Hi, I'm a new mum to Adrian (born 14th November 02) and live with him and my husband Martin in Luton...
Hi, I'm a new mum to Adrian (born 14th November 02) and live with him and my husband Martin in Luton.
I enjoy reading, computing (internet, games etc), and cooking.
Member since:07.01.2003
Reviews:17
Members who trust:19
This is my favourite of the books written by John Wyndham. I first read it when I was about 11 and it was my very first adult sci-fi book. I believe that it is the book that started my passion for sci-fi, and that in itself is very high praise. I remember my friend, who had told me about this book, and I sitting on her bed while we tried to think “thought shapes” to each other. I was very disappointed when it didn’t work.
The book is set in a future world still recovering from the Tribulation (a nuclear holocaust). The Tribulation has caused a large wasteland, called the Badlands, which is uninhabitable. Around the Badlands is an area called the Fringes, this area suffers badly from mutations and many of the people who live here have bizarre, even nightmarish deformations.
Over time the Fringes give way to frontier country, which is settled upon and cultivated. Such a community was founded by the grandfather of out narrator, David Storm.
David lives in the “orderly, law abiding, God respecting community” of Waknuk. In this community there are religious laws on what people, animals and plants should look like. These laws are very exact, the Definition of Man is “… and each leg shall be jointed twice and have one foot, and each foot five
toes, and each toe shall end with a flat nail”, and these laws are very strictly upheld. When a Deviation (mutation) is found it is severely treated. If it is a field of wheat, it is burned. If it is a calf, it is slaughtered, and if it is a human baby it is taken to the Fringes and abandoned to die. A district inspector may be called out if there is argument over whether something is a Deviation or not, but David’s father prefers to be on the safe side and destroys anything if there is even doubt.
Even David’s left-handedness has caused disapproval, but it isn’t until he meets a young girl called Sophie that he begins to understand what a Deviation in a human could mean. When playing on a sand bank with her she hurts her foot and he has to remove her shoe because of the swelling. It isn’t until he has taken her home and her mother is concerned that he has seen her foot that he realises that she shouldn’t have that extra toe on each foot. He promises to secrecy but doesn’t really understand the severity of his promise until he is punished for saying he wished he had an extra hand (to get tasks done quickly). He then has a terrible nightmare of his friend Sophie being slaughtered by his father in the yard, as a calf would have been.
When another boy from the community comes across David and Sophie playing in a stream and sees her wet footprints on a stone, Sophie and her parents flee for the Fringes.
Then one day David’s Uncle Axel comes across David talking apparently to himself, only his isn’t talking to himself but to his half-cousin, Rosalind who is quite some distance a way near her home. He had been using what they call thought shapes to communicate with her, basically a form of telepathy. Uncle Axel immediately realises they danger that David is in and makes David swear to secrecy not to speak aloud when thought shaping, not to tell anyone about it and to make sure that Rosalind does the same. David doesn’t tell Uncle Axel about the others who can also do thought shapes. But again, the importance of his promise doesn’t become apparent to him until later.
I would love to tell you more about how the story progresses, but I feel that is probably enough of a taster, I wouldn’t want to give the whole plot and ruin the story for those of you that haven’t it yet.
There are several themes running through the story. The main theme is religion, how a religion rules person lives, how it is used as justification. It is also shown through the cross motif that the people of Waknuk sew onto there clothes to keep mutations at bay.
Then there is the theme of what makes a human, are you still human if you have an extra leg? Every place in this book the people living there think that they are the correct image of God, which of them is right? We are told that it is the mind that makes us human, rather than the body.
There is also the effect of the nuclear war, how it has changed peoples lives, how people have coped with it.
And finally there is the theme of evolution. In Waknuk no evolution would be allowed to take place, it would be destroyed as a deviation. In Sealand they believe that they are more evolved than the Waknuk people and that other people are primitive and will die out.
So after all that what do I say to summarise? Well, apparently this is a book used in schools, but it is much more than a book to help teach looking for themes etc. It is a book to be read for pleasure and has brought me delight every time I have read it. It does have a dark side, even the people who are the rescuers in the book have dark elements, but that is so much more realistic than if they were all good. It is a book that makes you think, but I don’t mean that it is challenging to read. Quite the opposite, I find it very easy to read and hard to stop reading, even though I have now read it about 5 times. Some of you may avoid it because it is an old book, published in 1955, but I do not feel that it has aged at all.
So my last words are: this is a great book, and I have come to appreciate it even more now that I have thought about it hard enough to write this opinion. If you like science fiction you will certainly like it, but even if you don’t like science fiction it will be enjoyable. Read it!
This op has been previously published on Dooyoo.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I haven't read this book but you have made me want to. Thanks for that- I always like to have other authors to explore. I have read some of his work, but ages and ages ago..time to rediscover him!
take care
Sue
tine 07.04.2003 20:32
Wouldn't normally look at anything like this, but you made it sound very interesting.
Jan 7th, 2003
very helpful by (100%):
