'Not enough triffids!' would complain those lured to this book by the promise of a fun sci-fi romp centered around carnivorous sentient plants - just to find something entirely different.īut you gotta agree - a more appropriate title for this unexpected gem of a book such as 'How complete disintegration of society and civilization as we know it, the sudden helplessness and the painful realization how little it takes to throw us off our tenuous perch on the top of the food chain leads to uncomfortable ethical questions about societal structures and conventions and the implications of successful survival in a forever changed world where our morals and ideas and what we think constitutes humanity may become quite obsolete' - well, it doesn't really roll off the tongue, does it? Some books can be quite ill-served by their title. Wyndham chillingly anticipates bio-warfare and mass destruction, fifty years before their realization, in this prescient account of Cold War paranoia.

With society in shambles, they are now poised to prey on humankind. 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. 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.īut to survive in this post-apocalyptic world, one must survive the Triffids, strange plants that years before began appearing all over the world. Removing his bandages the next morning, he finds masses of sightless people wandering the city. 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.”īill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen.

In 1951 John Wyndham published his novel The Day of the Triffids to moderate acclaim.

The day of the triffids by john wyndham