Out of the Deeps

By John Wyndham

Earth is invaded by alien spaceships that land in the deepest parts of the oceans. At first nothing happens but then gradually ships start disappearing until all shipping is shut down except for non-motorized sailing ships. The next thing is strange vessels rising out of the deep waters off the shores. These vessels launch forth huge sticky tentacles that grab onto people and haul them, willy nilly, into the vessels, often tearing them into pieces as they go. At first these attacks are widespread and sporadic but then nearly every sea shore is besieged. Of course, counter measures are taken and are largely successful. The vessels withdraw and people begin to think the crisis is over.
But the next attack is not against humanity but against the polar ice caps. Somehow the aliens have managed to get the ice caps melting. As the sea levels rise, the main problem is no longer dealing with the aliens, it is mere survival. As populations are crowded into smaller and smaller areas, strife and disease break out and millions perish. And again the aliens send their tentacles to take their cruel harvest but still people manage to fight back, crowded and diminished and starved though they may be.
This story centers on two British documentary broadcasters who are in on it from the beginning, being among the first to get footage of the aliens tentacles in action. It follows them as the crisis worsens and as London becomes flooded and dangerous. Still they and their fellow broadcasters manage to stay on the air until civil disorder sends the British government into retreat.

This was a pretty boring story. At first the aliens were kind of scary and intriguing but then the story turns away from them to center on the effect of the flooding on society, especially on the British Isles and to chronicle its disintegration. At times, the story read more like a newspaper report and became very tedious. The two main characters are safe in their broadcasting tower and never experience for themselves much of the trauma that has affected their fellow countrymen. The story takes a very detached tone, especially towards the end when we find out that 41 million British citizens have died from exposure, civil strife, hunger and disease. But that's OK, we are told, because 5 million have survived, a cold-blooded way of looking at it, it seems to me. But never mind the cold and indifferent tone of the story, what really sucks about it is that the reader never finds out exactly what or who the aliens were and exactly what they wanted as communications are never received or established nor are any alien bodies ever recovered. Turns out they are merely a plot device used to put mainly the British Isles through the wringer.