#153. THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS By John Wyndham

Published : 1957
Pages : 220
Overall Mark : 8/10

In the sleepy English village of Midwich, a mysterious silver object appears and renders all the villagers unconscious. The next day they awaken – to find that all of the women are pregnant. But the blonde, golden-eyed children of Midwich cannot be human: they grow too fast and their minds exhibit frightening abilities that give them control over others. Inevitably, their nature brings them into conflict with the villagers, just as a chilling realisation dawns on the world outside...

JOHN WYNDHAM (1903-69)
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris started writing short stories in 1925. He wrote under many pen names, eventually settling on John Wyndham for his modified form of science fiction, which he called ‘logical fantasy’. He is best-known as the author of The Day of the Triffids, but he wrote many other successful novels including The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids and The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned).

VERDICT
Fans of alien invasion stories might find this a little tame due to the subtle nature of the invasion, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the methods that mankind chose to use in battling the menace. In spite of the twee surroundings and old fashioned nature of the book, there is still an element of defeatism present in this that is just as relevant to the world we now live in.

#152. MONDAY STARTS ON SATURDAY By Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

Published : 1964
Pages : 243
Overall Mark : 9/10

When young programmer Aleksandr Ivanovich Privalov picks up two hitchhikers while driving in Karella, he is drawn into the mysterious world of the Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry, where research into magic is serious business.

And where science, sorcery and socialism meet, can chaos be far behind?

ARKADY STRUGATSKY (1925-1991)
BORIS STRUGATSKY (1931-2012)
The Strugatsky brothers began to collaborate in the early 1950s. Arkady worked as a technical translator and editor, and Boris was a computer mathematician at Puklova astronomical observatory. Their work includes Hard To Be A God, Definitely Maybe, The Snail On The Slope and Monday Starts On Saturday. Andrei Tarkovsky's much admired film, Stalker, was based on their most famous work, Roadside Picnic.

VERDICT
If Terry Pratchett never read this book, I would be amazed. There is so much in here that fans of the Discworld series would enjoy and recognise, and more besides. The humour is dry yet sometimes absurd, and the plot is clever enough to have been one of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently storylines. Well worth the read, and the best of the Strugatsky brothers efforts I’ve read so far.

#151. SWASTIKA NIGHT By Murray Constantine

Published : 1937
Pages : 196
Overall Mark : 8/10

Seven hundred years after Nazism achieved power, Hitler is worshipped as a god. The fascist Germans and Japanese struggle to maintain their populations. An Englishman named Alfred is on a German pilgrimage. According to official history, Hitler is a tall, blond god who personally won the war. Alfred is astounded when shown a photograph of Hitler before a crowd. He is shocked that Hitler was a small man with dark hair and a paunch. And Alfred’s discovery may mean his death...

MURRAY CONSTANTINE (1896-1963)
A pseudonym for the feminist SF writer Katharine Burdekin. Born Katharine Cade, she was the younger sister of Rowan Cade who created the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. In addition to her Utopian and Dystopian fiction, she wrote several children’s books, including The Children’s Country under the pen name Kay Burdekin. Her best-known work remains Swastika Night, written as Murray Constantine – a pseudonym that was not confirmed until two decades after her death.

VERDICT
I actually enjoyed this book, with its bleak look at a future that could have happened if Hitler had won World War II. It’s amazing to read when you realise that this book was actually published before the war had even begun, so Burdekin not only comes up with a dystopian future based on a fiction but also predicts the war itself. The idea that Nazism moves its focus onto women once it has all but wiped out anyone else they deem unfit to be part of the so-called master race is a scary one as women are portrayed here as being treated like animals or something almost sub-human. An interesting parable of what could quite easily have been.

#150. A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY By Vernor Vinge

Published : 1991
Pages : 538
Overall Mark : 6/10

This is the story of Pham Nuwen, a small cog in the interstellar trading fleet of the Qeng Ho. Both they and the Emergents are orbiting Arachna, a dormant planet which will shortly wake up when its On/Off star relights after decades of darkness. Both groups hope to exploit the coming age of technology and commerce on Arachna.

But while the Qeng Ho seek only to trade aggressively, the Emergents’ plans are far more sinister, amounting to little short of genocide...

VERNOR VINGE (1944-)
Vernor Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, a computer scientist and science fiction author. He is best known for his two epic space operas A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) and A Deepness in the Sky (1999), both of which won the Hugo Award and were shortlisted for the Nebula. He is the winner of 5 Hugos, 4 Prometheus Awards and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, among many others.

VERDICT
This was pretty slow paced and at times I couldn’t tell where Vinge was going with the narrative, but eventually things got a little interesting. Like the previous book, I found it hard to follow what was happening that was of any real importance, but the characters were still fun to read about even if I wasn’t one hundred per cent sure at all times what their plans or motivations might be.

#149. ALWAYS COMING HOME By Ursula K Le Guin

Published : 1985
Pages : 525
Overall Mark : 6/10

A long, long time from now, in the valleys of what will no longer be called Northern California, might be going to have lived a people called the Kesh.

But Always Coming Home is not the story of the Kesh. Rather it is the stories of the Kesh. Stories, poems, songs, recipes – Always Coming Home is no less than an anthropological account of a community that does not yet exist, a tour de force of imaginative fiction by one of modern literature’s greatest voices.

URSULA K. LE GUIN (1929-)
Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the finest writers of our time. Her books have attracted millions of devoted readers and won many awards, including the National Book Award, the Hugo and Nebula Awards and a Newbery Honour. Among her novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the six books of Earthsea have already attained undisputed classic status. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

VERDICT
It’s hard to judge this as a novel as it is more of a fictional anthropological guide to a made-up society. Le Guin does an awesome job of creating a world from the basic elements right up to the most important parts, but it is quite the challenge to wrap your mind around. There are stories interspersed between studies of the Kesh, but these are few and far between and just as hard to read as the rest of the book. It’s worth the effort to some extent, but it’s inaccessibility makes it more of an oddity than a must read.

#148. THE CHRYSALIDS By John Wyndham

Published : 1955
Pages : 200
Overall Mark : 8/10

David’s father doesn’t approve of Angus Morton’s unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realise that David and his friends have their own secret aberration, which would label them as mutants. And mutants, as everyone knows, should be burned. But as the children grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal their differences from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery – and death – or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badlands...

JOHN WYNDHAM (1903-69)
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris started writing short stories in 1925. He wrote under many pen names, eventually settling on John Wyndham for his modified form of science fiction, which he called ‘logical fantasy’. He is best-known as the author of The Day of the Triffids, but he wrote many other successful novels including The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids and The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned).

VERDICT
It’s amazing how much of this book seems to have been borrowed from over the years by comic books; from the mutants feared and hated by society for being different, to the appearance of an actual spider-man, this book is a must read for anyone who has ever been a fan of comic books or dystopian fantasies. Wyndham does a wonderful job of creating a world that instantly feels familiar in a child-like friendly way, then pulls the rug out from under us to reveal how truly terrifying other people’s hatred can be.

#147. THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH By Walter Tevis

Published : 1963
Pages : 185
Overall Mark : 8/10

Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien from the planet Anthea, an advanced world that has been devastated by a series of nuclear wars. When he lands on Earth, disguised as a human, it’s with the intention of saving his own people from extinction. Patenting advanced Anthean technology, he soon begins to amass the fortune he needs to help his people. But there are some who are suspicious of Newton’s company’s innovative products, and suspect there is more to this man than meets the eye...

WALTER TEVIS (1928-84)
While studying at the University of Kentucky, Tevis worked in a pool hall and published a story about the game for an English class. It was a theme he would later revisit in the novels The Hustler and The Colour of Money, both of which were adapted into Oscar-winning films. Among his other works, The Man Who Fell to Earth and Mockingbird are considered masterpieces of science fiction.

VERDICT
This is an intriguing look at how humanity might treat an alien visitor if they were to come across one. I love the idea that the alien, Newton, decides to try and make money by inventing amazing things, yet doesn’t actually seem to have any plans for his future. The ending is a little bittersweet, but it does give plenty of closure to his predicament and leaves the reader wondering if there have been visitors that we’ve never been told about...