Written by: John Wyndham
Submitted By: Robert Douglas
I first came across 'The Chrysalids' at school. Sadly, the teacher never read more than a few chapters - but this intriguing post-apocalypse story stuck with me...
In the small community of Waknuk, bodily deviations are regarded as abominations to God's design; they are instantly rooted out and destroyed, without argument, without appeal. David is one such young member of this village and the story's narrator. He relates a grim yet fascinating insight on this simple yet harsh society, set thousands of years after a nuclear war devastated the world as we know it. Waknuk is a haven for 'pure' humans surrounded by hostile borderlands, known as the Fringes, inhabited by mutated 'deviants'. Beyond all this, the world is nothing but a wasteland of blackened glass - as often described by David's Uncle Axel, a seasoned traveller and much wiser for it; he dislikes the limited vision of his peers.
However, matters soon take a turn for the worse: David befriends Sophie, a girl born with six toes. As such, she would be regarded as a deviant by the narrow-minded committee...unless it remains a secret. But in world of troublesome, ambitious individuals, secrets have a bad habit of being exposed. And it doesn't stop there. Soon, David himself becomes the latest of 'deviants'...or perhaps the next generation in human evolution? Soon victim of a zealous crusade for 'purification', David - along with several others - are forced to run for their lives, ultimately seeking help from an outside influence...
John Wyndham is best known for books such as 'Day of the Triffids', 'The Kraken Awakes', and 'The Midwich Cuckoos'. A sci-fi author whose superbly written, dramatic material is normally rooted in alien invasions, disasters, time travel, and parallel worlds, 'The Chrysalids' is no less tense and a wonderful read. Indeed, many fans regard this work as one of his finest, a 'hidden gem'. In my mind,
