1951; 241 pages. New Author? : Yes. Book 1 (out of 2) in the “Triffids” series.
Genre : Classic Sci-Fi; Post-Apocalyptic Fiction; Movie Tie-In. Overall Rating : 8*/10.
It was a global double whammy.
The first shock was the coming
of a new plant species called the triffids.
Some think they came from outer space, but the evidence points to
modified seeds of Russian origin.
The triffids are dangerous:
they can shuffle around and possess a lethal ten-foot-long stinger. But triffid oil is a highly prized
commodity, much superior to traditional fish oil, so "triffid farms quickly sprang up. And since
triffids had no eyes, the threat they posed to humans was minor.
Then came the second
shock. The earth’s orbit passed through
the tail of a comet, and people worldwide were treated to an astral light
show, the likes of which had never been seen before. There was just one drawback: the next
morning, every human who had watched the cosmic event was totally blind. Suddenly triffids and humans couldn’t see
each other.
But the triffids had already
adapted to that.
What’s To Like...
The Day of the
Triffids is a 1951 post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel by John Wyndham. It was made into a movie 12 years later,
which was my introduction to it (black & white version, probably seen on TV),
and it scared the bejeezus out of me.
The story is set in the
greater London area (John Wyndham is a British
author), and we follow our protagonist, Bill Masen, as he tries to
come to grips with a world where nearly everyone has been blinded and are desperately trying to survive on a limited food supply, no services (such as phones and
electricity), and marauding triffids.
Bill is one of the few lucky humans that can still see; he was
recovering from eye surgery on the night of the comet, and missed the light
show because his eyes were wrapped up with gauze.
The storyline is basically an
examination of how humans would react when they are suddenly
threatened with complete annihilation.
Different people respond in different ways. The majority adopt a “me first” attitude: grab as much food and
supplies as you can; and who cares if others starve because of this. Others counter with a “share and share alike” philosophy; but the
trouble with this is that it might mean that everyone just starves to death a
little bit sooner. Some discern “God’s judgment” in what has transpired, and establish
religious communes. And a few decide
that “might makes right” applies and
are happy to kill anyone who disagrees; less mouths to feed means more food for
the those who remain alive. All of these
approaches reminded me of the old saying “Every society is
three meals away from chaos.”
The e-book is written in
English, not American, which means you get a few weird spellings, such as eying, caldrons, whisky, and payed; but I didn’t find this
distracting. I chortled at the “triffidian amatory exuberance” euphemism, but
had to ponder the “enforced polygamy”
dictum, a practice whose justification is given in one of the excerpts
below. The Christian commune at Tynsham Manor is an interesting study, and kudos to Wyndham for mentioning the city of Staines:
I’ve been there!
The ending is okay, but
somewhat contrived. Bill and company are
visited by a helicopter from a group of survivors one day, then desperately
need them when visited by a less-friendly group 24 hours later. This creates a situation that can either be
viewed as a cliffhanger (a pet peeve of mine), or a teaser for a sequel, but
Wyndham never penned one. The follow-up book finally appeared 50 years later; it was titled The
Night of the Triffids and written by Simon Clark. Better late than never.
Kewlest New Word ...
Spizzard (n.) : someone who is intoxicated by
drugs or alcohol.
Others: Contretemps (n.); Derniers
Cris (n., pl.); Cointreau (n.);
Shindy (n.);
Cenobite (n.);
Ratings…
Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 5,884 ratings and 756 reviews.
Goodreads: 4.01*/5,
based on 109,345
ratings and 5,287 reviews.
Excerpts...
“Look at it this way. Granted that they do have intelligence then
that would leave us with one important superiority—sight. We can see, and they can’t. Take away our vision, and the superiority is
gone. Worse than that—our position
becomes inferior to theirs, because they are adapted to a sightless existence
and we are not.” (loc. 627)
“There is one thing to be made quite clear
to you before you decide to join our community.
It is that those of us who start on this task will all have our parts to
play. The men must work—the women must
have babies. Unless you can agree to
that, there can be no place for you in our community.
After an interval of dead silence, he
added:
“We can afford to support a limited number
of women who cannot see, because they will have babies who can see. We cannot afford to support men who cannot
see. In our new world, then, babies
become very much more important than husbands.” (loc. 1668)
Kindle Details…
The
Day of the Triffids presently goes for $4.99 at Amazon. The sequel will run you $8.99. Amazon carries another eight books or so by
John Wyndham, ranging in price for $3.50 to $12.99.
And we danced, on
the brink of an unknown future, to an echo of a vanished past. (loc. 1755)
As would be expected of a 1951
sci-fi novel, the language is very clean.
I noted just six cusswords in the first 25% of the book, all mild
entries in the eschatological category.
It should be noted that the
1963 movie adaptation probably sets a record for diverging from the book’s
storyline. The film is an action-horror
tale where the triffid invasion is settled on a soggy lighthouse floor. There’s no such invasion in the book, which
is more of a study of human survival in a post-apocalyptic world. Wyndham would’ve been turning over in his
grave if he saw the movie.
The shortcomings if the book’s
ending have already been addressed, but the literary bar for a science fiction
novel in the early 1950s was set rather low, and The
Day of the Triffids easily meets my expectation in that regard. Plus, there’s a short epilogue on the final page that lets you know how things turn out for Bill,
Josella, and Susan. (Huh? Who?)
8 Stars. So which is better: the thriller-horror movie or the contemplative book? I’ll duck that issue by saying both have their merits, and it depends on your mood at the time. But I do want to find and watch the movie version and see if it still scares me.
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