The Chrysalids - John Wyndham

Anybody who had ever read a book by John Wyndham would heartily recommend him to me, but it was not until I was in my mid thirties, with a balding scalp and a swelling belly that I finally got around to reading one of his works. Would I read anymore, and would I be one of said people heartily recommending his books to others? Yes and Yes. For those who do not know, Mr Wyndham is the British author of several Sci-Fi classics such as The Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned), Chocky and the book I am about to discuss... The Chrysalids. He is now dead, but his memory lives on and will do so for many a year. Our hero of the ...  Read the complete review

The Chsysalids by John Wyndham is a post-apolaclyptic vision of a world where people are obsessed with conformity to the norm, or in their words, “the image of God”. Anyone who does not conform to this image becomes an outcast, and the women who are categorised as Deviants are sterilised before being sent off. The “image of God” has 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, 1 nose, 5 digits at the end of eat hand and foot… etc. You get the idea. The narrator of this book is David, a young, apparently normal boy who finds out quite early on that he is not quite normal… but to all outward appearances he is, so is safe from the religious-minded people around him, chief of whom is ...  Read the complete review

Penguin books. ISBN 0141181478 Set maybe a thousand years into the future after planet Earth and the human race have been decimated by nuclear war, the inhabitants of Waznuk (Northwest Canada?) operate a "zero tolerance" towards "deviations from the norm". Animals are slaughtered, children sterilised and banished to "the fringes" to fend for their selves as best they can. Into such a world is born a small group of telepaths who live lives of secrecy until events conspire to make the wider community aware of their existence beginning a race against time in their attempt to reach safety. This book written in 1955 ...  Read the complete review