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A review by lkedzie
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
5.0
If there's a literary equivalent to Roko's Basilisk, it is The Kraken Wakes.
It is an alien invasion story. Probably. It is an alien invasion story in the way that Camus' The Stranger is a crime novel. Wyndham is a writer's writer, which means that his importance outstrips his fame, which is considerable. Wyndham is a master of social science fiction, where the importance is how things change the people involved rather than what the technology does. In Asmov's paraphrased line, social science fiction is predicting the traffic jam in the suburbs, Wyndham's stories are about what the people in the car are talking about.
So when what are probably the aliens probably invade Earth and begin to do things that are probably malign in intent, we get to see the world react, or not react, through the eyes of the journalist protagonists with a boots on the ground view of the events. And Wyndham's take is incredible. I am not going to explain it because I do not want to spoil it for you, but more to the point, explaining it would take too long. Because what Wyndham tells as the story of what happens is lovingly complex, multifaceted, and real. And sort of scary for its doing that.
Wyndham's take on gender is antiquated as usual, but charmingly so, more The Thin Man with a loving couple being effortlessly charming and playing around with social roles while ultimately affirming them.
It is impossible to avoid climate change comparisons, if only because of the specifics of what happens, but that feels like a shorthand for what is the novel's bigger points about how society works, and when it doesn't. But the novel works because it works on different operating levels, both the personal adventure story and the sort of open ended political allegory. Above all, I think that it's hard to think about the modern world in the same sort of way after reading it.
It is an alien invasion story. Probably. It is an alien invasion story in the way that Camus' The Stranger is a crime novel. Wyndham is a writer's writer, which means that his importance outstrips his fame, which is considerable. Wyndham is a master of social science fiction, where the importance is how things change the people involved rather than what the technology does. In Asmov's paraphrased line, social science fiction is predicting the traffic jam in the suburbs, Wyndham's stories are about what the people in the car are talking about.
So when what are probably the aliens probably invade Earth and begin to do things that are probably malign in intent, we get to see the world react, or not react, through the eyes of the journalist protagonists with a boots on the ground view of the events. And Wyndham's take is incredible. I am not going to explain it because I do not want to spoil it for you, but more to the point, explaining it would take too long. Because what Wyndham tells as the story of what happens is lovingly complex, multifaceted, and real. And sort of scary for its doing that.
Wyndham's take on gender is antiquated as usual, but charmingly so, more The Thin Man with a loving couple being effortlessly charming and playing around with social roles while ultimately affirming them.
It is impossible to avoid climate change comparisons, if only because of the specifics of what happens, but that feels like a shorthand for what is the novel's bigger points about how society works, and when it doesn't. But the novel works because it works on different operating levels, both the personal adventure story and the sort of open ended political allegory. Above all, I think that it's hard to think about the modern world in the same sort of way after reading it.