Exploring from

The Midwich Cuckoos

John Wyndham

Find similar books by

Combine common axes

Similar in premise + setting

These books are ranked using the premise + setting labels extracted for The Midwich Cuckoos. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Premise labels used: alien invasion, brood parasitism, mass impregnation, hidden threat, small village

Setting labels used: English village, rural England, 1950s England, post-war Britain, small-town setting, contained setting, Cold War context

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their premise + setting embeddings are close.

Exclude same author

Max ratings No limit

All Flesh Is Grass

Clifford D. Simak · 1985

A failed small-town businessman is pulled into first contact when an invisible barrier seals off his town.

Why this is here

Premise labels: first contact · alien invasion · small town trapped · invisible barrier · alternate Earth · telepathic plants · collective intelligence · benign invasion

Setting labels: small town · rural America · Midwestern town · 1960s · Cold War era · parallel world · alternate Earths · time-different worlds · grounded Earth setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1891

Continue from here

Doctor Who: The Crawling Terror

Mike Tucker · 2014 · Doctor Who: New Series Adventures

The Doctor and Clara face giant insects in an isolated English village where WWII secrets and ancient stones collide.

Why this is here

Premise labels: giant insects · small village · isolation · ancient mystery · WWII secret · alien invasion · scientific experiment · zombie-like trance

Setting labels: small English village · English countryside · Wiltshire · Ringstone · WWII era · 1940s · present day · isolated location · stone circle · science park

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2175

Continue from here

The Kraken Wakes

John Wyndham · 1953

A married journalist team tracks a mysterious ocean-born invasion that sinks ships and pushes humanity toward flood and collapse.

Why this is here

Premise labels: alien invasion · ocean invasion · global catastrophe · rising sea levels · unseen enemy · mysterious threat · civilization collapse · human extinction · deep-sea menace · worldwide disaster

Setting labels: 1950s · Cold War · Britain · England · London · Cornwall · Atlantic · ocean deeps · deep sea trenches · global scale · post-apocalyptic world · flooded world

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2253

Continue from here

Doctor Who: Wishing Well

Trevor Baxendale · 2007 · Doctor Who: New Series Adventures

The Doctor and Martha investigate a village wishing well whose treasure legend hides an alien terror below.

Why this is here

Premise labels: alien menace · hidden threat · village mystery · buried treasure · restoration project · ordinary object turned dangerous · monster in the well · investigation

Setting labels: small English village · modern day England · contemporary setting · village green · well shaft · tunnel · small-town setting · earthbound setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2380

Continue from here

Time Out of Joint

Philip K. Dick · 1959

A daily puzzle champion in 1950s America starts noticing cracks in his world and suspects his life is a carefully built illusion.

Why this is here

Premise labels: constructed reality · paranoia · illusory world · small-town secret · captive protagonist · puzzle contest

Setting labels: 1950s America · suburban life · small town · Cold War era · postwar America · domestic setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2387

Continue from here

The Hanging Stranger

Philip K. Dick · 2007

A small-town salesman sees a hanged stranger no one else finds alarming, and discovers his world is far from normal.

Why this is here

Premise labels: paranoia · alien invasion · mind control · body snatching · hidden takeover · outsider perspective · small-town siege

Setting labels: small town · 1950s · office store · basement · town square

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2394

Continue from here

The Tommyknockers

Stephen King · 1993

A buried alien force in a Maine town slowly twists its residents, as two damaged friends dig toward the truth.

Why this is here

Premise labels: alien object · buried spaceship · small-town takeover · mysterious influence · mind control · body horror · invasive force · discovery turns dangerous

Setting labels: small town · rural community · Maine · woods · backyard discovery · isolated town · post-Cold War era · 1980s

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2396

Continue from here

When the Wind Blows

Raymond Briggs · 1988

An elderly British couple follows official nuclear-war advice as the world around them turns terrifying and absurd.

Why this is here

Premise labels: nuclear attack · nuclear war · civilian survival · elderly couple · fallout survival · government advice · home shelter · ordinary people · wartime preparedness

Setting labels: English countryside · Britain · Cold War era · 1980s · rural setting · homefront · nuclear wartime

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2407

Continue from here

The Hopkins Manuscript

R.C. Sherriff · 2023

A pompous English poultry breeder learns the moon will strike Earth and records how his village faces the end.

Why this is here

Premise labels: moon collision · end of the world · survival · community response · cataclysm

Setting labels: rural England · small village · London · Britain · 1930s · early 1940s · post-apocalyptic world · alternate history · future archaeology · isolated island

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2414

Continue from here

Ring Around the Sun

Clifford D. Simak · 1992

A writer uncovers why forever products and vanishing people are unraveling the economy, identity, and reality itself.

Why this is here

Premise labels: economic collapse · forever products · parallel worlds · mutants · hidden abilities · identity mystery · societal disruption · world-infiltration · class conflict · post-scarcity

Setting labels: small-town America · rural America · future America · Cold War era · 1950s future · parallel Earths · alternate worlds · Earthbound · pastoral setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2433

Continue from here

When the Tripods Came

John Christopher · 1988 · The Tripods

A teen boy witnesses the first alien Tripods and watches a TV-driven takeover turn ordinary people into willing slaves.

Why this is here

Premise labels: alien invasion · mind control · mass brainwashing · freedom versus control · subverted society · escape story · resistance formation · origin story · world takeover · children targeted

Setting labels: 1980s Britain · England · rural England · Guernsey · Switzerland · mountains · hotel hideout · contemporary setting · alternate invasion timeline · Earth under invasion

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2449

Continue from here

Chocky

John Wyndham · 1968

An English boy’s invisible companion may be an alien intelligence, forcing his family to decide what’s real.

Why this is here

Premise labels: alien contact · imaginary friend · child protagonist · mind contact · benevolent alien · telepathic contact · adopted child · human-alien encounter · first contact · observer alien

Setting labels: ordinary English town · suburban setting · mid-20th century · 1960s · British domestic setting · everyday realism · Earth · non-epic scale

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2502

Continue from here