This feels like a weird place of comparison to stand out, but nonetheless, this book felt like the most believable portrayal of what telepathy would look like if it were real. Dune felt like it sort of dipped its toes in it but it was nowhere near a central fixture of the book structure. Telepathy was very much a part of The Knife of Never Letting go, though it felt more simplified and paled in comparison to The Chrysalids as far as the societal impact.

This book also portrays better than any other book the absurdity of any select group believing their way of life and no other is the right way to live in the eyes of a god. The prime example of course was how the people in Waknuk rooted out and destroyed anyone who had shown any examples of mutation. Wyndham highlighted the irony of this through having them try and hunt and kill those who were telepathic, and consequently more evolved and advanced than those without telepathic powers.

In the end though, those with the telepathic powers ended up actually killing all those without it, firstly because of course they might kill them too. But secondly, because of course they consider those without telepathy as less evolved. More or less, both groups of people were treating and charging the other group with the exact same thing they were doing themselves.