John Wyndham fan, after recommendations...

[maskedwarrior]

Hello there As the thread title sums up pretty succinctly, I'm a Wyndham fan and I've been in the mood for some similar fiction recently by other authors. Does anyone have any recommendations? I particularly enjoyed The Day of the Triffids, The Chrysalids and Web. I've just bought Plan For Chaos, the last of his posthumous publications - looking forward to that!

I really like his prose style, and how his literature captures the age it was written, while remaining timeless and classic. I also think of it as bridging the transition to modern sci-fi. His earlier short stories are about lunar civilizations and nuts and bolts robot aliens, whereas I consider Chrysalids and Web to be post-nuclear, much more modern fiction. But that's just me!

Anyway, any recommendations you may have I'd be most grateful to hear.

Thanks so much for your time,
Tony

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Furies by Keith Roberts (1966) seems to have been a deliberate pastiche of Wyndham.

The Genocides by Thomas M. Disch (1965) has some of that same kind of feel.

 

[ralphkern]

If you've not got round to The Kraken Wakes, in my humble opinion thats the best of wyndhams books. In fact it is so timeles that if someone merely swaps EBC to BBC then it would actually be pretty much totally up to date.

I presume the appeal is something set in reasonably contempary times but a kind of creeping monster or phenomena thats having planet wide repurcussions?

If so

the Chronoliths by Robert Wilson is quite similar

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The Death Of Grass - interesting work of around the same time.

 

[Fried Egg]

I'll second "The Death of Grass" by John Christopher; an excellent piece of work.

Also, you might want to consider an obvious influence on Wyndham if you've not read it already: "War of the Worlds" by H. G. Wells.

 

[chrispenycate]

Yes, I liked the guy when I met him, back in the sixties. There again, we were on the same side of an argument (extremely heated debate?) and that gives a certain feeling of trust in his judgement, even when affected by alcohol – well both of us. All of us, really; the antithesis was also indulging.

Robots and moon cities? I don'r recognise the particular shorts, though my bookshelves are Wyndham ligt after the move – only 'The seeds of time' and 'Jizzle'.

There were lots of catastrophe novels around back then, many of which were atrocious, others quite tolerable – I have good memories of Charles Eric Maine's "Tide went out", but it has been a dreadfully long time since I read it. Atomic fallout featured heavily in ways to almost exterminate mankind (those were the days of Aldermaston marches), and the Chrysalids were far from the only mutations, but alternative techniques were always welcome, preferably involving 'things mankind was not meant to know', the Frankenstein complex

Of his, I would suggest avoiding "The outward urge", where he collaborated with himself (Lucas Parkes was part of his name, and a pen name) and, not of his Simon Clark's "The night of the triffids". On the other hand, do read 'The trouble with lichen' – it's not the best written, but … oh, you were intending to read all of his, anyway?

 

[Toby Frost]

I really like his books too. He was a very good and innovative author, and broke free from the alien-invasion style of War of the Worlds and the 50s B-movies. Day of the Triffids basically covers most of the zombie genre decades before George Romero got going.

Anyhow, have you read The Midwich Cuckoos? I think that's one of his best. For some reason, I remember Nevil Shute's On the Beach as having a slightly Wyndhamesque feel, perhaps because it's about ordinary people facing the apocalypse (albeit in Australia). To be honest, it's hard to think of much SF that is so modern, innovative and strongly British without being twee.

 

[maskedwarrior]

Hi thanks so much for your ideas! Just checking them out now! Death Of Grass, oooh. And the Genocides looks cool

I apologize for not being clearer though - I've read all Wyndham's novels and most of his compilations.

So any ideas about fiction with a similar 'feel' from other writers would be brilliant

I haven't actually read War Of the Worlds, but am very familiar with both Orson Welles's radio adaptation and Jeff Wayne's musical, as well as the films, so it feels like ground already, partially, covered And I'm in the mood for new horizons!

Thanks so much for your help so far and to come!
T

 

[maskedwarrior]

Exactly Toby Frost, I think you've summed up exactly why I like Wyndham - and yes he's never twee, even when, to the modern reader and given his time/genre/nationality he could so easily appear so. A fine craftsmen he was.

 

[maskedwarrior]

And thanks for On The Beach, added to my list. Looks great

 

[martin321]

I'm also a huge John Wyndham fan. Unfortunately, I've not found another author with the same writing style who writes about post-apocalyptic scenarios. However, I do have one suggestion, which is a SF book about nuclear weapons; so it might interest you.

The Peace Machine by Bob Shaw (also published as Ground Zero Man) - it is available in the UK on Kindle, but might be out-of-print in other regions.

 

[antiloquax]

I'm also a big fan of Wyndham and I agree with the mentions of "The Furies" and "On the Beach".
I may have judged this wrong, but I think you'd like Christopher Priest. I'd highly recommend "The Affirmation", "The Glamour" and "The Prestige". They are non really pure SF - there's a highly psychological element to each novel.

"The Inverted World" is great too, but doesn't have that "Englishness" about it.

 

[hitmouse]

Wyndhamish in style
GreybeardBrian Aldiss
Some early Ballard eg The Wind From Nowhere

 

[Fried Egg]

I may have judged this wrong, but I think you'd like Christopher Priest.

Actually, of Christopher Priest's books, the most Wyndham like would probably be "Fugue For A Darkening Island" which is about the breakdown of society in England as it collapses into barbarism and civil war.

Another book I read that it occurred to me as being somewhat Wyndham like was "The Black Cloud" by Fred Hoyle in which a strange cosmic phenomenon threatens to destroy all life on Earth.

J. G. Ballard wrote four apocalyptic novels early in his career although are stylistically quite different from Wyndham: "The Wind from Nowhere", "The Drowned World", "The Crystal World" and "The Drought".

For a classic alien invasion story, you might consider "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" by Jack Finney.

 

[antiloquax]

Actually, of Christopher Priest's books, the most Wyndham like would probably be "Fugue For A Darkening Island" which is about the breakdown of society in England as it collapses into barbarism and civil war.

Oh, I haven't read that one .
By the way, here is an article by Priest about Wells and Wyndham.

 

[Randy M.]

And now, for something totally out of left field, see if you can find "The Terror" by Arthur Machen (available at Project Gutenberg). I'm reading it now and something in his approach keeps reminding me of The Day of the Triffids.


Randy M.

 

[Dave]

The Death Of Grass - interesting work of around the same time.

Also was going to say that.

 

[AndrewT]

I have not yet tried Wyndham. A friend was telling me he liked Van Vogt much better. Any other opinions on that comparison?

 

[Fried Egg]

I have not yet tried Wyndham. A friend was telling me he liked Van Vogt much better. Any other opinions on that comparison?

I would say they're entirely different, both stylistically and thematically. A case of trying both rather than one or the other.