228 pages
English language
Published April 29, 2003 by Modern Library.
When Bill Masen wakes up blindfolded in hospital there is a bitter irony in his situation. Carefully removing his bandages, he realizes that he is the only person who can see: everyone else, doctors and patients alike, have been blinded by a meteor shower. Now, with civilization in chaos, the triffids - huge, venomous, large-rooted plants able to 'walk', feeding on human flesh - can have their day.The Day of the Triffids, published in 1951, expresses many of the political concerns of its time: the Cold War, the fear of biological experimentation and the man-made apocalypse. However, with its terrifyingly believable insights into the genetic modification of plants, the book is more relevant today than ever before.
[Comment by Liz Jensen on The Guardian][1]:
As a teenager, one of my favourite haunts was Oxford's Botanical Gardens. I'd head straight for the vast heated greenhouses, where I'd pity my adolescent plight, …
When Bill Masen wakes up blindfolded in hospital there is a bitter irony in his situation. Carefully removing his bandages, he realizes that he is the only person who can see: everyone else, doctors and patients alike, have been blinded by a meteor shower. Now, with civilization in chaos, the triffids - huge, venomous, large-rooted plants able to 'walk', feeding on human flesh - can have their day.The Day of the Triffids, published in 1951, expresses many of the political concerns of its time: the Cold War, the fear of biological experimentation and the man-made apocalypse. However, with its terrifyingly believable insights into the genetic modification of plants, the book is more relevant today than ever before.
[Comment by Liz Jensen on The Guardian][1]:
As a teenager, one of my favourite haunts was Oxford's Botanical Gardens. I'd head straight for the vast heated greenhouses, where I'd pity my adolescent plight, chain-smoke, and glory in the insane vegetation that burgeoned there. The more rampant, brutally spiked, poisonous, or cruel to insects a plant was, the more it appealed to me. I'd shove my butts into their root systems. They could take it. My librarian mother disapproved mightily of the fags but when under interrogation I confessed where I'd been hanging out – hardly Sodom and Gomorrah – she spotted a literary opportunity, and slid John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids my way. I read it in one sitting, fizzing with the excitement of recognition. I knew the triffids already: I'd spent long hours in the jungle with them, exchanging gases. Wyndham loved to address the question that triggers every invented world: the great "What if . . ." What if a carnivorous, travelling, communicating, poison-spitting oil-rich plant, harvested in Britain as biofuel, broke loose after a mysterious "comet-shower" blinded most of the population? That's the scenario faced by triffid-expert Bill Masen, who finds himself a sighted man in a sightless nation. Cataclysmic change established, cue a magnificent chain reaction of experimental science, physical and political crisis, moral dilemmas, new hierarchies, and hints of a new world order. Although the repercussions of an unprecedented crisis and Masen's personal journey through the new wilderness form the backbone of the story, it's the triffids that root themselves most firmly in the reader's memory. Wyndham described them botanically, but he left enough room for the reader's imagination to take over. The result being that everyone who reads The Day of the Triffids creates, in their mind's eye, their own version of fiction's most iconic plant. Mine germinated in an Oxford greenhouse, in a cloud of cigarette smoke.
[1]: www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/14/science-fiction-authors-choice
Content warning Spoiler alert.
The plot is a bit spoiled as the novel served as inspiration for the equally disturbing/terrifying movie "28 Days Later", though there are no zombies in this one. More than one heartbreaking scene in this book, so reader beware.
Grand classique
A very British book of science, discovery, and ramifications. While many Wyndham plots have made it into movies, this one strangely has not. I read it as a 2021 reading by Vanessa Kirby, who did a great job.
The two scientists are male (head of a research house) and female (his employee), and circumstances lead them to investigate the new discovery separately. They each ponder the implications on society, and this leads to their main difference - one echoed by the earlier movements to earn women the right to vote (in fact the main female character is descended from a suffragette). The implications go as far as catastrophe, a topic that shows up in many other Wyndam novels. This form of time travel is one that has always been quite interesting to me.
There was a religious reaction towards the end that echoes fundamentalists today, this was unfortunately swept under …
A very British book of science, discovery, and ramifications. While many Wyndham plots have made it into movies, this one strangely has not. I read it as a 2021 reading by Vanessa Kirby, who did a great job.
The two scientists are male (head of a research house) and female (his employee), and circumstances lead them to investigate the new discovery separately. They each ponder the implications on society, and this leads to their main difference - one echoed by the earlier movements to earn women the right to vote (in fact the main female character is descended from a suffragette). The implications go as far as catastrophe, a topic that shows up in many other Wyndam novels. This form of time travel is one that has always been quite interesting to me.
There was a religious reaction towards the end that echoes fundamentalists today, this was unfortunately swept under the rug. The novel also assumes a knowledge of the British Parliamentary party system, but the plot politics are left unresolved in the text. Other reviews have described the novel as dated or slow - but it was published more than 60 years ago. I would call it ahead of its time, and in fact I think it would make a fantastic film set in the modern day.
I'm a little conflicted about this book. It's a unique and innovative take on the post-apocalyptic dystopia genre, and given it's age there's no doubting it's influence. It's clear to see shades of 28 days later. It's refreshing to read a zombie story with no zombies, but the titular plants that rule the day feel like an afterthought. At points the characters even seem to forget about them. Maybe it's just hard to envision sentient plants that walk and swing whip-like stingers. The characters seemed to focus too much on rebuilding society, while the brutal aspects of humanity in a survival situation felt like an afterthought. Seems the author thought more about how people would be shagging after the apocalypse than how they would be feeding themselves. Again, the lack of zombies was a pleasant respite, but the blind people who replace them being dismissed as helpless burdens on those …
I'm a little conflicted about this book. It's a unique and innovative take on the post-apocalyptic dystopia genre, and given it's age there's no doubting it's influence. It's clear to see shades of 28 days later. It's refreshing to read a zombie story with no zombies, but the titular plants that rule the day feel like an afterthought. At points the characters even seem to forget about them. Maybe it's just hard to envision sentient plants that walk and swing whip-like stingers. The characters seemed to focus too much on rebuilding society, while the brutal aspects of humanity in a survival situation felt like an afterthought. Seems the author thought more about how people would be shagging after the apocalypse than how they would be feeding themselves. Again, the lack of zombies was a pleasant respite, but the blind people who replace them being dismissed as helpless burdens on those who maintained sight seems ableist and flat. The main characters have a pretty bland romance that takes up a lot more words than it deserves. Side characters are barely developed, but numerous. All it all the narrative flounders. I really want to give this four stars; after all, I finished it which is saying something, but I just can't. It's pulpy, and not really that compelling. Margaret Atwood did it MUCH better with Oryx and Crake.
Excellent book describing the survival of one man, this story is told entirely from his perspective. This apocalyptic tale was written 65 years ago and holds up quite well today.
The planning and travel to a safer location remind me of [b:The Death of Grass|941731|The Death of Grass|John Christopher|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309962069s/941731.jpg|797220], though competition was more fierce in that tale. The latter parts of the book describe years passing, much like the narrative of [b:Earth Abides|93269|Earth Abides|George R. Stewart|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320505234s/93269.jpg|1650913]. Also like that book, these characters spend a lot of time collecting stored food from the previous civilization. In comparison to those two books, this one had a stronger story line and better characters (motivations and growth). Female characters are also well written.
I wanted to know more about the Triffids, and how (or whether) they were connected to the green flashes. Various characters speculate that they were not, but the topic is not …
Excellent book describing the survival of one man, this story is told entirely from his perspective. This apocalyptic tale was written 65 years ago and holds up quite well today.
The planning and travel to a safer location remind me of [b:The Death of Grass|941731|The Death of Grass|John Christopher|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309962069s/941731.jpg|797220], though competition was more fierce in that tale. The latter parts of the book describe years passing, much like the narrative of [b:Earth Abides|93269|Earth Abides|George R. Stewart|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320505234s/93269.jpg|1650913]. Also like that book, these characters spend a lot of time collecting stored food from the previous civilization. In comparison to those two books, this one had a stronger story line and better characters (motivations and growth). Female characters are also well written.
I wanted to know more about the Triffids, and how (or whether) they were connected to the green flashes. Various characters speculate that they were not, but the topic is not touched on often. In later stages, our main character laments his lack of training in farming, etc - he could have used a copy of [b:The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch|18114087|The Knowledge How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch|Lewis Dartnell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1393226489s/18114087.jpg|25441317].
My library copy of the book also contained a 9 question Reading Group Guide, looking at politics and societies and economics. These are also well thought out. One interesting question was whether this novel was timeless or dated - I would definitely lean towards the former. Cell phones and text-to-speech would help more modern victims, but the outcome would likely be the same.
I plan to check out the movie, which is more plant horror if I recall correctly. Regardless of that, I highly recommend reading this novel.
