The Midwich Cuckoos

eBook

English language

Published Nov. 3, 2002 by RosettaBooks.

ISBN:
978-0-7953-0292-3
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4 stars (2 reviews)

Richard and Janet Gayford happened to spend the night of September 26 in London, not returning to their home in the village of Midwich until the following day. Only they have difficulty getting back into Midwich, and -- in ways that are difficult to isolate -- the village does not seem to be the same place it was the day before. The nightmare that descends on Midwich has dire implications for the rest of the world, sowing the seeds of a master race of ruthless, inhuman creatures bent on total domination.John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos, published in 1957, is better known by the more sensational title of its two film adaptations, Village of the Damned. In the author's typically elegant and calm manner, the novel explores the arrival on earth of a collective intelligence that threatens to eliminate humankind. The eerie change that befalls Midwich manifests itself in strange ways. …

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Review of 'The Midwich Cuckoos' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

Surprisingly dull.

The central idea of a group of telepathic and psychopathic alien children being raised in a sleepy English village while they prepare to replace humanity is great fun, the thought of all those forced pregnancies is genuinely horrifying, and the downbeat end is effective, but...

The framing is really clumsy. The story is narrated by someone who is only loosely involved, has no agency and no real character of his own. His opening line tells you that he and his wife weren’t badly affected by what happens, there are several missing years while he’s off working in Canada during which time interesting things should have been happening, and lots of events are described to him after the fact by other people; all of which robs the whole thing of any tension or excitement.

The most interesting people to follow in this story would have been the women and …