The Kraken Wakes
Encyclopedia
The Kraken Wakes is an apocalyptic science fiction novel by John Wyndham
, originally published by Michael Joseph in the UK in 1953
and first published in the US 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, which describes the Scandinavia
n sea monster
.
Mike and Phyllis tend to witness the major events, such as they are, but there are no heroic deeds of a mankind fighting for survival. Unlike in H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds", to which an explicit comparison is made in the first chapter, it takes years before humans realize at all that their world has been invaded.
In the first phase, objects from outer space
land in the ocean
s. Mike and Phyllis happen to see five of the "meteors" falling into the sea, from the ship where they are sailing on their honeymoon - an exciting moment for everyone on board, but nobody realizes that they have witnessed the beginning of an invasion from space. Eventually the distribution of the objects' landing points - always at ocean deeps, never on land - implies intelligence.
It is suggested in the early parts that conflict may not have been inevitable. The aliens appear to come from a gas giant
, and 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 have no need or use for the dry land or even the shallower parts of the seas. In theory, the two species could have co-existed indefinitely, hardly noticing each other's presence.
However, humans are nevertheless disturbed and feeling threatened by this new phenomenon on their world - particularly since the newcomers show signs of intensive work to adapt the ocean deeps to their needs, and there are even indications of their digging a tunnel deep underground to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific, in effect their own version of the Panama Canal
.
A British bathysphere is sent down to investigate, and is destroyed by the aliens. The British government reacts rashly and rather unwisely - as remarked by protagonists at the time - by exploding a nuclear device on the spot, under the guise of "testing" it (an act not yet forbidden, at the time the book was written, by the Test Ban Treaty
).
As it turns out, the aliens have many more means of getting at the humans than the other way around. Moreover, humanity is not united in the face of the mounting threat - the Cold War
between West and East is at its height, with the two sides often suspiciously attributing the effects of the alien attacks to their human opponents.
Phase two of the war starts with ships being attacked, causing havoc to world shipping, and the British are humbled to realize "how easily we have been driven off the oceans" (the book was written at the time when, in real life, they had to get used to no longer being an empire
). Shortly after, the aliens start 'harvesting' the land by sending up 'sea tanks' which capture humans from seaside settlements, for reasons that are never made clear. The fate of those captured is equally unexplained, but in the Western world, the focus of the narrator, the attacks were eventually met with retaliation so that "...their percentage of losses mounted and their returns diminished".
In the final phase, Phase Three, the aliens begin melting the ice cap
s, causing sea levels to rise. London
and other ports are gradually flooded (the government promptly relocates to Harrogate
), causing widespread social and political collapse. The same happens in many other countries - for example, the Dutch flee the Netherlands
when it becomes clear that they had "...lost their centuries-old struggle with the sea."
The Watsons cover the ongoing developments of this story for the EBC until the radio (and organized social and political life in general) cease to exist whereupon they can only try to survive and escape a now-flooded London.
At the end, humanity (specifically Japan
) develops an underwater ultrasonic weapon that kills the aliens. However, the world population has been reduced to less than a fifth of its level before these events.
Throughout the book the aliens remain unseen; everything we know about them is inferred from their actions. The most that is learned is that, once they have been killed, "large masses of organic jelly" float to the surface of the sea.
, reviewing the American edition, characterized the novel as "sheer melodrama, sure, but melodrama spiced with wit [and] with pungent commentary on human foibles . . . a truly satisfying shocker." In F&SF, Boucher
and McComas
selected the novel as one of the best sf books of 1953, describing it as "humanly convincing"; they praised the novel as "a solid and admirable story of small-scale human reactions to vast terror." P. Schuyler Miller
found this novel superior to The Day of the Triffids, citing its "characteristic, deceptive quietness." 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." One newspaper reviewer, however, was less impressed, declaring that the novel's pace "is that of a slightly superior snail," making the reader impatient.
John Wyndham
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was an English science fiction writer who usually used the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes...
, originally published by Michael Joseph in the UK in 1953
1953 in literature
The year 1953 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* January 22 - The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway....
and first published in the US in the same year by Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
under the title Out of the Deeps as a mass market paperback. The title is a reference to Alfred Tennyson's sonnet The Kraken, which describes the Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n sea monster
Kraken
Kraken are legendary sea monsters of giant proportions said to have dwelt off the coasts of Norway and Iceland.In modern German, Krake means octopus but can also refer to the legendary Kraken...
.
Plot
The novel describes escalating phases of what appears to be an alien invasion; as told - with quite a bit of wry humour, even when describing manifestly non-humorous situations - through the eyes of Mike Watson, who works for the fictional English Broadcasting Company, and his wife and co-worker 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 the public far more than they are capable of absorbing at a given moment.Mike and Phyllis tend to witness the major events, such as they are, but there are no heroic deeds of a mankind fighting for survival. Unlike in H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds", to which an explicit comparison is made in the first chapter, it takes years before humans realize at all that their world has been invaded.
In the first phase, objects from outer space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
land in the ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
s. Mike and Phyllis happen to see five of the "meteors" falling into the sea, from the ship where they are sailing on their honeymoon - an exciting moment for everyone on board, but nobody realizes that they have witnessed the beginning of an invasion from space. Eventually the distribution of the objects' landing points - always at ocean deeps, never on land - implies intelligence.
It is suggested in the early parts that conflict may not have been inevitable. The aliens appear to come from a gas giant
Gas giant
A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
, and 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 have no need or use for the dry land or even the shallower parts of the seas. In theory, the two species could have co-existed indefinitely, hardly noticing each other's presence.
However, humans are nevertheless disturbed and feeling threatened by this new phenomenon on their world - particularly since the newcomers show signs of intensive work to adapt the ocean deeps to their needs, and there are even indications of their digging a tunnel deep underground to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific, in effect their own version of the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
.
A British bathysphere is sent down to investigate, and is destroyed by the aliens. The British government reacts rashly and rather unwisely - as remarked by protagonists at the time - by exploding a nuclear device on the spot, under the guise of "testing" it (an act not yet forbidden, at the time the book was written, by the Test Ban Treaty
Test Ban Treaty
Test Ban Treaty may refer to:* Partial Test Ban Treaty, adopted in 1963* Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, adopted in 1996...
).
As it turns out, the aliens have many more means of getting at the humans than the other way around. Moreover, humanity is not united in the face of the mounting threat - the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
between West and East is at its height, with the two sides often suspiciously attributing the effects of the alien attacks to their human opponents.
Phase two of the war starts with ships being attacked, causing havoc to world shipping, and the British are humbled to realize "how easily we have been driven off the oceans" (the book was written at the time when, in real life, they had to get used to no longer being an empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
). Shortly after, the aliens start 'harvesting' the land by sending up 'sea tanks' which capture humans from seaside settlements, for reasons that are never made clear. The fate of those captured is equally unexplained, but in the Western world, the focus of the narrator, the attacks were eventually met with retaliation so that "...their percentage of losses mounted and their returns diminished".
In the final phase, Phase Three, the aliens begin melting the ice cap
Ice cap
An ice cap is an ice mass that covers less than 50 000 km² of land area . Masses of ice covering more than 50 000 km² are termed an ice sheet....
s, causing sea levels to rise. London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and other ports are gradually flooded (the government promptly relocates to Harrogate
Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
), causing widespread social and political collapse. The same happens in many other countries - for example, the Dutch flee the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
when it becomes clear that they had "...lost their centuries-old struggle with the sea."
The Watsons cover the ongoing developments of this story for the EBC until the radio (and organized social and political life in general) cease to exist whereupon they can only try to survive and escape a now-flooded London.
At the end, humanity (specifically Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
) develops an underwater ultrasonic weapon that kills the aliens. However, the world population has been reduced to less than a fifth of its level before these events.
Throughout the book the aliens remain unseen; everything we know about them is inferred from their actions. The most that is learned is that, once they have been killed, "large masses of organic jelly" float to the surface of the sea.
Reception
Groff ConklinGroff Conklin
Edward Groff Conklin was a leading science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories , wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet...
, reviewing the American edition, characterized the novel as "sheer melodrama, sure, but melodrama spiced with wit [and] with pungent commentary on human foibles . . . a truly satisfying shocker." In F&SF, Boucher
Anthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
and McComas
J. Francis McComas
Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....
selected the novel as one of the best sf books of 1953, describing it as "humanly convincing"; they praised the novel as "a solid and admirable story of small-scale human reactions to vast terror." P. Schuyler Miller
P. Schuyler Miller
Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...
found this novel superior to The Day of the Triffids, citing its "characteristic, deceptive quietness." New York Times reviewer J. Francis McComas
J. Francis McComas
Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....
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." One newspaper reviewer, however, was less impressed, declaring that the novel's pace "is that of a slightly superior snail," making the reader impatient.
External links
- Review by Jo WaltonJo WaltonJo Walton is a Welsh-Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002 and the World Fantasy award for her novel Tooth and Claw in 2004. Her novel Ha'penny was a co-winner of the 2008 Prometheus Award...
, including comments on other cozy catastrophes.