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| Cover art by Michael Herring |
Film This!
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| Cover art by Michael Herring |
| RE-BIRTH John Wyndham New York: Ballantine Books, May 1978 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13: 978-0-345-27450-2 | ||||
| ISBN 0-345-27450-4 | 185pp. | SC | $1.75 | |
Growing up in Waknuk, young David Strorm sometimes had a curious dream. In it he saw a city filled with odd things: tall buildings; carts moving with no horses to pull them; even things in the sky that were not birds. All of these things were outside his waking experience.
Once he told his cousin Rosalind Morton about these dreams. She guessed that he might be dreaming of the Old People. Then she warned him very seriously to never tell anyone else. David, fortunately, took this advice — for in the straitened times following Tribulation, fear of change ruled the day and people who displayed differences were treated with suspicion. Certain differences were treated far worse. Preserving Purity: the physical integrity of plant, animal, and most of all human forms had acquired the force of both religious doctrine and government edict, enforced by the Inspectors found in every district. And David was the son of Joseph Strorm — the most ardent champion of Purity doctrine in Waknuk and for miles around.
Thus when David met Sophie, a girl his own age from another village, and through helping her when she hurt her foot learned that she had six toes, he opened the door to a possible world of hurt for Sophie and himself. When he helped Sophie home, her anxious mother begged a promise of silence from him, and he readily agreed. With his callow youth, he did not really understand the reason for her concern; but he honored his promise.
Later years compounded the problem as he and others found they could share their thoughts across considerable distances. This ability of "think-together" finally became impossible to conceal, and the "Norms" deemed it a greater threat than any physical difference, because physical Inspection could not reveal it. Two of the eight people sharing the ability were captured. For the others under suspicion, flight was the only option: a flight that took them into the Fringes, where those rejected for some Deviation eked out a meager existence. Behind them came a hundred-man posse of Norms in hot pursuit. Ultimately, survival depended on whether the city of David's dreams was real and accessible.
This is an excellent novel, with plenty of action and plausible jeopardy. It also touches on — nay, delves into — deep-seated real-world problems. Here's a hint of that, from words the Zealand woman gives to David when he learns his father has joined the raid into Fringes territory to capture him:
"Let him be," came the severe, clear pattern from the Zealand woman. "Your work is to survive. Neither his kind, nor his kind of thinking, will survive long. They are the crown of creation, they are ambition fulfilled, they have nowhere more to go. But life is change, that is how it differs from the rocks, change is its very nature. "The living form defies evolution at its peril, if it does not adapt it will be broken. The Old People brought down Tribulation, and were broken into fragments by it. Your father and his kind are a part of those fragments. They are determined still that there is a final form to defend. Soon they will attain the stability they strive for, in the only form it is granted—a place among the fossils." *
* * "In loyalty to their kind, they cannot tolerate our rise; in loyalty to our kind, we cannot tolerate their obstruction." – Pages 168 & 181 |
People of "a certain age" will recognize some of those words from The Jefferson Airplane album "Crown of Creation."1
Re-Birth (known in the UK as The Chrysalids) is an excellent science-fiction tale; possibly John Wyndham's best. I'd put it on my list of the top twenty, and would love to see it filmed.
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.