The Day of the Triffids

Wyndham's classic British Science Fiction novel is of its time yet timeless. Set in the early 50's, where Cold War paranoia reigns, we meet our protagonist Bill Masen in hospital, eyes bandaged after an unspecified accident. There has been some kind of cosmic event, whether a disintegrating comet, or something more sinister, which has rendered most of the world blind.

This is the world into which Masen is “reborn”. Removing his bandages himself he finds he's one of the few sighted people left. What Wyndham depicts over the next few chapters is the complete disintegration of society in a few short months. This is of course accelerated by the presence of the Triffids - strange, genetically engineered (?) carnivorous plants with a poisonous sting, which up to that point had been framed by humans for their oils. Set free they prey upon blind humanity. They are a superb creation. Wyndham imbues them with an implacable nature, predators with some kind of hive mind, plants that walk, hunt and kill.

Masen finds the improbably named Josella Playton, author of a notoriously lurid novel, who is trying to live down her reputation. Inevitably they fall for each other, but things are not so simple in this post-apocalyptic Britain. There are several groups of sighted people who have ideas on how civilisation can continue. Here Wyndham muses on what we would do should things fall apart. The old ways are dead. Adapt or perish. Revert to feudalism? Polygamy? Virtual slavery or free love?

Masen and Playton end up separated and Masen goes on a kind of odyssey through and increasingly strange countryside in search of her. There is plague, Triffids and isolationists to contend with before they are eventually reunited.

It's a superb novel of catastrophe and what happens next. There is no easy fix, no heroes coming over the horizon to restore civilisation. At the end of the novel Masen knows that it will be a long hard road back. First they have to find a way to rid the earth of Triffids, then rebuild society from the ground up. The brilliance of this is that, although a global catastrophe, Wyndham still makes his tale work within the confines of the British Isles.

One of the classics of Science Fiction by a perhaps unfairly underrated novelist. Highly recommended.

This review is for the audiobook version. I got this because I'd watched the movie decades ago; not that I really remember it other than a vague enjoying. For me, the audiobook will require a second listening to as I'd zoned out in a couple of spots due to being tired. Other than that, I did enjoy the story.