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The Midwich Cuckoos

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 5,105 ratings · 271 reviews

Cuckoos lay eggs in other birds' nests. The clutch that was fathered on the quiet little village of Midwich, one night in September, proved to possess a monstrous will of its own. It promised to make the human race look as dated as the dinosaur.

220 pages

Published January 25th 1973 by Penguin Books Ltd (first published 1957)

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Jun 13, 2009 Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, sf

As I read this book, it began to strike me how Wyndham's world view contrasted with that of Tolkien's. Whereas Tolkien harked back to a pre-industrial time of innocence wishing we might get back closer to nature, Wyndham reminds us that we only invented civilisation as a way of distancing ourselves from the harshness and brutality of nature. There is nothing cosy and secure about mother nature.

Wyndham also tells us that tolerance of difference is a luxury of those who are secure in themselves. W...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Trudi rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, horror, classics-horror, science-fiction, 2012-reads, on-my-kobo, love-the-premise, blech, hugely-disappointing, made-into-movie, loved-the-movie, love-the-title

* 1/2 stars

I'm actually shocked by how utterly and completely this book frustrated and bored the hell out of me, how crushingly disappointed I am by the whole affair. I mean, this is John Wyndham for Chrissake -- author of The Chrysalids and The Day of the Triffids (both of which are all levels of awesome).

This? This just pisses me off. It's made me want to make my Jules face -- yeah, I got one ... what of it?

I mean, you have GOT to be fucking kidding me. How does such a fantastic idea in the h...more

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Jul 09, 2011 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, speculative-fiction

I enjoyed The Midwich Cuckoos more than I expected to, I think. I have a difficult relationship with horror stories: I have enjoyed a few, but I'm also quite susceptible to being made anxious and put on edge. The Midwich Cuckoos is one of those books that crosses the line between speculative fiction and horror, but it's more to do with a sense of the uncanny, a sense of deep unease, where the things we take for granted are just ever so subtly different, than with big horrifying things happening....more

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Jul 10, 2008 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Karen by: Colin M.

This book has one of the catchiest titles of all time! I strong-armed a co-worker into lending it to me by cornering him in the elevator. He practically squirms out of his skin in panic each time I wheel up with my mail cart and check his outbox. He mentioned he started reading The Midwich Cuckoos as part of his recent interest in dystopian literature, so I'm intrigued.

I'm sure he's dreading just the interaction required by my returning it... Little does he know that I plan to borrow all of his...more

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Sep 11, 2010 Kelly rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, science-fiction

A quick read from the pulp sci-fi writer who also gave us The Day of the Triffids.

If you've seen Village of the Damned (which is based on this book), you already know the scenario, and there won't be many surprises.

The early parts of the book are the most intriguing. After an entire town experiences a simultaneous blackout, there are shades of "Flash Forward" as the locals try to make sense of it.

The latter half of the book bogs down with lengthy speeches on ethics and morals, and more than a fe...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Samuel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love John Wyndham, I do. His originality is truly Wellsian (note, that's the second time in two reviews I've described Wyndham as "Wellsian", surely this stands as evidence enough to support any admiration I've got for him as a science fiction novelist). The Midwich Cuckoos is, simply, another fantastic chunk of classic sci-fi done correctly, based in rationality and the otherworldly. Wyndham has a fondness for the isolated communities which serves to impel the impact of strange alien interlop...more

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Dec 09, 2011 Charlie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I bought this book in about 1990 so it's taken me 20 years to get around to reading it. I bought it back then because I'd just read the Chrysalids and the Secret People and really enjoyed them but I never got around to reading this one for some reason.

It's a great premise for a book but I have a few criticisms. For one, it is riddled with male chauvinism. Throughout this book women become 'hysterical' and need to be given sedatives. If they're not hysterical then they're on the brink of becomin...more

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Aug 18, 2012 MG Mason rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is amongst the most intriguing of Wyndham’s work with a lot of subtext to mull over in such a short work. In some schools in the UK, it is still a set text, probably for that reason.

The idea is simple and familiar to anybody who has seen either of the films that it spawned (Village of the Damned). An invisible shield prevents people from entering a certain village. Aerial recon shows that everybody inside is asleep. After several days they wake up… and life carries on as normal… until, that...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Cecily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-or-futuristic

Sci fi, horror, dystopian...? A bit of all of them.

This is a straightforward and somewhat leisurely story that touches on very deep and difficult themes, mostly indirectly, but explicitly in the last quarter.

Midwich is a sleepy English village in the late 1950s. One day, everyone in the village blacks out. They awake, apparently unharmed, only to discover that all the fertile women are pregnant - but the children they give birth to are not like other human children, and turn out to have extraord...more Sci fi, horror, dystopian...? A bit of all of them.

This is a straightforward and somewhat leisurely story that touches on very deep and difficult themes, mostly indirectly, but explicitly in the last quarter.

Midwich is a sleepy English village in the late 1950s. One day, everyone in the village blacks out. They awake, apparently unharmed, only to discover that all the fertile women are pregnant - but the children they give birth to are not like other human children, and turn out to have extraordinary and disturbing powers.

It starts off by establishing the uneventful normality of the village. With dawning awareness of what has happened, most people indulge in denial and eventually a degree of acceptance. The abnormal becomes normal, and things get stranger still.

The big flaw of this book is its neglect of female characters, especially given that it is the women who are violated in such a profound way. More understandable is the overprotective attitudes of some of the men, exercising "benign censorship", especially for the less educated women. That may not be acceptable now, but surely typical of the period. It also oddly omits almost all mention of older and younger siblings of the Children (the capital C is used) and barely mentions the pain of the putative fathers.

The strength of the book is the way it raises so many philosophical issues in a relatively light way and barely 200 pages: fear of tabloid exploitation; the nature of self and individuality (and how it is affected by mind control and shared consciousness); whether scientific dogma overrides religious dogma; societal and biological pressures on mothers to bond with their babies; original sin; triumph over adversity and the desire to see good in situations; whether ends justify means; what it means to be human; evolution versus creationism; the nature of evil and what can be done in the name of self-preservation; the politics of colonisation and revolution. The ultimate question is whether humanitarianism trumps biological duty and hence whether civilisation could ultimately be our downfall in a hostile environment.

One of the problems Wyndham suffers nowadays is that to modern readers, his work can seem derivative, which is a dreadful injustice when in many cases it's because more modern writers have derived ideas from him. (less)

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Dec 27, 2008 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, own-it

Although this passage does not appear until halfway through the novel, it sums up much of the core of the Midwich Cuckoos storyline:

"If you were wishful to challenge the supremacy of a society that was fairly stable, and quite well weaponed, what would you do? Would you meet it on its own terms by launching a probably costly, and certainly destructive assault? Or, if time were of no great importance, would you prefer to employ a version of a more subtle tactic? Would you, in fact, try to someho...more Although this passage does not appear until halfway through the novel, it sums up much of the core of the Midwich Cuckoos storyline:

"If you were wishful to challenge the supremacy of a society that was fairly stable, and quite well weaponed, what would you do? Would you meet it on its own terms by launching a probably costly, and certainly destructive assault? Or, if time were of no great importance, would you prefer to employ a version of a more subtle tactic? Would you, in fact, try to somehow introduce a fifth column, to attack it from within?"

The novel goes on to explore a type of collective-consciousness, or as Wyndham defines it, collective-individualism.

The characterization is at times somewhat prolonged or uninteresting, yet at other times succinct and quite relevant. For example:

"A quick glance at Janet's expression showed me that she had dropped out. When she has decided that someone is talking nonsense she make a quick decision to waste no more effort upon it, and pills down an impervous mental curtain."

I immediately could identify the above two sentences with individuals I have interacted with and suspect will interact with again in the future. Those individuals who refuse to consider evidence if it clashes with their rigid views - ignorance is often far easier than serious contemplation. Passages like these makes Wyndham's sometimes lengthy descriptions worth exploring.

The Midwich Cuckoos is definitely an entertaining look at an unusual invasion storyline. Overall, the pacing is quite slow with minimal action occurring compared to much of today's sci-fi fare. However, when wading through some of the dry dialogue there often seemed to be several pieces that really caused this reader to stop and consider. It is a novel that in the proper hands (not John Carpenter's Village of the Damned) could make an excellent screenplay. Certain events reminded me of some of the concepts from M. Knight Shamalayan's recent bust "The Happening". Perhaps if Mr. Shamalayan steered that recent film directly towards this plotline he would have had a blockbuster on his hands.

In the end, a visit to Wyndham's Midwich is worthwhile - the conversations aren't always invigorating, but the concepts and key events are enough to add this to your reading list - after "The Chrysalids" and "The Day of Triffids" of course.
(less)

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Dec 16, 2009 Dan Schwent rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: early-sf

Ah, my other favorite John Wyndham classic and another prime example of the blurred lines between sf and horror in the first half of the 20th century.

You all are familiar with the concept even if you don't know where it comes from. Creepy kids are born in an isolated England town to unsuspecting mothers and proceed to terrorize it with their hivemind and telepathic abilities. Classic stuff and pillaged innumerable time in both print and film. How do you defeat enemies who know your every thought...more

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May 01, 2013 Rob Bliss rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excellent!

For many reasons: here are three (in descending order).

One: its a feminist novel ignored (i think) by feminists. Written by a man, in 1957. Never saw it on any feminist curriculm.

Why? In 1957, for example, an unmarried pregnant women was cast out of her community in order to have her baby in secret. The girl was made to feel shame. She wasn't at fault, the society was. This was not rectified until the feminist movement said that women were allowed to be mothers without marriage being...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Marina_f rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1960s, american, sci-fi, all-time-favourite-books

Когда я начинала читать книгу, то очень боялась, что "Мидвичские кукушки" повторят судьбу The Stepford Wives - тот редкий случай, когда 1) экранизация лучше, чем книга; 2) сюжет хорош, а выполнение не очень. Но, к счастью, от "Кукушек" я осталась в восторге, хотя книга действительно идейно перекликается с "Женами".

Женщины всего городка Мидвич внезапно забеременели, выносили и родили странных Детей, которые и внешним видом, и своим поведением уж слишком отличаются от людей, что бы так просто оста...more Когда я начинала читать книгу, то очень боялась, что "Мидвичские кукушки" повторят судьбу The Stepford Wives - тот редкий случай, когда 1) экранизация лучше, чем книга; 2) сюжет хорош, а выполнение не очень. Но, к счастью, от "Кукушек" я осталась в восторге, хотя книга действительно идейно перекликается с "Женами".

Женщины всего городка Мидвич внезапно забеременели, выносили и родили странных Детей, которые и внешним видом, и своим поведением уж слишком отличаются от людей, что бы так просто оставить их в покое. Детям дают вырасти, специально для них построили школу и оберегают их. Самое интересное было как раз в конце, когда стало известно, что подобные группы Детей были и в других регионах планеты, но по тем или иным причинам, были уничтожены. Ведь вот как показательно - Детей убили эскимосы, более (не хочу обидеть ни эскимосов, ни какую-то другую народность) близкие к началу развития социума, то есть более обеспокоены выживанием, чем проблемами социально-этического толка. И заметьте, не имели никаких проблем, в отличие от русских и англичан.

И вообще, в отличие от блеклых "Жен" , "Кукушки"-то как раз наполнены тем еще смыслом, логикой и замечательными размышлениями - взаимоотношение женщины и ребенка; мужчины и ребенка; как вести себя, сталкиваясь с настолько странным и непонятным. И как должен поступить человек в том случае, если на планете появился действительно конкурент человеку - более развитый биологический вид? В этом вопросе "Кукушки" хорошо лягли на на впечатления от книги City Клиффорда Саймака, еще раз подняв тему положения человека во Вселенной и вопрос, что не стоит ли ему оставить планету для этого самого лучшего вида.

Не понравился мне резкий и ожидаемый конец. Мне не хватило именно смысловой развязки - сюжетно автор вот подвел к такому концу, но не объяснил почему все именно так, ведь, как по мне, это не та книга, где читатель должен домыслить сам. Тут нужно было привести факты и решение, оставив читателя думать, правильно ли было это решение. Это мне еще раз напомнило "Степфордских жен" и мое негативное отношение к ним.

Но не взирая на все это, книга мне понравилась. 4/5(less)

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Oct 14, 2012 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.5 stars

This review originally appeared at www.readinasinglesitting.com.

“One of the luckiest accidents in my wife’s life is that she happened to marry a man who was born on the 26th of September,” begins John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos. “But for that we should both of us undoubtedly have been at home in Midwich on the night of the 26th-27th, with consequences which, I have never ceased to be thankful, she was spared.”

It’s interesting that in so many dystopian novels the protagonist is shunte...more

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Aug 13, 2012 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was my first Wyndham, and I look forward to more. It was a brisk read, although as some note, there are monologues that drag a bit, although they did not bother me very much. I have not seen either film version, so that may have helped me remain somewhat in suspense over the course of the novel.

Even though I gathered the big picture of what was going on fairly early, I was not sure how it would end, and I’ll just say that while it was a reasonable ending, I think that it probably cleared u...more This was my first Wyndham, and I look forward to more. It was a brisk read, although as some note, there are monologues that drag a bit, although they did not bother me very much. I have not seen either film version, so that may have helped me remain somewhat in suspense over the course of the novel.

Even though I gathered the big picture of what was going on fairly early, I was not sure how it would end, and I’ll just say that while it was a reasonable ending, I think that it probably cleared up the conflict that the characters were facing too easily, since one of the intriguing things about the last part of the novel was the moral debate that society would have to deal with in order to meet the threat of the Children.

Earlier in the narrative, I wished that the narrator had been clearer about his personality and role within the village, as well as that of his wife. It’s not actually until half-way through the novel that they clearly state that his wife did not get pregnant (I figured that, but they could have mentioned her relief about being away from there much earlier). The other characters are basically types, and other reviewers have been right to detect what I think is a bit of satire of English country living.

The style reminds me of H. G. Wells in The War of the Worlds, which Wyndham directly alludes to in one conversation, essentially arguing that the Children are a more insidious, difficult threat for mankind that the more straightforward Martians.

On the negative side, some have noted that there are elements of male chauvinism, which some male characters spouting off about how women are essentially more simple-minded than men. I also found extremely racist and scientifically outdated what Gordon Zellaby, the character who does most of the monologues, says about evolution, arguing that there were wide gaps between blacks, whites and other “races” that could not be accounted for, and he found the “occurrence of the Children scarcely more startling, objectively, than that of the various other races of mankind that have apparently popped into existence fully formed, or at least with no clear line of ancestral development.”

Still, aside from these distasteful points, I enjoyed the book and think that you cannot judge a book based on opinions spouted by one character, especially when the other characters are so often telling him that he’s full of nonsense.(less)

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Jul 31, 2012 Nick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a really interesting idea, and becomes quite scary when we see what the children are capable of, but one which was tainted slightly by its depiction of women.

Yeah, I know it was written in the Fifties, it was of its time and it's a little unfair to judge it by a different era's moral standards.

But there's something else that ruined it for me. Around the time I was reading it I read a review somewhere of The Day The Earth Stood Still which made the point that (and I'm paraphrasing wildly...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Sean O'Hara rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, cozy, invasion

Oh, dear me! Something strange has happened to the village of Midwich. Some mysterious force has shrouded the town and rendered all therein unconscious for a day and a half. When the force lifts, life returns to normal, except that every woman of child-bearing age soon discovers herself to be with child. But never mind the womenfolk -- they're hardly important to this story. All they have to do is give birth. It's up to the men of Midwich to work out what to do. Of course we should want to preve...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Charles Dee Mitchell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mid-century-sf

In The Trillion Year Spree, Brian Aldiss's 1986 expansion of his 1973 history of science fiction The Billion Year Spree, the author dismisses John Wyndham as the author of "cosy catastrophes." He defines the genre as one in which the hero meets catastrophe from the comfort of his dining room. The best of all things British will see him through. Ranking Wyndham as a cosyist makes him the Agatha Christie of SF. This sounds like one generation dismissing an earlier, but Wyndham was only about ten y...more In The Trillion Year Spree, Brian Aldiss's 1986 expansion of his 1973 history of science fiction The Billion Year Spree, the author dismisses John Wyndham as the author of "cosy catastrophes." He defines the genre as one in which the hero meets catastrophe from the comfort of his dining room. The best of all things British will see him through. Ranking Wyndham as a cosyist makes him the Agatha Christie of SF. This sounds like one generation dismissing an earlier, but Wyndham was only about ten years Aldiss's senior. Aldiss was part of a vanguard associated with the New Worlds writers and the British New Wave of SF writers. Viewed from that vantage point, Wyndham's bestsellers do seem like period pieces that happened to coexist with the coming avant garde.

But they are enjoyable period pieces. The Midwich Cuckoos, more famous as the film The Village of the Damned involves a small English village not to far outside London that loses a day to an unexplained visitation from a force that puts the village inhabitants to sleep for twenty-four hours. Except for the handful of unlucky villagers who die from exposure or house fires, everyone wakes up none the worse for wear. It is only a month or so later that the pregnancy of every woman of childbearing age in Midwich announces that something more unusual than an few extra hours sleep has occurred. The children, all born on the same night nine months later, have disturbing powers and are probably not human. They are the cuckoos, invader eggs planted in other's nests that will push out the legitimate offspring to make way for themselves.

There are comically cosy aspects to Wyndham's narrative. The fact of the "dayout" is handled by the residents as a peculiar inconvenience. Too bad about the half dozen or so who died. Villagers are only too happy to keep the whole thing quiet and out of the papers. Parents of young daughters and husbands returning from a year's military duty are upset but see the wisdom on just bearing up under the whole pregnancy scandal. They don't want a lot of outsiders to come prowling around. Again, there is a horror of "the press" getting hold of the story. The leaders of the community are those wealthy, better educated few who can talk sense at town meetings. (They also probably take the annual prizes at the flower show.) Everyone keeps the cool head they are encouraged to maintain -- until the danger posed by the children is undeniable and their power possibly too strong to restrain.

The streamlined film makes the eeriness and the danger so much more explicit that the cosy English countryside manner of the novel comes as something of a surprise. For casting and budgetary concerns, the film involves about six births. In the novel there are sixty-five of these blond-haired and amber-eyed cuckoos walking around. Their sheer number makes the self-control of the adults comical and the ability of the powers that be to keep the whole thing quiet absurd. But what Aldiss writes off as the novel's weakness is now the chief source of its charm. Readers may find the adults idiotic and blind in the circumstances, but Wyndham has faith in Englands "chattering class" to save the day.(less)

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Jun 05, 2012 Melissa Etheridge rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The idea that I would enjoy this story so much surprised me. I purchased the book on my Kindle as part of Amazon's Daily Deal~it was .99 cents. I vaguely remembered seeing "Village of the Damned" which is based on this novel~I also remember one particular scene in the movie where a character turns to face a child and the child has these really creepy gold eyes.

I would not have bought the book if it hadn't of been on the DD. But, I'm glad I did. It is basically an easy read~it reads like a novell...more The idea that I would enjoy this story so much surprised me. I purchased the book on my Kindle as part of Amazon's Daily Deal~it was .99 cents. I vaguely remembered seeing "Village of the Damned" which is based on this novel~I also remember one particular scene in the movie where a character turns to face a child and the child has these really creepy gold eyes.

I would not have bought the book if it hadn't of been on the DD. But, I'm glad I did. It is basically an easy read~it reads like a novella more so than a novel. The first half of the novel is exposition, but it is exposition that is interesting in its own right as it sets the scene or mood or tone for this story right away.

The narrator is not really a central character, but he introduces the reader to my favorite character~Mr. Zellaby. I loved Mr. Zellaby's meandering ideas on the whole affair of the Children. Children who were all "conceived" on the same day/night when everyone in the village went to sleep and slept for an entire twenty-four hours. These births were not conceived in the conventional manner~some of the pregnant women were virgins when they found out that they were going to have a baby.

The Children are born roughly around the same week and their most distinguishing feature (at first) is their eyes. Later on the Children develop and use this strange power to will people in the village to do things that they wouldn't normally do or have an inclination to do otherwise.

This power to control the villagers comes to a head with tragic results one evening when some of the villagers decide that they want to get rid of the children once and for all. Once this tragedy happens, the government and leaders of the village decide that something has to be done, but they can't let the children know or they might will the government to do something horrific.

Throughout the story, the reader gets small glimpses into the Children's thoughts and you almost feel sorry or sympathetic toward the children. But, the villagers and the reader knows that it is best for humankind if the children are exterminated. But what government can take away the rights of an entire race of children?

While it is science fiction, the novel reads almost like literary fiction. The author weaves the elements of science fiction just enough into this story to make one forget for a few moments that you are reading a science fiction story.

Now having said all of this~while the plot is interesting and I enjoyed the story so much that I finished it in two nights, I would not spend more than $5 on a copy. Borrow a copy if you can. It might even make for a good book to put on a high school reading list.

Melissa(less)

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Jul 26, 2011 Noel Thingvall rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Marvelous book. The setup is unusual, in that a UFO creates an invisible bubble around a small town that puts everyone to sleep for a day, and when everyone wakes up, all the women of childbearing age are pregnant, but Wyndham sells it with his logical, meticulous execution. The wave of pregnancies sweeping through a small town are explored from every conceivable angle - abortion, virginal conception, bitter or compassionate spouses and parents, religious guilt, communal support. The way it jump...more Marvelous book. The setup is unusual, in that a UFO creates an invisible bubble around a small town that puts everyone to sleep for a day, and when everyone wakes up, all the women of childbearing age are pregnant, but Wyndham sells it with his logical, meticulous execution. The wave of pregnancies sweeping through a small town are explored from every conceivable angle - abortion, virginal conception, bitter or compassionate spouses and parents, religious guilt, communal support. The way it jumps around and acknowledges every possible reaction prevents it from ever feeling preachy, and I doubt I could tell you what Wyndham's own opinion on the situation might be.

Only a few of the characters are richly developed, but most become familiar enough faces that they stand out. It's more that the town of Midwich is itself the main character and these people simply reflect different aspects of its personality. This allows for a steady progression of time as we see the town collective react in their various ways and either adapt to the changing situations, or pack up and leave, making the town lesser and lesser in the face of the growing influence of the Children.

The Children themselves are very well handled. There is a debate about the severity of their sometimes lethal reactions to growing threats of violence from the town, but it plays out alongside a debate of their justification. Do the traditional rules and laws apply in a looming war of survival between two distinct species? It's great how the first act of violence takes a story that's gradually played out over the course of a decade and jerks it to a slow crawl as the last half plays out over several days as the status quo that everyone had accepted up to this point suddenly falls apart.

I only have two issues with the book, and they're more narrative mechanics than a problem with the story itself. The first is Zellaby, the wise elder of the town, who feels like a Larry Sue of Wyndham himself as he always rises above the fears of the others to look at a situation with calm thoughtfulness. The second is the narrator, who does nothing for the story beyond wandering around and witnessing things. He doesn't drive the material in any way and cutting him out to change the book to a third person perspective wouldn't rob it of a single thing.(less)

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Feb 16, 2011 Carolyn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read several of Wyndham's books years ago, but not this one. I finished this in one session; it is an insightful picture of people's reactions and actions in the face of a new and apparently insoluble threat. It doesn't strike me as dated either. The Folio edition has an introduction by Adam Roberts, which I did not really appreciate. In typical modern fashion, he tries too hard to find complex meanings in the story, which in my view are just not there. E.G. he finds an excessive interest in '...more

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Jan 08, 2010 trishtrash rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, horror-supernatural-paranormal

“It ruins a man’s concentration to have a crèche hanging over his head.”

The quiet English village of Midwich suffers a blackout that lasts an entire day. When it is revealed that all the women in the affected area of childbearing age have since become spontaneously and simultaneously pregnant, the consequences of the ‘dayout’ begin to become clear.

When I picked this book up, I was certain that I had already read it, many years ago. Now I’m not at all sure that this is the case. Despite being vag...more

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Jul 07, 2012 D.M. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I have wanted to see the original black and white film, made in 1960 and directed by Wolf Rilla, The Village of the Damned along with its sequel The Children of the Damned, but wanted to read Wyndam's story of the events about the small village of Midwich first and how it ended up being a host-town for a very odd sort of 'space invader'- that of the wombs of the town's female population.

Some impressions: how very 'English' is this tale - and in the way it has been told? As someone who read a lot...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Robert rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Midwich Cuckoos is a book of a different era. Not just because it is set in the cold war, and dealing with an alien invasion, and set in a sleepy English town, but because it feels, in every possible way, different.

There are the characters our narrator is basically blank, collecting together a narrative by telling the stories of various fellow residents in his town. If the book were written today, he'd just be the guy to hold the camera / smartphone - he is literally only there to be an ever...more The Midwich Cuckoos is a book of a different era. Not just because it is set in the cold war, and dealing with an alien invasion, and set in a sleepy English town, but because it feels, in every possible way, different.

There are the characters our narrator is basically blank, collecting together a narrative by telling the stories of various fellow residents in his town. If the book were written today, he'd just be the guy to hold the camera / smartphone - he is literally only there to be an everyman recorder.

Then there is the town, Midwich, full of a small community atmosphere and spirit that feels completely out of place in this century. Was this what life was like for many people, merely a generation ago? Is this what life is still like, out in the sticks on some islands in the Hebrides? Perhaps, but it is so far removed from the reality of modern science fiction readers that I could not imagine a book like this being written now.

Then there are the characters: the mysterious, but strangely featureless Military Intelligence man. The quirky, rambling old professor. The vicar. (What sort of book, today, would feature a vicar as a pillar of the community?). The elderly doctor. It's the rambling old professor, of course, who steals the show, with insight and the ability to deduct, from observation, what is going on, and tell the audience what to think and to expect. Are these three dimensional, complex human beings, or are all the characters functions? The latter, I suppose, but they are just human enough, their plight easy enough to empathise with, so it never is a bother to spend time with them.

But most of all, there is the steady, unhurried pace of the novel. It did not feel very long. It starts with a big mystery, the continues through the pregnancy of all the women in the village through to birth, infancy, and after a skip, childhood of the Midwich cuckoos. The novel builds up levels of threat gradually, and, just as they are relieved, starts building onwards and upwards. It is masterfully done and structured.

The climax does not turn things into a major action movie. Tentacled weird monsters never appear out of the blue. There are some almost philosophical conversations towards the end of the book, when characters literally discuss different outcomes / futures that might happen... It's all a bit stiff upper lip, really.

I found myself cheerfully entertained. It is not a terribly scary novel, though I suspect it might be scarier for (pregnant) women, simply because, to me, pregnancies are already terrifying, so adding the cuckoo element to it could barely make it any worse, as it seems such a horrendous and bizarre and surreal aspect of nature...

At any rate. As classics of SF literature go, this one is a good one.(less)

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May 03, 2012 Christine Ward rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: new-to-me

Note: This should be a 2 1/2 star rating.

The movie "The Village of the Damned" has always creeped me out, and when this book was referenced in Stephen King's "Hearts in Atlantis", I figured I'd give it a try. It's hard to rate it, because I'm familiar with the movie, and this book was written decades ago, which has the effect of lessening the shock factor, I'm sure. If I'd read this book when it first came out, I would have rated it higher for the ingenuity and thrilling concept - women in a sma...more

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May 20, 2011 Kirsty rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-and-scifi

I first came across John Wyndham's work when on a dystopia kick around two years ago; how I managed to remain ignorant to his work prior to this is something I find mildly embarrassing, and only wish I'd discovered his novels much earlier. I started with The Chrysalids, and found myself fascinated; I quickly moved on to The Day of the Triffids and was even more impressed. Wyndham's ability to examine societal response to the unknown and feared is probably only surpassed by his vision for horrors...more I first came across John Wyndham's work when on a dystopia kick around two years ago; how I managed to remain ignorant to his work prior to this is something I find mildly embarrassing, and only wish I'd discovered his novels much earlier. I started with The Chrysalids, and found myself fascinated; I quickly moved on to The Day of the Triffids and was even more impressed. Wyndham's ability to examine societal response to the unknown and feared is probably only surpassed by his vision for horrors that are all too easy to imagine coming to pass.

And so, I approached The Midwich Cuckoos with a heightened level of excitement. The only prior experience I had with the plot came from a Simpsons Halloween special, and it wasn't until after I'd delved deeply in that I became aware of its horror-genre adaptations; suffice to say, the plot was more or less unseen to me, and, to its credit, mostly unpredictable. I wish I could continue to praise the tale, but beyond the first half being an 'easy read' (I devoured the first 120 pages in around two hours), I'm struggling to find positivity to relate.

I found The Midwich Cuckoos far more sociological and psychological a read than science-fiction, as it is so frequently touted. Wyndham's descriptions of communal coping strategies are, on face value, interesting, but in print simply drone on and on, to the point that I regularly found myself jumping to the end of heavy blocks of text, due to either having switched off or feeling that a point had been driven home hard enough to require no further emphasis. These drawn-out explanations seemed to be included at the expense of making the plot interesting -- the handful of attempts at building suspense feel rushed, tacked on to the end of Wyndham's (through the character of Gordon Zellaby) seemingly endless pontifications about human existence under threat.

Many science-fiction classics find their beginnings in short-story form, and are carefully elaborated into novels that sate the literary appetite of the reader. The Midwich Cuckoos, however, seems to be the precise opposite of such a process -- rather, it feels like a story trying to be bigger than it actually is, and is unnecessarily padded out with ethical debates that, whilst may be of interest to a certain type of reader, held no value to me (even though I ordinarily would consider myself the type of reader this sort of thing appeals to). In the final few pages, the novel was, for me, summed up in a quote from its narrator:

"Not only do you talk a great deal, but you talk a great deal of nonsense, and make some of it sound like sense. It is very confusing for a listener."
(less)

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Jun 25, 2012 Helen Kitson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Nearly forty years after it was first published, 'The Midwich Cuckoos' remains a thrilling and genuinely chilling read. Midwich is a sleepy English village where, according to narrator Richard Gayford, 'things did not happen'. Gayford and his wife are away from the village when something very bizarre indeed happens to the village. For one day in September, every living thing in the village is rendered unconscious.

They wake with, seemingly, no ill effects. No one has any explanation for what is l...more

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May 18, 2012 Harold rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I did not care for this book. Maybe it is the expectation that it should be good because it was made into a movie. Maybe creepy kids who are able to control adults to some evil ends should be a good premise for a book. Not this one. All Wyndham does is bloviate. He goes on and on and on about the ramifications of a new species of human. At one point one of the characters was arguing on the legality of a new species of human killing a homo sapien. I really had to push myself through this book.

The...more

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Feb 28, 2010 Jay added it · review of another edition

This book shows its age, and captures a by-gone age, in the best of ways. Characters speak intelligently and politely - even the Children - and reactions to the Dayout are utterly different from that would be exhibit in the current age of mobile phones, Twitter and YouTube.
The Dayout itself, where the village comes to a stand-still (quite literally) and the women wake up to find themselves pregnant, is covered quite extensively in nearly the entire first half of the book. The ensuing nine years...more

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Nov 23, 2009 Fiver rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

John Wyndham's writing has often been accused, with some accuracy, of being filled with schlock. The aliens show up in some mysterious way, we are terrified of their appearance, and they try to take over the planet.

But even with simply 'awe and wonder' storytelling there are good eggs, and this is one of them. The Midwich Cuckoos is the literary basis for the sci-fi/horror franchise "The Village of the Damned". The small village of Midwich experiences an odd hour of 'blackout', during which e...more

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About John Wyndham

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. A...more

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Quotes from The Midwich Cuckoos

“Some quotations," said Zellaby, "are greatly improved by lack of context.” — 7 people liked it

“But not she. Her eternity is an article of her faith. Great wars and disasters can ebb and flow, races rise and fall, empires wither with suffering and death, but these are superficialities: she, woman, is perpetual, essential; she will go on for ever.” — 3 people liked it

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