John Wyndham Books In Order

Stowaway To Mars / Planet Plane

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.

The Day of the Triffids / Revolt of the Triffids

In 1951 John Wyndham published his novel The Day of the Triffids to moderate acclaim. Fifty two years later, this horrifying story is a science fiction classic, touted by The Times London as having all the reality of a vividly realized nightmare.

Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen. Removing his bandages the next morning, he finds mas*ses of sightless people wandering the city. He soon meets Josella, another lucky person who has retained her sight, and together they leave the city, aware that the safe, familiar world they knew a mere twenty four hours before is gone forever.

But to survive in this post apocalyptic world, one must survive the Triffids, strange plants that years before began appearing all over the world. The Triffids can grow to over seven feet tall, pull their roots from the ground to walk, and kill a man with one quick lash of their poisonous stingers. With society in shambles, they are now poised to prey on humankind. Wyndham chillingly anticipates bio warfare and mass destruction, fifty years before their realization, in this prescient account of Cold War paranoia.

The Kraken Wakes / Out of the Deeps

A BBC Classic Sci Fi Audio Dramatization. At first, the fireballs seemed to be nothing more than a dazzling display of lights in the sky, plunging into the deepest oceans and disappearing without trace. Mike and Phyllis Watson, both radio journalists, are caught up at the center of events, well aware that it’s not the cold war or international conflicts that are causing these crises, but something infinitely more deadly an alien invasion. And whatever the alien beings are, they have begun to emerge from the sea.

The Chrysalids /Re-Birth

The Chyrsalids is set in the future after a devastating global nuclear war. David, the young hero of the novel, lives in a tight knit community of religious and genetic fundamentalists, always on the alert for any deviation from the norm of God’s creation. Abnormal plants are publicly burned, with much singing of hymns. Abnormal humans who are not really human are also condemned to destruction unless they succeed in fleeing to the Fringes, that Wild Country where, as the authorities say, nothing is reliable and the devil does his work. David grows up ringed by admonitions: KEEP PURE THE STOCK OF THE LORD; WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT. At first he does not question. Then, however, he realizes that the he too is out of the ordinary, in possession of a power that could doom him to death or introduce h im to a new, hitherto unimagined world of freedom. The Chrysalids is a perfectly conceived and constructed work form the classic era o science fiction, a Voltairean philosophical tale that has as much resonance in our own day, when religious and scientific dogmatism are both on the march, as when it was written during the cold war.

The Midwich Cuckoos

One mysterious day, around the small English village of Midwich, a strange barrier appears, which when crossed causes people to fall down unconscious. From the sky, a strange silvery object can also be seen in the centre of the village. The next day, all is back to normal, or so it seems. Months later, all the women of child bearing age are found to be pregnant, and as the children are born, it is obvious that there is something more than a little different about the children of Midwich…

Trouble with Lichen

It came from a lichen. When biochemist Francis Saxover discovered its remarkable properties, the implications terrified him. But Diana Brackley foresaw the coming of a new evolutionary order and with it, a revolution.

Chocky

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. Mathew’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.

Web

The island of Tanakuatua seems like heaven to the 40 people who go there in order to create a utopian society, but soon they start to die in a horrible way and it seems that something strange and deadly is out there in the jungle. ‘Penguin Readers’ is a series of simplified novels, film novelizations and original titles that introduce students at all levels to the pleasures of reading in English. Originally designed for teaching English as a foreign language, the series’ combination of high interest level and low reading age makes it suitable for both English speaking teenagers with limited reading skills and students of English as a second language. Many titles in the series also provide access to the pre 20th century literature strands of the National Curriculum English Orders. ‘Penguin Readers’ are graded at seven levels of difficulty, from ‘Easystarts’ with a 200 word vocabulary, to Level 6 Advanced with a 3000 word vocabulary. In addition, titles fall into one of three sub categories: ‘Contemporary’, ‘Classics’ or ‘Originals’. At the end of each book there is a section of enjoyable exercises focusing on vocabulary building, comprehension, discussion and writing. Some titles in the series are available with an accompanying audio cassette, or in a book and cassette pack. Additionally, selected titles have free accompanying ‘Penguin Readers Factsheets’ which provide stimulating exercise material for students, as well as suggestions for teachers on how to exploit the Readers in class.

Plan for Chaos

Plan for Chaos is a never before published novel by post apocalyptic British science fiction writer John Wyndham 1903 69, best known for his cozy catastrophe novel about a venomous class of fictional plants, The Day of the Triffids. Written simultaneously with that well known volume, which has been in print continuously since its publication in 1951, Plan for Chaos makes a fascinating companion to the author’s most famous work and offers a new angle on a writer often considered the direct descendent of the legendary H.G. Wells and an influence on such innovators as Ray Bradbury and Margaret Atwood.

The Seeds of Time

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

The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century Ghost Stories

‘The ghosts of fiction were not killed off by the advent of the electric light, the invention of the telephone, the coming of the motor car, or even by the once unthinkable horrors of technological warfare. Instead they took over the trappings, landscapes, and cultural assumptions of the twentieth century for their ancient purposes.’ Thus Michael Cox introduces The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century Ghost Stories, a unique collection of 33 of the best and most chilling ghost stories of our era. The first anthology to trace the evolution of the ghost story over the last one hundred years, this book demonstrates the variety and versatility of the genre and the different ways in which stories of the supernatural have adapted to twentieth century venues and concerns. In these tales we encounter not only the returning dead, but also distinctly modern phantoms: a haunted typewriter, a ghost that travels by train, and an urban specter made of smoke and soot. There are child ghosts and haunted houses, playful spooks and deadly apparitions. The authors of these uncanny tales are as diverse as the kinds of stories they tell; there are ghost stories by such specialists as M.R. James and Algernon Blackwood and many by authors not commonly associated with the genre: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Graham Greene, A.S. Byatt, and Angela Carter are only a few of the literary celebrities included in this collection. At a time when our era seems to grow increasingly rational and predictable,The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century Ghost Stories reminds us of the joys of uncertainty and wonder. Distinctive and gripping, these stories will linger long in the memory.

The Flying Sorcerers

This sparkling sequel to WIZARDS OF ODD once again turns logic on its head with a galaxy of star writers and stories. Terry Pratchett, the arch priest of the genre, leads off with the eccentric figure of DEATH on new and curious mission, Roald Dahl plays havoc with country superstition, and Arthur C. Clarke shows the funny side of cosmic doom. Add to these dazzling contributions from masters such as Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Angela Carter, C.S. Lewis, P.G. Wodehouse and Michael Moorcock, and you have a blend of comic fantasy, supernatural extravaganza and sf that is almost literally in orbit. The title of the book stems from the fact that many of the stories feature characters who can fly either under their own power or by machines or they simply run into trouble with aerial objects of one sort or another. Bringing together some of the best fantasy available, The Flying Sorcerers is a gloriously bizarre, wonderfully varied collection of stories.

The Science Fiction Century, Volume 1

‘Science fiction is the characteristic literary genre of the century. It is the genre that stands in opposition to literary modernism.’ So says David G. Hartwell in his introduction to The Science Fiction Century, an anthology spanning a hundred years of science fiction, from its birth in the 1890s to the future it predicted. David G. Hartwell is a World Fantasy Award winning editor and anthologist who has twice before redefined a genre first the horror field with The Dark Descent, then the subgenre of hard science fiction with The Ascent of Wonder, coedited with Kathryn Cramer. Now, Hartwell has compiled the mother of all definitive anthologies, guaranteed to change not only the way the science fiction field views itself but also the way the rest of literature views the field. The Science Fiction Century includes stories from the founding fathers of the field, such as H.G. Wells, C.S. Lewis, Jack London, and Rudyard Kipling; beloved mainstays of the genre, such as Philip Jos Farmer, Roger Zelazny, Jack Vance, and Poul Anderson; noted female writers, including Connie Willis, Nancy Kress, and James Tiptree, Jr.; and writers who have hit their stride in the last two decades, such as Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Michael Swanwick, and James Morrow. Hartwell has also included writers widely recognized outside the genre, such as E.M. Forster, Michael Shaara, and John Crowley; and translations of foreign writers’ formative works, including Dino Buzzati and Wolfgang Jeschke. This is must have anthology for all literary interests.

The Road to Science Fiction 5

In its first four volumes, this much praised historical anthology series traced how the earliest forms of fantastic fiction developed into what is now known as science fiction. Volume Six looks at sci fi in a dozen foreign countries and offers a rich variety of stories from around the world.

Vintage Science Fiction

From the cerebral 2001 to the B grade It Came From Outer Space both of which are from stories by Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury, respectively, and are collected here sci fi films have always drawn from the printed word. In addition to tales by Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Stephen King, and Clive Barker, several stories appear in book form for the first time, such as James Blish’s Star Trek scenario, while others such as Werner von Braun’s The Conquest of Space, are out of print or hard to find.