Web

Upper intermediate (2300 words) - Contemporary - British English

Web is a science fiction novel by the English writer John Wyndham. The novel was published by the estate of John Wyndham in 1979, ten years after his death.

Events depicted in Web are narrated by Arnold Delgrange, whose wife and daughter were recently killed in a car crash. In an attempt to pull himself out of depression he becomes involved in an attempt to establish a utopian colony on the island Tanakuatua in the Pacific Ocean, far from civilisation.

Tanakuatua is now uninhabited by humans, as the native tribe were evacuated from the island due to British nuclear testing, but a group of tribesmen refused the evacuation order believing it to be a ploy by the British Empire and placed a taboo on the island, the fear of which has kept away any other tribes. The colonists are aware of the taboo, but only concerned with the difficulty of employing local dockworkers to help move supplies to the island.

The colony is established but as soon as the supply ship leaves, the radio - their only form of communication with the outside world - is destroyed in a deliberate act of sabotage but it is unclear as to who has done it. While exploring the island a member of one group is attacked by a pack of spiders and killed. The other exploration group goes missing, and is not found until several days later - they have also been attacked and killed by the spiders. Camilla Cogent, one of the colonisers and a pestologist, theorises that the spiders have made an evolutionary jump from solitary to social and cooperative creatures, working together to cover the entire western part of the island in web, and at the same time killing and eating almost all other animal life on the island.

The surviving colonists use pesticide and protective clothing to move around in relative safety until while exploring Arnold and Camilla are captured by the dockworkers who stayed behind. They are revealed to be descendants of the taboo tribesmen and are ensuring that the taboo is carried out. While the two are interrogated by the tribal witch-doctor other tribesmen carry bags of spiders, now referred to as the "Little Sisters", to the settlement, and all other colonists are killed.

Arnold and Camilla are stripped of their protective clothing and abandoned as the tribesmen leave the island. Eventually after wondering how the tribesmen were safe from the Little Sisters, they realise that the oil from a prevalent bracken on the island repels the Little Sisters, and they re-establish an encampment until they are visited by a seaplane from the mainland. Unable to warn them in time, the crew are killed by packs of Little Sisters on the beach. However, they are then rescued by a small military force who are searching for the seaplane. One of the soldiers is severely injured by several Little Sisters, and a cautious search party discover both the remains of the colonists and the lack of other living creatures on the island, confirming Arnold and Camilla's story.

The attempted colony is abandoned and all traces are either hushed up, or paid off in the form of compensation to surviving family members, Arnold, Camilla, and also Lord Foxfield - the patron of the expedition. Any further investigation is curtailed by a supposed volcanic eruption that completely destroys the island - however Arnold notes that at the same time of the eruption a fusion bomb was detonated in the same area as the island suggesting it was used to wipe out the Little Sisters. Arnold and Camilla go their separate ways, but stay in touch - Arnold states that the last message from Camilla now "somewhere in Peru" included a sample vial with a Little Sister inside it.
References

Parrinder, Patrick (1999). Learning from Other Worlds: Estrangement, Cognition and the Politics of Science Fiction. Liverpool University Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0-85323-584-2. Retrieved 23 December 2010.

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Works by John Wyndham
Novels

The Secret People Foul Play Suspected Stowaway to Mars The Day of the Triffids The Kraken Wakes The Chrysalids The Midwich Cuckoos The Outward Urge Trouble with Lichen Chocky Web Plan for Chaos

Short stories

"Consider Her Ways" "Random Quest"

Short story collections

Jizzle The Seeds of Time Tales of Gooseflesh and Laughter Consider Her Ways and Others The Infinite Moment Sleepers of Mars The Best of John Wyndham Wanderers of Time Exiles on Asperus No Place Like Earth

Film adaptations

The Day of the Triffids Village of the Damned (1960) Quest for Love Village of the Damned (1995)

TV adaptations

The Day of the Triffids (1981) Chocky The Day of the Triffids (2009) The Midwich Cuckoos (2022)

Other

Triffid The Chrysalids (radio drama) Children of the Damned Blackbirds at Bangpleng The Night of the Triffids

Categories:

1979 British novels1979 science fiction novelsEnglish science fiction novelsMichael Joseph booksNovels by John WyndhamNovels published posthumouslyNovels set in OceaniaNovels set on islands