Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham is a post-apocalyptic story that details what happens when everyone (except a few) wake up blind. Oh, and also there are deadly plants populating the world called triffids. On the whole, I’d say that the story fell a little short for me. It also left me with a number of questions.
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham Published by Penguin Books on 1951
Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 256
Format: Hardback
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In 1951 John Wyndham published his novel The Day of the Triffids to moderate acclaim. Fifty-two years later, this horrifying story is a science fiction classic, touted by The Times (London) as having “all the reality of a vividly realized nightmare.”
Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen. Removing his bandages the next morning, he finds masses of sightless people wandering the city. He soon meets Josella, another lucky person who has retained her sight, and together they leave the city, aware that the safe, familiar world they knew a mere twenty-four hours before is gone forever.
But to survive in this post-apocalyptic world, one must survive the Triffids, strange plants that years before began appearing all over the world. The Triffids can grow to over seven feet tall, pull their roots from the ground to walk, and kill a man with one quick lash of their poisonous stingers. With society in shambles, they are now poised to prey on humankind. Wyndham chillingly anticipates bio-warfare and mass destruction, fifty years before their realization, in this prescient account of Cold War paranoia.
philosophizing, end of civilization, killer plants
What I liked about The Day of the Triffids:
1. The situation our main character is in. There’s some big astral event (we don’t know exactly what) one evening. Most people watch it except for our main character (who is in the hospital with his eyes bandaged). The next morning, everyone (but our main character) wakes up blind. The story then goes on to detail how society derails once it is populated by blind people.
2. Killer plants. I mean, this is the main reason I read this novel! I love horror stories, so I was excited for how this novel was going to flush out.
What I didn’t like about it:
1. There was wayyyy too many things that seemed implausible. For instance: a) The amount of people that went blind? I call bullshit. There is just no way that the entire world went blind during this evening “event.” NOT TO MENTION, it was supposedly a meteor shower. GUESS WHAT, the whole world doesn’t see the meteor shower at once, sooo only a chunk of the world would be blinded by it. b) Also, being blind doesn’t make you completely useless! Yes, it would be hugely debilitating to suddenly be blind after being able to see, but I can’t imagine that things would turn to shit as quickly as they did in this book (like, um, the next day people were already looting and acting crazy). I could honestly go on and on, because this was my main grievance with this book, but I’ll stop here.
2. There was surprisingly little to do with triffids, and that disappointed me. Yes, there were in the picture, but they were really in the background of everything. I guess I should clarify and say that the conflict between our characters and the triffids wasn’t high stakes enough. They seemed to manage their issue with them relatively well? And through the middle of the book, they really played no role whatsoever. Meh, disappointing for sure.
I don’t think I’d recommend this one.
Have you read this one? What were your thoughts? Are there other books out there with scary plants?
A.S. Thornton has evolved from book blogger to author with a particular fondness for writing forbidden love in ancient deserts. When not writing, she’s caring for dogs and cats as a veterinarian. You’ll never find animals at the center of her writing, though, because those fictional worlds don’t have veterinarians and her literal brain can’t accept that the poor critters would be without parasite prevention. Thornton’s debut, DAUGHTER OF THE SALT KING is available wherever books are sold.
