David Strorm's father doesn't approve of Angus Morton's unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realise that his own son, and his son's cousin Rosalind and their friends, have their own secret abberation which would label them as mutants. But as David and Rosalind grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal their differences from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery, or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badlands. . . If the authorities will ruthlessly destroy such outward Deviations, David can imagine what would happen if village leaders discovered he and several of his friends posses a particularly powerful Deviation: they are telepathic, capable of sharing mental images and speaking with one another internally, mind-to-mind. And David's younger sister Petra is born with super, mind-blowing telepathic powers, able to communicate with other telepaths halfway across the globe. Holy Deviation! Unfortunately, the villagers get wind of the strange abilities of David and the others. Ah! Their small group must escape the clutches of all those intolerant, fundamentalist village bigots, journey miles beyond to lands unknown, to encounter new worlds. Thus, on a second level, we have an exciting young adult adventure, one requiring stamina, endurance, courage and resourcefulness. Do you know a twelve-year-old or teenage booklover? If so, The Chrysalids would make the perfect gift. David Strorm is the narrator of the story. David is one of a small group of youngsters who can communicate with each other via telepathy. However, their community's theological prejudice against anyone who is abnormal means he and the others must keep their abilities carefully hidden. David and Rosalind's love for each other is kept secret from their parents because of a bitter feud between their families.

Another symbol that is introduced in these chapters is the Steam Engine, a paragon of technology in a world that has only very basic farming, transportation, and communication methods. The Steam Engines represent the power of the Old People, and serve as a way of showing how far the Waknuk people have come; at the same time, the Steam Engines are juxtaposed to the world that David dreams of, with horseless vehicles and flying machines. Initially, David believes this dream city may be a world of the Old People. However, this image is actually a foreshadowing to a place that David will learn more about later in the novel. The story is set in Labrador, Canada, which in the book has a warmer climate than today. The inhabitants are famers with a technology roughly equivalent to early 18th century Europe. They are aware that “the old people” once had a more advanced civilisation but believe God sent “tribulation” to punish humanity for its sinfulness. They are also ruled by a harsh form of Christianity that is focused on the destruction of “deviations” or “mutants”, whether human, animal or plant life. Radiation residues cause genetic abnormalities which the Church believes are the work of the Devil. The women of Labrador sew large Christian crosses onto their dresses, in the hope they can ward off the Devil and give birth to children “in the true image of God.” As might be expected in such a society, it is women who get the blame when things don’t go to plan. To the south of the settled area lies “The Fringes” where genetic variations are more common, and further south again are “The Badlands”, which are still uninhabitable as a result of the nuclear holocaust. 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.I have to say despite it being only 10 months since I last read it, it was still a great Post Apocalyptic book, yes it has a relatively positive ending but who knows maybe that'll be the case post COVID !! David tells his telepathic community of friends, via thoughts, about the incident with Sophie. In a conversation with the Inspector, David finds out Sophie and her parents were caught. Later, David confides in Uncle Axel and tells him that he wants to run away because he feels scared about his own deviance from the norm. Uncle Axel convinces David not to run away until he is older, and reasons that no one really knows what the real norm of humanity is. Axel bases this knowledge on his experience as a sailor, where he heard about numerous other societies with mutations that they thought were the norm. Uncle Axel also talks of the geographical aspects of Waknuk and the surrounding badlands. 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 747? 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 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. This is the story of David, a young boy who has a troubled upbringing in a rural farming community. He's brought into a culture where 'Deviation' is seen as Devil-work and anything that 'Deviates' in any way must be exterminated. This extends through all the crops that the farmers grow, right through to the children they birth. Any abnormality will mean death or desertion of children/burning of crops. Nothing is allowed to go against the True Image, and David's father is one of the most staunch in the community about enforcing this rule. Honesty compels me to state that The Chrysalids suffers from being very familiar even if you never read it because there are (apparently) only so many thing that are ever going to happen after the nuclear holocaust. There will be granite jawed high and mighty God-intoxicated flawed leaders (Charlton Heston), there will be hotheaded youths (Leonardo DiCaprio circa 1998), there will be lissom ardent girls in inappropriate garments (Jenny Agutter from Logan’s Run), there is a strong chance of there being bands of roaming mutants led by Brad Dourif, aw, you know the drill.

It is a young adult novel, but don't let that stop you, the issues are adult. David Strorm is the main protagonist, a young man who lives in a fanatical religious community, who is able to send telepathic messages to others like him. His farming village is very traditional. 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 continues his friendship with Sophie by visiting her two or three times a week after he finishes school in the mornings. She shows him her territory, and he brings her to his side of the bank to show off his community’s steam-engine. Sophie and David discuss the Old People, wondering whether they are the magical beings that David imagines, who can fly, or if they are simply human, as Sophie believes. There is critical disagreement regarding whether the intervention of the Sealand culture at the end of the novel should be considered a deus ex machina. [11] John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids anticipates and surpasses many of today’s dystopian thrillers…. The Chrysalids explores intolerance and bigotry with satisfying complexity as it races toward an ending that is truly unpredictable.”— The Seattle Times David walks home to Waknuk, his farm community, by cutting through the woods, keeping his hand on his knife for fear there could be dangerous and large wild dogs or cats. He cuts across four fields to get home, sneaking past Old Jacob. David describes the house he lives in, built by his grandfather, Elias Strorm. The house was built fifty years ago, the first house in the settlement; now it has many rooms, including storerooms and barns that were added over the years. The frame of the house is made of wood, and the walls are filled in with remnants of the buildings left by the Old People. David is unsure of where the name Waknuk comes from, suggesting that it may have been part of the name the Old People used. The great room is the center of the home, where the hearth is located, and the room is decorated with the religious text of Nicholson’s repentances. The repentances serve as reminders to remain pure and be wary of mutants.

When the community discovers that David and Rosalind together with a small group of other young people have developed the ability to communicate telepathically, they are forced to flee for their lives. They are re-united with their friend Sophie, earlier banished to the Fringes for the disgusting aberration of having six toes instead of the normal five. David's younger sister, Petra, able to communicate her thoughts with a power and at a distance far beyond any of the other children discovers the presence of others like them in a distant community who mount a campaign to rescue the children from their persecutors. Well let's be honest, who reads the same book twice in one year, erm me, it appears. It seems like déja vu but I had no intention of reading it again this year, until the group Apocalypse Whenever nominated it as their (our) December Book Club Read. 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. Her power is unprecedented, and the story sets up the fascinating tension of what an innocent young child with uncurbed power might be capable of in the defense of herself and her friends. But it never goes anywhere with the idea: she never actually does anything with it. With that setup, there really should've been a followup to explore the issue, in my opinion. Sophie Wender is a young girl born with six toes on one of her feet. Sophie lives with her parents in an isolated cottage somewhere north-west of Waknuk. Her deviation from the "norm" keeps her from associating with other children. She befriends David after he discovers her secret but promises not to reveal it.

Lou Martiniano. "Chrysalids & Survival, The". BBCradio-audiobook.info. Archived from the original on 4 May 2009 . Retrieved 22 May 2010. The Chrysalids (United States title: Re-Birth) is a science fiction novel by British writer John Wyndham, first published in 1955 by Michael Joseph. It is the least typical of Wyndham's major novels, but regarded by some as his best. [2] [3] [4] An early manuscript version was entitled Time for a Change. [5] Many years have passed since a devastating nuclear war left much of the world in ruins. A small village in northern Labrador comprised of religious fundamentalists is on the lookout for what they call “deviations” - food, animals or even people who deviate from the socially acceptable norm. Once these deviations have been discovered, it is either to be destroyed on the spot or if you’re one of the few people born with a deformity, sterilized and banished from the community, destined to live in what they call “The Fringes”. David’s father is a no-nonsense preacher who presents select bible verses as fact and therefore is void of empathy when it comes to protecting the community from so called deviations from the devil, despite the fact that many pose no threat. Since nuclear waste has an approximate half life of twenty-four thousand years, there’s a good chance that the deformities are a result of radiation rather than the mythical man below. However, I guess the struggling society isn’t all that knowledgeable given the separation from the “Old People”. Aldiss, Brian W (1973). Billion year spree: the history of science fiction. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p.254. ISBN 978-0-297-76555-4.

Retailers:

If you enjoyed The Chrysalids, you might like Arthur Miller's The Crucible, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour presented an unabridged reading by Geoffrey Wheeler of the novel in ten 15-minute episodes, broadcast daily between 17 and 28 August 1970. It leaves one to think about one’s own experience with racism in this pre-apocalyptic world. Not being ‘white’ can expose one to all sorts of risks and not being a ‘straight male’ may mean that one is disproportionately exposed to hurt, both physical and psychological. So, if/when you find yourself in that spot, remember that your uniqueness makes this world what it is; wondrous and beautiful. John Wyndham is often described in rather disparaging term as the main proponent of cosy catastrophe. This based on the allegation that his protagonists tend to be English middle class white males who are not much inconvenienced by the apocalypse, somehow continuing to live it up while the rest of the populace suffer. Having read three of his books I find that while the allegation is not entirely unwarranted it is also not quite fair. I hope to write more about this issue when I get around to reviewing The Day of the Triffids.