When the octopus wakes up
When the Kraken Wakes , the original English title The Kraken Wakes is a science fiction novel by the British author John Wyndham .
In the form of a first-person narration, the novel describes the invasion of the earth by an extraterrestrial civilization, which begins in the sea and almost leads to the annihilation of humanity.
Publications
The original was published in July 1953 by Michael Joseph in Great Britain, in the same year in the USA as Out of the Deeps by Ballantine. Newer British editions were published by Penguin.
A first German edition appeared under the title Kolonie im Meer in 1962. In 1988 it was published in the Fantastic Library near Suhrkamp under the title "When the Octopus Awakens".
action
During their honeymoon, journalists Mike and Phyllis Watson will witness them falling like round red balls from the sky. The captain of the cruise ship tries to rescue survivors, but not even parts of the wreckage are found. He tells journalists that other sailors have made similar sightings.
Mike sends a report to the EBC - the radio station the couple works for. Mike Watson quickly becomes the contact person for this and similar events and further reports are sent to him about the unknown missiles. These are apparently in small groups and never land on land, but always under water. During the Cold War, the Western world and the Eastern Bloc initially accuse themselves of being responsible for these incidents. Even the population - if they are interested - is largely assuming new technology from the Russians. The American military shoots one of the bullets and other nations quickly join in, destroying many of the bullets upon sighting.
Mike and Phyllis try other projects in the meantime and Phyllis suffers a miscarriage, so they are a little surprised when Captain Winter invites the two journalists - who have since made a name for themselves through reporting - to report on an expedition. The military is now assuming an alien invasion. You want to watch the strangers and send an expedition team to one of the places where a particularly large number of bullets flew into the water. The ship with which Phyllis and Mike are traveling has a diving ball on board, which is lowered into the depths with 2 men and cameras. However, it is not possible to descend to the bottom of the sea, as it extends too deep at this point. The contact with the diving ball breaks off and when you try to pull it up it becomes clear that something has easily cut through the metal cable. Soon entire ships will disappear from the seas without a trace. Weapon tests as a reaction remain unsuccessful, and a bomb even disappears during a weapon test in the sea. Which is soon used by the strangers against the people. The strangers achieved their first victory with the fact that there is almost no more shipping.
The scientist Dr. In his theses, Bocker initially called for negotiations. Now he too has to realize that the strangers must be fought. But his views are not taken seriously in public. Even when he reports that attacks on islands took place, the public does not believe in a connection with the strangers under water, but in scaremongering and too much imagination. In coordination with Captain Winter, the two journalists nevertheless accompany a research team led by Dr. Brocker on an island. After several attacks on other islands, the team actually witnessed an attack. Machines - so-called sea tanks - come ashore from the sea and shoot gelatinous nets. Everything organic that comes into contact with it is pulled into the tank. The journalists and photographers can finally make the danger credible. The technology that involves organic matter seems so strange that it cannot be understood. But the majority of the population finds Bocker's recommendation to protect all coastal regions exaggerated, as they only see small islands at risk, not England and the large continents. Phyllis inherits a house from an aunt. She sells it and instead buys a house for herself and Mike in a high-altitude region in the country. There they work on other projects for the EBC when they are not in London.
Soon after, Mike learns of an attack on the Spanish coast. The population now takes the danger seriously and mankind quickly learns to defend itself and mostly destroys the sea armor while trying to get ashore. Soon the strangers seem to have stopped the attacks, as hardly any of the sea tanks make their way back into the sea. The war against the strangers seems to have been won.
Only Bocker continues to warn and believes there is a connection with the rise in sea levels. But the press pulls against Bocker again. Only when whole blocks of ice are sighted does the population slowly begin to believe that the strangers are melting the polar ice caps. Confidence in the government declines more and more as their flood contingency plans fail. Because of rising sea levels, many places are being evacuated and few people are left in London. Mike and Phyllis also stay with a team from the EBC, which will soon be merged with the BBC. When the looting of London became rampant, they wanted to be evacuated as well. But a recently evacuated friend advises them against. This was evacuated by the government with other journalists and is housed with them. The rest of the population no longer believes this and there are increasing attacks on the government and the military. Phyllis becomes more and more depressed and Mike travels with her in a sailboat to her secondary residence. This has now become a small island. Her house was looted, but Phyllis had bricked up a small bunker beforehand and stocked it with supplies, which she had disguised above ground as a tool shed. In addition to the other locals, there are also some refugees living on the island. As returnees who had previously moved here, the two have a special status and are spared further looting.
One day they notice a helicopter. Dr Bocker was on board and reports to the two of them that the polar ice caps have now completely melted and the water will not rise any further. He escaped the attacks with part of the government. There is also news to report in the fight against strangers. So the Japanese found a way to bring their infrasound weapons to the sea floor so that the strangers could be effectively attacked first. They also radioed the blueprints and these weapons are now mass-produced in the US. Mike and Phyllis should resume their work as journalists and report to the population. The individual groups of survivors - in Great Britain there are still around 10% of the original population - can thus draw hope. Civilization can move in again and the looting will come to an end when the individual groups can now speak and act with one another again thanks to the media. Bocker returns by helicopter and Mike and Phyllis want to follow him soon and tackle this task.
style
The novel reports the events in retrospect in a factual manner. The reader only becomes aware of the effects of the aliens, they never appear themselves and remain hidden from the protagonists and the reader.
The novel is preceded by Alfred Tennyson's poem The Kraken (1830), from which the title The Kraken wakes is derived.
In the first part of the work in particular, many influences of the UFO hysteria of the 1940s and 1950s, which Wyndham also dealt with, are processed.
reception
In his review of the work on buchwurm.info and phantastik-couch.de, Michael Drewniok describes the work as a small classic of the genre. The tenor of the work is cool and factual, but that makes the story even more intense. The England in history is populated by bizarre but lovable people, it reflects the image of good old England.
Branislav L. Slantchev, a reviewer at Götterdämmerung.org, also counts the work among the best Wyndhams. The fact that the aliens remain hidden and the reader does not find out anything about them, as well as the factual style, makes the story, in Slantchev's opinion, even more frightening than the scenario alone.
radio play
A radio play version by Carl Dietrich Carls (book) and Heinz-Dieter Köhler (director) with Hansjörg Felmy , Xenia Pörtner and Dieter Borsche was produced by Westdeutscher Rundfunk in 1967 as “Colony in the Sea” .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Review by Branislav L. Slantchev at Gotterdammerung.org
- ↑ a b Review by Michael Drewnoik at buchwurm.info
- ↑ Review by Michael Drewnoik ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at phantastik-couch.de
- ↑ HörDat
