# The Chrysalids by John Wyndham



## Vertigo (Nov 6, 2013)

4/5 stars

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

It’s a long time since I’ve read any John Wyndham and I recently decided I would read or re-read all of his books (though not all at once!). John Wyndham holds a special place in my reading history; my English teacher, back when I was in my teens, despairing of getting me to read anything of any value (actually just ‘anything’ was probably more accurate!) suddenly decided to try me on some science fiction, since maths and physics were my greatest interests. And John Wyndham was what he came up with. I loved them and now, some forty plus years on, I’m still reading science fiction and still loving it. But… rather shockingly, I’ve not read any Wyndham since that time.

So this was the first one up for re-reading and I approached it with some trepidation. Would it still be as good as I remembered? Actually I really can’t remember just how good it did strike me back then but, since Wyndham kick started both my science fiction reading and my reading in general, I must have been at least moderately impressed! And I wasn’t disappointed coming back to it. 

_The Chrysalids_ is a tight little book, with just enough description to instil a vivid picture whilst never boring the reader. Almost all of the character development, which is very strong and believable, is achieved through actions and thoughts not description. It can be read on several levels. As a good, plausible, post-apocalyptic, science fiction story it excels; he keeps the mutations of his _deviations_ reasonable (if not the _normal’s_ imaginings of them), their mutations are not so excessive that they couldn’t possibly survive (a mistake often made by other authors, especially writing around this time). The pace and action are both excellent and the prose smooth and easy to read. In other words it’s a really enjoyable post-apocalyptic read.

However this books goes much farther; it is a scathing condemnation of bigotry (especially unjustified religious bigotry) and the fear of being excluded from society. It is also a condemnation of ultra-conservatism; life is change and _The Chrsyalids_ proposes that such change should be embraced not feared.

A great book that I highly recommend anyone to read.


----------



## farntfar (Nov 6, 2013)

I agree with you completely on this one. My father chose Wyndham as my introduction to science fiction reading, although he chose Chocky as an opener. 
I quickly read all the others I could find, but was most affected by the Chrysalids. (quite apart from being of an age to have rather too graphic an image of red haired Rosalind.) 
I later found that he'd summed most of the bigotry story up in a short story called...... (_Spoilers!)_ (whether before or after I'm not sure.)

But, as you say, the characters are all believable. The "heros" are not always right or clever or exciting, nor the "villains" always wrong or unsympathetic. 
The balance between his ideas of good and bad is sufficiently blurred to be thought provoking, without ever being really unclear.
The deviations are never too deviant.
And the pace of the story is just about right.


----------



## Stephen Palmer (Nov 7, 2013)

One of my favourite John Wyndhams. I think only triffids can beat this one. Thanks for posting this review.


----------



## Vertigo (Nov 7, 2013)

I'm looking forward to reading more of them but currently the only other one I own is Trouble with Lichen, so I'm currently watching our local second hand shops  (despite my current ban on buying more books until I've made greater inroads in the current huge pile.)


----------



## Stephen Palmer (Nov 8, 2013)

Chocky is a good one, also The Kraken.


----------



## farntfar (Nov 8, 2013)

Web is amusing, if often overlooked. 
And the Trouble with Lichen  raises some interesting questions.


----------



## Bick (Dec 23, 2016)

I just read this - cracking book. Wonderfully paced and Wyndham writes very well. It's amazing what could be crammed into a book in only 200 pages, 60 years ago. It takes a lot longer these days - that's inflation for you, I guess, or perhaps it's linked to the expanding universe. Someone must know. In any event, it's a reason I love SF books from this era. I shall seek out more Wyndham for sure.


----------



## J Riff (Dec 24, 2016)

Same here, never read a bad one by Wyndham.


----------



## Bick (Dec 25, 2016)

J Riff said:


> Same here, never read a bad one by Wyndham.


Your top 3? I'm wondering which to seek out next, doubtless off eBay or from a used book store.


----------



## Vertigo (Dec 25, 2016)

The Day of the Triffids is my favourite but The Chrysalids and Trouble with Lichen come in close behind. And you've reminded me that I'm supposed to be working my way through his stuff!


----------



## Steve S (Dec 26, 2016)

Good review - thank you for posting. I've always enjoyed John Wyndham's books and I think The Chrysalids is amongst his very best work.


----------



## Dave (Dec 27, 2016)

_The Chrysalids_ is the only Wyndham book I've read multiple times. I can't remember how many, but like the other posts, I first read one in school and then had to read everything else by Wyndham. I'd still place this as favourite.

I expect that today it would be categorised as a YA book, but it has adult themes and very pertinent questions regarding diversity. I always wanted to know more about the outside world that they found at the end, and was David and Sophie's home only an isolated part of the Earth or an entire hemisphere? In my first readings, I assumed that it was another _Cold War_ apocalyptic prophesy in which most of the world was devastated by some nuclear war, but later, after a life-time of science fiction, I felt that it must have been a small but major influence upon _The Village_ M. Night Shyamalan.


----------



## Bick (Dec 27, 2016)

Dave said:


> I expect that today it would be categorised as a YA book...


Interesting - why do you say that?


----------



## Dave (Dec 27, 2016)

Bick said:


> Interesting - why do you say that?


The protagonists are young and it is a rite of passage for them.


----------



## Bick (Dec 28, 2016)

Dave said:


> The protagonists are young and it is a rite of passage for them.


Perhaps you're right and it would be marketed as such, but my personal opinion is the the whole YA 'genre' is pointless and unnecessary. Once you're a teen you can read anything (presuming a minimal level of education and gumption), so why be condescended to by being sold stuff that's 'nearly but not quite adult'. Moreover, there have been many 'adult' books featuring young people, so the criteria are hardly clear. Was Little Dorrit YA?  I read Great Expectations when I was 12 and loved it, and it follows a young boy's coming of age. It's target market, I'm fairly sure, was 'people'.  The whole YA thing makes me mentally cringe, tbh.


----------



## Dave (Dec 28, 2016)

I agree with you. I was just making a observation. I dislike all of the genre pigeon-holing that is done today. I understand that bookshops have to do it because they sell more books, but why do libraries need to do it? As far as quality goes then cross-genre or genre-busting books tend to be better than those written to some kind of format, but the world is now run by accountants.


----------



## Stephen Palmer (Jan 9, 2017)

Wonderful book, pipped top the top spot perhaps only by Triffids.


----------



## Bugg (Jan 11, 2017)

Vertigo said:


> The Day of the Triffids is my favourite but The Chrysalids and Trouble with Lichen come in close behind. And you've reminded me that I'm supposed to be working my way through his stuff!



I love The Day of the Triffids, and I also have a soft spot for this and The Midwich Cuckoos.  

When I was 11 or 12, in middle school, our teacher was off for some reason, and the headmaster came to sit with us for one particular lesson.  Instead of teaching us, he decided to read from a book, and the scene he read I found so _scary _that I never forgot it.  I remember being completely hypnotised by it as he read.  Afterwards, I realised that I didn't know what the book was, but that scene always stuck in my mind.  It was only about 3 years later that I bought The Kraken Wakes.  I think the cover intrigued me.  Pretty soon I was reading _that _scene, so I rediscovered it more by luck than judgement.  The scene being the one in the town on Escondida, where Mike and Phyllis witness the attack of the sea-tanks.  I still found it pretty scary when I re-read it a couple of years back.  I'd say that the headmaster reading that scene was probably my first encounter with written science fiction, and therefore ranks alongside seeing Star Trek on tv in the early 70s and my folks taking me to see Star Wars on my 12th birthday as one of those moments that shaped my tastes.


----------



## Vertigo (Jan 11, 2017)

The Midwich Cuckoos is probably my next one up for a reread along with The Kraken Wakes!

My introduction to Wyndham was also at school. As a young teenager I was mad about electronics (built myself a valve powered oscilloscope when I was 15) but rather less so about literature and I remember my English teacher despairing of getting me to read anything of any literate value until he came up with John Wyndham and started feeding me copies from his own collection of Wyndham novels which I devoured!


----------



## Toby Frost (Feb 22, 2017)

This thread inspired me to go back and re-read _The Chrysalids_ for the first time in about 25 years.

I think it's excellent: the portrayal of an essentially Puritan society is always difficult, since the author has to depict the stern religiousness without lapsing into cartoonish "Burn the heretic!" territory. By keeping the two biggest villains - Strorm senior and the purity inspector - quite nuanced, Wyndham makes the world more three-dimensional. The inspector is surprisingly reasonable, since he is effectively a secret policeman from the eugenics department, and Strorm is later revealed to have a tiny capacity for pity, making him a credible monster rather than a raging maniac. 

The psychic abilities are written without fuss, and feel all the more convincing for it. The arrival of the woman from Sealand, and her casual acceptance that a new species is going to supercede mankind, raises more questions than it answers, but Wyndham novels often finish with uncertainties. It would probably make an interesting comparison-piece with _The Midwich Cuckoos_, where the new psychic species is something to be feared and fought.

What stands out, for me, is what isn't there and what would be included these days, especially the point where David realises that he is psychic and wrestles with his conscience (ie mopes around) and the point where David and Rosalind have feelings for one another (together with disapproving parents and inevitable love triangle, if written today). I suspect that, if written now, it would be twice as long, and every plot twist would be accompanied by large chunks of teenage emoting.


----------



## Vertigo (Feb 23, 2017)

Which reminds me that I'm supposed to be getting around to reading the Midwich Cuckoos, which has somehow slid down my wish list. Time to move it back up!


----------



## Bick (Feb 28, 2017)

Very nice review Toby, thanks for that, and I agree with your summation.



Toby Frost said:


> I suspect that, if written now, it would be twice as long, and every plot twist would be accompanied by large chunks of teenage emoting.


 As to this... I would say yes, unless it was written by someone who was actually a good writer and who's editor wasn't a nincompoop.


----------



## Danny McG (Mar 13, 2017)

One of my fave reads too The Chrysalids.
As pointed out in this thread, Wyndham kept his stories concise. That, apart from the odd pot boilers like Dune, seemed to be a common thing with sci fi novels back then. Have we came to expect 700 pages plus as a typical book  nowadays?


----------

