Then once by man and angels to be seen

John Wyndham was one of my favourite authors as a child. His books, a very middleclass English outlook on the end of civilisation, are very much a product of their time. But they haven't dated. My favourite was always 'The Chrysallids', but the one I (re)read most recently was 'The Kraken Wakes'. (Explanation: My second male child found a few of his books, including his most famous, and enjoyed them, so I filled in the gaps.)

This has been compared to 'The War of the Worlds', in that there is an invasion, some battles, humans lose, humans hide, humans sort-of win. Although win is quite strong, and I don't want to give away the plot. Also as in Wyndham's novels, the actual enemy isn't the main focus of the book. Mostly it is how those middleclass stiff-upper-lip types cope with the collapse of society around them. Mostly it is a reflection of the post-second world war increase of East/West tension paranoia, played out through factions and fights, squabbles and personal relationships.

A breezey writing style, certainly not slight, keeps you reading on. When you are staring down the last few pages, and there isn't much respite for the humans, there doesn't seem to be hope, you know there is more that will happen after the ending, you care more. There is no artifical winding up of the story, no rushed ending that seems to be prevalent in some novels these days. (And it is better edited than most modern novels too, with no need for superfluous commas, with respect to dear old Oscar.)

An interesting outlook, with only hints to what is happening in various sites around the country. I have toyed with the idea of writing a companion piece, but from the viewpoint of one of the lower classes, but hey, that would be effort. Interesting, slightly derivative, but still effort.

I get the sense that many of the modern sci-fi/horror authors owe a great debt to Wyndham, probably most of those 'urban' ones. But his strength was in not dwelling on the horror, but the characters, and how they see it, or don't. 'The Kraken Wakes' isn't scary, in the same way some of his other novels are, and could be seen more in the 'disaster movie' mould, but even that does it a disservice. A study in reaction, how to handle a completely unprecendented situation.

And I managed to get through all that without (directly) mentioning 'Day of the Triffids', which is also a fine novel, but with man's tinkering being the catalyst, rather than an otherworldly attack. Oh, hang on...

(Picture taken from my photostream)