I first read The Chrysalids when I was 16, would have done so a lot sooner given the chance, but my mother would not let me up till then. She thought it might be too old for me.
Well, it was an unforgettable treat for me when I did. That is the strange thing about certain kinds of science fiction - and I do not by that mean the spaghetti gung-ho kind of read, I mean the ones which speculate most about where human beings are going. Certain kinds of SF seem to address certain areas of interest of mine so keenly, it is almost as if the writer were directly addressing a fellow Chrysalid, Cuck…
