The Kraken Wakes

by John Wyndham

1968. Reprinted. 240 pages. Illustrated paper cover. Pages and binding are presentable with no major defects. Minor issues present such as mild cracking, inscriptions, inserts, light foxing, tanning and thumb marking. Paper cover has mild edge wear with light rubbing and creasing. Some light marking and tanning. Book has a rolled spine.

Genres: Science Fiction

Paperback

About the author

John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was the son of a barrister. After trying a number of careers, including farming, law, commercial art and advertising, he started writing short stories in 1925. After serving in the civil Service and the Army during the war, he went back to writing. Adopting the name John Wyndham, he started writing a form of science fiction that he called 'logical fantasy'. As well as The Day of the Triffids, he wrote The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids, The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned) and The Seeds of Time.

Reviews

[Aelin · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 because i had to read it for my thesis, and i was so done with it. The plot only picked up during the middle and second half of the story. There seems to be a heavy focus on scientific denialism and on journalisms role. The end was very vague and open, which left many questions and concerns out in the open.

[Lachlan Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

War of the Worlds by way of Wyndham's more famous Day of the Triffids. An alien menace slowly engulfs a world too myopic to head it off, though in this case the blindness is only figurative - the posturing of world powers and concerns of capital.

No element stands as wholly unique, but segue well and build on each other as lapping waves of a rising tide. The high strangeness of the early lights in the sky. The eerie leavings of unseen island assaults. The writhing horror of the mycelial bombing campaign. The final, diluvian spectacle of England's transformation into an archipelago of hilltops and skyscraper islands.

It's all very well done and, read in the throes of the climate crisis, managed to draw out in me an environmental, existential dread that's increasingly rare to find amidst today's media fatigue.

[Brian Terence · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a classic.

Obviously, John Wyndham, my copy, has this cover.

[Sylvia Warman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is splendid 20th Century Science Fiction. The science is very well imagined and explained and the story is gripping. A very enjoyable read.