10 Stories That Prove SFF is Lousy with Giant Spiders

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
While Mr. Nancy appears to be an older black man with just the hint of a West Indian accent, he’s actually Anansi, the Trickster God, who can take the form of a spider and summon the assistance of arachnids around the world. He’s also, yes, one of the old gods, so no, not actually a spider per se, but witnessing the cantankerous and sarcastic black gentleman you just met suddenly sprout six extra legs or call on hordes of spiders to do his bidding is the sort of thing that will stick with you.

Spiderlight, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The truly enormous spider in Tchaikovsky’s brilliant new novel is the Great Mother, whose brood rules Mirkwood, feeding off the animals and occasional humans that wander into their webs—but the star of the book is her offspring Nth, who is magically transformed from an arachnid into a sort-of-human form and taken on a quest. Nth slowly evolves into a fully-formed person without ever really losing his essential, er, spider-ness, and Tchaikovsky describes him with such delicious body horror, it doesn’t matter that he doesn’t have eight legs for most of the story—he’s still the most memorable spider you’ll meet in a book this year.

A Rustle in the Grass, by Robin Hawdon
A slightly whimsical subversion here, as the spiders battled by the heroes in Hawdon’s unusual novel are only perceived as giant because said heroes are ants—as in literal, tiny insects. Three scouts have been sent out from a harmonious hive of black ants under threat from militaristic and aggressive red ants, and along their perilous journey, they encounter spiders intent on eating them. While the spiders are dispatched with some effort, their ability to frighten is undermined when the ants encounter something their enemies are truly terrified of: a toad.

It, by Stephen King
Pennywise the Clown is one of the most iconic of all Stephen King’s inventions, cemented in a generation’s mind by the creepy performance of Tim Curry in the 1990 television adaptation. But while everyone remembers that Pennywise was a clown—and clowns are easily more terrifying than spiders—many forget that when Pennywise took on an approximation of his true form, it became a spider of sorts. Pennywise is, in fact, a giant spider in a clown costume, and that is very likely the most terrifying sentence ever written.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling
Aragog the Acromantula, basically King of the GNIS, isn’t such a bad sort, once you get past his immense size; army of sired, slightly-less giant spiders; and assurances that the only human he refuses to allow to be eaten is Hagrid—everyone else, whether they’re friends of Hagrid or important to the war against Voldemort, is fair game. Surprisingly complex, the rather touching story of Hagrid’s devotion to Aragog and his family is balanced by the sheer nightmare fuel of reading about waves of spiders fleeing the forest and assaulting Hogwarts.

The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Some would name The Silmarillion‘s Ungoliant here as well, but Ungoliant is disqualified on a technicality: not actually a spider, so much as a super-powered abomination that vaguely resembled a spider. Shelob, on the other hand, is a direct descendant of Ungoliant. and is definitely a spider, much to the dismay of generations of readers. The scenes set in Shelob’s lair are among the most tense and terrifying that Tolkien wrote, and she remains the reference point for any discussion of Giant, Nightmare-Inducing Spiders.

Perdido Street Station, by China Miéville
No one has condensed the instinctive horror for spiders most people experience into its purest form the way Miéville does in this new classic novel. The Weaver, not actually a spider but merely convincingly and horrifyingly spider-like, can perceive and control the fabric of reality itself, much like a spider manipulates its own web, but the worst part is their utterly alien nature: speaking in a constant stream of poem-like statements that slip in and out of audibility, they behave according to codes that humans find incomprehensible, making them dangerous and terrifying on an instinctual level. Also, there’s this description:
And in front of them, the final, shorter pair of limbs hung down. At their tips, held midway between the Weaver’s head and the ground, a pair of thin and tiny hands. Five-fingered and slender, only smooth fingertips without nails and skin the alien, nacreous black of pure pitch distinguished them from the hands of human children.
Shudder.

Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders
Super-evolved spiders that have grown increasingly large and increasingly clever after being transported to an alien planet is bad enough, but giving the spiders—and their enormous queen—psychic abilities and the ability to control humans using pheromones seals the deal. While the Third Doctor didn’t have much a special effects budget, the Giant Spiders of Metebelis 3 remain one of the best examples of Giant Nightmare-Inducing Spiders in SF, as well as a good reason to revisit the Pertwee years.

The Alex Verus series, by Benedict Jacka
Easily the cuddliest, least-nightmare inducing spider on the list. Arachne is very old, and is a skilled tailor who makes all of Alex Verus’ clothing. She’s very nice, but very firm with the diviner, often offering unwanted advice, Everyone who meets Arachne is initially terrified, but most people wind up liking her quite a bit, and her ability to make clothing imbued with magical qualities redeems her significantly. So, not really a GNIS at all, as far as giant spiders go, but more or less the exception that proves the rule.

Rick and Morty
The giant telepathic spiders in the season two episode “The Ricks Must be Crazy” only really show up at the end of the episode, but when they do, they quickly move into contention for our GNIS list. After concluding a peace treaty with the president that allows the telepathic arachnids to live in harmony with humans—by agreeing to stop using their mental powers to lure people into their giant webs—they do the most horrifying thing ever done to humanity: they demand that all ice cream henceforth contain flies, because “all ice cream is now for all beings, no matter how many legs.” The horror, the horror.
How many more you GNIS are we forgetting? Tell us—it’s not like you’ll ever sleep again.