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EMBED for wordpress. Want more? Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! Very well done. Thanks for the uploads. Dan: Martha, you know what's up there to the north? Martha: What, dear? Dan: it's Martha: screams. Very good stuff, except for the fact that MANY contain random profanity and curse words spoken by the characters.
And, when I say "profanity" and "curse words", please think beyond common swear words like "Hell" or "Damn". I assume the writers were trying for "realism". If that was the goal, it did not really work, because the voice actors generally seemed totally uncomfortable shouting or muttering them, so those nasty words end up sounding forced and distracting from the plot.
If profanity bothers you, this is definitely not the show for you. Just my two cents. Reviewer: kboyxxx - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 20, Subject: Thank you I listened to my first Nightfall last night. Great sound effects and wonderful acting. Thank you for posting these shows.
Their traditions include death or banishment for anyone who isn't "perfect". Perfect people have no odd physical deformations, and no mental ones either. David's father is the staunch, cruel leader of their farming community and won't allow a "deviant" to live. He even kills his newborn babies. My favorite quote is when David is trying to explain to his young sister, Petra, why they are hated,. And the more stupid they are, the more like everyone else they think everyone ought to be. And once they get afraid they become cruel and want to hurt people who are different--".
View all 6 comments. It seems wrong for the first adjective I'd use to describe a rather miserable future dystopia to be "nostalgic" but that was the mood this book swept me into. Not a nostalgia for the world described within the book, but rather for the style of writing. I read a great deal of fiction very similar to this in my early teenage years, but somehow, I believe I missed this one. Even if I had read it before, it would've held up to re-reading - this is quite an excellent book.
In a post-nuclear-war socie It seems wrong for the first adjective I'd use to describe a rather miserable future dystopia to be "nostalgic" but that was the mood this book swept me into.
In a post-nuclear-war society, life is restricted by radioactive no-go zones. Physical mutations are common, but, at least in the strict, religious, patriarchal village that is all young David has ever known, mutants - animal, vegetable or human - are ruthlessly weeded out.
He's never questioned the morality he's been raised with - until the heavy hand of the law falls upon a childhood friend - and he realizes that he himself may be a new and unprecedentedly dangerous kind of mutant. Not only that, but his young sister, Petra, may share his mutation. He is not alone - but will a small group of young people be able to survive in the face of the firmly-held convictions of even their dearest friends and family?
There are a few weaknesses to the book - the "wise uncle" character is a bit too good and knowledgeable to be true, and once our characters are on the run, the plot feels a bit rushed The book does a superlative job of exploring the psychology of hatred, including the motivations behind it, while making a cogent, compelling argument for diversity in all its forms: what makes us human is not the physical form of our bodies, our gender, or even how we think, but something deeper than that.
But when the psychic mutants from across the radioactive wastes sweep in, deus-ex-machina-like, to rescue Petra, the children may be delighted - but the reader can see that these more-advanced people, in turn, regard Humanity 1. David and Petra are disturbingly ready to accept their justifications for actions that may seem to us completely ethically unjustifiable. We are left wondering what David's - and even Petra's - place in this promised brave new world will really be.
While that open-endedness is, in that way, thought-provoking, there is another open end, however, which cries out for a never-written sequel: Petra. But it never goes anywhere with the idea: she never actually does anything with it. Read for post-apocalyptic book club.
View 1 comment. Perhaps the best sound-bite from the anti-evolution camp is the one about the tornado. If a tornado hit a junkyard, how likely is it that it would randomly create a ? I was surprised to learn the other day that the line originally comes from Fred Hoyle, the brilliant but eccentric astrophysicist who also coined the phrase "Big Bang".
Of course, it's not a fair comparison. The whole point, as everyone from Darwin onward has explained, is that evolution isn't a one-shot process; it's the result Perhaps the best sound-bite from the anti-evolution camp is the one about the tornado. The whole point, as everyone from Darwin onward has explained, is that evolution isn't a one-shot process; it's the result of a gigantic number of tiny incremental steps, where Nature each time throws away nearly all the results as unpromising and keeps only the few that gave something worthwhile.
So I'm not impressed with the tornado and the junkyard as an argument against evolution. But it is an extremely good putdown of the post-apocalytic SF plot featuring mutants with wild powers, of which this book is a typical example. Hard radiation has scrambled everyone's DNA, and this happens to result in the instant creation of, not one, but many people who can communicate telepathically?
Give me a break. View all 32 comments. Shelves: , syfy , fiction , after-the-end , fun-in-the-future. Many years have passed since a devastating nuclear war left much of the world in ruins. Author John Wyndham brings us into the mind of David, a young man born with telepathic powers. Where his own personal deviation is not visible to the community, he and others who share this ability must keep their special talent a secret for fear of death or banishment.
Can David and his fellow friends keep their special skills under wraps or are they doomed to live among the fallen? Aug 18, Katie Lumsden rated it it was amazing. Absolutely brilliant - one of the best books I've read in terms of dealing with a post-apocalyptic world and what they might mean.
The writing is beautiful and the characterisation and world-building subtly done. The society Wyndham builds is terrifying and fascinating, and brilliantly created. I think I preferred the slower first half to the more action-driven second half, but this will still definitely be one of my favourites of this year! View 2 comments. I lost a lot of sleep because of this book. Written in the s, we are given to understand they are living like early colonizers in a post-nuclear world where nature continually offers strange mutations, and nightmarish, unnameable things lurk in the Fringes.
John Wyndham and this book pass the time test incredibly well. A fascinating look at post apocalyptic life. The living form defies evolution at its peril; if it does not adapt, it will be broken. The idea of completed man is the supreme vanity: the finished image is a sacrilegious myth.
I nominated this book for my real-life book club because I was trying to think of something that would fit a Halloween-sort-of theme, and some description I saw of this book mentioned the Devil, so why not? Sorry, book club.
Not very Halloween-y, eh? And, apparently at least in Pittsburgh , really difficult to find. I failed you all this month. It is a post-apocalyptic novel, though, and I'm usually down for that.
This particular post-ap novel is also a coming-of-age story, which I have to admit I nominated this book for my real-life book club because I was trying to think of something that would fit a Halloween-sort-of theme, and some description I saw of this book mentioned the Devil, so why not?
This particular post-ap novel is also a coming-of-age story, which I have to admit surprised me. That's again what I get for going into reading something without knowing a dang thing about it. The coming-of-age-r is David Strorm, the eldest son of a religious nut in Waknuk, more commonly known to us as Labrador.
It's in Canadia. It's a few thousand years in the future after things went boom, and this whole community is just as zealous and fanatical as David's father. They believe as many do that humans are made in God's image, blah blah blah, and this community holds that to the very letter.
And this community is not going to go for that. There's a lot of discussion here about what makes one "normal" or "not normal". A few times felt a bit tedious, but I understand the point Wyndham was trying to make. It's an important issue for the community and one they do not take lightly.
And, again, they're fanatical and if there's one thing fanatical people do it's be fanatical and not shut up about things. Everything else is pretty much a spoiler, so you'll just have to read it yourself if you're remotely interested.
It's not my favorite post-ap novel but I feel it's a sci-fi classic and a great contribution to post-apocalyptic writing. It's a quick read ringing in at just pages which is good because like a jackass I had to order a copy online because my beloved library system failed me on this one, and then the Internet failed me and I thought I wasn't going to get the book until November 4th.
But the Internet also surprised me by arriving this past weekend, and I was able to get through most of it in just a couple of days and then couldn't finish the last 10 pages until tonight because Life. Way to toy with my emotions, Internet. The ending does leave a bit to be desired.
It was a little I cannot quite put my finger on it, but I feel slightly dissatisfied in the end which is a shame. I have seen a few reviews where this was make-or-break sort of ending, but I wouldn't be so extreme as to say it ruined the entire experience for me. I was fascinated and interested throughout the story, and that's really what's important to me.
I would also take a moment to reflect on the author's name which, originally, is not just John Wyndham like a regular schmoe. His real name was Guy had more names than Dumbledore. Someone have a baby and name him Beynon, please and thanks. For one thing, the post-nuclear ruins of the world were fascinating and eerie, and the community's reverence for "the Old People" namely us was spooky. The setting was well-imagined with its fanaticism and emotional detachment. The themes of Naziism and metaphorical racism were applicable to the social and political issues we face today.
The way t "To be any kind of deviant is to be hurt - always. The way that "deviants" were treated echoed our current struggles as a society to accept one another.
Nevertheless, while the first third of the story was engaging, profound, reflective, and mysterious, a lot of the edge was lost as the plot progressed. I lost interest as it devolved into mind-chatter between a large group of interchangeable telepathic characters.
Furthermore, Petra was annoying, David's apparent relationship with Rosalind seemed contrived, and several new plot elements were introduced towards the end including the Zealanders, who were totally random. It became increasingly unrealistic, even for a dystopian novel, until it ended up being rather silly.
None of the characters seemed to truly feel anything about their predicament and were happy to just keep following orders or walking along until they reached - well - who knows!?
Certainly not these characters! And a point on which I am particularly bitter is the handling of Sophie: a ballsy, fun-loving little girl who disappears for eight years only to return as a love-sick mistress who'd rather die than be cast aside by her cruel master, who'd happened to show, apparently, some semblance of kindness to her. And what's worse is that she was written in such a way as to justify her attachment to him, like it was completely reasonable and no one could have possibly expected anything different.
And, of course, Sophie is also madly in love with David. Everyone is madly in love with David. At the risk of giving too much away, I must say: I fail to understand how the murders of TWO full communities can be justified by the explanation that they were "intellectually underdeveloped," when the whole point of the novel up to that point was to accept everyone for their differences. The consequence of failing to do so, is the creation of a cold, harsh, stringent, and unhappy society where everyone lives in fear of everyone else.
Perspective is a matter of one's environment, and there is none superior to the other. But by the end of this, the author seemed to be saying: "All perspectives are equal, except for this one, which is more equal than all the others. They were simply uneducated and needed guidance. Telepathy is not a requirement for intelligence. The world was more engrossing when it was being revealed little by little, when there were still elements left to the imagination. Once plot holes started to fill in and become repetitive, I quickly grew bored and ceased to care.
It's a shame because this novel had a lot of potential and a lot to say about how we treat one another. Shelves: classic-literature , classic-challenge , science-fiction , fantasy-sci-fi-challenge , personal-favourites. Having recently read John Wyndham's famous novel The Day of the Triffids , which is known more for the film adaptations, I decided to read another of Wyndham's books.
The result left me very satisfied and I must conclude that Wyndham now holds a place on my imaginary bookshelf of favourite classic sci-fi authors alongside Wells, Asimov and Verne to name a few. The idea of The Chrysalids is simple but executed extremely well. As a result The Chrysalids is a complement to the aesthetic as well as Having recently read John Wyndham's famous novel The Day of the Triffids , which is known more for the film adaptations, I decided to read another of Wyndham's books.
As a result The Chrysalids is a complement to the aesthetic as well as to the mental senses of the reader. This is what I believe Wyndham excels at doing like Wells, creating compulsive and entertaining science fiction which is as readable as it is intelligent and questioning. Like all great novels this book ties to both the past, the present and the future of its readership and humanity.
The plot follows one adolescent boy, David, growing up in a kind of post-apocalyptic world where an event named 'the Tribulation' has occurred. It becomes clear that this 'Tribulation' has affected the genetic make up of the population of the world. The very name of this event reveals another side to the story, a strict legalistic form of Christian religion has formed a new kind of community.
In this community mutation is intolerable, a 'deviation' from man as the 'true image' of God. Of course the protagonist David recognises the fallacy of viewing mutants as inhuman: "Well, every part of a definition is as important as any other; and if a child doesn't come within it, then it isn't human, and that means it doesn't have a soul. It is not the image of God, it is an imitation, and in the imitations there is always some mistake.
Only God produces perfection, so although deviations may look like us in many ways, they cannot be really human. They are something quite different. As it turns out David is himself a 'deviation', one of those 'sent by the devil' to test the true images. He, and a small group of his friends in the community, can communicate via telepathy.
Of course no one can tell visibly that they are 'non-human' and so they remain hidden. That is until one of their number decides to marry a deviation-hating 'norm'. The issues this novel tackles are broad and far reaching. It is both a challenge to strict Pharisaic religion, which does not heed the true message of its source, and a tale about humanity.
It questions what it is to be human: whether it is about appearance or about deeper, underlying issues. And as part of challenging what it is to be human it challenges how we alienate and accept others as alien and non-human: whether that be on race, gender, sexuality, religion, age or so on. The voice of the narrator, the protagonist is perfect for allowing the writer to speak on these issues. Take the following quote for example: "'Oh,' I said, vaguely but safely.
It was odd, I felt, how many people seemed to have positive, if conflicting, information upon God's views.
I would encourage anyone to make sure that they read this book at least once. It may not necessarily be the best written of John Wyndham's books but it is one that challenges issues still relevant to our present and future. A post apocalyptic world in which society puritanically tries to resist the deviations that beset their crops, livestock and people through genetic mutations. David Strorm, never quite understanding his father's fervour for normality soon discovers that he and certain others deviate from the norm in a new and undetectable way.
As they try to keep their difference hidden and try to be normal, they eventually discover that they won't ever fit in and with the arrival of David's sister Petra, it b A post apocalyptic world in which society puritanically tries to resist the deviations that beset their crops, livestock and people through genetic mutations.
As they try to keep their difference hidden and try to be normal, they eventually discover that they won't ever fit in and with the arrival of David's sister Petra, it becomes impossible to maintain that illusion.
This story is an allegory for social change in Britian in the 's. It explores the tension between the social forces for change and conservatism. It also incorporates the fear of nuclear attack and genetic mutation as well as the science of genetic manipulation.
I found this to be an engaging and enjoyable read marred only slightly by a couple of plot niggles and an inevitably unfavourable comparison to the way Theodore Sturgeon handled a similar theme. This was a bit different from The Day of the Triffids, the only other John Wyndham novel I have read and a bit similar as well. The Triffids is set during an present day at the time of publication that is apocalypse, while The Chrysalids is a post apocalyptic novel set in the future.
The plot of both center around characters that are in the run, thought I think it takes longer until that part begins in The Chrysalids. Most importantly for me, I liked both of them. It's an interesting read at This was a bit different from The Day of the Triffids, the only other John Wyndham novel I have read and a bit similar as well.
It's an interesting read at this point in time when distrust for science seems to be increasing, and religious fanaticism Seems to be on the rise. Most of the action takes place in a society built up on a relegious fundamentalism. Wyndham paints a rather believable picture of that society. The science fiction elements of the story are not very visible, and I was even starting to think they would be comepletely absent, but then it take a turn into more science fiction like territory.
What this book seems to be about is tolerance towards difference, because the way the society is set up in this novel, but the ending makes that reading a little more ambiguous. I'm still not sure what Wyndham meaning with it was exactly. Still, I think it is a very interesting science fiction novel with a good dose of suspence.
Dec 01, Ashley rated it really liked it Shelves: british-read. A very thought-provoking and equally entertaining read that explores various themes close to my heart. Amongst them are the notion of the 'ideal' body, the use and abuse of power, the evolution of the mind and the concepts of truth and falsehood.
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