Pros: Wonderfully imaginative, intelligent and chillingly evocative; crisp prose style creates a deadly realistic atmosphere
Cons: Dated in several respects (political, technological, sexual), and a bit preachy in parts
The Bottom Line: Gripping 1950's scifi by Brit John Wyndham, vividly describing the unexpected collapse of civilization, and the survivors' struggles against killer plants of humanity's own creation. Way ahead of its time!
trovis's Full Review: John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids
Much 1950's science fiction, literary and cinematic, posed the question, "how would the world look after a nuclear holocaust?" Most of these treatments now look laughably naive, but one which offers more food for thought is John Wyndham's 1951 novel "The Day of the Triffids" (the 1963 film loosely based on the novel *is* laughably naive, so don't base any assessments on it). Wyndham was well ahead of his time in his gauging of humanity's ingenuity when it comes to inventing new ways to destroy ourselves. The novel describes biological warfare, and genetical engineering gone disastrously wrong, 30 years before these issues became real. Herein lies, in fact, part of the novel's appeal. Wyndham tricked his contemporary readers by setting them up for an atomic cataclysm, and then blindsiding human civilization from quite a different direction; and modern readers will naturally find his exploration of biological themes more intriguing than the rather tired - though by no means outdated - "nuclear" angle. But what really makes the novel click is the down-to-earth realism of Wyndham's approach. He has a terse, economical prose style which seems deceptively matter-of-fact, emerging from the account of his average-guy hero Bill Masen. The style is unnervingly effective in conveying the collapse of civilization, not in fire and smoke but by slow, insidious decay.
The title is artfully misleading. Yes, the triffids are a masterful sci-fi creation; deadly plants cultivated for their edible oil, whose "day" suddenly arrives when their human exploiters are abruptly deprived of the one advantage which makes them superior. The threat they ultimately present to humanity's survival is all the more demoralizing because it's apparently not so much a matter of conscious hostility as of collective instinct (though this is a question which Wyndham leaves tantalizingly open). The most striking theme of the book, however, and the one most chillingly evoked, is Man's own reaction to the sudden unhinging of his society. Wyndham examines the various possibilities - shock, exhilaration, cruelty, despair, and particularly heroism - both proper and misplaced. Occasionally Wyndham can get long-winded on his pet themes (a university professor lays out the issues in a rather heavy-handed lecture which interrupts the narrative flow), but the situations encountered by Bill Masen and his reflections on them project the moral dilemma economically but powerfully.
Wyndham's characters are the kind of people we would like to think we are; more or less average individuals who, when presented with a crisis, show that they can rise to it. Wyndham's attitude towards the sexes is quaintly romantic, but not objectionably so; though Bill Masen comes to the rescue of Josella Playton, his eventual love interest, in Sir Galahad style, she emerges (from a rather unpromising background) as a character every bit as tough and resourceful as Bill.
The novel is a product of its historical period. Some readers may find all the Cold War intrigue of the second chapter boring or incomprehensible; I confess I find it interesting as typical period viewpoint. But nobody can avoid being sucked in by that eerie opening chapter! And, as in all Wyndham's novels, the setting is extremely Anglocentric; if you stop and think about it, the events of the book take place in odd isolation from the rest of the world.
John Wyndham (1903-1969) lived in England all his life, though he honed his literary skills as a science fiction writer before WWII partly by contributions to American science fiction magazines. His best known novels date from the 50's and 60's. His science fiction novels strongly show the influence of H.G. Wells in their "common man" perspective, their examination of alternative or post-apocalyptic societies, and their optimistic though somewhat untidy endings. Other books by him definitely worth chasing down include *The Kraken Wakes* (alien invasion of the earth through the oceans), *The Chrysalids* (post-nuclear society), and *The Midwich Cuckoos* (alien invasion through embryo implants), which, as you can see, display his gift for setting up imaginative situations. *The Day of the Triffids*, Wyndham's breakthrough novel, remains the most famous, and has been recently republished by Penguin.
Don't bother with the 1963 film adaptation mentioned at the start of this review. In 1981 the BBC and Australian Broadcasting Corporation produced a 6-part TV dramatization which I haven't seen but which is reputedly very good. In 2001 an authorized sequel by Simon Clark, *The Night of the Triffids*, was published, which tries to continue the story in the person of Bill Masen's and Josella's son. It received decidedly mixed reviews.
Wyndham chillingly envisions biowarfare and mass destruction in an account that seems even more prescient today than when it first appeared in 1951 at...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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