Chrysalids by John Wyndham

As a retort to the comments regarding the ending. The killing of the people of Waknuk and the Finges people was done by the Sealand (Zealand) woman, as to show her contrasting beliefs.

This was meant to show the difference in morals people have, and that grader can push people to supitidty easily. As the Sealand woman was obvious regarding the others as 'lower' life-forms.

The novel the Chrysalids is told in Labrador in a post apocalypse time in which is several thousands of years after what is hinted to have been a nuclear war. The story focuses upon David Storm, a boy who was raised by: Joseph Storm, one of the religious leaders against the deviations (the deformed plants and people). The people were taught that these 'deviations' were creations of the devil. The deviational people were banished to a barbaric countryside called 'the fringes' and the animals and plants were destroyed. David secretly shares the ability of telepathic speech with 8 others (the youngest of which is his sister, who is shown to be the most powerful).

The Chrysalids was well written and allows for the reader to be lost upon this world in which 'The Old People' (or a future generation of ourselves) have destroyed everything we have worked towards, and resulted in the slight technological re-evolution which is shown in this book.

This is one of my favorite books and the most fascinating part was actually trying to figure out the setting of the book, because it is not told to you right away and the characters have some names of real places combined with names they invented.

The best I could figure out it takes places in Newfoundland(Newf) and Labrador in Canada. And the end character comes from New Zealand(Sealand). My best guess is the distant future, after a Nuclear War.

John kind of messes up at the end with them killing the Waknuk and Fringes people. This makes the characters look bad and goes against the morals of the book. Perhaps the author had a mood shift when writing, but it is certain that it would have been easier and more popular to just change that so the webs did not kill the people.

The book has good concepts, good suspense, good plot, and good morals.

WARNING: Reading it will probably change your life and make you think differently.