The Chrysalids

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If you've yet to savour THE CHRYSALIDS, a perennial front runner in the field of soft science fiction, I can't think of a better time than right now. Highly recommended indeed.

Rosalind Morton is David's closest friend among the group of telepaths. They become more of a couple later on in the book. She lives on a neighbouring farm and is David's half cousin.David is upset by what happened to Aunt Harriet. He eventually confides in Uncle Axel. Uncle Axel shares some of his philosophy about how the true image of man is unknown: he points out that the Old People caused the Tribulation; thus, they were not perfect either. At the end of the chapter, the telepathic group, which includes a few other characters apart from David and Rosalind, share their names and locations with each other so that they can be more aware of each other in case of any emergencies.

I just did a reread of this and I love it even more than the first time. This is a compact, post apocalyptic thriller with great characters, terrific world building and a heartfelt cry for the disenfranchised. It is easy to imagine how this apoplectic setting could have created controversies at the time of its release because after all only a decade earlier the world had suffered World War II, and the horrors were still fresh. But what appalled me most is that even after five decades nothing has changed and people are still trying to overpower each other, still committing heinous crime against each other in the name of religion and superiority.we can make a better world than the Old People. They were only ingenious half-humans, little better than savages; all living shut off from one another, with only clumsy words to link them. Often they were shut off still more by different languages, and different beliefs. Some of them could think individually, but they had to remain individuals. Emotions they could sometimes share, but they could not think collectively. When their conditions were primitive they could get along all right, as the animals can; but the more complex they made their world, the less capable they were of dealing with it. They had no means of consensus. They learnt to co-operate constructively in small units; but only destructively in large units. They aspired greedily, and then refused to face the responsibilities they had created. They created vast problems, then buried their heads in the sands of idle faith. There was, you see, no real communication, no understanding between them. They could, at their best, be near-sublime animals, but not more." (p.156) David's father is the staunch, cruel leader of their farming community and won't allow a "deviant" to live. He even kills his newborn babies. If the authorities will ruthlessly destroy such outward Deviations, David can imagine what would happen if village leaders discovered he and several of his friends posses a particularly powerful Deviation: they are telepathic, capable of sharing mental images and speaking with one another internally, mind-to-mind. And David's younger sister Petra is born with super, mind-blowing telepathic powers, able to communicate with other telepaths halfway across the globe. Holy Deviation!

Revill, Joanne. "The John Wyndham Archive, 1930–2001". SF Hub. Archived from the original on 19 August 2014 . Retrieved 19 September 2010.

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Case Two: We’re in the future and the United States needs to immediately take over all Middle-Eastern oil fields. It’s a matter of life and death. Via military superiority, such a takeover can be effected next week, no problem. Again, “survival of the fittest” requires this action.