The Day of the Triffids

Like H.G. Wells, Wyndham is excellent at depicting normal people who are dealing with an unusual event in normal locations. This creates a level of reality that makes the circumstances more horrific. I could imagine myself in those places, with those people.

The Triffids have never translated well to the screen because the plants look awkward. This isn’t the case in the book. This is my favorite of all the Wyndham books because of their journeys and their descriptions of the landscape around them.

John Wyndham’s book is the perfect example of “plant horror.” I’ve read this book at very different periods in my life, starting when I was a child–and whatever my age, I’ve always loved it. When you first read the opening–a man awakens one morning in a hospital bed, his eyes bandaged, and finds everything around him eerily quiet–you might find it familiar. It’s a scene famously reprised in the film 28 Days Later and in the first episode of The Walking Dead. It’s a brilliant, disquieting scene, and it’s impossible not to read on.

The man in the hospital… show more.

I loved this book when I first read it in my teens, and now I find it every bit as intriguing and engaging as I did then. I love the way in which John Wyndham draws me into the bizarre and dangerous world of the triffids.

I am there in the deserted London streets with Bill Masen, watching for marauding gangs and stray triffids. I find myself utterly caught by the tension of scene after scene. For me, it is still the very best of dystopian thrillers.

I’m including this classic because it’s Wyndham’s writing that first drew me into post-apocalyptic fiction, and because I love the way that he focuses on the details of the survivors’ lives in a believable way.

It tells of a world in which most of humanity has been blinded by radiation from a space event, leaving them at the mercy of the eponymous walking, stinging plants that feed on decaying flesh. The sighted survivors have to cope with plagues, dwindling resources, the collapse of order, and the rise of militias. Oh, and the Triffids.

When I think of this book, the first thing that stands out to me is how we could be invaded by anyone – or anything – at any time. This was my first experience with that idea, and it shook me. Another element that gave me pause was the incidental blinding of millions of people and how that affected their ability to resist the invaders. As a visually impaired person, I can’t help wondering how I would fare in a similar situation.

A proper, old-school, British classic. When the entire world is blinded by comets lighting up the night sky, Bill Masen finds himself one of only a few people left who can see. Struggling through an apocalyptic London, Bill connects with other survivors, both good and bad. Trailing them all the way are the Triffids; intelligent, mobile plants that can strike and kill with lightning speed. Bill, Josella, the woman he connects with in London, and Susan, the little girl Bill rescues, try to start a new life away from the capital, fighting both the Triffids and other survivors who want… show more.

In The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham tells us that nature is not just something to explore, exploit or take inspiration from, but something to fear if not treated properly. The triffids, giant plants that can walk and kill humans with a sting, begin to take over the world when a meteor shower makes everyone blind—everyone except for William Masen. In a dystopian, post-apocalyptic story of survival and societal collapse, we see the natural world fighting back against the self-righteous superiority of humans. This is a beautifully written, inspirational book that successfully delivers a strong message with a… show more.

The creeping dread. The sense of loneliness. This book immerses you in a fight for survival. After something so devastating as 99% of the population going blind and the release of a deadly disease, how cruel then that the survivors must also cope with being hunted by the ‘fruits’ of humanity’s own creation, namely the Triffids (GM crops on steroids).

The triffids are a brilliant ‘monster.’ The ubiquitous plants were largely ignored and taken for granted, like weeds on the roadside. But once humanity is defenceless, their true menace becomes apparent. The global catastrophe provides the perfect conditions for these… show more.

My good friend (and co-editor) Jerry Määttä might have a bone to pick with me if I left this classic off of the list. And for good reason! Not only is it one of his favorites (check out his work on Wyndam in our collection and elsewhere), it is one of the first books people tend to think of when they think of plants in science fiction, heck, when they think of plants in literature! It is a sensational book about ambulatory plants that have jumped up the food chain, turning people into salads. A fairly early offering in the… show more.

Speaking of first chapters, they really don’t come much better than the first chapter of The Day Of The Triffids. The story begins in a hospital. We learn that there was a dramatic meteor shower the night before. Almost everyone went outside to watch. Bill Masen is a rare exception since he was in a hospital ward with his eyes bandaged. When he takes off the bandages he realises that he is one of the very few people who is still able to see. That would be bad enough. But what is worse – much worse! – is that… show more.