Customer Reviews

Chrysalids, The

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Because this has been labeled as being a Sophomore High School English text book, I was quite surprised at the high quality of symbolism that was featured in the first half of the book. A small gathering of people located in Labrador and survivors of a nuclear holocaust exhibited extremely high levels of racism and prejudice to anyone who was 'not in (their) image of God'. This separatism was not only accepted by the local religious group, but it was demanded of its populace as well! Anyone who did not reject the 'mutants' was severely punished. While 'The Chrysalids' was written in the mid '50s while racial prejudice was rampant in the US, the religious zealotry that we are experiencing today was not nearly as prevalent. In spite of that, Wyndham foretold of it and described it quite well.

The book quickly devolved from a quality allegory to an Indiana Jones sequel, however. We have the good guys being chased by the bad guys, being caught by worse guys but eventually saved by the very good guys! Even though the author attempts to explain this final sequence under the banner of 'evolution', he does so in an awkward and trite manner. Gone is the high quality symbolism and is replaced by a mistaken view of evolution that states that in order for improvement in a species to occur, the former population must be totally destroyed. If that were to be the case, there would remain only one species of insect, one species of birds, one species of fish, etc.... Because of this tenet, there can be no full evolution of a complete population into a variety of sub-species as we presently see all around us. As shown in the final sequence, there is no emotional distress that the 'advanced' population should experience while exterminating the 'lower' species! Being a student of Darwinism, I am not sure how the author developed this bizarre theme.

All in all, it rates three stars only because of the successful and creative manner in which it initially dealt with social issues.

Was my first time reading something form this author but not the last. I think this book is genius in a way that we can relate even now in this 21st century...

I read this book for the first time in highschool years ago and re-read it again since.

What most impressed me was the author's ability to set up atmosphere in the novel. I still to this day, after years between readings remember images I formed while reading the novel. Grass between the toes, the nuclear wastes, the way the children formed telepathic images etc...

One thing that I remember clearly is how the novel was like a breath of fresh air, clean and smooth. There are no frilly edges and there is no attempt by the author to make the book flashy. This makes the book pure and adds to the impact of the story.

As an overview, there are a group of children who are living in Eastern Canada after some type of holocaust (this is never much of a point in the book... no one has memories of it). Their society is strongly anti-mutant with a very strict set of rules as to what is "normal" and what isn't. All of this children are normal looking but are telepathic and form a click of just a small number.

The book is their story of growing up and existing in this paranoid and highly dogmatic society without being discovered and banished or killed.

A definite classic in Science Fiction circles.

First, a warning. This is not a work for anyone looking a laser beam sci-fi thriller, or Mad Max Road Warrior "after the Bomb" book. Or if you're some High School kid who only picked it up 'cos "teacher made me"... drop it now and get on with getting that Cheer Leader's phone number. Wyndham's visionary and literary genius is best shown in this, his finest work. His better known novel, Day Of The Triffids, superb as it is, pales by comparison. The Chrysalids is a novel that ends on a positive, but very credible note: it has none of the self-indulgent anti-Romanticism of Neuromancer, nor the saccharine 'utopia-ism' of Star Trek at its worst. The story itself, cunningly weaves many levels of understanding. As a sci-fi pageturner, we have a story set in the future where a boy conceals his telepathy from a neo-Luddite Fundamentalist community bent on destroying even the slightest physical deviation. There's adventure aplenty here for those who like a damn good yarn!

But as a polemic against the excesses of any kind of Fundamentalism whether'scientistic' or 'anti-scientistic', the novel reaches its heights. It is a watershed for any sensitive reader, professional or layman, who is agonising over the tensions our world faces today. This novel, first published in 1955 stands as a worthy "mirror" companion to Huxley's Brave New World. Huxley's dystopia displays the evil false religion of unquestioned Technophilia, and the flaws of barbaric Romanticism. Wyndham's novel is less hampered by Huxley's sophisticated intellectual style; his conflicts are more urgent and pressing, his characters better drawn, warmer and more 'human'. We feel the poignancy and pathos in the suffering and death of unhappy, 'deformed' Sophie. We appreciate the honesty, courage, tenacity and good commonsense of David. He is a worthy hero, and one with whom we quickly side. And these characters of Wyndham's struggle in a post nuclear holocaust world that is chillingly credible. So much of it is so close to our own daily truths. The underlying truths of The Chrysalids reveal Wyndham's keen intelligence and wisdom in Man's ways. Some people will always try to suppress the hand of Nature; to freeze progress and forever keep Mankind a crawling grub. Some will try to seize the wings of immortality through artificial wombs of technology. And others still, will allow Nature to work her own miracles and, while living and letting live, will successfully emerge into the joyous flight of a body free from a limited mind. Wyndham's positive ending, for his heroes escape to a land where the last of these ideologies prevails, makes The Chrysalids a novel full of hope and promise.

The Chrysalids has my vote for best novel by John Wyndham; I loved it as a teenager and still find it an excellent story, as fresh and evocative as ever. Set in the future after an apocalyptic war has ravaged the earth, this is about a group of unusual children, who find themselves dangerously at odds with the fundamentalist community into which they have been born. As well as being a tale of adventure and survival, The Chrysalids is also about difference, and what happens when society draws an arbitrary line between normal and deviant. Watch Thou for the Mutant!

This was a novel study in our English class. The first day I got it... i thought, "it's probably another boring classic book" but i read the first chapter and i couldn't stop. i read it for one whole day! it was so interesting. it's one of the best novel i've read. i even borrowed some books by John Wyndham the "Chocky" and "The Day of The Triffids." But nothing could beat the "Chrysalids." I can't believe some grade nine students who reviewed this book found it horrible and boring. i feel that their entitled to their opinions but i still think they should read it again when they've matured enough. I'm sure they will change their minds.

I read this book in grade school. The message that was clear to me was not to judge others because they are different because the difference may be something wonderful that will advance society.

Well, ok, I am writing this to balance out the reviews of the morons that gave it 1 star, so I'll try to make it short.
I read it when I was 10 and I loved it because of the concept of telepahy and then I read it again 19 years later and I loved it because of the way it demonstrates intolerance, ignorance and religious fanaticizm.
Read It!!!

The Chryssalids is a work of art from a great author John Wyndham about a world where everyone tries to achieve the "true identity" to become closer to the image of God. What the people of Waknuk do not realize is the true image lies from within and that truth was voided from REPENTANCES and that somehow the words of God in the bible was changed. While David and his friends try to keep their secrets, a new revelation of his sister Petra was discovered, she is like them but NOT like them because nobody else can COMMAND them like that except her.
In Chapter 6, Uncle Axel told David about other sailor's adventures and their encounters with the mutants from other lands. "there was even some islands where men and women could be passed on as true images if it weren't for some strange deviation has turned them completely black", also "Sometimes when the people are friendly you can't understand a thing they say and they can't understand a thing you say but if you listen closely a lot of their words are the same just pronounced differently". This reminds me of the colony days when the rich countries in europe set sail to find the "new world", only this time around, instead of cherishing the riches there, was accused of deviation as a result of ignorance. Uncle Axel also mentioned that every tribe believed that they were at the true image, I relate this to organized religion today where everyone tries to prove which god (or religion) is the true when we all beleive in the same concept of the truth about love and peace.
Also, the concept of the book about fear of what is unkown reveals. People of Waknuk are afraid of plants and animals that grow out of their district because they do not look normal, what they do not realize is those animals are as normal as they are because that is their nature, but they are afraid of these "deviations" so they do not allow them in to the district. plants that had thorns are cactus, fish that bite and kill are sharks, wild cats and dogs, big horses...these things they could not accept why they are like that when nature itself did it and not mutation.
This book is now my favourite book, it's the best one I have ever read and made me read more books of the author (later I realize was the same author of a movie based on a book "Village of the Damned" [Midwich cuckoos]). Even though his most acclaimed novel is The Day of the Triffids, I must say I love this better.

The Chrysalids is really a terrific story; no wonder it is often required reading at high schools. It is a wonderfully concise, powerful story on how conformity above all else is vile. Perhaps not the author's intended target, but when I read The Chrysalids I thought of religious fanatics of all forms who are self-righteous and full of hate (..although these folks don't view it that way).

In The Chrysalids we have planet Earth some two thousand years after some worldwide disaster (nuclear destruction, presumably). Only limited colonies of humans survive. Many more straggling, deformed humanoids abound ... along with freakish plants and animals. In one of the colonies they strive, above all else, to maintain purity of life forms (animal, planet, human). Humans with even the slightest deformity are thrown out of the colony, or are destroyed. Colony leaders cite biblical references to justify such actions.

This rather frightening picture of the future is told through the eyes of a boy who discovers he, along with several other children, share a "defect" - they all have mental telepathic capabilities. These children fear for their lives, and rightly so.

The story so far is rich and fast-paced; simply wonderful! Unfortunately the last bit of the book gets a bit wobbly, or at least falters from its high plateau - it turns into series of chase/battle sequences. However the very ending is rewarding.

Bottom line: compulsory reading for all.