Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The Day of the Triffids” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

The Day of the Triffids (Triffids #1)

by John Wyndham

3.99 · Rating Details · 62,183 Ratings · 2,165 Reviews

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

Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen. Removing his ...more

Paperback, 228 pages

Published July 1st 2003 by Modern Library (first published 1951)

More Details... edit details

Get a copy:

Or buy for

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The Day of the Triffids, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books

5,704 books — 18,935 voters

Best Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

2,727 books — 21,064 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30)

filter | sort: default (?) | Rating Details

Jan 08, 2016 Nataliya rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-reads

Some books can be quite ill-served by their title. '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.

But 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 ...more

flag 88 likes · Like · see review

Jun 23, 2013 Carol. rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: fans of the apocalypse, classic sci-fi

Shelves: sci-fi, apocalypse, male-lead, classic

A classic.

Sometimes classic is good.

description

Sometimes classic is interesting.

description

And sometimes, it's classic just because it was first, not best.

description

For me, Triffids is a classic in the last sense, as one of the first novels in an era exploring the end of civilization. Colored by recent events of World War II, many writers in the 50s focused on nuclear holocaust. Wyndham went a slightly different direction, forseeing genetic manipulation and biological warfare. While his vision interested me, the didactic tone, ...more

flag 65 likes · Like · see review

Jul 14, 2016 Lyn rated it liked it

Audrey II: Feed me!
Seymour: Does it have to be human?
Audrey II: Feed me!
Seymour: Does it have to be mine?
Audrey II: Feeeed me!
Seymour: Where am I supposed to get it?
Audrey II: [singing] Feed me, Seymour / Feed me all night long - That's right, boy! - You can do it! Feed me, Seymour / Feed me all night long / Ha ha ha ha ha! / Cause if you feed me, Seymour / I can grow up big and strong.

John Wyndham published his novel The Day of the Triffids in 1951 and it’s influence on speculative fiction sinc ...more

flag 50 likes · Like · see review

Dec 04, 2016 Apatt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, pre-80s-sf

“When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere”

Not exactly up there with “It was the best of times etc.” but a great opening line I think. The Day of the Triffids is John Wyndham’s best known and most popular book by far. A case can be made for some of his other books being better, The Chrysalids and The Midwich Cuckoos for instance, but “Triffids” is the people’s choice, and having just reread it, decades after ...more

flag 61 likes · Like · see review

Sep 16, 2007 Penny rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

When I was about 14, I read my father's old Penguin classic copy -- a bright orange paperback from the 1950s. And absolutely loved it. I've read it countless times since, and is one of the books I think about most. Officially my favorite book.

Having said that -- it has no literary pretensions, most characters are fairly one dimensional, and the triffids themselves (walking, thinking, carnivorous plants) I have always thought of as a rather annoying distraction. What gripped me, and grips me sti ...more

flag 36 likes · Like · see review

Sep 17, 2012 Richard Derus rated it really liked it

This review can now be found at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud!

flag 33 likes · Like · see review

Oct 28, 2015 Alex rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2014, rth-lifetime

One of the reasons scifi gets a bad rap is that so much of it is so very shitty, and here's a prime example. There was a major strain of woman-hating, mansplaining, faux-intellectual, oft-Randian bullshit that sprang up in the latter 20th century, spearheaded by the idiot propaganda of Robert Heinlein and Ray Bradbury; this miserable 1951 book was a harbinger.

The setup is standard scifi: human overreaching leads to a holocaust. In this case the overreach takes the shape of mass blindness - like One of the reasons scifi gets a bad rap is that so much of it is so very shitty, and here's a prime example. There was a major strain of woman-hating, mansplaining, faux-intellectual, oft-Randian bullshit that sprang up in the latter 20th century, spearheaded by the idiot propaganda of Robert Heinlein and Ray Bradbury; this miserable 1951 book was a harbinger.

The setup is standard scifi: human overreaching leads to a holocaust. In this case the overreach takes the shape of mass blindness - like Blindness but dumber - and, more famously, a plague of deadly shambling plants, a proto-Monsanto vision that's amusing enough to give Triffids the minor cult status it doesn't deserve. But the major threat here is, typically, not the plants but the surviving humans. So we get a tour through the civilized options - socialism, feudalism, theocracy - while Wyndham sputters that they're unworkable next to John Galt's solution: selfish oligarchy.

Wyndham's world, where a tiny minority can see and the rest are blind, is a blunt metaphor for Rand's philosophy (popularized eight years previous by her first hit, The Fountainhead). Through no fault of anyone, a tiny group of people are simply more competent. And his point, made again and again, is that those competent people can't worry about the rest: they're hopeless and must be left to die on their own. To try to take care of them is to doom them and the oligarchy. "The thinking has to be done largely by people who are not directly productive," Wyndham suggests. "Either we can set out to save what can be saved from the wreck - and that has to include ourselves - or we can devote ourselves to stretching the lives of these people a little longer. That is the most objective view I can take." Sounds good, right? Sign me up for the thinkin' team! You can be on the doin' and dyin' team. And note the overt nod to the nascent Objectivist movement.

Wyndham's alter ego Bill makes these speeches often to his love interest, Josella, whom he spends much of the book searching for because he forgot that she directly told him where to meet her. You can see why he loves her: she's thrilled when, in the midst of crisis, he pauses to lecture her about Latin. (Chicks go crazy for that.) And she's totally down for the idea that the world must be repopulated by means of each man having a harem. She's going to pick out a couple blind women for his harem. Cool, right? "After all, most women want babies anyway," Bill notes. "The husband's just...the local means to the end."

Why a harem, rather than a polyamorous sort of deal? Why should men have several partners but women just one? Because John Wyndham is a jackass.

Here's what Bill does right after Josella proposes finding him a harem of blind breeder women: "I ruminated a little on the ways of purposeful, subversive-minded women like Florence Nightingale and [19th-century prison reformer] Elizabeth Fry. They so often turn out to have been right after all."

If you want to pause for a moment and ruminate a little on the fact that Wyndham just compared Florence Nightingale to a pimp, I understand. I'll be here. "We hold the chance of as full a life as ['those blind girls'] can have," says Josella of the harem idea. "Shall we give it to them as part of our gratitude - or shall we simply withhold it on account of the prejudices we've been taught? ...You don't need to worry at all, my dear. I shall choose two nice, sensible girls."

The danger of lazy scifi is that when one invents a whole world, one can also invent human behavior in it. It lends itself to didacticism - to the creation of a reality that entirely supports one's worldview. Dissenting opinions can be made to fail. A character named Coker tries to create a society that protects the blind, and everyone dies, so...see? Altruism is dumb. After Coker comes around, he says of a less enthusiastic convert, "You'd think she'd be reasonable." Bill replies,

Most people aren't, even though they'd protest that they are. They prefer to be coaxed or wheedled, or even driven. That way they never make a mistake: if there is one, it's always due to something or somebody else. This going headlong for things is a mechanistic view, and people in general aren't machines. They have minds of their own - mostly peasant minds, at their easiest when they are in the familiar furrow.

But there are many furrows, and this one is full of shit.
...more

flag 34 likes · Like · see review

Jul 25, 2016 Lotte rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, other-classic-editions, science-fiction, read-in-2016, summer-2016-tbr

4.5/5. // Have you ever been afraid of plants? No? Well, you will be after you've read this book.

flag 30 likes · Like · see review

Feb 11, 2015 Joe Valdez rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi-apocalyptic

The next stop in my end-of-the-world reading marathon was The Day of the Triffids, the 1951 man-versus-plants tale by John Wyndham. After an apocalyptic journey across the United States in The Stand and Swan Song, it was fascinating to read about how the U.K. might tackle doomsday and I have to say that the stoic and unruffled British response gave me hope for mankind's endurance.

With the first of several imaginative chapter titles (The End Begins) and cheeky wit, Wyndham introduces our narrato ...more

flag 29 likes · Like · see review

Jan 09, 2010 Manny rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

Stop me if you've heard this one before. It's a shame we don't have some ham. (You're supposed to say "Why?")

Well, because then if we had some eggs, we'd have ham and eggs! Gotcha.

The Day of the Triffids is rather similar. It's lucky that scientists haven't used bioengineering to create a deadly but slow-moving carnivorous plant. Because then if a mysterious comet caused everyone to go blind overnight, we'd all be sitting ducks!

It's not quite as bad as I'm making out. Admittedly, on a scale of s ...more

flag 25 likes · Like · see review

May 16, 2013 Algernon rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013

I didn't plan ahead, but in a funny (or disturbing) coincidence, I've read this book on the fated day when the world ended, May 8 according to John Wyndham : When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere. The opening chapter is one of the best in the genre, with protagonist Bill Masen waking up in a hospital and trying to understand what is wrong with the world around him without relying on his bandaged eyes. It
I didn't plan ahead, but in a funny (or disturbing) coincidence, I've read this book on the fated day when the world ended, May 8 according to John Wyndham : When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere. The opening chapter is one of the best in the genre, with protagonist Bill Masen waking up in a hospital and trying to understand what is wrong with the world around him without relying on his bandaged eyes. It soon becomes apparent that everybody has been blinded by green meteorites from space, and his injury has actually saved him from a similar fate. Realizing that this plague is insufficient for his purposes of utterly destroying civilization, the author deploys a second doomsday device, in the form of bioengineered, intelligent, carnivorous plants capable of using their roots as legs and preying now on the helpless humanity. Being written in 1951, the book is a bit sketchy on actual scientific theories for the two events, and explains the first as the result of the arms race extending into space and the second as communist irresponsibility in biological research. The triffids and the cosmic rays are not the main focus of the novel, they are just the useful devices that set up the subsequent scenes for the study of the social and moral implications of survival in an extremely hostile environment, one where Man is no longer at the top of the food chain:

You know, one of the most shocking things about it is to realize how easily we have lost a world that seemed so safe and certain. [...] Looking back at the shape of things then, the amount we did not know and did not cared to know about our daily lives is not only astonishing but somehow a bit shocking. I knew practically nothing, for instance, of such ordinary things as how my food reached me, where the fresh water came from, how the clothes I wore were woven and made, how the drainage of cities kept them healthy. Our life had become a complexity of specialists, all attending to their own jobs with more or less efficiency and expecting others to do the same.

This point of taking for granted the benefits of the industrial revolution is one of the aspects that is as valid today as in 1951, and one of the main reasons I consider the book still relevant. Some other details are painfully still a going concern today, it actually makes me despair of the whole concept of progress and of learning from past mistakes. Leaving aside bio-weapon research (such as toying with the flu-virus) , here's an observation about the short attention span of the modern generation:

There was a current theory among cutters that more than a few seconds of any one news subject - except a boxing match - could not fail to paralize an audience with boredom. My first view, therefore, of a development which was to play such an important part in my future, as well as in so many other peoples, was a glimpse sandwiched between a hula contest in Honolulu and the First Lady launching a battleship.

So what makes The Day of the Triffids a genre milestone and a source of inspiration for many later writers? I believe it is the choice to delve less on the action / adventure aspects of the story ( what I call the fireworks and the popcorn special effects of blockbusters) and to explore instead the human condition as a whole. The book may not be as spectacular as Justin Cronin's Passage , but it compensates by interesting debates on: the use of violence against the weak, the relevance of social conventions and religion in dealing with the altered circumstances, the survival of the individual against the survival of the species, the merits of different forms of governments in protecting their members against outside violence, the need for long term planning of the future instead of scavenging in the ruins of the past.

Others have remarked on the similarities in style to the work of H G Wells, and point out that the prose and the characterization are not really up to modern standards, but I find nothing wrong with the ideas at the center of the novel, and comparisons to the likes of War of the Worlds , The Time Machine or The Island of Dr. Moreau serve more to confirm the classic status of this enduring tale.
...more

flag 27 likes · Like · see review

Jul 09, 2010 Stephen rated it really liked it

Shelves: easton-press, audiobook, horror-classic, 1930-1953, monsters, science-horror

4.0 stars. I am very glad that I finally got around to reading this classic post-apocalyptic novel. I really liked Wyndham's writing style and the way he presented the story. It was well written, well plotted and kept me interested throughout the book. As with most really good post-apocalyptic science fiction novels, the true point of the story is the exploration of human nature by showing how different people act when the society they have grown up in falls apart. Recommended!!!

flag 25 likes · Like · see review

Sep 07, 2016 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: novel, 20th-century, british-isles, science-fiction

This 1951 novel was written when nuclear war and the potential end of civilisation as it was known was a more immediate concern than today. Early in the book there is an oblique reference to Lysenko and the Soviet Union - which helps to date it to that post war period. Truly Wyndham's concern is not with the potential end of civilisation itself, but really with what comes next.

Destruction then, whether by bomb or plant, isn't the point of this book. It becomes a device to get to the Robinson Cru ...more

flag 23 likes · Like · see review

May 13, 2008 Chris rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, top-shelf, apocolypse

I have a long fondness for Apocalyptic novels. The Stand was one of my early favorites from junior high school, and I really enjoyed its cousin by Robert McCammon, Swan Song. There's something about the End Of The World that just grabs me and won't let go. Maybe it's the thought that, should the world end, I would be one of the survivors. The rule of law would break down, all shackles of modern life would be loosed, and I would finally be free to choose my own destiny. Which, knowing me, would p I have a long fondness for Apocalyptic novels. The Stand was one of my early favorites from junior high school, and I really enjoyed its cousin by Robert McCammon, Swan Song. There's something about the End Of The World that just grabs me and won't let go. Maybe it's the thought that, should the world end, I would be one of the survivors. The rule of law would break down, all shackles of modern life would be loosed, and I would finally be free to choose my own destiny. Which, knowing me, would probably be very short and end up with me getting shot by some kind of Mad Max pirate tribe.

I can say with some certainty, however, that in this book's scenario I would not be coming out on top. Because I love astronomy.

Let me explain. The end of the world came in two parts, one of which was definitely of our own doing.

It started with a comet. Or a meteor shower. Or something, but whatever it was, it lit up the sky. Green streaks of light brightened the night skies around the world, and everyone who could go and watch them did so. I'm a sucker for a natural light show, so I probably would have spent the night watching the skies and enjoying myself. And I would have woken up stone blind the next day.

That in itself - the vast, vast majority of the human population on Earth being blind - would have been a pretty good apocalypse. Wyndham describes rashes of suicides, accidental deaths and, of course, murder in just the first few days. Without vision, the carefully crafted world we've made kind of falls apart. But it would have been survivable. Co-operation groups spring up pretty quickly, both voluntary and otherwise, where sighted people assist the blind in surviving. It would have been tough, yes, but not impossible. If not for the Triffids.

While we don't know what caused the green comet, the Triffids were definitely our fault. Bioengineering gone haywire, the Triffids are ambulatory carnivorous plants with a poison sting that can kill a grown man from ten feet away. And while they're not intelligent, they are remarkably... aware. They follow sound, they learn and co-operate in hunting, and are very difficult to eradicate.

But by themselves, they're manageable. Their stingers can be removed, even though they grow back eventually, and they make interesting garden plants. And they're immensely profitable - the oil derived from a Triffid outdoes every other kind of vegetable oil available. In normal times, the Triffids are under human control.

Two problems, when put together, make for a truly terrifying end. And an exciting story. Wyndham has created a brave new world for us, with a wide variety of characters who all react to their new situation in different - and realistic - ways. From the girl who believes that the Americans will save her to the man who believes that polygamy is the way to a brighter future, everyone has an idea on how to survive.

But first they have to deal with the Triffids.... ...more

flag 22 likes · Like · see review

Sep 09, 2016 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die

For a person who claims not to like science fiction, I read and enjoy quite a lot of it! (In my professional life, I would now expect my students to rephrase their claim, as it is obviously not matching the evidence, but being stubborn, I stay firm!)

This is a thought-provoking novel, and it has not lost much of its message since its first publication. Humankind is still prone to self-destruction by carelessness and short-sightedness, and we still have diverse ways of dealing with and interpretin ...more

flag 21 likes · Like · see review

Mar 24, 2014 Jonfaith rated it really liked it

Children have a different convention of the fearful until they have been taught the proper things to be shocked at.

Gauging our current run of apprehensions, one would be wise to explore this gem of the dystopian curve. The proliferation of hydrogen bombs and biological warfare certainly chilled the time of John Wyndham. The possibility in recent weeks of a thermonuclear exchange makes this novel all the more relevant today. Day of the Triffids is a meditation. There is no epic effort to capture ...more

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

Sep 17, 2012 Mark rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: the-natural-world, world-going-to-hell-in-a-handcart

Read this for the first time years ago, must have been when I was about 15 but suddenly thought I would post a few Wyndham reviews whilst eating my lunch cos he is a brilliant writer; although John Wyndham and a comfortably swallowed lunch probably are not the best of bedfellows. The story in some ways is of a skewed natural world in all its many guises rising up and seeking revenge. Whether it be, initially, the comet shower which most people go out to gaze upon and are then blinded by its affe ...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Apr 28, 2010 Elliott rated it it was ok

The Day of the Triffids is representative of a certain type of Cold War English novel. It goes like this: England is the last bastion of politesse and moral rectitude in a world awash in Communism and licentiousness. I'm sure there are similar narratives in the Cold War literature of other countries but it always strikes me as a distinctly English point of view. In these novels, the hero is the quintessential Englishman: "Dash it all, woman, you've got no sense! Miraculous how I can drink such l ...more

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

Jan 31, 2008 Bill rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction

The Day of the Triffids had such a great and promising start to it. A man wakes up in a hospital only to realize that he has been spared from a cataclysmic meteor shower that has left most of the remaining
population either dead or blind.
Somehow, this has something to do with the Triffids, a bizarre plant whose origins are a mystery. As the story progresses, more facts and history of the Triffids unfold to reveal sinister characteristics.

Unfortunately for me, my interest began to wane halfway thr ...more

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

Jun 15, 2013 Penny rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, science-fiction, bookclub, books-they-say-i-should-read, post-apocalypse, highly-recommended, scifi-and-fantasy-club-bookshelf

I think this may be one of the most harrowing post-apocalypse stories I've read. (view spoiler)

That said, it was not difficult to read. The humour and tone of the narrator was fun and I had a great time running a ...more

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

Jul 03, 2016 Hazal Çamur rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Beklentimden çok daha farklı bir kurguyla karşılaştım ve iyi ki de öyle oldu. Krizalitler ile tanıyıp sevdiğim Wyndham, bu defa GDO'ya ve doğaya verdiğimiz tüm o bencilce zararlara ve hatta biyolojik silahlara kadar geniş bir eleştiri yelpazesi hazırlamış. İlginç olan, etobur triffidlerin bu kurgudaki asıl tehlike olmaması. Hatta kitabın sonlarına kadar küçük tehlikeler oluştursalar da, post-apokaliptik düzendeki asıl tehditleri kitabın kapanışına doğru ortaya çıkıyor.

Bu kitapta felaketi getiren Beklentimden çok daha farklı bir kurguyla karşılaştım ve iyi ki de öyle oldu. Krizalitler ile tanıyıp sevdiğim Wyndham, bu defa GDO'ya ve doğaya verdiğimiz tüm o bencilce zararlara ve hatta biyolojik silahlara kadar geniş bir eleştiri yelpazesi hazırlamış. İlginç olan, etobur triffidlerin bu kurgudaki asıl tehlike olmaması. Hatta kitabın sonlarına kadar küçük tehlikeler oluştursalar da, post-apokaliptik düzendeki asıl tehditleri kitabın kapanışına doğru ortaya çıkıyor.

Bu kitapta felaketi getirenin insan olması gibi, asıl tehlike yine insan. Bir kuyrukyıldız yağmuru ve ardından tüm dünyada başlayan körlük, az sayıda gören insan ve ardından gelen toplumsal çöküşü görüyoruz. Görenlerin önce köle, ardından efendi oluşunu okuyoruz. Ancak bu kuyrukluyıldız nereden geldi? Neden geldi? Buna dair kesin bir cevap yok, ama sonlarda elle turulu, mantıklı bazı spekülasyonlar mevcut.

Triffidlerin Günü, sandığım ya da sandığınız gibi etobur bitkilerle bezeli bir B filmi kurgusu hiç değil. Yine burada asıl tehdit insanın kendisi. triffidlerse genetiği değiştirilmiş yepyeni bir tür bitki. Sinsi ve planlı yok ediciler.

Kitapta bir erkeğin ağzından kadınların mühendislik vb. alanlara yönelmemesine dair çok açık bir eleştiri de yer alıyor ki, o kısım benim için ayrı bir yere sahip. Kıyamet geldiğinde eğitimdeki bu eşitsizliğin yol açtığı şeyler de dikkate değer.

Kitaba 5 yıldız vermememin yegane nedeni, böyle bir kaos ortamında çok daha pislik şeylerin yaşanacağına inanıyor olmamdan ileri geliyor. Wyndham'ın karakterleri bir şekilde beyefendi ve hanımefendiliklerini koruyor. Görenler ve görmeyenler arasındaki bu büyük farklı dağılımda gerçekten iğrençleşen insan manzaraları ve ahlaksızlıklar olacaktır. Wyndham bunları resmetmeyip, evcileşmiş insanı bir raddeye kadar korumuş.

Tavsiye edeceğim bir kitaptı. İnsanoğlunun kendi ayağına nasıl sıktığı ve felaket anında bile tekrar tekrar sıkmaya devam ettiğini anlatan başarılı bir eser. ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Apr 13, 2009 Ubik rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own

WOW! This was so absolutely amazing and not what I thought it was going to be. I avoided it for years thinking it was "killer plants taking over the world 50s B-movie style" but I was fnugging WRONG. If ever there was a piece of literature (or any other media for that matter) that so understated yet made so believable such an at-first-glance ridiculous premise, it is this novel. The characterizations were wonderful. I really knew Bill, Coker, and Josella right off the bat in fewer words without ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Oct 07, 2016 A. Dawes rated it liked it

I am a fan of the Chrysalids and John Wyndham. Wyndham wrote The Day of the Triffids way back in 1951 and was clearly a visionary of the field. I don't know why, but The Day of the Triffids didn't quite have the same impact on me as Wyndham's other work.

The protagonist, Bill Masen, is blinded (literally - he has bandages over his eyes) - during a bizarre meteorite shower in England.... Oh, what a difference a day makes....The next day, with his vision repaired, Bill is witness to an unsettling d ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

Sep 05, 2011 The Pirate Ghost (Formerly known as the Curmudgeon) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, thriller, really-good-read, creature-feature, kindle-book, classic

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book should be considered a "hands down" classic of literature. It's a smooth read, written in 1951 that reads like the smooth victorian prose of E.A. Poe or the cultured tone of H.G. Wells. The writing both carried a subtely complex lesson wrapped in the riddle of the story. It is likely this piece of work that inspired many of the best zombie Appocolypse stories more than H.G. Wells, war of the worlds.

There is so much to talk about I'll warn you now. I want to talk about all of it so, th ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Aug 01, 2012 Jonathan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: personal-favourites, classic-literature, science-fiction, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, fantasy-sci-fi-challenge, classic-challenge, books-with-films

The Day of the Triffids was a fun, fast and entertaining classic science fiction novel. It also had a few deep ideas buried beneath its blockbuster movie script exterior. And most certainly this was a well written novel as with the other science fiction classics I have encountered.

I knew little about The Day of the Triffids save that it featured man eating plants (all thanks to cultural references the old film based on the novel). As a result I was pleasantly surprised to find that the plot had
The Day of the Triffids was a fun, fast and entertaining classic science fiction novel. It also had a few deep ideas buried beneath its blockbuster movie script exterior. And most certainly this was a well written novel as with the other science fiction classics I have encountered.

I knew little about The Day of the Triffids save that it featured man eating plants (all thanks to cultural references the old film based on the novel). As a result I was pleasantly surprised to find that the plot had a great deal more substance than it let on. The triffids were in many ways a subplot to the main plot: that being the freak cosmic accident which turned most of the inhabitants of the planet blind. As a result the mobile and carnivorous triffids are free to feast upon the blind people who roam the streets, now reduced to struggling to get around and find food.

The substance of this novel can be found in the ideas about blindness and what appears to be the element of cognitive dissociation utilised by the novel. The idea of everyone on the planet, save for a select handful who avoided the catastrophe, becoming blind raises questions of what would happen. John Wyndham's idea is a dark and grave one, one touching on themes raised by other noted sci-fi authors such as Wells or Orwell. He challenges whether, in such circumstances, many would commit suicide rather than live crippled; whether others would survive by struggling and fighting against the other blind inhabitants of the planet; and more frighteningly whether others still would use those who could see like parasites. Wyndham also challenges what the responsibility of decent human beings would be if they retained their sight, to such blind members of society.

The element of cognitive dissociation I perceive in this novel is how it takes real world ideas and plunges them into an unfamiliar environment. This is what many theorists state sci-fi is about: taking ideas such as what it is to be human or real world controversies (i.e. euthanasia, cloning or abortion) and placing them somewhere else. In the case of this novel it seems to me that Wyndham takes some of the ideas of the issues raised by the Cold War and places them in an apocalyptic environment. The 'cosmic accident' is challenged as to whether it could have possibly been satellites up in space set to fire radiation upon other nations and blind them. The triffids are suggested to be the result of USSR biological breeding programs. In this way it seems to me that Wyndham either indicates the perceived threat from the USSR as being like the triffids: that if America ever weakened the Russians would swoop in and take advantage of the figuratively blind nation. Or else Wyndham writes to suggest that the work of both nations in their scientific fight and their cold war could perhaps lead to disaster for everyone across the globe jointly.

Either way The Day of the Triffids is a remarkable and amazing gem of a novel. I shall add it to my (long) list of personal favourite novels and attempt to obtain a copy for my library. This is a novel that is pure class in terms of entertainment and the ideas within. I fully recommend it in every way. ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Dec 13, 2010 Cindy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, 1001-books, british, dystopic-or-apocalyptic, own, 2010-best-reads, favorites

Wow! This is easily in the top 10 best books I've read in 2010.

It's the apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic story that most modern ones wish they could be. It's obvious most post-apocalypse tales have drawn their inspiration from The Day of the Triffids. So, if you dig stories like Blindness, The Postman, 28 Days Later, The Road, etc, etc, then make sure you read this book!

I think I naively thought, due to the title and the slim size of the book, that the story would take place over a day or a couple o ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Feb 03, 2010 Robert rated it liked it

Shelves: sf

I think this might have been one of the later Wyndham novels, because it has incident, which makes it easier to read than, say The Kraken Wakes, where civilisation is destroyed by some nasty creatures who live in the deepest parts of the ocean but probably arrived from space.
Wyndham was quite keen on destroying civilisation in his novels - in the Chrysalids nuclear war has wiped out most of the population. This time civilisation is destroyed by a bunch of genetically engineered plants!

This book ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Jul 14, 2016 Bandit rated it really liked it · review of another edition

No post apocalyptic classic library is complete without this book. Took me a while to get to it, but very well worth the time. It is somewhat dated, but primarily in gender attitudes, which seems almost unavoidable in literature predating a modern era, whenever that starts. In many respects it actually holds up very nicely for its age. And the world literature actually absolutely applies here, the writing is terrific, mostly narration driven and, as often is the case with older books, at times s ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Jul 30, 2012 Michael rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, england, apocalyptic

Satisfying apocalyptic tale published in 1951. A mysterious massive meteor shower makes the vast majority of people on the planet blind, resulting in the collapse of civilization. The small population of sighted humans struggle with various strategies of survival and competition for resources. The disaster allows some unusual mobile carnivorous plants, widely nurtured because of valuable oils, to spread widely and threaten human extinction, the triffids. My memory of the book from my youth, dist ...more

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

Jan 04, 2017 Scarlet Cameo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Lectura conjunta para el Hell-o-win con el grupo La cafetería de Audrey

"Los que poseen algún tesoro siempre llevan una existencia precaria"

"El día de los trifidos" se presenta como una obra como pocas, tras una serie meteoritos que dejan ciega a toda la población del mundo que disfrutó observándolos, aquellos que mantienen su capacidad visual deben buscar sobrevivir, lo cuál incluye aprender a realizar actividades básicas como cocinar u obtener agua, evitar ser sometidos por aquellas personas Lectura conjunta para el Hell-o-win con el grupo La cafetería de Audrey

"Los que poseen algún tesoro siempre llevan una existencia precaria"

"El día de los trifidos" se presenta como una obra como pocas, tras una serie meteoritos que dejan ciega a toda la población del mundo que disfrutó observándolos, aquellos que mantienen su capacidad visual deben buscar sobrevivir, lo cuál incluye aprender a realizar actividades básicas como cocinar u obtener agua, evitar ser sometidos por aquellas personas ciegas que buscan convertirlos en sus lazarillos y a los trifidos, estos últimos plantas carnívoras genéticamente modificadas que poseen la capacidad de caminar y parecen estar aprovechando rápidamente esté colapso en la sociedad como antes se conocía.

La Guerra Fría, el miedo al descontrol de la ciencia y lo antinatural de las convenciones humanas son algunos de los tópicos que este magnífico libro toma. Un clásico que el tiempo no ha beneficiado pero que es aún recordado por ser precursor en la introducción de las sociedades post-apocalípticas, pero que muestra todas las facetas de la humanidad ante una situación así: las nuevas comunidades creadas, las enfermedades imprevistas, la carencia de combustibles, el egoísmo y la filantropía mal encaminada en momentos de crisis, además de la necesidad de cambiar y la reticencia al mismo.

Pero a esto se aúna uno de los tópicos más actuales que trata el libro, el comercio sobre el bienestar. El nacimiento de los trifidos, y su posterior expansión al resto del mundo, se da por el deseo de obtener el aceite más puro para proveer a la sociedad de consumo y, al descubrirse que estas plantas son peligrosas, el deseo de continuar la venta de su aceite y de las plantas en sí mismas, como "curiosidades" para el hogar, hacen que Wyndham plantee constantemente la pregunta de porque arriesgarse ante esta situación existiendo posibilidades menos riesgosas a largo plazo y que cumplen la misma función.

"Razas enteras han caído en la inanición a causa del complejo de inferioridad creado por el pasado glorioso"

Definitivamente este libro presenta un pequeño puñado de personajes, la mayoría de ellos poco profundizados pero que cumplen con el cometido de mostrar los valores y perversiones que inundan este nuevo mundo, pero nuestro protagonista, Bill Masen, engloba ambos aspectos de una manera excelente sin que, nuevamente, se profundice tanto en su pasado a no ser por su relación con los trífidos.

Un libro sorprendente, que hace especial hincapié en la manera de reorganización ante una catástrofe, no obstante pierde un poco por la rapidez con que, personas comunes, toman estas decisiones; en uno o dos días ya existían comunidades con rumbos bien establecidos lo cual se siente poco natural ¿Dónde está el temor y la esperanza? ¿Qué pasó con la duda de como actuar? Si bien me agrada que no se queden esperando a su muerte creo que es demasiado apresurado el como llegan a ese punto, más parece que ya tuvieran el plan hecho con anterioridad y que, cuando llegó el momento, sólo lo aplicaron.

En definitiva un libro recomendado si eres fan de la ciencia ficción en su sentido más social que tecnológico. ...more

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Theory: The Triffids didn't just benefit from the global blindness - they caused it!	2	5	Jan 03, 2017 03:14PM
Bo'ness Library B...: 2016 August Thursday Book Group	5	8	Jun 13, 2016 06:52AM
Silver Stag Book ...: The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham	1	2	Feb 08, 2016 07:33AM
They're here! (giant hogweed triffids)	4	36	Jul 18, 2015 07:20AM
Goodreads Librari...: Add cover: Den trifidů 2008 edition	3	10	Jan 11, 2015 06:33AM
La Stamberga dei ...: Il giorno dei trifidi di John Wyndham	1	10	Sep 28, 2014 04:28AM

Readers Also Enjoyed

Videos About This Book

The day of the Triffids - BBC Series Trailer

Add a comment

Genres

Science Fiction

1,773 users

Fiction

726 users

Classics

498 users

Horror

311 users

Apocalyptic > Post Apocalyptic

273 users

See top shelves…

About John Wyndham

John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was the son of a barrister. After trying a number of careers, including farming, law, commercial art and advertising, he started writing short stories in 1925. After serving in the civil Service and the Army during the war, he went back to writing. Adopting the name John Wyndham, he started writing a form of science fiction that he called 'logical fantasy'. ...more

More about John Wyndham...

Other Books in the Series

Triffids (2 books)

Books by John Wyndham

More…

Share This Book

+ Share on your website

Trivia About The day of the Tr...

18 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Day of the Tr...

“When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.” — 134 likes

“It must be, I thought, one of the race's most persistent and comforting hallucinations to trust that "it can't happen here" -- that one's own time and place is beyond cataclysm.” — 97 likes

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Day of the Triffids
avg rating	preview: The Day of the Triffids Goodreads rating: 3.99 (62183 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/530965.The_Day_of_the_Triffids?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320530145l/530965.jpg[/img][/url] [url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/530965.The_Day_of_the_Triffids?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham[/url]

See a Problem?

Preview — The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

The Day of the Triffids (Triffids #1)

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Popular Answered Questions

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers Also Enjoyed

Videos About This Book

Genres

About John Wyndham

Other Books in the Series

Books by John Wyndham

Share This Book

Share on your website

Trivia About The day of the Tr...

Quotes from The Day of the Tr...