The Midwich Cuckoos: Now a major Sky series starring Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley

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My one criticism of the book is that in the latter half of the book, the clues as to what the Children were all about and why they behaved like they did was related to us in conversation between Richard Gayford, whose occupation is unclear in the novel, and a leading elder citizen of the village, a boring old fart named Gordon Zellaby. A good deal of some chapters are taken up by Mr. Zellaby expounding on this, that, and the other thing about the Children. The redeeming aspect of the novel is when the Children actually do something, as the events are astounding. I would give this book 3.5 stars rather than 3 because of the plot line and at least to me, its startling originality, and its closeness to reality (i.e., it was not far-fetched).

Aldiss, Brian W. (1973). Billion year spree: the history of science fiction. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p.293. ISBN 978-0-297-76555-4. The sleepiest of all sleepy English country villages is the scene of a most unusual event: on a lovely autumn night, everyone in Midwich passes out, to wake up seemingly unharmed the next morning. But it soon comes to their attention that every fertile woman who was in the village during this strange episode is now pregnant. When those babies are born nine months later, it is obvious that they are not normal, or even human… They all have dark blond hair and golden eyes, grow twice as fast as ordinary children and their minds seem to be intricately connected, almost in a sort of hive-mind... The grotesque situation is managed and commented on by the three or four wise birds of Midwich, all of whom are male, all of whom talk in a strangulated hoity toity manner where nothing should be mentioned directly if there is a longwinded circumlocution available – here’s our narrator : We are thrust into the novel right in the middle of the "Dayout", when the village of Midwich seems to have been put to sleep. Army manoeuvres reveal that a hemisphere 2 miles in diameter surrounds the village. Then aerial photography shows an unidentifiable silvery object on the ground in the centre of the created exclusion zone. This section of the text is told most entertainingly. Although there is an underlying sense of dread and chill, the "indignant squawk" of the canary, as it repeatedly falls off its perch each time it meets the invisible barrier which put it to sleep, and the description of people just seeming to conk out, is actually very funny. Some months afterwards, Midwich women discover they're pregnant and eventually give birth to a batch of babies with striking physical traits, including distinctive golden eyes. Equally alarming, none of the children have their mothers' features.

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El ritmo del libro es lento, no hay acción apenas y vemos como es el discurrir en el pueblo de Midwich con ese extraño alumbramiento masivo.

radio production - An adaptation by William Ingram in three 30-minute episodes for the BBC World Service, first broadcast between 9 and 23 December 1982. It was directed by Gordon House, with music by Roger Limb of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. It is regularly repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

It is such a great homage to chance, which played a major role in the main characters' lives in The Day of the Triffids as well. One of the characters happened to be spared blindness, but only by accident, and thus was able to take a leading role in the ensuing action. In Midwich, the ordeal is of a different kind. The children get born and then we are in the Village of the Damned (in case anyone missed the connection). Good story and a few cool twists that kept interest up. Unfortunately it fell apart a bit for me at the (inevitable) end, when Wyndham uses the entire storyline as a basis for a existential/ethical discussion that felt very contrived. The ultimate question is whether humanitarianism trumps biological duty, and hence whether civilisation could ultimately be our downfall in a hostile environment.

This book was made into several movies and radio broadcasts. John Carpenter's Village of the Damned was one of the best and most recent. If we remember that the majority of feminine tasks are deadly dull, and leave the mind so empty that the most trifling seed that falls there can grow into a riotous tangle, we shall not be surprised by an outlook on life which has the disproportion and the illogical inconsequence of a nightmare, where values are symbolic rather than literal. John Wyndham's books are often described, labeled or tagged as cozy catastrophe, I am not sure what that means as the two books* I have read so far of his are rather unsettling. My guess is the Englishness of his prose style and the politeness of his characters. As something of an anglophile I very much appreciate this style of writing, it is very comforting and old school, especially with a nice cuppa tea in my hand. The only serious problem with this book is that the plot is so well known. It was filmed a couple of times as Village of the Damned, adapted for radio plays and is required reading in many schools. If you really really have no idea what this book is about here is my ridiculously simplified synopsis: Things come to a head when tragedy strikes: riding along a lane in his car, a villager, young Jim Pawle, turns a corner and accidentally runs over one of the Children. The Children's response is immediate and extreme: they cause young Jim to accelerate and crash into a wall, causing instant death. The law can place no blame on the Children. Dissatisfied with the verdict, Jim's brother grabs a gun and takes aim at the Children but immediately turns the shotgun on himself and fires. The writing is good - Wyndham is surprisingly funny and does a fair job of characterization - Gordon Zellaby is a particularly strongly written character, although he isn't our protagonist.

At the centre of Wyndham's twisted tale is the quiet fictional town of Midwich. Over the course of 24 hours, every inhabitant of the town falls unconscious. The authorities are notified but no one can enter and no one can explain why it’s happened. A mysterious silver object sits at the centre of the village. However, after a day passes, the silver object disappears, and everyone wakes up seemingly unaffected.

Da normalerweise die Originalvorlagen viel mehr Tiefe aufweisen als die Verfilmungen, war ich gespannt, wie es mir mit dieser Erzählung aus dem Jahr 1957 ergehen würde.

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What I like about this one is it really has a sense of unease throughout. The people of this village have to try and band together and support each other through such a big unknown it's hardly even something they can comprehend. They are all reliant on one another for support because the outside world doesn't know what's really happened, and they are worried about what these children may bring. Als Fazit muss ich leider konstatieren, dass dies einer der wenigen Romane ist, die ich verfilmt besser finde als in Buchform.