BBAW – Thursday – Forgotten Treasures
September 16, 2010 29 Comments
I’m participating in the Book Blogger Appreciation Week. There are Book Blog nominations, giveaways and blog posts as part of the BBAW celebrations.
The blog post for Thursday is about Unexpected Treasures:
BBAW says: “Sure we’ve all read about Freedom and Mockingjay but we likely have a book we wish would get more attention by book bloggers, whether it’s a forgotten classic or under marketed contemporary fiction. This is your chance to tell the community why they should consider reading this book!“
Go to the BBAW hosting site to find links to other blogs taking part in the BBAW. These will also discuss the same topic today!
The Crysalids by John Wyndham
This book I’ve mentioned before. I reviewed it not so long ago, and I also mentioned it in the BBAW interview on Tuesday at Alice’s blog.
The book is from the 1950s but when I read it recently, it felt like I was reading one of those current dystopian novels for YA. A few months ago I read The Knife of Never Letting Go and the story in The Crysalids reminded me of this book.
If the book came out now, I’m sure it would be marketed as YA and I would have been less likely to pick it up. I do like YA books every now and then, but it’s targeted for a younger audience in general, so I feel more reluctant to try it.
That doesn’t mean this book is a typical YA book. Not at all. It’s a typical dystopian book, I’d say. The protagonist is a teenage boy who lives in a North American village where people are very religious. People, plants and animals need to be just as God intended them, so if any lifestock or produce is malformed, it is burned rather than used.
Humans are ostracized from the community if they are found with any defects. Unfortunately, because of a catastrophe that happened hundreds of years ago, genetic defects are abound and David finds he is not quite normal himself. Should he keep quiet about it and hope it’s never discovered, or should he make a run for it before the village elders find out about it?
As I said, this book reminded me of The Knife of Never Letting Go, but really, since The Crysalids was written so much earlier, it should be the other way around!
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I enjoyed this one when I read it ,read few of his years ago midwich ,day of this and couple of others ,I love his writing in fact there was a piece on radio not long ago saying how relevant his work still is even after xx years ,great choice all the best stu
I think that’s right, Stu. At least, I’ve only read The Crysalids, but it’s just like any modern novel. Not dated at all.
Would you believe I’ve never read any books by John Wyndham?! I’m getting so many recs from the BBAW that my wishlist has increased exponentially!
Chasing Bawa, it’s the only John Wyndham book I’ve read. I definitely should try another one. BUt The Day of the Tryffids sounds so… dated? 🙂
I am not a YA reader either but I do pick if those are really good.
This sounds good to me.
I am adding it to my tbr list!
Here is my BBAW: Forgotten Treasures post!
Glad you like the book (or the idea of it). It’s a classic that is quite an easy read and you don’t notice it’s written 60 years ago. Perfect!
I loved this book as a kid. I remember another other English class (not mine) reading it and telling that teacher that I had read it and loved it. Even then I was a book blogger!
You seriously loved it then, Chris! I wonder how you got hold of it. Did you read it for class? I only read it because it fulfilled the criterion of being a dystopian novel (for the dystopian challenge I was participating in).
I’m intrigued by this book, and have been since you first mentioned it. It’s on my wish list, and I’m hoping a copy becomes available in October 🙂
It’s a thin book, you might as well give it a go. I’m not sure you’re a dystopian reader, but if you can handle mild science fiction, then you might well like it.
I haven’t read a lot of dystopia, but I have loved what I’ve read 🙂
This looks like a really good book. I want to make more of an effort to read dystopian literature so I will probably come to you at some point for some recommendations. This looks like a good one to put on the list (who knows when I’ll make it there though…my mount TBR is still huge…hehe)!
You’re always welcome for some advice, although this may well be one I’d suggest starting off with. It’s quite “mild” in the sense that life as these people know it, is quite good – if only they didn’t have this religious thing ruling their lives.
Hi leeswammes,
I awarded you with the Cherry on Top award! Come check it out on my site. Thanks.
http://thinkingaboutloud.blogspot.com/2010/09/i-have-been-awarded.html
Read John Wyndham a loooooong time ago (school!); might have to give him a try again one of these days…
…so many books to read 😦
I love dystopian books. Sounds like this is one for the wish list!
If you love dystopian books, you definitely can’t skip this one, Megan.
Ooh, a classic dystopia I haven’t even HEARD OF? Excellent. I’ll be reading this one 🙂
It somehow IS a bit of a forgotten treasure, Cass. My library could get hold of a copy, but it was already quite yellowed – for some reason they hadn’t written it off yet.
Hi! I loved The Knife of Never Letting Go so much that I think I shall look for this book. I know I’ve heard of it before. Thanks for recommending it!
I think there are similarities between Crysalids and Knife, fantagiro! So yes, you should try this one.
The premises sound so interesting – just my kind of thing. I’ve never heard of the book before, but I’m definitely adding to my tbr now.
Go for it, Kaleido! 🙂
This book sounds really interesting. I didn’t love The Knife of Never Letting Go, but I’m eager to give this one a try!
I personally think this is a little better than The Knife of Never Letting Go, S. Krishna, so it’s well worth trying.
This one is on my TBR list, I am quite reluctant to pick up YA books. Dont get me wrong theres nothing wrong with them but Im just not the target audience. I look forward to reading this though.
Jessica, this is definitely not a YA book. But it would be marketed as such if it was new now. So you can safely pick it up!
The only WYndham I read was ‘The Midwich Cuckoo’s’ earlier this year. It was different. I liked the story and the way Wyndham wrote it was so different. I haven’t made up my mind if he’s one of my favourites yet but I think I’m going to give ‘Chrysalids’ a try.
I’ve never heard of “The Midwich Cuckoo” but it sounds worth a try!