The Kraken Wakes

The Kraken Wakes is an apocalyptic science fiction novel by John Wyndham, originally published by Michael Joseph in the United Kingdom in 1953, and first published in the United States in the same year by Ballantine Books under the title Out of the Deeps as a mass market paperback. The title is a reference to Alfred Tennyson's sonnet The Kraken.

The Kraken Wakes
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
AuthorJohn Wyndham
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherMichael Joseph
Publication date
July 1953
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages288
Followed byThe Chrysalids 

Plot

The novel describes escalating phases of what appears to be an invasion of Earth by aliens, as told through the eyes of Mike Watson, who works for the English Broadcasting Company (EBC) with his wife and co-reporter Phyllis. A major role is also played by Professor Alastair Bocker – more clear-minded and far-sighted about the developing crisis than everybody else, but with the habit of telling brutally unvarnished and unwanted truths.

Mike and Phyllis are witness to several major events of the invasion, which proceeds in a series of drawn-out phases; it in fact takes years before the bulk of humanity even realise that their world has been invaded.

In the first phase, objects from outer space land in the oceans. Mike and Phyllis happen to see five of the "fireballs" falling into the sea, from the ship where they are sailing on their honeymoon. Eventually the distribution of the objects' landing points – always at ocean depths, never on land – implies intelligence.

The aliens are speculated to come from a gas giant, and thus can only survive under conditions of extreme pressures in which humans would be instantly crushed. The deepest parts of the oceans are the only parts of Earth in any way useful to them, and they presumably have no need or use for the dry land or even the shallower parts of the seas. Bocker puts forward the theory that the two species could co-exist indefinitely, hardly noticing each other's presence.

Humanity nevertheless feels threatened by this new phenomenon – particularly since the newcomers show signs of intensive work to adapt the ocean deeps to their needs. A British bathysphere is sent down to investigate, and is destroyed by the aliens with the loss of two lives. The British government responds by exploding a nuclear device in the same location.

Unfortunately for the humans, the aliens' technology proves formidable; an American attack ends in disaster. Moreover, humanity is not united in the face of the mounting threat – the Cold War between West and East is well under way, with the two sides often suspiciously attributing the effects of the alien attacks to their human opponents, or refusing to co-operate because of their different political ideals.

Phase two of the war starts when ships all over the world begin to be attacked by unknown weapons and are rapidly sunk, causing havoc to the world economy. Shortly after, the aliens also start "harvesting" the land by sending up biological "sea tanks", which capture humans from coastal settlements, for reasons that are never made clear; the Watsons witness one of these assaults on a Caribbean island. These attacks are eventually met with sufficiently strong retaliation from humanity that they become far less frequent.

And so, in the final phase, the aliens begin melting the polar ice caps, causing sea levels to rise. London and other ports are flooded (the government relocates to Harrogate), causing widespread social and political collapse. The Watsons cover the story for the EBC until the radio (and organised social and political life in general) ceases to exist, whereupon they can only try to survive and escape a flooded London, relocating to a Cornish holiday cottage which due to the floods now exists on an island in its own right. Other coastal countries are also disastrously affected – there is a reference to masses of Dutch refugees fleeing into Germany, having "lost their centuries-long war with the sea".

Ultimately, scientists in Japan develop an underwater ultrasonic weapon that kills the aliens. The population has been reduced to between a fifth and an eighth of its pre-invasion level, and the world's climate has been significantly changed, with water levels 120 feet higher than before.

Plot narrative

Up to the end, humans have no clear idea what their opponents looked like. The most they have is some protoplasm which floated to the surface of the sea after the ultrasonic weapon was used. As stated in the book by the protagonist, the book aims to demonstrate that an alien invasion of Earth could take a very different form from that in The War of The Worlds; publication of the book coincided with the release of 1953 film The War of the Worlds, an adaptation of H. G. Wells' classic work which was both a critical and box office success.[1]

Plot differences

Depending on the book's printed origin there are several changes to the plot:

  • In the US edition almost an entire chapter on how the Watsons gained possession of The Midge yacht, and their aborted attempt to use a dinghy to get to Cornwall is cut, instead simply stating that Freddie Whittier "found it" one day.
  • The US edition skips several paragraphs detailing Mike Watson's mental state and his several subconscious attempts to commit suicide, with only Phyllis preventing his success. Instead, the US edition just states that Mike goes on holiday.
  • In the US epilogue, the Watsons are tracked down by Bocker via helicopter and he explains a great deal of what has happened to the world while Mike and Phyllis have been isolated – even describing the Japanese ultrasonic device in some detail. In the UK edition they are instead approached by a neighbour in a rowing boat, who gives them only a brief overview of what has happened in the world – excluding much of the detail and just mentioning that the Japanese have developed an ultrasonic device. He tells them that their names have been broadcast on radio, and that a "Council For Reconstruction" has been formed.
  • The UK edition is less bleak than the US version, implying that humanity has already begun to rebuild, and that civilisation survives – albeit at a lesser level than before.
  • There are several changes for a US audience in terms of language and phraseology.

Reception

Groff Conklin, reviewing the American edition, characterised the novel as "sheer melodrama, sure, but melodrama spiced with wit [and] with pungent commentary on human foibles... A truly satisfying shocker."[2] In F&SF, Boucher and McComas selected the novel as one of the best science fiction books of 1953, describing it as "humanly convincing";[3] they praised the novel as "a solid and admirable story of small-scale human reactions to vast terror."[4] P. Schuyler Miller found this novel superior to The Day of the Triffids, citing its "characteristic, deceptive quietness."[5] New York Times reviewer J. Francis McComas similarly noted that while the novel was "somewhat quieter in tone" than Triffids, it would "nevertheless exert an even more lasting effect on the imagination."[6] One newspaper reviewer was less impressed, declaring that "[The novel's pace] is that of a slightly superior snail".[7]

Radio adaptations
Character195419982016
Michael WatsonRobert BeattyJonathan CakePaul Higgins
Phyllis WatsonGrizelda HerveySaira ToddTamsin Greig
Freddie WhittierHugh FalkusDavid FleeshmanRichard Harrington
Dr. Alistair Bocker[n 1]Arthur LawrenceRussell DixonRichard Harrington
Capt. Winters RNEdward JewesburyWilliam Oxborrow
  1. "Becker" in the 2016 dramatisation

The novel was adapted by John Keir Cross as a single 90-minute drama for the BBC Home Service, first broadcast on 28 April 1954. It was produced by Peter Watts. An adaptation by John Constable as a single 90-minute drama for BBC Radio 4 was first broadcast on 21 February 1998. It was produced by Susan Roberts, with music by Paul Gargill. This version was released on CD by BBC Audiobooks in 2007.

A 1965 radio adaption was recorded in Vancouver by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, starring Sam Paine, Shirley Broderick, Michael Irwin and Derek Walston.[8]

BBC Radio 7 presented an unabridged reading by Stephen Moore of the novel in sixteen 30-minute episodes, produced by Susan Carson, and broadcast daily between 12 March and 2 April 2004.

On 28 May 2016 BBC Radio 4 broadcast an adaptation by Val McDermid set in the present day, and with some of the action moved from Harrogate to Birmingham, and from Cornwall to Scotland. It starred Paul Higgins as Michael and Tamsin Greig as Phyllis, and featured an appearance by Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as herself and was recorded with live accompaniment by the BBC Philharmonic orchestra.[9][10]

References
  1. White, Armond (A.W.) "The Screen in Review: New Martian Invasion Is Seen in War of the Worlds, Which Bows at Mayfair." The New York Times, August 14, 1953. Retrieved: January 11, 2015.
  2. "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf", Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1954, p. 119
  3. "Recommended Reading," F&SF, March 1954, p. 93.
  4. "Recommended Reading," F&SF, April 1954, p. 72.
  5. "The Reference Library", Astounding Science Fiction, September 1954, p. 152.
  6. "Spaceman's Realm", The New York Times Book Review, 10 July 1955, p. 15.
  7. "Time and Space", Hartford Courant, 7 February 1954, p. SM19
  8. http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=12665
  9. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07bzhrd
  10. Green, Chris (Scotland Editor) (25 February 2016). "Nicola Sturgeon to play herself saving the UK from aliens in BBC Radio 4 drama". The Independent.

Bibliography
  • Wyndham, John (1953). The Kraken Wakes (1st ed.). London: Michael Joseph..
  • ——— (1953). Out of the Deeps (1st US ed.). New York: Ballantine..
  • ——— (1955). The Kraken Wakes (1st Penguin ed.). London: Penguin..
  • ——— (1970). The Kraken Wakes. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-001075-0..
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