Strange fireballs falling into the deepest parts of the Earth's oceans draw little comment at first but then ships start going down, and eventually coastal regions are under attack by something from the deep. With no ships imports and exports become expensive to deal with, and changing climate presents its own challenges. Engagingly narrated, and whatever you think of the plausibility of the possibly extraterrestrial threat, the book felt absolutely chilling in its depiction of an Earth grinding to a halt in an economy where importing and exporting are no longer part of viable, everyday business and climate change messes up with food production and the resulting rise in sea levels puts low-lying coastal regions and floodplains under water. I kept remembering visual images from Age of Stupid that I saw recently. ( )

Initially similar to Wyndham's most famous creation, The Day Of The Triffids, Kraken begins when strange lights in the sky spell extraterrestrial visitors. Unlike the Triffids though, these aliens make their home at the bottom of our deepest oceans and begin attacking humankind from the one place on earth we cannot go to fight back.

What differentiates this novel from its predecessor is the politics. Here Wyndham concentrates - certainly in the first half of the book - on the various official reactions to invasion: from statesmen burying their head in the sand or trying to make political capital by blaming enemy nations, to squabbling in the scientific community, to the way competing media outlets portray the escalating attacks. It soon becomes clear that the greatest threat may indeed come from ourselves, our refusal to work together in times of crisis, or even accept what's happening in front of our own eyes. Despite the fact that Kraken was originally published over 50 years ago, very little has changed.

Read the full review at my blog. ( )

This one is a slow-burner, not as immediately gripping as 'The Day of the Triffids', or as eerie as 'The Midwich Cuckoos'. It also seems dated in its descriptions of a 1950s post-Imperialist Britain, with its paranoid distrust of Russia (who are first blamed for the mysterious events in the sea).

The story can seem rather slow to get going, but I think that accurately mirrors the news dissemination in a pre-Internet, pre-24-hour-news world. In those days it was possible to 'bury bad news' or not report it. News reporters had integrity in those days, don't ya know!

The story begins when reporter Mike and his wife Phyllis witness lights coming from the sky and apparently vanishing beneath the ocean. Attempts to investigate result in aggressive repulsion from whatever-it-is down there. It takes a long while for anyone to grasp the seriousness of the threat represented by the underwater enemy (whose true physical nature we never fully discover). Wyndham's calm style is actually more compelling and sinister than overblown histrionics would be.

In the final phase of the story, it becomes clear that the underwater enemy intends to wipe everyone out by melting the polar ice caps and flooding the land. The resulting changes in climate are, of course, highly resonant for readers today. This last phase begins in a rather anti-climactic fashion. It's only as the section progresses that the reader fully understands how the world has come so close to being destroyed. It's actually a very effective description of the progression from 'mild peril' to 'utter disaster'.

I've seen the character of Phyllis criticised for being a 'patronising stereotype'. I think we should just be grateful that she is an independent-thinking woman with a proper career. She's never shown helplessly screaming, or wearing a pinny.

For modern readers this story might perhaps be just a little too low-key, but it's worth sticking with. [December 2006]

http://tristram.squarespace.com/home/... ( )

Out of the Deeps: The Kraken Wakes

This is my favorite John Wyndham novel and one of my favorite novels period. It starts out like a normal humans vs. aliens story, but we soon learn it is far more than that, as it becomes an end-of-the–world story. First the aliens blockade the oceans and then physically invade human settlements along the shore. The humans soon learn how to fight back and repel the assaults on land and break the ocean blockade. However, the aliens then engage in a type of warfare for which there is no apparent defense and it starts to look bleak for the human race. Finally, when it looks hopeless, the tide finally starts to turn and things begin to look brighter for humanity.

Out of the Deeps is considered the American title for The Kraken Wakes and indeed my copy states on its title page that “This novel was published in England under the title The Kraken Wakes.” However, the title is not the only difference; in fact Out of the Deeps is both shorter (182 vs. 234 pages) and in places rewritten, especially the ending. In my opinion the differences are enough to almost consider them two separate novels based on the same material.

If you have only read Out of the Deeps I strongly recommend you read The Kraken Wakes. I consider it to be a much better story and the ending to be more in line with the tone of the rest of the story. For those of you who have only read The Kraken Wakes, if you are interested in reading what I consider an “Americanized” version, I recommend you read Out of the Deeps. I read Out of the Deeps first and was surprised at the major differences between the two versions, especially the ending. ( )