Chocky
Matthew's parents are worried. At eleven, he's much too old to have an imaginary friend, yet they find him talking to and arguing with a presence that even he admits is not physically there. This presence - Chocky - causes Matthew to ask difficult questions and say startling things: he speaks of complex mathematics and mocks human progress. Then, when Matthew does something incredible, it seems there is more than the imaginary about Chocky. Which is when others become interested and ask questions of their own: who is Chocky? And what could it want with an eleven-year-old boy?
Stats for nerds
2recommend
6mentions
3people
2018–2024years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Not sure about underrated, but if you mean lesser-known, here is some of the most memorable, possibly lesser-known science fiction I've read over the past few years. These are the ones that stick in my brain and continue to generate thought, even though I read them months (or even years) ago:
"Chocky" by John Wyndham
"This is How You Lose the Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (a new all-time fave for me)
"The Book of Strange new Things: A Novel" by Michel Faber
"The City and the City" by China Miéville
"The Fifth Science" by Exurb1a
"The Initial Fold" series by Nick Adams
"Peacemaker's Code" by Deepak Malhotra (still not sure why this is not more well-known)
"Eifelheim" by Michael Flynn (a most unusual premise and a gob of seemingly inane stuff to get through at about the 2/3 point, but IMHO worth it)
"Providence" by Max Barry (heart pounding)
"Hench" by Natalie Zina Walschots
"Orange World" by Karen Russell (short stories but many qualify as sci-fi, very memorable to me)
And here are some definitely well-known examples that also stick in my head:
"Infernum" by Jayson Adams
"The Fourth Wing" and "Iron Flame" by Rebecca Yarros (more fantasy than sci-fi, but very well done if you can handle two or three extended and explicit sex scenes)
"Rabbits" by Terry Miles (book includes some hidden hints and puzzles that lead you to things outside the book
"We are Legion (We are Bob)" series by Dennis Taylor
- Easily these (so far):
This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (actually now one of my all-time favorites, without regard to genre. Just amazing)
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Book of Strange New Things - Michael Faber
Ted Chiang's short story collections (Exhalations and Stories of your life and others)
Daemon - Daniel Suarez
The City and the City - China Miéville
Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (this one still haunts my dreams at times)
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse Book 1) - Dennis Taylor (just finished this series for book club)
Galatea 2.2, The Overstory, Bewilderment, The Gold Bug Variations - 4 different books, all by Richard Powers - what can I say, the man is a genius and a treasure
Eifelheim - Michael Flynn - ok, this book can be a slog at times, but it is very rewarding for those who persevere, and has stuck in my brain for many years
Chocky - John Wyndham - A quiet, delightful surprise
Providence - Max Barry - This book flows like a movie. It will make a great movie. I found myself LITERALLY out of breath a couple of times
Hench: A Novel - Natalie Zina Walschots - Quirky, memorable
The Peacemaker's Code - Deepak Malhotra - Why hasn't this guy written more sci-fi?
Orange World and Other Stories - Karen Russell - OK, maybe not strictly sci-fi, but this book tickles my brain
GUILTY PLEASURE SCI-FI FAVORITE: The Vaz series by Laurence Dahners. I think I've read that series 3 times now.
- Enjoyed:
- Chocky - John Wyndham
- Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata
- The Eight Mountains - Paolo Cognetti
- The Executioner Weeps - Frederic Dard
- The Invisibility Cloak - Ge Fei
- The Midnight Fox - Betsy Byars
- Ms Ice Sandwich - Mieko Kawakami
- Such Small Hands - Andres Barba
- The Thief - Fuminori Nakamura
- Ties - Domenico Starnone
- Trick - Domenico Starnone
- "Chocky" by John Wyndham was quick/fun. A little uneven but enjoyed "All Our Wrongs Today" by Elan Mastai. Tough to get thru for me but many seem high on "The Three Body Problem" books by Cixin Liu.
Some others that are not scifi but enjoyed this year:
"Trick" by Domenico Starnone
"Such Small Hands" by Andres Barba
"Convenience Store Woman" by Sayaka Murata
- > I urge you to reconsider the phrasing of “bovine acceptance”. Cows are intelligent beings. They have long memories, they have friends, they have feelings. They have personalities. They are capable of learning.
I read the term "bovine acceptance" without considering it to denigrate cows, their personalities, feelings etc, but rather with the focus on "acceptance", their perceived resignation to fate or order/hierarchy.
My thinking was informed by a bit of Chocky [1], by John Wyndham, in which the key character, a boy called Matthew Gore - who has been communicating telepathically with an alien lifeform (Chocky) and trying to answer questions put to him about Earth - asks his father, "Why does a cow stop?"
What the boy means is that he sees cows mass at the field gate at the right time of day, awaiting the farmer who opens the gate, whereupon the cows turn the right way into the lane, enter the farmyard properly, enter the milking stalls without instruction etc - and then the whole process in reverse. But never do they undertake the oft-watched and easy action of raising the simple gate lever to open it for themselves. The father, narrator in the book, offers the idea of "limited intelligence" by way of explanation - but "bovine acceptance" of the world's order might actually be a more useful way to look at it. And, again - unlike the concept of "limited intelligence" - it's no slur on the cows' faculties or feelings.
- Non-fiction:
7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy - Hamilton Helmer
American Wolf - Nate Blakeslee
Atomic Habits - James Clear
Conspiracy - Ryan Holiday
Courage To Be Disliked - Ichiro Kishimi
How To Change Your Mind - Michael Pollan
Open - Andre Agassi
Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker
World After Capital - Albert Wenger
Fiction:
Chocky - John Wyndham
Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata
The Eight Mountains - Paolo Cognetti
The Invisibility Cloak - Ge Fei
The Midnight Fox - Betsy Byars
Such Small Hands - Andres Barba
The Thief - Fuminori Nakamura
Ties - Domenico Starnone
Trick - Domenico Starnone
