The Chrysalids

audio cassette, 2 pages

Published Oct. 31, 1996 by Penguin Audiobooks.

ISBN:
978-0-14-086423-6
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4 stars (9 reviews)

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 …

26 editions

Review of 'The Chrysalids (Penguin Modern Classics)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

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.

reviewed The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (Penguin books)

Essential post-apocalypse science fiction

5 stars

"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 …

Classic post-apocalyptic novel.

4 stars

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).

Review of 'TheChrysalids by Wyndham, John ( Author ) ON Aug-07-2008, Paperback' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

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 …

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Subjects

  • Science fiction