Customer Reviews

The Midwich Cuckoos

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wydham takes a look at a very interesting question: what happens with the entire human race is threatened, but our social conventions, politics, and institutions prevent us from saving ourselves? The odd title is a reference to the way cuckoo birds place their eggs in the nests of other birds who mistake the eggs for their own - but even after they hatch the surrogate mothers are compelled by their natures to take care of the babies. In Midwich, at a time when England regarded itself as the most civilized political community the world had ever known (hey, it probably still thinks that way!), the locals find themselves unable to mistreat a brood of alien, mind-controlling children, even though the fate of the world is at steak. Lot's of good narrative and entertaining philosophical conversations among the characters made this a truly great book, in the tradition of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" or Orwell's "1984".

Midwich was an ordinary village. Until the Dayout. Everyone in the village was sleeping. Anyone who ventured into the outskirts of the village would mysteriously black out. The next day things were back to normal. But every woman of suitable age was pregnant...

"The Midwich Cuckoos" is a metaphorical title for a book about collective intelligence. The alien children born in the village are identical. Golden eyed, unemotional, endowed with mental powers and superior intelligence. Over the years the Children become a bigger problem. They commit a murder and contol the minds of others. They are cold, ruthless and calculating.

This book has been described as disturbing. When it was first published the idea of children committing murderer was probably quite shocking. These days it seems normal. This is an interesting book but I prefer the apocalyptic scenarios in "The Day of the Triffids" and "The Chrysalids".

One reviewer caught what makes this book noteworthy: What happens when a culture is under attack and the culture's mores and folkways prevent them from adequately defending themselves? What happens when a society's virtues are exploited as strategic and tactical weaknesses by a cruel, cunning, and ruthless enemy? This is the basic question posed by the Midwich Cuckoos.

This is a classic tale of an unthinkable form of asymmetric warfare where an alien enemy exploits the baseline human instinct of nurture as the fulcrum upon which they place the lever of their one military advantage: the telepathic collective intelligence of an army of children.

Those who enjoy the horror genre of science fiction will be somewhat disappointed as is reflected by several other reviewers. John Wyndham is not Stephan King so those looking for a skin-crawling, pulse pounding scare will not find it in the pages of Cuckoos. Those who like a more subtle and cerebral read will find this work both disquieting and thought provoking. I would classify this as more of a psychological drama than a sci-fi horror thriller.

It's a shame to have to give this a 3 star rating. The story has stood the test of time extremely well but, as with so many ebooks, it is riddled with scanning errors. Publishers will have to realise that they must still spell-check and proof-read books once they have been scanned. We would not put up with this in a printed book - why should we be expected to with ebooks? If we all complain then maybe we can get somewhere.

Viewers of the excellent early film version of this may feel disappointed: the pace is slow, there is lots of dialogue, and the characters are hard to grasp. What's more, the children are more of a threatening presence - they cannot even be told apart reliably - than the active individuals of the film. But if the reader sticks with it, there are great rewards to be found.

First, the principal story is about the village, Midwich, which is as normal a place in the English countryside as one can imagine. There is an extraordinary series of events, first a blackout of all residents in a well defined perimeter, and then the realization that all women of child-bearing age are simultaneously pregnant, about 60 women. The full first third of the novel portrays how residents attempt to deal with the pregnancies, how they establish a kind of solidarity between themselves, that will later prove brittle and prone to violence. It is here that the complex characters are estalished in a brilliant way that is imortant later.

Second, there is the enigma of the children, whose attributes are nothing short of extraordinary, in that they appear to have two massminds, one for girls and the other for boys. They are all able to impell the villagers to behave in certain ways, as in disallowing them to leave Midwich in a time of crisis. As they all appear to be clones, no individuals emerge. What is so wonderful is that so little is explained - virtually all of the action takes place off-stage, including what the children are planning beyond their survival. They remain a splendid mystery with cunningly placed details for the reader to piece together; many interpretations are possible, if the reader enjoys that kind of exercise of the imagination. Interestingly, it is never clear whether or not they can read minds, which is only implied obliquely, and there are limits to what they can see.

Third, the reader never gets a clearly defined meaning for it all, beyond the fact that they are alien and constitute a threat, perhaps to humanity as a whole. Instead, the main characters speculate on it and discuss it, with some very unusual ideas floating about. This too can be great fun, but again, it is piecing together hints. I was left with a sense of mystery at the complexity of the universe, which is such a delight to a middle-aged mind!

Finally, there is the action that a village leader decides to take. While there is very little actual violence, it is always a threat of dread to all the villagers. For all appearences out of character, the leader proves decisive and even prescient. But again, unlike the movie, very little of the final struggle is spelled out.

This is a splendid vehicle for the lively imagination. It is also very British, which will put many American readers off, as we explect clear and fast-paced action, unequivocal explanations, and a wrap-up (with the possibiltiy of a sequel). What you get is a large social drama with subtle characters, the recognition of a new "threat of the jungle" that is never defined and whose meaning remains a delicious mystery. Warmly recommended.

"The Midwich Cuckoos," John Wyndham's 1957 science-fiction novel about an invasion of Earth by alien children, is generally superior to the movie version, "Village of the Damned." The story is set in the small English village of Midwich, where strange children are born to the local women, including virgins. The "cuckoos" in the title refers to some European species of cuckoo that lay their eggs in the nests of other birds which are fooled into hatching the eggs and caring for the young as their own. I have a high regard for most of Wyndam's writings, but this novel seemed to me to be missing the spark that energizes most of his work. The characterizations are good, as is the plot development, but the book should be much more scary than it is. Other writers have used the same theme of supernaturally evil children much more effectively. For example Ira Levin managed to sustain a feeling of dread and impending disaster throughout his best selling "Rosemary's Baby." Ray Bradbury, American contemporary of Wyndham, wrote two of his most chilling short stories, "The Veldt" and "Zero Hour," on the theme of evil lurking in the apparent innocence of children. I'm not sure why "The Midwich Cuckoos" fails to be an effective horror story, though I suspect that it's because Wyndham takes an overly intellectual approach to his subject. Criticisms aside, the book is short by today's standards and is light and enjoyable reading. I'm not sorry that I read it even though it fails to be all that it could have been.

The Midwich Cuckoos is an excellent entertaining novel. It has limited action, but the characters' response to the situation is interesting and plausible.

The audiobook version on cassette read by Jeremy Clyde is listed as unabridged in the Amazon catalog. It is heavily abridged. I returned mine without opening it.

The Midwich Cuckoos is a tale of alien invasion. One day the whole town of Midwich falls into a sleep. When they awaken a day later, every woman of childbearing age is pregnant. Nine months later somewhat odd children with the power to control minds have been born.
This is a very interesting and frightening idea, but curiously, there is no suspense to the book at all. The characters just don't seem to react to the circumstances. Odd things happen and they just shrug their shoulders and go on about their business, resigned to their fate. And no one outside the village seems to notice! A major part of the problem is that the narrator isn't involved, he just chronicles what happens with a vague sense of disquiet, but nothing more. It makes you want to reach into the book and give these people a shake and tell them to wake up. Maybe it's a British stiff upper lip kind of thing, I don't know, but the result is a story that is interesting, but never involving.

The midwich cukoos was a book which contained a combination of science-fiction and intelligence (a thing not often done). In some places it did seem to get a bit tedious but overall it was impacting and original. It is such a pity that the movies made based around this novel (Village of the Dammed, Children of the Dammed) didn't compare to the greatness of this all time classic. I give it a 10/10 all the way.

The entire population of a small, unremarkable English village mysteriously goes to sleep one evening. An Unidentified Flying Object is detected on the radar. The military is called in. Anyone who approaches the village falls unconscious. Then, mysteriously, it is over. Only a few weeks later, all the women of child-bearing ability notice that they are pregnant....

This is of course the book that inspired Village of the Damned. That title isn't exactly right for this story. The Midwich Cuckoos is less snazzy but definitely more appropriate - "cuckoo" in the sense of a bird placing her egg in another bird's nest. The movies of this story have been more about the Children looking creepy and doing scary things. The novel - like all of Wyndham's novels - is more philosophic. Yes, the children are creepy but they don't spend that much time on stage. Instead, the suspense is centered around trying to figure out exactly what the children are and what can be done about them.

Another literate science-fiction/horror novel from Wyndham.