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| View Larger Image | The Day of the Triffids (20th Century Rediscoveries)
by John Wyndham
by Edmund Morris
| | List Price: | $14.00 | | Price: | $11.20 | | You Save: | $2.80 (20%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 12682 | | Studio: | Modern Library | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 256 | | Publication Date: | July 01, 2003 | | Publisher: | Modern Library |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
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. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 71 reviews)
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Unexpectedly wonderful... 
This is a book that shouldn't work, but it does. It is based on two absurd and totally unrelated science fiction premises. The first is the evolution of "triffids." Triffids are a new species of plant of unknown origin (probably artificially cultivated) that, when mature, pick themselves up out of their roots and begin walking around and killing people. The other spectacular premise is that one night there is a terrific "comet shower." The entire world watches it. The only problem is, much like a solar eclipse, if you look straight at it, it blinds you.
The triffids have already been around a while by the time of the comet shower. They have become domesticated and people have become bored with them. After the world is stricken blind, nobody thinks much about the triffids, until...
I was expecting a schlock science fiction novel about marauding killer plants. What I got instead was a very well-written, literate, thoughtful book about survival and sociology. (Don't be put-off - there are still those scary killer plants.) I was reminded of The Stand and the George Romero "Dead" films. The difference is, the rest of the world doesn't have to be killed off - they just have to go blind. It is shocking to think of how collectively helpless the world would be if that happened.
The focus of the novel is more on the post-apocalyptic aspect than the killer plants. The triffids do take over the Earth, but it is not a story like I am Legend, in which the triffids are such a threat no one can leave the house. The triffids are relatively week and can be dealt with - but there's so many of them.
After reading this book, I am not surprised that it is reprinted by Modern Library. It is a very nice paperback edition with helpful "reading group" questions at the end. It is worthwhile to pick up this "rediscovered" classic and see what good science fiction is.
July 28, 2008 | |
An 'edited' edition...! 
While I stand by the reviews that state the excellence of this story, and the skill of the author, intending purchasers should know that this is an *edited* edition - something I didn't pick up on until reading along with a BBC unabridged reading of the book.
Example - in Chapter 1 when Bill Masen encounters the doctor in the corridors of the hospital - this has been removed from this edition.
The fact this is an edited version needs to be made clear to intending purchasers
May 24, 2008 | |
When the Triffids Rise to Power.
"The Day of the Triffids" was for many years my favorite sci-fi novel; afterwards it was replaced in that honor place by Dune and Hyperion.
I've read this novel when I was a teenager in the mythical Argentinean sci-fi magazine "Mas Alla", it was published there as the main story of the inaugural number. I've treasured my collection for more than 40 years.
"The Day of the Triffids" still stands in my all-time best novels list and I've reread it once every couple of years.
It is a typical product of the '50 immersed in the "Cold War", but with a forceful story line, exploring a post catastrophe world.
The drama evolves smoothly, griping you up to the last page; it has a somewhat melancholic background, our known world fading into dust and a new one emerging from the ashes in a pitiless confrontation with the Triffids of the title.
It is a novel that fifty years after it was written still catch your interest and keep you going on.
In sci-fi not to be dated is a commendation.
If the reader wants to have a vivid picture of London in a state similar to this book descriptions I encourage he/she to see the movie "28 Days Later".
I wholeheartedly recommend this book to all sci-fi fans and general public too!
Reviewed by Max Yofre
April 16, 2008 | |
A Classic!
A great novel in the zombie/vampire genre, with a solitude-induced dystopia akin to Matheson's I Am Legend and Brook's World War Z.
Some may see the sci-fi concepts as far fetched, specifically the triffids themselves, but the overall story congeals well bringing about stressful situations and sparking philosophical questions regarding morality, social convention, principles, and what would be the appropriate type of organization in the chaotic aftermath of pandemic blindness.
April 07, 2008 | |
A classic piece of work!,
Not much I can add that others haven't.
This is an excellent book, which, because it deals with human nature, surely has to remain timeless.
In the aftermath of the comets, the loneliness of people who are literally left in the dark is tangible and help to make this novel remain in your mind long after you've finished reading it.
The part the triffids play in this chaos is remarkably easy to imagine, especially knowing the scientific research that is carried out now into genetic engineering. The triffids, although dangerous, are tolerated and managed because of their useful oil. If some degenerative diseases could be eradicated by cultivating a deadly plant...would we?
I really enjoyed the way Wyndham makes us think about human behaviour and how hard it is to unlearn. The ideas on what to tell future generations and the references to disasters in the ancient world I found really thought provoking.
September 14, 2007 | |
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