensive imaginative enactment of his evolutionary existentialist philosophy. The first volume of the tetralogy,

(1987), opened by showing its 16-year-old protagonist, Niall (pronounced “Nile”’, like the river), living with his family in a burrow on the edge of a desert and constantly threatened by the huge telepathic death spiders who, in the twenty-fifth century, rule the earth. The

entries on the two earlier volumes traced how, by a series of exciting exploits, complex ethical and philosophical challenges, and “incredible twists of fortune”, Niall, at the end of…

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Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "Spider World: the Magician". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 May 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=24002, accessed 27 November 2024.]