Wyndham-a-thon complete
Last night I finished my three-book tour of the late John Wyndham, which took in The Chrysalids, The Trouble With Lichen and a best-of collection of his short stories.
The Chrysalids started off beautifully - believable, interesting characters, potent themes - but it lost me a little in the final 50 pages or so, where it turns into a chase movie. Still, the central concept of normal vs freak, them vs us, is classic Wyndham.
The Trouble With Lichen is generally accepted as one of Wyndham's poorer novels and I'm afraid I must agree. Again, the core concept is excellent - the discovery of a lichen that slows down the aging process and its effects on the human psyche and society - but the narrative plods like a disabled hippo in parts. Entire passages read more like an essay on sociology and politics instead of a sci-fi novel.
The short story collection covered the spectrum of Wyhndham's career and was overall of high quality (no shock, since it was supposed to be a best-of anthology). Wyndham is most impressive when he is getting inside the head of an alien creature and imagining its perspective on, and interactions with, humanity. My two favourite stories fall into this category - 'The Walls Come Tumbling Down', where a group of sentient glass-creatures land in the desert and try to communicate with humans (ending in disaster) and 'The Lost Machine', where a robot commits suicide out of loneliness for the company of its own kind.
On the novel front: Macmillan has now had Ghost Kiss for 6 weeks, the minimum response time specified. It's tempting to enquire, but I think that could be counter-productive. I will, however, be sending an enquiry at the end of week 10. Meanwhile, Commune has started to settle and take shape in my head. I decided to take a slightly different approach than I had originally intended and the narrative - including an ending - started to reel itself off in my mind. It has some potent themes and character conflict and I'm really getting excited to start again. I'm thinking I'll probably begin some time next week. (Yeah, yeah, I know, I was going to take a break. But when the muse wants you to write, you write.)
Done bugger all on Truck Me in the past week, but hopefully I can rectify that tonight.
The Chrysalids started off beautifully - believable, interesting characters, potent themes - but it lost me a little in the final 50 pages or so, where it turns into a chase movie. Still, the central concept of normal vs freak, them vs us, is classic Wyndham.
The Trouble With Lichen is generally accepted as one of Wyndham's poorer novels and I'm afraid I must agree. Again, the core concept is excellent - the discovery of a lichen that slows down the aging process and its effects on the human psyche and society - but the narrative plods like a disabled hippo in parts. Entire passages read more like an essay on sociology and politics instead of a sci-fi novel.
The short story collection covered the spectrum of Wyhndham's career and was overall of high quality (no shock, since it was supposed to be a best-of anthology). Wyndham is most impressive when he is getting inside the head of an alien creature and imagining its perspective on, and interactions with, humanity. My two favourite stories fall into this category - 'The Walls Come Tumbling Down', where a group of sentient glass-creatures land in the desert and try to communicate with humans (ending in disaster) and 'The Lost Machine', where a robot commits suicide out of loneliness for the company of its own kind.
On the novel front: Macmillan has now had Ghost Kiss for 6 weeks, the minimum response time specified. It's tempting to enquire, but I think that could be counter-productive. I will, however, be sending an enquiry at the end of week 10. Meanwhile, Commune has started to settle and take shape in my head. I decided to take a slightly different approach than I had originally intended and the narrative - including an ending - started to reel itself off in my mind. It has some potent themes and character conflict and I'm really getting excited to start again. I'm thinking I'll probably begin some time next week. (Yeah, yeah, I know, I was going to take a break. But when the muse wants you to write, you write.)
Done bugger all on Truck Me in the past week, but hopefully I can rectify that tonight.
posted by The Fearless Writer at 4:40 PM
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