The Midwich Cuckoos
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The Midwich Cuckoos Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

John Wyndham (Author), Stephen Fry (Narrator), Audible Studios (Publisher)
4.3 out of 5 stars 2,851
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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.

The resultant children of Midwich do not belong to their parents: all are blonde, all are golden eyed. They grow up too fast, and their minds exhibit frightening abilities that give them control over others and brings them into conflict with the villagers just as a chilling realisation dawns on the world outside.... 

The Midwich Cuckoos is the classic tale of aliens in our midst, exploring how we respond when confronted by those who are innately superior to us in every conceivable way.

About the author: John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Benyon Harris was born in 1903, the son of a barrister. He tried a number of careers, including farming, law, commercial art and advertising, and started writing short stories, intended for sale, in 1925. From 1930 to 1939 he wrote stories of various kinds under different names, almost exclusively for American publications, while also writing detective novels. During the war he was in the Civil Service and then the Army. In 1946 he went back to writing stories for publication in the USA and decided to try a modified form of science fiction, a form he called 'logical fantasy'.

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  1. Listening Length
    8 hours and 11 minutes
  2. Author
    John Wyndham
  3. Narrator
    Stephen Fry
  4. Audible release date
    25 November 2021
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Audible Studios
  7. ASIN
    B09LVWCWGW
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 8 hours and 11 minutes
Author John Wyndham
Narrator Stephen Fry
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date 25 November 2021
Publisher Audible Studios
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B09LVWCWGW
Best Sellers Rank 79,742 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
624 in First Contact Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
4,434 in First Contact Science Fiction (Books)
4,475 in Alien Invasion Science Fiction

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4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
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Top reviews from Australia

Walter Van Den Eynde
5.0 out of 5 stars all good as per usual
Reviewed in Australia on 17 December 2020
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item as described
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lisa
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant tale of very strange babies
Reviewed in Australia on 22 July 2017
It's dated but still a truly wonderful read. John Wyndham writes fascinating science fiction, with original thinking and compelling plots. 'Midwich Cuckoos' starts with a whole village falling into an unexplained sleep. When they wake everything seems normal until all the women of childbearing age find they are pregnant. Then strange silver eyed babies are born.....

If you can ignore the 1950's sexism and a few preachy monologues, you will truly enjoy this fantasy thriller. The author slowly unravels the secrets of the Midwich babies. Ignore the crummy movies of this book, they don't do it justice. This is brilliant science fiction writing that has not been surpassed half a century later. The only thing I don't like is the high price.
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Râ ºGuE~DJ
5.0 out of 5 stars perfect addition
Reviewed in Canada on 12 December 2023
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awesome read
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FictionFan
5.0 out of 5 stars Beware the Children!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 September 2023
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Richard and Janet Gayford have spent a night in London to celebrate Richard’s birthday. When they return home to the little village of Midwich, they find all the roads blocked, with police and army stopping anyone from going in. It transpires that something very odd has happened. The whole village seems to be in a state of unconsciousness and if anyone crosses an invisible line around the perimeter, they too collapse. Eventually the invisible barrier lifts as suddenly as it came down, and fortunately everyone wakes up, apparently unharmed. Well, apart from the dozen or so people who died in house fires or from exposure depending on where they were when the unconsciousness began. However, things soon seem to have returned to normality and the government’s intelligence people have done a great job of blacking out any news reporting of the incident. But then the local doctor becomes worried – it appears that many of the women of the village are pregnant, even some of those without a husband…

OK, that last bit doesn’t seem quite so shocking now, but in the 1950s pregnancy outside marriage was still considered scandalous. One of the things that has drawn the problem to the doctor’s attention is a spate of women either trying to kill themselves or injuring themselves by trying to induce an abortion, still illegal in 1957 when the book was first published. It’s not just the single women though – several of the married women are terrified too, for example, if they have husbands who are away in the forces or on business trips. But once news spreads that it’s nearly every woman of child-bearing age who is pregnant, it becomes obvious that something more than illicit sex is behind this, and people remember the period of unconsciousness, which they call the Dayout.

Richard Gayford is the narrator. He doesn’t play much of an active part in the story but, because of the luck of them being away that night, Janet is not pregnant, so Richard is able to be an objective observer of what happens in the village. The central character is really Gordon Zellaby, an educated man who writes books – it’s never really stated but one assumes he’s some kind of philosopher. He lives in the village with his younger wife and a daughter from his first marriage, both women in the right age category, so for him the problem is personal, but his academic mind also finds it fascinating. It’s through his conversations with Richard that the various philosophical questions are discussed. As time passes and the Children (always capitalised) are born and grow up, it’s Zellaby who becomes aware of their strangeness, which manifests itself in them seeming to share their thoughts.

The book raises so many philosophical and social issues that it’s pretty hard to analyse them all without giving away the entire plot, so the following discussion might be a little spoilery. There are the unintentional issues, like how Wyndham leaves all the decisions up to the men even though the women are most affected. Only a couple of the women are allowed to think – the rest merely do what the men tell them. Even for the ’50s, this seems out-dated, and Wyndham himself has had far more modern women characters in some of his other books. Equally unintentional is what the book shows us about the social hierarchy – the educated and professional men as the unquestioned leaders, and the uneducated not thought worthy even of consultation or of having their reactions explored to any extent.

But there are plenty of intentional issues too. There’s the very subdued question of how the foetuses were inserted. The time precludes an open discussion of rape, but the question is there, as is lack of consent generally. How much responsibility is due to children born without their mothers’ consent? Is maternal love a requirement, even a possibility, in such circumstances? For some of the women, the child is a true cuckoo in their nest, but for some of the childless women this seems like a miracle – a gift. The terror of the pregnancy is covered well too – will the children be normal? And what if they’re not?

There’s the perennial question of science v. religion. Are the children a gift from God or a punishment for sin? Or are they neither of these, but the first step of an invasion? If the latter, is it an invasion by humans using some form of Frankenstein science – the Russians, perhaps? (Cold war fears are never far from science fiction of this era.) Or is it – and this idea is almost unthinkable – some kind of extraterrestrial alien invasion? How each person answers this question tends to direct how they feel about the Children, and even how they feel about themselves.

But whatever the answer to all these questions, they’re secondary to the main issue – what should be done? The Children have given no indication of their intentions. Zellaby muses on invasion – colonialism and its sometimes devastating impact would have been a subject familiar to British readers at a time when support for the Empire was fading, as would the fear of invasion so soon after the Blitz. And on perception – if aliens were large green monsters with heatrays, we would try to destroy them, right? But if they look like children? If they were born of human women, however unwillingly? If those “mothers” nursed them and named them, and fed them and kept them warm, are they us? Or them? Today we talk of “unconditional love”, which seems to mean you’ll still love your sprog even if she turns out to be a serial killer. But what if she turns out to be an alien serial killer? And on the evolutionary imperative inherent in “survival of the fittest” - is it a strength of our civilisation that we are reluctant to destroy the threatening “other”, or is it a weakness? The book provides one answer, but leaves it ambiguous as to whether that answer is the right one.

In terms of pure enjoyment, this isn’t my favourite Wyndham – the objectivity of the narrator left me feeling a little distanced in an emotional sense. But it’s another wonderfully thought-provoking book, full of moral and ethical questions and, as with all the best science fiction, it has far more to say about humanity than it does about aliens. 4½ stars for me, so rounded up.
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Friendoftheworld
5.0 out of 5 stars These cuckoos are killers
Reviewed in Japan on 7 November 2018
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What would happen if a higher species suddenly emerged among us, and homo sapiens was no longer the top of the evolutionary ladder ? And if the representatives of this new species were still only children living in a remote English village, their powers growing with each passing year ? Civilized co-operation or primitive battle for survival ? A gripping and disturbing tale .
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Jezabel Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars a good read
Reviewed in France on 15 December 2015
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Good idea for a story and interesting plot. Pace a little slow, however by modern standards. Some characters too wordy.
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etheridgem
5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Intriguing
Reviewed in the United States on 5 June 2012
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I bought this Kindle edition because it was on sale for .99 cents~it was the basis for a movie that I am vaguely familiar with, so I took a chance. I'm so glad that I did. First of all, the storyline~plot~is completely riveting. The idea of an entire village full of women all becoming pregnant on the same day is mind boggling in its own right. Then, when all of the babies look alike and have (what I think is) creepy golden eyes really boggles my mind.

I've always thought that books and movies that featured babies and children as the protagonist were some of the creepiest around. The Children (with a capital "C") are not overtly aggressive~in fact, they say that they are only defending themselves. They don't actually do anything to the people of Midwich, but they "will" the people to do things to themselves or others.

My favorite character is Zellaby~he reminded me of nutty professor. But, he's completely right about the children while being extremely fond of the children. Angela, his wife, seems practical and pragmatic~just those qualities that every man needs in a wife.

The story really doesn't take off until about 50% of the way into it~but, it's well worth the wait. This is a story where the exposition only adds to the enjoyment of the plot. While the language is a bit archaic~maybe overly formal~at times, I attribute that to the fact that we're talking about Englishmen and women here.

The setting is so ordinary~in that British countryside kind of way~that it makes the plot all the more believable. I really could picture this village as I read.

The end is surprising, but not unexpected. While I am a fast reader I'm not exceptionally fast, but I did finish this in two nights. It's that interesting.

Now, having said all of this~I wouldn't pay over $5 for it; however, there aren't many books that I would pay over $5 for. If it goes on sale (I think I got it on Daily Deal), then you should definitely get it. It would make a great beach read.

Melissa
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