The Kraken Wakes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Kraken Wakes | |
 Cover of first edition (hardcover) |
|
| Author | John Wyndham |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Michael Joseph |
| Publication date | July 1953 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 288 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
The Kraken Wakes is an apocalyptic science fiction novel by John Wyndham, originally published by Michael Joseph in the UK in 1953 and first published in the US in the same year by Ballantine Books under the title Out of the Deeps as a mass market paperback. The title is a reference to Alfred Tennyson's sonnet The Kraken, which describes a Scandinavian sea monster.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The novel describes escalating phases of what appears to be an alien invasion; as told through the eyes of Mike Watson.
In the first phase, objects from outer space land in the oceans. The distribution of the objects' landing points, always at ocean deeps, never on land, implies intelligence.
Phase two starts with ships being attacked, causing havoc to world shipping. Shortly after, the aliens start 'harvesting' the land by sending up 'sea tanks' which capture humans from seaside settlements; this is presumed to be for investigation, although the humans always drown. However, humans manage to overcome this phase.
Phase Three: The aliens begin melting the ice caps, causing sea levels to rise. London and other ports are gradually flooded, causing widespread social and political collapse.
The story follows Mike and Phyllis Watson, a married couple who are both journalists, who want to cover this story of the alien attacks for the English Broadcasting Company. They try to survive and understand what is going on.
At the end, humanity develops an underwater ultrasonic weapon that kills the aliens. However, the world population has been reduced to less than a fifth of its level before these events.
Throughout the book the menace (assumed aliens) remains concealed; everything we know about them is inferred from their actions.
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
The novel tells an entertaining apocalyptic story and takes an ahead-of-its time look at planetary engineering, curiously prescient of modern day fears of sea-level rise due to global warming. The novel also satirises the media, and Cold War political mindsets.
The main criticism which has been made is that it is in places a re-hash of some ideas from Wyndham's first major novel, The Day of the Triffids. The ending is considered weak as well, suggesting that the author was not sure how to conclude the novel.
The novel contains what is, in a way, Wyndham's starkest statement of his assumption that two intelligences must necessarily fight each other to the death, although he implies this in The Chrysalids and The Midwich Cuckoos as well.
[edit] External links
[edit] Bibliography
- Wyndham, John. The Kraken Wakes (London: Michael Joseph, 1953) —First edition.
- Wyndham, John. Out of the Deeps (New York: Ballantine, 1953) —First US edition.
- Wyndham, John. The Kraken Wakes (London: Penguin, 1955) —First Penguin edition.
- Wyndham, John. The Kraken Wakes (London: Penguin, 1970) ISBN 0-14-001075-0
|
||||||||||||||||||||
