The Chrysalids

When this book was published in the US, the publisher renamed it Rebirth. It's an excellent story about fear and intolerance (anyone who doesn't fit the norm is banished). I read this book in the late 60's, and it's still one of my favorites. Since the writer, who's real name was John Benyon Harris is deceased, I doubt that there will be a sequel.

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham is a futuristic tale told by a boy named David. At the beginning of the book he is about 10 years old living in a small community of people years after a devastating nuclear war has laid waste to much of the planet. God's Tribulation has destroyed the unworthy. In David's community life is spent without any technology and anything that isn't deemed normal, is looked at as an abomination in the eyes of God. People that have abnormalities, called "deviations", are considered Mutants. Mutants are sterilized, so that they can not reproduce, and sent to the "Fringes", the wild land outside of the community to fend for themselves. Any crop or animal that has a deviation is destroyed. Every child that is born must be inspected and given certification. Any type of difference is not tolerated. When David's friend Sophie is found to be a Mutant because she has 6 toes, he realizes how dangerous it is to be different. And David IS different. He, along with several other children in the area, are able to communicate with each other by "thought-shapes" or telepathy. After Sophie is taken, the children understand that they must hide their abilities. Although difficult at times, this works for awhile. Until David's younger sister Petra is born. Petra has the ability to communicate with the others as well. But Petra's powers are far superior to the others, but she is so young she can't control them. David are Rosalind try to teach Petra to hide her abilities. But Petra communicates to someone outside their area. In a place that none of the other children have heard of. A place where there are many people with the ability to communicate through thought-shapes. A place where the children would not be considered different or a Mutant. But by this time, David, Rosalind, Petra and the others are under suspicion. What happens next is an escape attempt through the Badlands and the Fringes. This book is so far ahead of it's time. It denounces bigotry and religious fundamentalism. It shows what a world that supports intolerance would look like. And it isn't pretty. This book was great and has my highest recommendations!!

"Don't judge a book by its cover" is absolutely right, I have rarely seen a more repellent (and irrelevant to the story) picture than the one currently "gracing" the cover of this wonderful book. Thank goodness, I had read it years ago, under a different cover and a different title, because as it is presented now I would never have bought it and would have missed a great story, one that I enjoy re-reading again and again. I was surprised to see that it's marketed to the 9-12 age group. It's a very precocious pre-teen who would be able to get all the sociological, moral, philosophical and political implications of the plot. The story is narrated by David Strorm, who's about 10 when it begins and around 18 or 20 at the end. David lives in Labrador, centuries after "God sent Tribulation" unto mankind. The 21st century reader soon realizes Tribulation was a nuclear conflict that lay waste to every Western country south of Canada and north of New Zealand. Pockets of humanity do survive in Africa and elsewhere, but all those survivor communities are totally isolated from each other because the radio-activity in what was the USA, Western Europe and the Soviet block precludes land or sea travel (though there is some limited navigation and trading) and communication. The community David belongs to is a very strait-laced one, who insists on "purity" and conformity to the "True Image". Every deviation (i.e. mutation due to radiation) in either human, animal or plant is rooted out mercilessly. Plants and animals are burned, people get sent to the savage, untamed "Fringes". Physical deviation, that is. The powers-that-be don't realize that a group of children have developed telepathy. They look totally normal, but they're able to communicate with each other without words and over distances. They learn very early that "different is deadly" and protect themselves carefully but get betrayed by one of their own, who falls in love with a Normal and entrusts him with their secret, and also, unwittingly, by David's little sister Petra who's the most powerful telepath ever seen with powers that develop before she's old enough to learn control, the result being they have to flee into the Fringes. Petra's power as a telepath comes in handy, she can send mental messages half-way around the world - more specifically to New Zealand (not "Sealand" as another reviewer misunderstood) to another group of survivors who have developed telepathy as a society and have been reinforcing the telepathic strain by careful breeding. I'll not give the ending away, but I will say that I always wanted to write a sequel to the book one day. I got so attached to some of the characters that I hate to let go of them. This isn't just another "post-nuclear holocaust" story (there's been quite a number, including, among others, "Alas Babylon", "... For a Single Yesterday...", etc.). It's about more than mankind surviving a nuclear war and climbing back to civilization, it's about the kind o

"Rebirth" is in fact the very same book as "The Chrysalids". Someone must have figured the new title would sell better. Either way, it's an excellent book. Reminds me A LOT of "A Night of Watching", the story of Denmark under the Nazis. That was true, this is fiction, but human nature - good and bad - doesn't change. Real villians, real heroes. I always hoped they would go back for the girls. Yes, we need a sequel! Check out the rating and reviews under "The Chrysalids". Read it soon.

It appears people still do not understand what the author is trying to say in this novel. It is not a "mutant vs human" struggle but a questioning of the meaning of the word 'human'. Is it the physical form or how one thinks that defines what a human is? That said, this is excellently written and a very satisfying story.