This is a handsome new HB edition of Wyndham’s classic 1957 novel of generational paranoia and alien invasion. Wyndham has been a huge influence on two generations of SF writers but is perhaps more talked about than read these days. This deserves to change. This tightly plotted, beautifully concise and sinister tale of a clutch of alien yet beautiful and clever children is undoubtedly a novel of its time (the roles of men and women, the politics and the social scene all shout the 1950s) but Wyndham’s cool and merciless picking apart of our sense of superiority in the face of an uncaring and unfeeling Universe is timeless. There is a genuinely frightening apocalypse in the offing here and it is all the more frightening for playing out in a quiet English village. Wyndham’s writing is a genuine pleasure; his prose is elegant and his eye for character acute. He is a master at leaving things unsaid and leaving your mind to fill in the terrifying ramifications; things happen off the page, you are left to draw conclusions. Consequently he comes close to ending the world in less than 250 pages. It’s masterful stuff. In his eye for characterisation and his willingness to make the terrors existential he’s not unlike a very English Stephen King. Fans of King and those who wonder how the world really might end will enjoy letting Wyndham show them how. ~ Simon Spanton
FROM THE CLASSIC SCI-FI WRITER AND AUTHOR OF THE CHRYSTALIDS AND THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS
Now a modern reimagining starring Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley available to watch on Sky.
'Exciting, unsettling and technically brilliant' Spectator
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.
