John Wyndham

daveac said:
Yep!

Count me in as another big fan.

Looking forward to the re-make of 'Day of the Triffids' - although I though John Duttine was great in the 1980's version on TV.

Cheers, daveac
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The 80's version was really creepy for me as a kid. I am looking forward to the remake coming out soon. Hopefully it will be good.

I have only read Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids. Both were really good books. I will be reading The Kraken Wakes shortly :)
 
Not a lot to add. Chrysalids is available on Amazon, as are a few other of his books. Found Wyndham back in the mid to early sixties along with my other beginning scifi reads. Still like 'Triffids.
 
I enjoyed the Howard Keel movie when I was a kid. Don't know if it was actually good or not; I was only nine when it came to town and I pretty much liked anything then.
 
I've started reading the "Chrysalids" and I must say that so far I am loving it. It is so brilliantly written and enthralling.

However one bit I've just read didn't seem to make sense;

~SPOILER WARNING~ (highlight to read)
When Anne's husband (Alan) is murdered, she automatically assumes the other seven mindreaders planned it even though she could easilly asked them telepathically and found out the truth (since they cannot lie telepathically). Now, I haven't yet found out who did do it but it seems to me that she would not have killed herself and attempted to incriminate the others before at least making sure.
~/SPOILER WARNING~

Still, it is only a minor gripe...
 
It's been some time since I last read the tale, but here goes:

Considering the sort of bond the group had, and how that was closer than anything a "normal" human can possibly experience, and given that she voluntarily chose a seriously potential enemy over them, resulting in at least a coldness toward the others, that sort of reaction, combining an unacknowledged guilt with the very logical possibility that some member of the group was responsible, seems quite likely. And, with that combination, she would be "in denial" about anything which would have contrary indications.
 
I'm not sure how to highlight, so I cannot offer any insight into this without saying to much!!!
Back onto Wyndham himself though, I picked up Triffids today to read again, its one of those books I can read over and over and over, even though I know just about every page its still interesting to me. It is a great shame that Wyndham never wrote a sequel to this. In my opinion there was more this story had to offer. I know Simon Clark wrote a sequel but he is not Wyndham and the book "Night of the Triffid" is a very poor sequel at that. I like Clark's Vampyric novels but he should not have even attempted this book if that's the best he could do.
I think Wydnham was a brilliant writer and Triffids is a fantastic book. Chrysalids is good also as is Chocky but Triffids remains my firm favorite!
 
tangaloomababe said:
I'm not sure how to highlight, so I cannot offer any insight into this without saying to much!!!
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Off-topic, but: simply type in an opening bracket ([) followed by "spoiler", then closing bracket (]); to return to normal, opening bracket followed by "/spoiler" and closing bracket....
 
j. d. worthington said:
Off-topic, but: simply type in an opening bracket ([) followed by "spoiler", then closing bracket (]); to return to normal, opening bracket followed by "/spoiler" and closing bracket....
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Oh, can you do it like that? I just used [ color=white] [/ color] tags...

Well, I've finished "The Chrysalids" an I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although...
I couldn't help compare unfavourably the way he handled the concept of humanity's "next step" with Theordore Sturgeon's "More than Human". The new breed in Sturgeon's book developed a better kind of morality than they did in Wyndham's book. The rest of humanity is not simply the enemy, even though they resist change. It is where they themselves came from and where others like themselves will come from in the future.

Anyway, I'm thinking that my next "Wyndham" book might be "The Trouble with Lychen".
 
Very interesting thoughts here and some good exchanges ( at least for someone relaxing on a saturday afternoon listening to the football on the radio ).

I wanted to contribute as I have just finished reading all of his short stories collected in 'the seeds of time' and 'the wanderers of time'. I have previously read triffids and cuckoo's but found these early stories quite fascinating and thought I detected a seminal shift from derivative wellsian adventure to a more thoughful concentration of speculative ideas which would come to fruition later with triffids and cuckoo's.

As an example I found the story wanderers in time pointless and tedious - in contrast the short stories the puff ball menace and child of power though written in the same period showed that he was well on his way to finding his niche.

I have no time for the assesment of Aldiss, wyndham was weird and wonderful and stark. I for one did not find his conclusions cozy, he was a pioneer whereas Aldiss was happy to pick up the reigns once paths had been cleared.
 
Fred C. Dobbs said:
I have no time for the assesment of Aldiss, wyndham was weird and wonderful and stark. I for one did not find his conclusions cozy, he was a pioneer whereas Aldiss was happy to pick up the reigns once paths had been cleared.
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(Oh man, I can almost smell an old fashioned fannish bash brewing. If this doesn't tick someone off nothing will. I'm just gonna sit back and watch. Shhh...):)
 
I loved Wyndham as the author who introduced me (as a young teenager in the early 70's) to SF.
I have real trouble with the idea (discussed earlier in this thread) that there's something artistically wrong with an upbeat ending.My work life is filled with seeing and hearing of horrors and sometimes being able to find the tiny bit of hope and good is what it's all about. On top of that reading is my escape and to be put in a bad place at the end spoils it all for me - I like the author to find that happiness, or at least hope, so I don't have to do it for myself!
 
CBellenis said:
I have real trouble with the idea (discussed earlier in this thread) that there's something artistically wrong with an upbeat ending.
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The question lies in whether it is inherent or organic to the tale, or whether it is imposed upon it. The former, of course, is perfectly fine. If the situation depicted is likely to come to such a resolution, or the characters (as they stand) are likely to find such inner strength, then all well and good. If, however, such is not the case, then it is just bad art; it is artificial and forced, and that can never be artistically valid. Wyndham, I would say, has landed in both camps at different times....
 
Thought it worth mentioning that Wyndham's 'lost novel', Plan of Chaos, which I mentioned in post#19 of this thread, has been picked up by a major publisher, and was released last week in paperback by Penguin.

Presumably this won't be Wyndham at his best, but I'm greatly looking forward to reading anything of his that I haven't seen before.
 
Ian Whates said:
Thought it worth mentioning that Wyndham's 'lost novel', Plan of Chaos, which I mentioned in post#19 of this thread, has been picked up by a major publisher, and was released last week in paperback by Penguin.

Presumably this won't be Wyndham at his best, but I'm greatly looking forward to reading anything of his that I haven't seen before.
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According to M John Harrison, this most certainly isn't John Wyndham at his best. See here.

Anyway, I just finished reading "Chocky".

Was anyone else (who's read it) put in mind of Gene Brewer's "K-Pax"? At least I imagine that Gene was influenced by "Chocky". There seem to be some parallels such as an alien intelligence projecting it's mind somehow into a human being although there are differences of course (the ET in "Chocky" doesn't completely take over the faculties of the host, at least not without permission). Also in the way the ET lectures humanity on it's primitive technological state, being reliant on fossil fuels, etc.

I actually think "K-Pax" was the better novel (although I hated the sequels). The interesting concept of "Chocky" being under-developed and explored. Still a good read though.

I also found it interesting that alien life was presented here in stark contrast to how it was presented in "Midwich Cuckoos". In that, it was very much about us or them. The universe can't possibly be big enough for two intelligent, expanding life forms to exist side by side so one must wipe out the other. In "Chocky", intelligent life forms are so rare that encounters with them are to be treasured and helped wherever possible.
 
Heh i saw a beautiful Hardcover version of Midwich Cuckoos in a second hand store yesterday, i stopped myself from buying in the last minut because i wasnt sure if was one of his better ones, now i know better.....

Did he write another rated book of his he mixed SF/Horror ?
 
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