Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Ballantine Books (1958)
Description
In the sleepy English village of Midwich, a mysterious silver object appears and all the inhabitants fall unconscious. A day later the object is gone and everyone awakens unharmed - except that all the women in the village are discovered to be pregnant. The resultant children of Midwich do not belong to their parents: all are blonde, all are golden eyed. They grow up too fast and their minds exhibit frightening abilities that give them control over others and brings them into conflict with the villagers just as a chilling realisation dawns on the world outside . . . The Midwich Cuckoos is the classic tale of aliens in our midst, exploring how we respond when confronted by those who are innately superior to us in every conceivable way.
User reviews
LibraryThing member AHS-Wolfy
A classic science fiction horror tale set in a remote English village circa 1950's. Rather than an overt takeover by conquest this is a tale of a more invasive alien infiltration told by a second hand narrator, Richard Gayford, and may be better known from the film name of The Village of the
The book briefly examines religious, evolution, social and moral issues with regards to how we as a human race would deal with an event like this but it is all done in a very British underplayed way which makes the inevitable finale all the more shocking when it happens. There are a few things that date the book but they do not detract from the read at all. Another excellent tale from a master storyteller who has now been added to my favourite authors list.
Show More
Damned. Returning home from a trip to London, our narrator and his wife encounter a military exclusion zone set up around the village. Attempting to circumvent this blockade they, like (they later learn) the rest of the inhabitants, fall unconscious as soon as they enter the restricted area. Having been directed to remain at the pub of the next village over while investigations into the cause of the incident, it is where he coincidentally meets an old war buddy who it seems will be handling things from the local end. It is with these connections that Richard can tag along and gather the information recounted in this book. What appears to be a UFO is spotted at the centre of the zone but no-one can penetrate to investigate more. The affected area soon dissipates after the disappearance of the UFO and it's not long that we learn all women of child-bearing age that were inside the zone are now pregnant. Nine months quickly passes and the babies are born. Despite initial misgivings all seem to be normal healthy babies with only the eyes showing any outward difference from normal human babies, shining golden eyes. The babies grow and learn at an accelerated rate and it seem the force of their will can overpower that of the people in their vicinity and it is this ability along with a hive-mind like quality that causes concern with the local population and the military and government powers that have been content just to observe. How long before they must take action to limit or quash this talent while they still can?The book briefly examines religious, evolution, social and moral issues with regards to how we as a human race would deal with an event like this but it is all done in a very British underplayed way which makes the inevitable finale all the more shocking when it happens. There are a few things that date the book but they do not detract from the read at all. Another excellent tale from a master storyteller who has now been added to my favourite authors list.
Show Less
LibraryThing member baswood
The common European cuckoo is a brood parasite, laying its eggs in the nest of other species of birds. If successful it tricks the host bird into raising its young as its own, but the young cuckoo instinctively destroys the other eggs of the host bird. In a quiet village somewhere in middle England
Wyndham's science fiction writing although dealing with fantastical events will often pause to think about the issues that the story throws up. In this case it is the battle for survival and the savagery of so called mother nature. The wider issues do not usually get in the way of the development of the plot, or the suspense or the excitement of the action and in this novel it is Mr Zellaby an author of philosophical works, living in the village, who thinks more deeply about the wider issues. Wyndham writes however from a male perspective and the women's voices in the village are rarely heard above the desire to nurture the young. One of the male characters says:
‘If we remember that the majority of feminine tasks are deadly dull and leave the mind so empty that the most trifling seed that falls can grow into a riotous tangle'
It is the men who do the fighting it is the men who take action and it is the men who are in control, but this would be typical of the time in which the novel was set and Wyndham certainly knew and could write about society in England in the 1950's. It makes for a quaint story in some ways, but also it has a certain charm, an innocence perhaps. The setting of Wyndham's stories in rural England reflect the ideal of rural English life, he reminds me of a less radical H G Wells.
This is an imaginative work of fiction written in an easy flowing style with an excellent plot. Many of us know the story from the films "Village of the Damned" and then "Children of the Damned". Published in the science fiction masterwork series it raises its head above much of the pulp fiction of the time and still provides an excellent page turning read 4 stars
Show More
most of the childbearing women fall pregnant at the same time after the village has been sealed off for 24 hours probably by aliens. Wyndham imagines what would happen to the village in this cuckoo like scenario. The novel was written in 1957 and that is when Wyndham places his story and he is not altogether wrong in thinking that the village might want to close in on itself perhaps keeping its shame hidden as much as possible. Anyway it makes for an excellent science fiction story.Wyndham's science fiction writing although dealing with fantastical events will often pause to think about the issues that the story throws up. In this case it is the battle for survival and the savagery of so called mother nature. The wider issues do not usually get in the way of the development of the plot, or the suspense or the excitement of the action and in this novel it is Mr Zellaby an author of philosophical works, living in the village, who thinks more deeply about the wider issues. Wyndham writes however from a male perspective and the women's voices in the village are rarely heard above the desire to nurture the young. One of the male characters says:
‘If we remember that the majority of feminine tasks are deadly dull and leave the mind so empty that the most trifling seed that falls can grow into a riotous tangle'
It is the men who do the fighting it is the men who take action and it is the men who are in control, but this would be typical of the time in which the novel was set and Wyndham certainly knew and could write about society in England in the 1950's. It makes for a quaint story in some ways, but also it has a certain charm, an innocence perhaps. The setting of Wyndham's stories in rural England reflect the ideal of rural English life, he reminds me of a less radical H G Wells.
This is an imaginative work of fiction written in an easy flowing style with an excellent plot. Many of us know the story from the films "Village of the Damned" and then "Children of the Damned". Published in the science fiction masterwork series it raises its head above much of the pulp fiction of the time and still provides an excellent page turning read 4 stars
Show Less
LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
“ The important thing about the cuckoo is not how the egg
got into the nest, nor why that nest was chosen; the real
matter for concern comes after it has been hatched- what,
in fact, it will attempt to do next.”
I find myself rather conflicted by The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. The basic
For a story where so much of the drama involves women, the viewpoint is very male. Men try to figure out what happened. Men decide how this is going to be handled. Men make the birth arrangements and decide how these strange children are to be reared. The nominal leader of the women actually is told by her husband and the town doctor what to say and when to say it.
If there is any value in The Midwich Cuckoos today it is the fact that it is like a small time capsule giving us insight into people’ mindset in 1957, the dominant role played by men, the important placed on survival of the species and their lack of scientific knowledge. My biggest negative was the endless blatherings on mankind’s place in the universe, general philosophy and ethics. If there had been a little more action and a little less talk, this book may well have stood the test of time in a much better manner.
got into the nest, nor why that nest was chosen; the real
matter for concern comes after it has been hatched- what,
in fact, it will attempt to do next.”
I find myself rather conflicted by The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. The basic
Show More
story was well thought out, very disconcerting and really spoke to the cold war fears that were prevalent at the time of his writing it, but unfortunately, the story is very dated and it was hard to accept the premise when one is constantly rolling ones eyes. Published in 1957, the story unfolds in the small town of Midwich where a weird phenomena happens whereby the entire village falls asleep for 24 house, and when they wake, every woman in the town who is of child-bearing years is pregnant. For a story where so much of the drama involves women, the viewpoint is very male. Men try to figure out what happened. Men decide how this is going to be handled. Men make the birth arrangements and decide how these strange children are to be reared. The nominal leader of the women actually is told by her husband and the town doctor what to say and when to say it.
If there is any value in The Midwich Cuckoos today it is the fact that it is like a small time capsule giving us insight into people’ mindset in 1957, the dominant role played by men, the important placed on survival of the species and their lack of scientific knowledge. My biggest negative was the endless blatherings on mankind’s place in the universe, general philosophy and ethics. If there had been a little more action and a little less talk, this book may well have stood the test of time in a much better manner.
Show Less
LibraryThing member eleanor_eader
“It ruins a man’s concentration to have a crèche hanging over his head.”
The quiet English village of Midwich suffers a blackout that lasts an entire day. When it is revealed that all the women in the affected area of childbearing age have since become spontaneously and simultaneously
When I picked this book up, I was certain that I had already read it, many years ago. Now I’m not at all sure that this is the case. Despite being vaguely aware of the story-line (it’s been filmed at least twice as ‘Village of the Damned’), there was a freshness to my delight that I normally experience on reading good books for the first time, and very little in the way of literary vu.
No matter – first, second, or thirtieth reading, the reasons why this is one of the classics of sci-fi/horror are evident. It has a great tension, a sort of internal tongue-in-cheek humour that makes the horrific elements all the more piquant, and is a ripper of a story, with an unusually complete serving of moral and philosophical ixposition (I made that word up, I fear... I need something that means the dialogue-delivered musings of characters working things out for their own, rather than the reader’s, benefit), most notably from the academically minded Gordon Zellaby. Far from bogging the book down, this insight provides a good deal of the story’s atmosphere. The children are frightening, their possible implications equally so.
I may have to ‘reread’ more John Wyndham, on the principle that if there are others I have accidentally missed due to overexposure to the basic idea of the story (God – what if I haven’t read The Day of the Triffids? No, I’m quite sure I have. Positive.) then I’m truly missing out. Dated or not (mostly not, it must be said), this is a writer whose ideas are chilling and his execution ruthless, in a very underplayed British manner.
The quiet English village of Midwich suffers a blackout that lasts an entire day. When it is revealed that all the women in the affected area of childbearing age have since become spontaneously and simultaneously
Show More
pregnant, the consequences of the ‘dayout’ begin to become clear.When I picked this book up, I was certain that I had already read it, many years ago. Now I’m not at all sure that this is the case. Despite being vaguely aware of the story-line (it’s been filmed at least twice as ‘Village of the Damned’), there was a freshness to my delight that I normally experience on reading good books for the first time, and very little in the way of literary vu.
No matter – first, second, or thirtieth reading, the reasons why this is one of the classics of sci-fi/horror are evident. It has a great tension, a sort of internal tongue-in-cheek humour that makes the horrific elements all the more piquant, and is a ripper of a story, with an unusually complete serving of moral and philosophical ixposition (I made that word up, I fear... I need something that means the dialogue-delivered musings of characters working things out for their own, rather than the reader’s, benefit), most notably from the academically minded Gordon Zellaby. Far from bogging the book down, this insight provides a good deal of the story’s atmosphere. The children are frightening, their possible implications equally so.
I may have to ‘reread’ more John Wyndham, on the principle that if there are others I have accidentally missed due to overexposure to the basic idea of the story (God – what if I haven’t read The Day of the Triffids? No, I’m quite sure I have. Positive.) then I’m truly missing out. Dated or not (mostly not, it must be said), this is a writer whose ideas are chilling and his execution ruthless, in a very underplayed British manner.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Mikalina
Cuckoos in the nest. In the nest of humanity.
Cuckoos that are intelligent but without empathy, upsetting all human Mid-wichian ways. What to do? What to do with the cold dangerous opportunism, when you see yourself as emphatic, as bound by laws religious and non-religious to show compassion?
Most
The book raises a difficult question: How do we defend humanity against opportunism? What to do with non-compassion when humanity as a system is built on empathy?
Do we need to answer the question? Are there any life-threatening anti-humanitarian opportunism unfolding itself amongst us half-blind believing-ourselves-to-be-quite-emphatic mid-everything-beings? Who gains from the production of weapons? The inequality of the distribution of wealth? CO2 quotas? The ice melting? Will it enslave our children and children´s children? Do the opportunists´ opportunity come from the mid-majority´s blindness, idealism - and sham idealism (which of course is opportunism in itself)? Lack of courage? Laziness? Selfishness?
By choosing aliens as cuckoos the questions asked is not bound in time or space, but more important, having aliens as cuckoos underline Wyndham´s point: few of us recognize the opportunism in ourselves, it is quite alien. The one that in fact acts in the end, is a philosopher; We cannot do anything with our anti-humanitarian ways until we know ourselves.
Cuckoos that are intelligent but without empathy, upsetting all human Mid-wichian ways. What to do? What to do with the cold dangerous opportunism, when you see yourself as emphatic, as bound by laws religious and non-religious to show compassion?
Most
Show More
of the book is spent on showing us that we do not recognize the cuckoos in the humanitarian nest: We cannot believe they are all that bad: "I know when I was a child there were injustices which positively made me burn inside. If i had had the strength to do what I wanted to do it would have been dreadful, really dreadful, I assure you", says one of the village sweet old ladies when the cuckoo killed the first time, not grasping anything but the child-like innocent superficial look of the cuckoo. Or we see, but cannot do anything with what we see because: "Your more liberal, responsibly minded and religious people will be greatly troubled over the ethical position. Opposed to any form of drastic action at all, you will have your true idealist - and also your sham idealist: the quite large number of people who profess ideals as a premium for other-life-insurance, and are content to lay up slavery and destitution for their descendants so long as they are enabled to produce personal copybooks of elevated views at the gate of heaven", as put by the book´s invading Cuckoos themselves. The book raises a difficult question: How do we defend humanity against opportunism? What to do with non-compassion when humanity as a system is built on empathy?
Do we need to answer the question? Are there any life-threatening anti-humanitarian opportunism unfolding itself amongst us half-blind believing-ourselves-to-be-quite-emphatic mid-everything-beings? Who gains from the production of weapons? The inequality of the distribution of wealth? CO2 quotas? The ice melting? Will it enslave our children and children´s children? Do the opportunists´ opportunity come from the mid-majority´s blindness, idealism - and sham idealism (which of course is opportunism in itself)? Lack of courage? Laziness? Selfishness?
By choosing aliens as cuckoos the questions asked is not bound in time or space, but more important, having aliens as cuckoos underline Wyndham´s point: few of us recognize the opportunism in ourselves, it is quite alien. The one that in fact acts in the end, is a philosopher; We cannot do anything with our anti-humanitarian ways until we know ourselves.
Show Less
LibraryThing member monado
This is one of those quiet, English science fiction stories: about a husband and wife who life in a quiet little village. One day, when they are out, the whole village is knocked out for a day; and when the people wake up, most of the women are pregnant. The children are identically strange, with
Show More
golden eyes. This is the story of what happens as the children grow up. I believe that it was the basis for a movie called, "The Village of the Damned." Show Less
LibraryThing member Prop2gether
Fabulous read! Having been scared silly by the Village of the Damned, I was surprised by how easily the book still reads and how current its basic message is today. Highly recommended.
LibraryThing member otterley
A classic 'what if' story, with Wyndham's acute observation, tight plotting and humour illuminating a 1950s environment. Alien invasion (not necessarily from outer space), fertility issues and the role of women are the recurrent themes in a story of alien invasion through the back door of the womb.
Show More
It would be a fascinating story to reimagine in our days of artificial insemination, legal abortion and debates about euthanasia; thought provoking as a historical piece of future gazing. Show Less
LibraryThing member eglinton
Wyndham’s amiable conversational style makes for a comfy read, and perhaps the steady roles, sturdy characters, and gender divide of this Enid Blyton-esque world bring us some ease as respite from the stress and sharpness of our current eclectic times, our “diversity.” The story’s location
Show More
in a guileless English village is a neat counterpoint for this tale of horror-mystery-science fiction, rather as Hitchcock or the Twilight Zone set their tales amidst bland everyday folk. In these calm surroundings, the plot unfolds gradually and gently, so there’s perhaps too little suspense and shock conveyed when the stakes get higher. The “bad guys”, as often, are portrayed rather facelessly, so it’s not that easy to grasp what their motives might be. Assign your own allegorical target, or just enjoy the yarn. Show Less
LibraryThing member trueneutral
This is the second book by John Wyndham I've read and I must say I'm looking forward to reading his other works. I absolutely loved The Day of the Triffids and this book was as interesting, but maybe not as fluid. At some point it tends to blabber on using the voice of Zellaby (who is a very well
The book is fairly short, so all the developments during the 9 or so years that the Children have been in Midwich are presented quite fast. I loved the ending, which is by no means unpredictable, but the execution was so clean and well thought out that I was a bit surprised.
All in all, it is a science-fiction classic and a thought-provoking, engaging and fascinating read.
Show More
developed character and full of surprises, up to the end) on various philosophical topics - which are interesting, but the tone I think is a bit outdated.The book is fairly short, so all the developments during the 9 or so years that the Children have been in Midwich are presented quite fast. I loved the ending, which is by no means unpredictable, but the execution was so clean and well thought out that I was a bit surprised.
All in all, it is a science-fiction classic and a thought-provoking, engaging and fascinating read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member ikeman100
This is my second book by Wyndham. Along with "Day of the Triffids" it is by far the most respected of his books. This one was better then "The Kraken Awakes", but still not the amazing book I expected. It is a good story and it's mostly well told.
I have a small conflict with Wyndhams style. I do
I have a small conflict with Wyndhams style. I do
Show More
occasionally stumble over pre-WWII English phrasing and idioms. Though written in the 1950s it has the linguistic feel of the 20s or 30s.. I sometimes find the sentences of H. G. Wells more readable then those of Wyndham. This should not be so since the language of Wells' time was even farther removed from the 21st century. Wyndham's clumsy phrasing inhibits an otherwise decent story. Show Less
LibraryThing member edgeworth
The last of Wyndham’s four greatest science fiction novels, The Midwich Cuckoos is the odd one out, in that it’s not apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic. I suppose you might argue that it’s about averting an apocalypse. Actually, it occurs to me that most of my reviews on his books have been
The Midwich Cuckoos is probably better known to most people as the 1960 film “Village of the Damned,” which, even if you haven’t seen it, has worked its way into popular culture with the striking image of golden-eyed children exerting their willpower on English villagers. (For my own generation, think of that episode of the Simpsons where the kids break curfew to sneak into a drive-in movie cinema to see “The Bloodening.”)
The story begins with the narrator and his wife returning home to the village of Midwich after a weekend in London, and finding the roads blocked by the military. Retreating to a pub in a neighbouring village, they find an old Army comrade who explains what’s going on. Anybody attempting to enter Midwich collapses unconscious, and the military has managed to map out an almost perfectly circular circumference of this mysterious field. After losing one observation plane from flying too low over the blackout zone, a higher plane reveals photographs showing what looks like a spacecraft resting at the centre of the village.
The effect vanishes the next morning, the spacecraft disappears, and the residents of the village wake up apparently none the worse for wear. The government covers the incident up, and life goes on. A few weeks later, the women of the village discover that nearly all of them are pregnant.
The Midwich Cuckoos may not be a grand tale of apocalyptic destruction, but it’s no less enthralling than any of Wyndham’s other novels, and it contains easily the clearest proposition of the most common theme that ran through his previous three books: that two alien intelligences will be incapable of co-operation, and will bitterly fight each other to the death. Several of the characters are more than aware that the children born in the village will, eventually, present a serious threat, but – like the mother bird that feeds the cuckoo – their survival instincts are hampered by their maternalism and consciences.
It’s not just this common theme that’s more present than ever in The Midwich Cuckoos; it’s also, unfortunately, Wyndham’s dated attitudes. Had this book been written today, even by a male author, there’s no doubt it would be told from a female perspective. Instead we get second-hand observations and impressions from male characters sitting around in parlours smoking and drinking, and there’s a lot said about the shame and the indignity of having children out of wedlock, or being a single mother. Again, though, Wyndham was a product of his time, and to his credit The Midwich Cuckoos does contain his first ever portrayal of the Soviet Union as something other than a stupid, childish empire which frames all kinds of obvious extraterrestrial perils as being a ploy on the part of capitalist imperialists.
The narrator in The Midwich Cuckoos is one of Wyndham’s weakest yet, a passive observer who isn’t even present for much of the novel, instead recounting stories he was told second-hand. The scholar and unofficial mayor of the village, Gordon Zellaby, is a far more important character (apparently the movie cuts the narrator and focuses on Zellaby entirely) and the novel would have worked much better from a third-person point of view.
Rather than criticisms, these are largely observations from an adult perspective, since I first read this novel in early high school. I really find very little to be critical of other than Wyndham stubbornly clinging to his favoured first-person perspective. The Midwich Cuckoos is a product of its time – an engaging, fascinating, brilliantly conceived classic from the golden age of science fiction.
Show More
somewhat spoiler-laden, and that these are classic science fiction novels where it really is best to go in knowing nothing at all. Too late for the last three, but if you want to experience The Midwich Cuckoos to its fullest (and trust me, you do), stop reading now.The Midwich Cuckoos is probably better known to most people as the 1960 film “Village of the Damned,” which, even if you haven’t seen it, has worked its way into popular culture with the striking image of golden-eyed children exerting their willpower on English villagers. (For my own generation, think of that episode of the Simpsons where the kids break curfew to sneak into a drive-in movie cinema to see “The Bloodening.”)
The story begins with the narrator and his wife returning home to the village of Midwich after a weekend in London, and finding the roads blocked by the military. Retreating to a pub in a neighbouring village, they find an old Army comrade who explains what’s going on. Anybody attempting to enter Midwich collapses unconscious, and the military has managed to map out an almost perfectly circular circumference of this mysterious field. After losing one observation plane from flying too low over the blackout zone, a higher plane reveals photographs showing what looks like a spacecraft resting at the centre of the village.
The effect vanishes the next morning, the spacecraft disappears, and the residents of the village wake up apparently none the worse for wear. The government covers the incident up, and life goes on. A few weeks later, the women of the village discover that nearly all of them are pregnant.
The Midwich Cuckoos may not be a grand tale of apocalyptic destruction, but it’s no less enthralling than any of Wyndham’s other novels, and it contains easily the clearest proposition of the most common theme that ran through his previous three books: that two alien intelligences will be incapable of co-operation, and will bitterly fight each other to the death. Several of the characters are more than aware that the children born in the village will, eventually, present a serious threat, but – like the mother bird that feeds the cuckoo – their survival instincts are hampered by their maternalism and consciences.
It’s not just this common theme that’s more present than ever in The Midwich Cuckoos; it’s also, unfortunately, Wyndham’s dated attitudes. Had this book been written today, even by a male author, there’s no doubt it would be told from a female perspective. Instead we get second-hand observations and impressions from male characters sitting around in parlours smoking and drinking, and there’s a lot said about the shame and the indignity of having children out of wedlock, or being a single mother. Again, though, Wyndham was a product of his time, and to his credit The Midwich Cuckoos does contain his first ever portrayal of the Soviet Union as something other than a stupid, childish empire which frames all kinds of obvious extraterrestrial perils as being a ploy on the part of capitalist imperialists.
The narrator in The Midwich Cuckoos is one of Wyndham’s weakest yet, a passive observer who isn’t even present for much of the novel, instead recounting stories he was told second-hand. The scholar and unofficial mayor of the village, Gordon Zellaby, is a far more important character (apparently the movie cuts the narrator and focuses on Zellaby entirely) and the novel would have worked much better from a third-person point of view.
Rather than criticisms, these are largely observations from an adult perspective, since I first read this novel in early high school. I really find very little to be critical of other than Wyndham stubbornly clinging to his favoured first-person perspective. The Midwich Cuckoos is a product of its time – an engaging, fascinating, brilliantly conceived classic from the golden age of science fiction.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
Once upon a time in the peaceful English village of Midwich circa 1957, every female of child-bearing age within falls pregnant. In time it becomes clear the children are... well, different. A horror story based not on supernatural monsters but the aliens of science fiction born of the paranoid
Show More
post-nuclear age. Told from the first-person perspective of a character not directly affected, it's a well-written, suspenseful and chilling story, a quick read with a great ending. The kind of story it's best not to know much about it going in. Nice and twisty. Made into the film The Village of the Damned. Show Less
LibraryThing member jmoncton
This was such a fun quick read. Cuckoos are birds that do not raise their own young. Instead, they lay eggs in other birds' nests. The natural mothering instinct causes these other birds to raise the baby cuckoos as one of their own. In this book, the small town of Midwich, England is disrupted by
Show More
a 'Dayout', where all of the residents pass out for a day, not remembering anything. When they wake up, all of the women of child-bearing age are pregnant. The children born 9 months later, although human in form, are apparently an alien species that can exert mind control over anyone nearby. This book was a delightful, fun, and quick read. Show Less
LibraryThing member john257hopper
This is a re-read of the classic Wyndham SF/horror novel about the simultaneous birth of a new race of sinister near-identical children with frightening telepathic abilities. While the characters are to us now 50s middle class stereotypes, this, like other of his novels, is a taut and horrific
Show More
story, stripped of the subplots and superfluous verbiage that many novels in this genre contain nowadays. The isolated and peaceful English village that contains a sinister secret is rather an SF/horror cliche, but no less effective for that, especially in a pre-Internet age. Great stuff. Show Less
LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
“Knowledge is simply a kind of fuel; it needs the motor of understanding to convert it into power.”
Perhaps not one of Wyndham's best known novels and on the face of it this is a fairly straight forward and cosy SF thriller however, read it more carefully and you will realise that it is much
The village of Midwich is shut off from the outside world and put to sleep for 24 hours. Some weeks later all the women of childbearing age find that they are pregnant, and give birth to golden-eyed children who look remarkably alike and seem to have telepathic powers which they use to coerce initially their mothers than later the villagers as a whole. The narrator, Richard Gayford, is clear that the children are a simple threat not just to the village but also the whole of humanity and must be destroyed, yet he is a fallible narrator who seems quite unaware as to what is going on under his very nose.
By reading purely what is written on the page the novel appears to be a about a struggle between aliens and humans – but delve a little deeper it becomes apparent it's actually about a struggle between men and women. There is pregnancy, abortion, childbirth and motherhood, and whilst the children may have alien fathers they also have human mothers,a point the narrator seems to totally disregard. In fact the women's' opinions go largely unheard. The ending, an act of genocide, only underlines this point.
This novel would no doubt be regarded nowadays as being at the softer end of the SF genre yet still goes on to ask some pretty profound questions about the limits of our culture and perhaps what it means to be truly human, all of which is achieved with subtle irony and ambiguity. This book deserves to be on the 1001 list and also deserves to be read more widely.
Perhaps not one of Wyndham's best known novels and on the face of it this is a fairly straight forward and cosy SF thriller however, read it more carefully and you will realise that it is much
Show More
more than this.The village of Midwich is shut off from the outside world and put to sleep for 24 hours. Some weeks later all the women of childbearing age find that they are pregnant, and give birth to golden-eyed children who look remarkably alike and seem to have telepathic powers which they use to coerce initially their mothers than later the villagers as a whole. The narrator, Richard Gayford, is clear that the children are a simple threat not just to the village but also the whole of humanity and must be destroyed, yet he is a fallible narrator who seems quite unaware as to what is going on under his very nose.
By reading purely what is written on the page the novel appears to be a about a struggle between aliens and humans – but delve a little deeper it becomes apparent it's actually about a struggle between men and women. There is pregnancy, abortion, childbirth and motherhood, and whilst the children may have alien fathers they also have human mothers,a point the narrator seems to totally disregard. In fact the women's' opinions go largely unheard. The ending, an act of genocide, only underlines this point.
This novel would no doubt be regarded nowadays as being at the softer end of the SF genre yet still goes on to ask some pretty profound questions about the limits of our culture and perhaps what it means to be truly human, all of which is achieved with subtle irony and ambiguity. This book deserves to be on the 1001 list and also deserves to be read more widely.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Dreesie
Nine months after being inexplicably cut off for a day, every woman of childbearing age in the town of Midwich has a child. 60 of these children look remarkably alike. Yet life goes on—until those that have left town are forced by their children to return.
The military works to hide these things
I suspect Douglas Adams was familiar with this book, and got some of his ideas about Earth as computer/experiment from it. But whereas Adams has put a funny spin on his ideas, the questions Wyndham looks at—about identity, species, political/religious/social systems, and survival—are serious and very interesting.
The military works to hide these things
Show More
from the media. The residents just want to go on. But are these children really children? What should be done with them?I suspect Douglas Adams was familiar with this book, and got some of his ideas about Earth as computer/experiment from it. But whereas Adams has put a funny spin on his ideas, the questions Wyndham looks at—about identity, species, political/religious/social systems, and survival—are serious and very interesting.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nigeyb
An intelligent and thought provoking slice of 1950s Cold War-influenced British science fiction. I enjoyed the bourgeoise village life evoked by John Wyndham. That said the book does also show its age: not only are the female characters all underdeveloped, they are generally too distracted, and/or
It is actually the discussions, and there are plenty of them (perhaps too many?), that are what make the book interesting. The village's resident philosopher, Zallaby, spends pages pontificating about the moral implications of the Children. These discourses embrace evolution, politics, anthropology, power and authority, and philosophy. Some of these discussions are a bit overcooked and I felt the story could probably have been told in about half the total word count.
The ending, which is signposted a good few pages before the last page, is too neat, and I would have preferred a more ambiguous conclusion. One where the reader is left to consider the implications of the Children reaching maturity and what that might mean for the human race. Instead we end the book very much as we start it with Midwich being, quite possibly, the most boring and uneventful place in the UK. Still, there is much to enjoy, and plenty of food for thought in this sci fi classic.
Show More
besotted by the Children (the Cuckoos of the book's title), to contribute anything meaningful to the more weighty discussions of the male characters. It is actually the discussions, and there are plenty of them (perhaps too many?), that are what make the book interesting. The village's resident philosopher, Zallaby, spends pages pontificating about the moral implications of the Children. These discourses embrace evolution, politics, anthropology, power and authority, and philosophy. Some of these discussions are a bit overcooked and I felt the story could probably have been told in about half the total word count.
The ending, which is signposted a good few pages before the last page, is too neat, and I would have preferred a more ambiguous conclusion. One where the reader is left to consider the implications of the Children reaching maturity and what that might mean for the human race. Instead we end the book very much as we start it with Midwich being, quite possibly, the most boring and uneventful place in the UK. Still, there is much to enjoy, and plenty of food for thought in this sci fi classic.
Show Less
LibraryThing member atreic
Another comfort re-read. John Wyndham's sharp pencil sketch of a sleepy English village invaded by alien children is still as much of a riveting page turner as always. It has dated slightly (the views on woman and non middle-class-English-people are not as awesome as the rest of it) but the
Show More
excellently paced tale and the moral dilemmas it discusses remain fresh. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheBentley
I found this book really enjoyable, and it's easy to see why Stephen King is such a John Wyndham fan. This is a fast read, but it's very believable in its own way, and for such a short book, the characters are well-drawn and the attitude and atmosphere of a small town--on which much of the suspense
Show More
is based--is very accurate. I found the book much superior to either film version, which is saying something because the original film ("Village of the Damned") is considered a horror classic. Classic 1950's horror/science fiction, and well worth the read. Show Less
LibraryThing member KelMunger
It's easy to forget how good this novel is, but a quick re-read makes clear the amount of terror at the idea of this sort of slow "invasion" that was present in the Cold War West. There are some instances of sexism that are glaringly obvious to a contemporary reader, but Wyndham's use of language
Show More
and slow-building terror make this a still-compelling example of the genre. Show Less
LibraryThing member ecumenicalcouncil
John Wyndham's second most famous story is perhaps the eeriest. A small village in England unexplainably fall unconscious for a whole day and when they wake up all the women are pregnant. The children when born all look the same and start to exhibit dangerous and strange behaviour.
Possibly one of
Possibly one of
Show More
the scariest alien invasion stories ever written the Midwich Cuckoos creeps up on us as we like the inhabitants of Midwich don't take the threat seriously until it is too late. Here is a story in which humanity is all but powerless in the face of an unknown threat. All you can do is hope it all ends well. Show Less
LibraryThing member AnglersRest
This was the read the August meeting of the local book group. Not my usual read, as I am not overly keen on science fiction, but it was an interesting book and whilst I am glad I read it, I can not say that I would particularly read it again.
This is quite a dated book, written in 1957. The
Set in a village location, a dome is placed across the village. Once the dome is lifted it is established that every female in the village is pregnant. Once the children are aged 9 years it has become apparent that the children are not ordinary children and in fact they pose quite a threat. That threat has to be confronted and there are serious repercussions and consequences of doing so.
I did like the suspense factor. How was the issue going to be dealt with? and by whom? The book concludes, but there is no definitive conclusion, thus making way for another book. (A search via Google indicates that Wyndham did write 4 chapters of a sequel which he disbanded). Some of the writing was not especially fluid, but this was written in the late 1950s and whilst it would not be a book of choice it was a good read and a really good discussion followed.
This is quite a dated book, written in 1957. The
Show More
storyline is an interesting concept and posed quite a discussion at the group.Set in a village location, a dome is placed across the village. Once the dome is lifted it is established that every female in the village is pregnant. Once the children are aged 9 years it has become apparent that the children are not ordinary children and in fact they pose quite a threat. That threat has to be confronted and there are serious repercussions and consequences of doing so.
I did like the suspense factor. How was the issue going to be dealt with? and by whom? The book concludes, but there is no definitive conclusion, thus making way for another book. (A search via Google indicates that Wyndham did write 4 chapters of a sequel which he disbanded). Some of the writing was not especially fluid, but this was written in the late 1950s and whilst it would not be a book of choice it was a good read and a really good discussion followed.
Show Less
LibraryThing member overthemoon
A compelling read: a sleepy English village is cut off from the world for one night; in the next few weeks all the village women of child-bearing age – teenagers, spinsters and all – find themselves pregnant. The atmosphere gets progressively chilling as the children grow up, obviously with
I enjoyed this as much now as I did when a teenager; despite its "futuristic" theme it is steeped in 1950s Britain.
Show More
rare intelligence, and are able to communicate with each other by telepathy. An entity, rather than individual children, they rarely speak but are ever present, sitting their watching with their golden eyes, manipulating everyone by sheer willpower. I enjoyed this as much now as I did when a teenager; despite its "futuristic" theme it is steeped in 1950s Britain.
Show Less
LibraryThing member TheCrow2
A great classic from Wyndham inspired a couple of movies (e.g. Carpenter's Village of the damned)... The appearance of the alien children raises lot of serious questions about humanity, evolution and las but not least morale... Timeless!
Awards
The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1957
Physical description
8.27 inches
ISBN
1473212693 / 9781473212695