Until it is revealed that every woman of child-bearing age in Midwich is pregnant. With a few obvious exceptions (someone killed falling down stairs, etc.), everyone wakes up from the ordeal - which will soon be referred to as the 'Dayout' - none the worse for their experience.

For a full day, every living thing is rendered unconscious by a mysterious force that forms a perfect circle enveloping the whole town. Filmed twice as Village of the Damned, neither version of which really got the point, the original novel remains a cracking good read despite some obviously dated elements.įor those of you still in the dark as to this novel's plot: it all begins when the sleepy little country hamlet of Midwich, a town the book's narrator goes to great pains to describe as utterly nondescript, experiences a bizarre phenomenon. Next to The Day of the Triffids (one of the few SF novels actually to introduce a new word into the English language), The Midwich Cuckoos is one of his best known works, a tale of visceral Cold War fear that could in some ways be viewed as a response to Jack Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, about the corruption of the body politic from within. Ballard coined the term 'cozy catastrophe story,' to refer to Wyndham's end of the world scenarios in which civilization is wiped out but for a handful of middle-class English survivors), he continues to loom large as an important figure in the genre, though admittedly moreso in his homeland than in America. Though mocked - in, I'd like to think, a good natured way - by several authors who came along after him for his old-fashioned and occasionally quaint approach to his stories (J. of chases or violence 10% planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives 60% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development 10% Descript.John Wyndham was one of the most prominent and influential British SF authors during the genre's formative years in that country. Click on a plot link to find similar books! Plot & Themes Composition of Book Descript.

The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham