John Wyndham - The Day Of The Triffids
John Wyndham
1951, 272 pages
“When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like a Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.”
So begins The Day Of The Triffids, a tale of the end of the world. Our hero is Bill Masen, a biologist who has spent his career dealing with triffids — giant three-legged, walking, poisonous, carnivorous plants, bred in captivity and tapped for their lucrative oil. He wakes up in a hospital bed, waiting for the bandages over his eyes to be removed, only to find that 99% of the human race has been blinded by a beautiful green asteroid shower the night before.
The rest of the book is the story of Bill and his new partner in crime, Josella, attempting to survive through the throngs of recently blinded Londoners. The blind citizens are easy targets for the triffids, who sting and then devour the sitting ducks. Chaos and violence are rampant, and the sighted quickly realize they will need to band together if they are going to survive. The rest of the book is an account of Bill and Josella’s new life in dystopia.
The Day Of The Triffids was wonderful. I was seriously considering calling in sick this morning so that I could finish it. I didn’t want to put it down. I appreciated all the characters and how they dealt with their new realities, whether it was leaving the unfortunately blinded citizens to the mercy of the triffids, or trying to learn to live off the land. It was bleak and yet hopeful at the same time.
I want everyone I know to read this book so I can talk about it with them. I thought it was a well written, smart, realistic book. It challenged me to think about what I would do in the same situation, what chances I would stand against a triffid…
That actually sounds REALLY good. Like the good old scifi kind of stuff. I’m going to need to read this.
It was! Also, the female characters weren’t blandly being led around by the men, and there were no easy answers to the questions the book posed. It really challenged me to think about what I would do in similar situations.