Paperback, 200 pages
English language
Published Nov. 21, 1981 by Penguin Books.
This book is about a post apocalyptic world returned back to the times of the horse and carriage seen through the eyes of a young boy. Deviations are punished or destroyed and what few books remained govern the way people think about change and the differences from the norm. The twists and turns in this rather short book as bought me back to it many times over the years, which is very unusual for me. It would make a great Spielberg movie with the authors descriptions of the scarred landscape and the characters being fantastic. you could really picture the trials and tribulations of these people. When the young boy David finds his closest friend has a sixth toe on each foot and is asked to keep it a secret from his god fearing tyrant of a father, he comes to question his own secrets and what would happen to …
This book is about a post apocalyptic world returned back to the times of the horse and carriage seen through the eyes of a young boy. Deviations are punished or destroyed and what few books remained govern the way people think about change and the differences from the norm. The twists and turns in this rather short book as bought me back to it many times over the years, which is very unusual for me. It would make a great Spielberg movie with the authors descriptions of the scarred landscape and the characters being fantastic. you could really picture the trials and tribulations of these people. When the young boy David finds his closest friend has a sixth toe on each foot and is asked to keep it a secret from his god fearing tyrant of a father, he comes to question his own secrets and what would happen to him if anyone found out. I wont tell you the twist, but definitely recommend this read to anyone, young or old.
An enjoyable and quick read, though I would have liked to have found out a bit more about the ending. Much better than the Kraken Wakes, but less re-readable than Day of the Triffids. If I could give part stars on GoodReads this would probably get a 3.5 or 3.75, but it’s not quite in 4 star territory.
"The Chrysalids" is one of my favourite novels and it stands up well on each re-reading. The heart of it is the religious zealots who insist on genetic purity. Their leaders make compelling villains, analogous to the religious authoritarians we still have today. Shockingly they are in the ascendancy in some political settings as I write, ensuring the ongoing currency of "The Chrysalids".
Wyndham's deliberate move away from the action-packed sci-fi of his pulp days led him to more contemplative narrative styles, often relating events through second hand accounts by lesser characters (especially in "The Kraken Wakes"). Here he puts his protagonist at the heart of the action, making it a thrilling read, but never diluting the novel's themes. The telepathic link between the characters takes the internal narrative to a higher level, culminating in what amounts to a description of the erotic intensity of telepathic sex. Wyndham's biographer Amy …
"The Chrysalids" is one of my favourite novels and it stands up well on each re-reading. The heart of it is the religious zealots who insist on genetic purity. Their leaders make compelling villains, analogous to the religious authoritarians we still have today. Shockingly they are in the ascendancy in some political settings as I write, ensuring the ongoing currency of "The Chrysalids".
Wyndham's deliberate move away from the action-packed sci-fi of his pulp days led him to more contemplative narrative styles, often relating events through second hand accounts by lesser characters (especially in "The Kraken Wakes"). Here he puts his protagonist at the heart of the action, making it a thrilling read, but never diluting the novel's themes. The telepathic link between the characters takes the internal narrative to a higher level, culminating in what amounts to a description of the erotic intensity of telepathic sex. Wyndham's biographer Amy Binns feels this episode is inspired by the author's relationship with his long-term partner Grace. He wrote many heartfelt love letters to her, some of them so soppy and over-the-top you can't believe it's the same writer. But he adapts the experience beautifully in the fictional setting.
The villainous children of "The Midwich Cuckoos" in their bucolic present setting are also inverted here, with the post-nuclear mutant children hunted by the elders of their own community.
The only jarring note was the "ubermensch" attitude of the children's rescuers. It had a hint of the master race about it. I note from the wikipedia entry on the book I'm not the only one to be slightly disturbed by the "kill or be killed" approach. Maybe it's not so bad coming from the aliens in "The Midwich Cuckoos", but from the future residents of New Zealand, it doesn't ring true. Our kiwi cousins would never abandon compassion and decency so readily!
John Wyndham writes of a world where the only knowledge of the world past is from books, but those books are the Bible. This creates an interesting and strange world where religiosity is prominent everywhere from Government to how farming is done. It is a pleasant and interesting read and makes you wonder what the world would be like if we were this religious (esp. in Government).
With this novel Wyndham abandons his contemporary-documentary settings and style and tells a future-post-nuclear-holocaust tale instead - and wow! What a difference!
In contrast to a rather dry telling of a tale in which there is little by way of incident, if possibly a lot by way of thought-provocation, as can be found in The Midwich Cuckoos or Trouble with Lichen, this is a story with much in the vein of adventure story but also a message about religion, (in)tolerance and differences between people - visible or otherwise. Every human grouping in the book (and there are several) claims the moral high-ground but in my view none of them really has sound ethics. Once again Wyndham brings to the fore his rather weak understanding of evolutionary theory but this only detracts slightly from the book, as it is a minor theme raised only near the end.
The fact that this …
With this novel Wyndham abandons his contemporary-documentary settings and style and tells a future-post-nuclear-holocaust tale instead - and wow! What a difference!
In contrast to a rather dry telling of a tale in which there is little by way of incident, if possibly a lot by way of thought-provocation, as can be found in The Midwich Cuckoos or Trouble with Lichen, this is a story with much in the vein of adventure story but also a message about religion, (in)tolerance and differences between people - visible or otherwise. Every human grouping in the book (and there are several) claims the moral high-ground but in my view none of them really has sound ethics. Once again Wyndham brings to the fore his rather weak understanding of evolutionary theory but this only detracts slightly from the book, as it is a minor theme raised only near the end.
The fact that this novel generates excitement and pace - becomes difficult to put down in the second half - and has themes not based on spurious extrapolation of Darwinian evolution makes this easily and by far the best of the Wyndham books I've re-read in the last year or so. Day of the Triffids and Chocky remain in the to-read pile.
