' " And God said," ' quoted Mr Leebody, ' "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Very well, then what are these Children? What are  they? The image does not mean the outer image, but the inner image, the spirit and the soul. What, then, are they?'

Midwich: peaceful, charming even, but a nowhere place, where nothing happens. Then, something remarkable occurs; remarkable and quietly terrible. And now there are strangers here, golden-eyed children, born to the women of the village, but not of them. For they are other, different and powerful. They came that late-summer evening, when the village and inhabitants fell into an enforced and lengthy sleep...and then awoke to the slow realization that nothing would ever be the same.

 
I read this when I was very young, after watching the incredible film of the book, Children of the Damned. I loved it. It was, like all Wyndham's books, strange and absorbing but also terrifying and compelling. The book was chosen as this month's sci-fi book of the month for the book group, and I am thoroughly looking forward to reading it again to see if it's as good as I remember.

 
August 18th 2004
The End

Although I enjoyed reading The Midwich Cuckoos I'm not sure I'd have really got it had I not seen the movie.

The small village of Midwich has rarely had anything interesting happen in it, until the 'Day Out'. On September 26th the entire village falls under a spell; every person drops where they stand and falls asleep, and a wide circle surrounding the village, centred on the church, is impassable as anyone entering the area is also affected. When the village awakes everything seems fine, apart from a few accidental deaths as a result of the 'Day Out', and the people of the village slip back into their routine.

Some weeks later the women of the village begin to suspect something is amiss. One by one they each find themselves to be pregnant; not just the married women, but virgins and elderly women too. In fact, as the weeks go on, it becomes clear that every single woman of child-bearing age in Midwich is with child. The community pulls together, and instead of panic the village decides to raise the 'Day Out' children. It is only later that the truth about the children becomes apparent, and the real danger facing Midwich begins.

This is an intelligent and compelling novel from one of the grand-daddy's of sci-fi. The ideas involved here are incredibly complex and present an alien invasion scenario that is both terrifying and realistic. The problem with it, for me at least, is that it never really develops any of the characters involved. We're told the story by Richard Gayford, a recent resident of Midwich and one of the few not affected by the events as he and his wife were out of town on Sept 26th. Although Gayford is supposed to be telling the tale at no point did I feel I had any idea who he was, or why so many high-ranking officials had taken him into their confidence. I had similar feelings about many other characters, and so the book gives the impression of a police statement rather than a memoir.

The first part of the book details the events that lead to the children's births. The second part is much more philosophical, and spends a lot of time with Gordon Zellaby, a local writer with intelligence connections. Although more actually happens in the second half, so far as deaths, intrigue and horror are concerned less actual action occurs as most of it is told after the fact rather dispassionately, or hypothesised about over cups of tea. It is only the images of the movie springing to mind that really give the children a sense of power, and therefore the sense of impending doom, which I think is a real shame as there is a lot of scope in the book for much, much more.

What I did like about the book was the style in which it was written, almost satirising the twee, rather uptight style of 30s and 40s crime novels. As I've just been rather a lot of Josephine Tey I appreciated it immensely. At some points Wyndham did fall into the 'style over content' trap though.

All in all I liked reading the book, it was relaxing and interesting, but I wouldn't describe it as a gripping thriller, or sci-fi drama but more a rather sedate mystery novel with some very imaginative ideas.