But Niall alone can enter, and what he finds inside are the very facts of our planet’s history and humanity’s last chance for freedom and a future. Niall’s special gift makes him useful to the spiders, who want access to their city’s greatest mystery: an impenetrable white tower.

But as he finds himself deep within the hostile city of the spiders, Niall also meets allies: Odina, a spider servant born and bred, and Bill, no mere man but an honorary beetle.

This powerful act brings Niall to the attention and seat of the Spider Lord. For Niall and his family, life is hard, but together they eke out an existence until the day Niall does what was said to be impossible:He kills a spider. Slaves all, or servants except for those who live in the desert, spending most of their time underground. But now, in the 25th century, humans serve giant beetles and spiders as slaves and often as food. This 50th anniversary edition includes the unabridged text of the first British edition and a new introduction by Wilson scholar Colin Stanley.Once the Earth was ruled by human, and insects were very small, with even the largest no bigger than a man’s fist. And when Cunningham is targeted by his enemies, fellow occultists who he believes are directing the powers of evil spirits at him, Sorme will find himself caught up in Cunningham's peril, culminating in his participation in a bizarre and frightening ritual.įirst published in 1963, Man Without a Shadow explores Wilson's philosophy in the form of a black magic thriller that draws on inspirations as diverse as the writings of Aleister Crowley and Montague Summers, Huysmans's Là-bas, and the 'penny dreadfuls' of Thomas Prest. But Sorme finds his beliefs and ideas challenged when he meets the fascinating and dangerous Caradoc Cunningham, who seems to possess occult powers and who has developed his own methods of expanding consciousness through drugs, orgies, and black magic. He sets out to record in diary form his sexual encounters with various women: the middle-aged Gertrude, her teenage niece Caroline, and Diana, the wife of a mad composer determined to adapt Varney the Vampire into an opera. Gerard Sorme thinks the key to a more meaningful life lies in an expansion of human consciousness, and he believes that one way to expand it is through sexual experiences.

Man Without a Shadow by Colin Wilson