Audiobook Review: 'The Chrysalids' by John Wyndham, narr. by Noah Reid

I'm still on the John Wyndham train and my obsession shows no signs of weakening. Literally yesterday I said The Kraken Wakes may be my favourite Wyndham read and yet here we are now, with The Chrysalids coming in strong. This is a fascinating story that had me on the edge of my seat.

Original Pub. Date: 1955
Audible Pub. Date: 11/25/2021
Audible Publisher: Audible Studios

David Strorm's father doesn't approve of Angus Morton's unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realise that his own son, his niece Rosalind and their friends have their own secret aberration that would label them as mutants. But as David and Rosalind grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal their differences from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badland.... 

About the author: John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Benyon Harris was born in 1903, the son of a barrister. He tried a number of careers, including farming, law, commercial art and advertising, and started writing short stories, intended for sale, in 1925. From 1930 to 1939 he wrote stories of various kinds under different names, almost exclusively for American publications, while also writing detective novels. During the war he was in the Civil Service and then the Army. In 1946 he went back to writing stories for publication in the USA and decided to try a modified form of science fiction, a form he called 'logical fantasy'.

This is my third Wyndham book in the span of 2 months, and the second in the span of a week, and one clear message seems to ring true in all of his books. And this is Wyndham's theory that humanity can not and will not deal well with any other intelligent species encroaching upon their territory. In The Kraken Wakes it was an undefined intelligence living at the bottom of the sea, while in The Chrysalids it is merely the appearance of difference within humanity itself. Any divergence from the "norm" is seen as a threat and activates the worst elements of humanity's desire to survive. Wyndham's point on this is frequently expressed explicitly by one of his characters, literally spelled out, yet he doesn't beat the reader over the head with it. It is something that as a reader sinks in, to be considered and debates later on. Because now that I have heard this idea repeatedly I am considering it more and more. I do, indeed, think that humans don't do well with difference, especially difference that can be seen as an advantage. This is literally what the X-Men comics and movies are about. And this concern on Wyndham's behalf also explains to me why he insisted so vigorously on the role of Sci-Fi can play in society. Alongside his warnings about unsustainable industrialisation and the dismissal of science, which are still so current, if not more so than in the '50s, this novel once again brought home to me indeed how important the role that literature plays is to society. 

David Storm is aware of difference and how dangerous it is to be different in his world. An unspecified disaster has poisoned the land and the bloodlines and in the UK a strong determination exists to not let anything divergent live. Whether it's livestock, crops, or humans, everything that differs will be removed, one way or another. But being young, the danger of such strict dogma doesn't truly strike David until he comes to realise just how harsh the removal is and how different he himself is. Hiding his gifts from his family becomes a more and more difficult challenge until the danger comes so close to home he is forced to make a choice. Saying anything more would spoil the complexity of The Chrysalids. Suffice to say that David and his friends find themselves in numerous dangerous situations, each of which drives home the point that society's obsession with homogeneity and "purity" is a true evil. 

Again I was struck by how familiar many of Wyndham's themes and plot points in this novel were. Not in the sense that I could predict where it was going to go or that elements of it didn't surprise me. But rather the sense that yes, these were themes we were still working on, plot devices that were still being used. I wonder how new this was in the '50s, as some of the reviews of this book from then seem to suggest it wasn't quite as ground-breaking as I imagine it would have been. I must also say that there was one instance specifically, which I don't want to spoil but do want to discuss, between David and Rosalind in the last third of the book really struck me in its gentleness and beauty. There was such softness to this moment of connection between two people in the midst of so much chaos and hatred that I found myself repeatedly thinking of it as we came to the conclusion. While The Chrysalids doesn't have the body-count of The Kraken Wakes, not even near it, it nonetheless feels more violent. The dogma and hate behind this desire for purity is really bitter to encounter and the weight of it on David and Rosalind becomes really clear. This plea for tolerance and understanding that much of the novel builds up is not necessarily upheld throughout. While The Kraken Wakes leaves redemption to be guessed at, The Chrysalids edges into deus ex machina territory towards the end which runs the risk of undermining the power of the rest of the story. 

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

The Chrysalids is a stunning and gripping story about difference and acceptance, asking the question what is truly human.