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*MC by JW*

Discuss

I had heard of this but never read it, and have since discovered that 'Village of the Damned' is the film adaptation of the book.

It was not a difficult read and the storyline is quite absorbing. The biggest criticism I have is that none of the story gives the mothers' point of view of bearing and raising the Children. There is no examination at all of their attachment to them (or lack of it) and only a very few passing references to the womens' fear about being vessels, and what the births woud reveal. The whole story is told from the point of view of the men trying to observe/manage the 'problem'.

The issue of dealing with the Children from a social and political viewpoint is handled rather clumsily at the end, by using a couple of characters as mouth-pieces. However, I found Mr Zellaby to be a really likeable character.

Unexpectedly good read, I think the ideas and images will stay with me for a while.

I really lvoe this book so am glad you liked it. This is probably my 4th or 5th copy as they tend to fall apart after awhile and I have had a copy since I was about 10.
I have found it a much harder read since I had DC's though so am interested to see what you all think of it if you are coming to it 'new'
Like you said, the opinion of the mothers is sorely lacking, but this only became apparent to me recently.
I loved the thought that (if you ignore the spaceship thing) this could also be the next step of our evolution and how would we cope with it.

As I have got older I have noticed that John Wyndham is not very good at writing a womans point of view but I like his female characters even without that depth as they all seem quite 'sensible' and not frail little flowers (especially when you consider the era he wrote the stories in, staid 50's britain)

he also wrote the Day of the Triffids BTW.

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I remember reading 'Chocky' as a teenager and being really absorbed by it. Still have my old Penguin copy actually, so may revisit it!

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I loved this too ! V. readable and an interesting subject, although I felt quite dated (unsurprisingly).

I agree the view point of the women wasn't really followed - and I think although there was soem mention of being scared of what they were carrying, I think in reality they would have been more so.

The end bit was interesting where they were talking about why they did such terrible things - it made me think of modern day terrorism which I guess in some ways is similar.

I also agree Zellaby was v. likeable.

Oh and my absolutely absolutely favourite bit was the v. first line - "

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."

DH's birthday is 26 September I'm not sure I agree

I read this in record time, yay! (Might manage another unread book before Xmas books arrive). I was quite pleased to get this book because it is a well known story (although I had only seen a snippet of the film and so didn't know how it ended).
I found some of the paragraphs quite hard to read (maybe I read too late at night) and certainly the language did seem of its time (but I liked that). In the main though it was easy to read and there were not too many characters to keep track of. I didn't 'get' the Zellaby character for a while but did by the end.
A really interesting choice, thank you JB.

Book just arrived, getting stuck in!!!

Have just finished this today and I really enjoyed at and found it a very easy read.

It did seem a bit dated (as others have said) in parts though.

Agree that the womans POV is sorely lacking and I did find it a bit odd given the nature of the book that the womans' feelings on what was happening was not exploreed more...

I really enjoyed this book. Just the ideas and possibilities it puts into your head to think about.
I kept talking about it that in the end dh read it as well.
Was a bit sceptical at first as had not long ago read his triffid one, and although good wasnt in the mood for the dated style of writing. But I soon forgot about that and got absorbed in the book

I loved this book too and read it in practically one setting. I thought it worked really well both as sci-fi and thriller and had never seen the film so didn't know what was going to happen (although I could guess!)

I didn't think it felt dated at all, but I do read quite a lot of 'old' books so that's probably why.

I thought the characters were all solid and believable, but again, found it a bit lacking in the mothers' points of view. They all seemed to accept rather too easily that they weren't really their children and be happy to let them go which didn't seem entirely realistic to me.

This works as a great, fun read and also, as JackBauer says, leads onto more interesting questions about how this could be the next development of life on earth. It would be interesting to read alongside I Am Legend which deals with a similar sort of theme, although with a less hopeful ending.