THE CHRYSALIDS by John Wyndham

John Wyndham is famous for DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, a terrific novel that if you haven’t read you ought to. It’s about alien plants aiming to take over the world: you know you want to. I’ve been thinking about it often this spring, because frankly all this fecundity in April has its creepy side.

Anyway, THE CHRYSALIDS I read is contained in a charming old hardback called THE JOHN WYNDHAM OMNIBUS and is a charming old post-nuclear-apocalypse novel. It begins in the best tradition of such books with some children sweetly playing together only to uncover a horrible truth . . . that one of them has six toes. This is horrible because ever since ‘Tribulation’ humanity has been trying to claw its way back to purity and exterminate any mutant strains. Awesome. As often with such novels we have fun with the theme but it does not quite develop into a successful plot, but who cares. It did make me think that it’s interesting we are today so relatively unafraid of nuclear holocaust. There’s no reason to be less afraid – indeed we should be more, as nuclear power moves into non-state hands – but I guess it’s hard to keep up an appropriate level of terror in the long term.

The third novel in the OMNIBUS was THE KRAKEN AWAKES, which I liked too. It reminded me of my dad, who always used to greet me with that when I woke up late on a weekend. I never knew where it came from. Dad did love a good mid twentieth century scifi, and so do I.