The Day of the Triffids

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John Wyndham: The Day of the Triffids (EBook, 2002, RosettaBooks)

eBook

English language

Published Nov. 20, 2002 by RosettaBooks.

ISBN:
978-0-7953-0282-4
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4 stars (3 reviews)

"All the reality of a vividly realized nightmare," The Times of London wrote of John Wyndham's terrifying post-apocalyptic thriller The Day of the Triffids, published in 1951. The novel is often labeled science fiction, but it might best be described as a completely unnerving fantasy, even at the distance of half a century- for nothing dates this story of a world rendered helpless by a frightening, unearthly phenomenon.Triffids are odd but interesting plants that seem to appear in everyone's garden. They are curiosities, but little more, until an event occurs that alters human life -- what appears to be a meteor shower, spectacular at first, turns into a bizarre green inferno that has blinded virtually everyone and rendered humankind helpless. Even stranger, spores from the inferno have caused triffids to suddenly take on lives of their own -- large, crawling vegetation that uproot themselves and roam about, attacking humans and …

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Review of 'The day of the triffids' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

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 …