This one started slow and dated, but got better and more relevant as it went along. The vagaries of public opinion and ineptness of government response particularly resonate in the pandemic era (despite the implausibility of the speed and scope of change to the environment). ( )

In 1953 John Wyndham's tale of alien invasion, following in the footseps of H.G. Wells, was published in England as "The Kraken Wakes". That same year an American version was published in America as a Ballantine paperback original (35c on the cover) and that was what was in my hand as I read, "Out of the Deeps". There are no Krakens as we might think of them in either book. According to wikipedia I was warned there are differences between the two books. This was Wyndham's second novel, following upon the breakout "Day of the Triffids."

After finishing the American paperback I then listened to an audiobook of the British version, The Kraken Wakes. I never think it entirely fair to review an audiobook vs a print book since so much can depend on the delivery of a narrator, plus or minus. So I tried to focus on the story itself to decide overall strengths and weaknesses of the different versions of the story. As it happens I like both versions of the story, and I thought the narrator very good, and I think I'd give a slight nod to the British version as the better of the two. The main story is told in 3 parts, named Phase One, Phase Two and Phase Three. The British version begins quite differently - there is an extended preface that the American novel lacks, and I liked it. It also describes the choice of the title, coming from a poem by Tennyson.

Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

I think the British preface is a very nice introduction to what we read. It lets us know right off that the narrator is looking back on the past and how the world has changed and how he and his wife, the two of them an integral part of the story, lived through it.

The British novel is a much longer and elaborate story. I noted in a great number of places that descriptive bits and extended conversations had been cut out for the American version, as well as changes to phrasing here and there. As I listened I noted some of the added detail in the British version was quite good and probably should or could have been left in, and in other places sections were chopped out or completely rewritten, sometimes for the better in the American version as the dialogue gets excessively wordy at times. There is overall quite a lot of material in the British edition that does not appear in the American. The American version of the story comes across as a much tighter story and supplies an ending with added material which was a plus. In sum, the American version was quite satisfactory and then listening to the British version I was able to pick up extra details and backstory.

So what is the story about - it is about an alien invasion that was not recognized for a number of years. When the monsters do show up things get a little wild and entertaining. We never actually see the invaders as far as I could tell. By the end much of humanity is gone and the world has been vastly changed by rising sea levels. The invading enemy has suffered as well but would seem to be victorious. Who were they and where did they come from and why? These questions were asked early on. We never find out. The story leaves us with a sense that humanity might eventually survive due to an invention by the Japanese that seems to destroy the aliens. But who knows - the world as it once was is gone. I liked the American ending of the novel much better.

The story suffers from weaving the Russians and the Cold War into things far too much, even for a story published in 1953. I was also bothered by an excess of denial (especially in the original Brit version but both versions suffer from it) of what was going on - this was after all prime-time in the UFO sighting years. Once or twice, fine, but on and on year after year, I just didn't buy it. Still, this was fairly good reading of an oldie and I'll give it a 3 star OK. ( )

My reaction to reading this novel in 2005.

Wyndham is often referred to as the founder of the “cosy catastrophe” sub-genre, a peculiarly British institution. He is also said to epitomize post-World War II British fears. This is the first of his disaster novels I’ve read (unless you wanted to stretch the point and call his The Midwich Cuckoos a disaster of alien invasion/hybridization -- you could also see it is a metaphor for the unease of the World War II generation for their youngsters.). You can definitely call it a cosy catastrophe novel.

Slickly narrated, this novel is presented as history being written by a radio reporter which allows him to present a personal encounter with the kraken (the aliens who invade Earth and colonize the sea and make incursions onto coastal areas are never referred to as krakens but the novel’s original British title was The Kraken Wakes) and yet briefly summarize the invasions effect on the world and engage in lots of foreshadowing. The coziness comes in because, though the narrator and his wife narrowly escape being killed by the krakens in the Caribbean, we don’t get any close up looks at famine victims, people battling for survival supplies, the triage of survival, the struggle for survival that makes the disaster and post-apocalypse sub-genres so compelling.

Wyndham -- who, incidentally, wrote sf starting in the 1930s but quite successfully retooled his identity when he changed his pseudonym with The Day of the Triffids -- paved the way for John Christopher whose disaster novels are far less cozy. We get those things, but the narrator and his wife survive in relative comfort to Britain’s woes. It is those woes, Britain the naval power being denied (with virtually every other nation -- though it is strongly hinted at novel’s end that the kraken will be defeated) the use of the sea, that could serve as a metaphor for Britain’s post-war dis-ease. (Another unexpected sign of this is the complaint of the narrator and a citizen that the government -- just like in World War II -- doesn’t trust its citizens with weapons to defend themselves.)

The afterword says Wyndham was heavily -- and obviously -- influenced by H. G. Wells and quotes him as saying “our reader is seeking entertainment rather than cramming for an exam in physics” which explains why he postulates an implausibly high level of sea level rise when the kraken melt the polar ice caps (however the cooling of climate is more plausible due to change of ocean currents and increased fog). This is a more glaring error to modern sf readers who have heard many scientific estimates of the degree of sea level change due to global warming. Still, the aliens were interesting.

Of course, Wyndham follows the tradition of trashing his hometown, specifically London, another echo of Well’s The War of the Worlds. ( )

Aliens, plus drowning most of England ( )