John Wyndham

In the sleepy English village of Midwich, a mysterious silver object appears and all the inhabitants fall unconscious. A day later the object is gone and everyone awakens unharmed—except that all the women in the village are discovered to be pregnant.

A world paralysed by genetic mutation John Wyndham takes the reader into the anguished heart of a community where the chances of breeding true are less than fifty per cent and where deviations are rooted out and destroyed as offences and abominations.

What if aliens invaded and colonized Earth's oceans rather than its land? Britain, 1953: It begins with red dots appearing across the sky and crashing to the oceans' deeps. At first, many people believe that these aliens are interested in only what's down below. But when the polar ice-caps begin to melt, it becomes clear that these beings are not interested in sharing the Earth and that humankind might just be on the brink of extinction. . . .

Matthew, they thought, was just going through a phase of talking to himself. And, like many parents, they waited for him to get over it, but it started to get worse. Matthew's conversations with himself grew more and more intense—it was like listening to one end of a telephone conversation while someone argued, cajoled and reasoned with another person you couldn't hear. Then Matthew started doing things he couldn't do before, like counting in binary-code mathematics. So he told them about Chocky—the person who lived in his head. Cover Artist: Harry Willock.

"Trouble with Lichen" by John Wyndham is a captivating work of speculative fiction that delves into the complexities of human nature, scientific ethics, and societal change. Set in a near-future England, the novel follows the groundbreaking discovery of a lichen species with extraordinary properties. This lichen dramatically slows down the aging process, granting its users extended youth and vitality. At the heart of the story is Diana Brackley, a brilliant and ambitious biochemist who stumbles upon this miraculous lichen. As she grapples with the moral implications of her discovery, she becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue, power struggles, and ethical dilemmas. The narrative skillfully weaves together elements of scientific discovery, corporate greed, and personal ambition, offering a thought-provoking exploration of the consequences of tampering with nature. Through Wyndham's masterful storytelling, "Trouble with Lichen" raises profound questions about the pursuit of scientific progress and its impact on humanity. As Diana navigates the treacherous waters of scientific innovation and societal expectations, readers are compelled to reflect on the timeless themes of mortality, identity, and the quest for immortality. Rich in suspense and social commentary, this novel continues to captivate audiences with its timeless relevance and thought-provoking narrative.

Tajemnicze promieniowanie z kosmosu wywołuje masową ślepotę na Ziemi. Ociemniali ludzie padają ofiarą krwiożerczych roślin. Czy ludzkość zdoła uniknąć totalnej zagłady?

For the ten short stories collected here, John Wyndham turns his imagination to, among other subjects, body-snatching, time-travel and mind-travel, and the the tricky business of interplanetary colonization.

'The Sun Bird was beginning to travel fast, close to the edge of the whirlpool. They could look right down into the hollow of spinning water' While flying over Africa's New Sea, a water project in the heart of the Sahara desert, Mark Sunnet's rocket plane crashes and is sucked through a hole in the desert floor into a strange, cavernous new world. There, he and his partner Margaret encounter the survivors of an ancient race of underground dwellers whose whole existence is now threatened. Captured and forced to live with other prisoners taken from the surface, the pair know that they must escape before the waters above drown them all . . . The Secret People, published in 1935, is John Wyndham's first novel. 'Perhaps the best writer of science fiction England has ever produced' Stephen King

Librarian's Note - alternate cover, ISBN 0140022317 Consider Her Ways Jane Waterleigh has no memory of her past wakes up and discovers that she is a mother of some description, in a bloated body that is not her own. Odd is a tale of how an ordinary man profited from an extraordinary time paradox when he stops to help a man seemingly lost and confused, and then learns the reasons why. Stitch in Time concerns an elderly lady reflecting on a lost love and, thanks to her sons' experiments with time, finally discovering the reason why her lover abandoned her so many years ago. Oh Where, Now, is Peggy MacRafferty? is a social satire on Hollywood glamour in which a bright, individual young Irish woman becomes part of the celebrity circuit, and loses all that makes her special in the process of becoming a star. Random Quest combines romance and parallel universes. A Long Spoon is the story of how a demon is summoned by mistake and the lengths the couple that invoked him have to go to get rid of him without losing their souls in the bargain. Contents: Consider Her Ways (1956) Odd (1961) Oh, Where, Now, Is Peggy MacRafferty? (1961) Stitch in Time (1961) Random Quest (1961) A Long Spoon (1960)

A millionaire English lord dreams of founding a utopian community on a remote Pacific island.... Among the forty-odd men and women selected for the project are a pestologist named Camilla and the narrator. Within hours of the group's arrival on the sunny isle their radio has been destroyed. Within days several members of the group are dead. Dreams turn to nightmare....

Aircraft designer Dale Currance undertakes a journey to Mars in an effort to capture the prize being offered to the first man to complete an interplanetary journey, but a female stowaway throws his plans into disarray. An international prize of one billion has been offered to the first man to complete an interplanetary trip, and Dale Curtance, a millionaire adventurer, emerges as the British entrant. With a hand-picked crew, he blasted off from Salisbury Plain in the spaceship Gloria Mundi, destination—the planet Mars. Once free of Earth's atmosphere, they discover a stowaway—a woman. Her extraordinary story helps them prepare for the dangers they encounter on the Red Planet, and the fantastic world that exists there.

A delightfully bizzare short story collection from the brilliant mind of John Wyndham, whom Stephen King called “the best writer of science fiction that England has ever produced.” Take a journey into the extraordinary mind of one of the twentieth century’s most brilliant—and neglected—science fiction and horror writers, with fifteen stories that are bound to get under your skin.Wyndham was a master of marrying the bizzare with the banal--taking everyday situations and adding a touch of the fantastic to shock and delight. A man on his deathbed is given the opportunity to re-live his life; a Welsh couple receives a mysterious egg from their son traveling abroad; a woman who writes a novel based on her vivid dreams discovers she isn't the only one experiencing them; a scientist seeks to create "the Perfect Creature"; a London commuter train becomes more and more packed, seemingly headed straight to hell...and more!These stories are perfect for fans of cozy horror, and for the first time are being published along with Wyndham's classic murder mystery novella The Curse of the Burdens.

This book is fantastic and frightening, but entirely plausible. It doesn't just seem scientifically possible, but its characters are living people shaken out of the civilization they know into the horror of a world dominated by triffids. The triffids are grotesque and dangerous plants, over seven feet tall, originally cultivated for their yield of high-grade oil. So long as conditions give the mastery to their human directors, they are a valuable asset to mankind. But when a sudden universal disaster turns those conditions upside down, then the triffids, seizing their opportunity, become an active and dreadful menace. The story of what happens is told here by one of the few people lucky enough to escape the disaster.

A world paralysed by genetic mutation John Wyndham takes the reader into the anguished heart of a community where the chances of breeding true are less than fifty percent and where deviations are rooted out and destroyed as offences and abominations. As one reviewer wrote when "The Chrysalids" was first published: 'John Wyndham really does write... with a sort of hyaline simplicity, perfect timing, miraculous avoidance of cliché and a gentle, sophisticated, slightly astringent humour. He is one of the few authors whose compulsive readability is a compliment to the intelligence.'

Když vyšel poprvé v roce 1951 Den trifidů od Johna Wyndhama, měl autor knihy za sebou už řadu románů a povídek. S nimiž však literárně příliš neuspěl. I Den trifidů vycházel původně jen časopisecky na pokračování. Velký zájem čtenářů si však vynutil rychle za sebou hned několikeré knižní vydání a způsobil, že se Wyndham věnoval pak již nastálo vědeckofantastickému žánru. Román o tom, jak neznámý roj meteoritů způsobí u většiny pozemšťanů slepotu a jak toho využijí průmyslové rostliny „trifidi“, které náhle vyvinou zcela nečekané vlastnosti a zaútočí na lidi, má v sobě dostatek prvků neobvyklosti, aby čtenáře přitahoval. Zároveň mu však nechybí onen welsovský obecný pohled na život a jeho reálné jádro, které z fantastického příběhu činí podobenství o skutečném ohrožení přírody člověkem a člověka přírodou.