Monday, April 27, 2009

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (43/81)

Category: Dystopia and Apocalyse

I've renamed the category from just being Dystopia as this book and The Road are probably more about apocalyptic situations than technically dystopian societies.

I vaguely remembered The Day of the Triffids from the television series when I was a child, so I was expecting an adventure story about killer plants. I was expecting it to be dated and corny, but it was a complete revelation. It seemed so modern, it must have felt so ahead of its time when it was first published. The triffids appear directly in the book infrequently, so they remain an ominous when they could have so easily become a silly idea.

The book really does ask some big questions about what people would do faced with the destruction of society, and it succeeds in making you think about it. Some parts of it were actually rather upsetting to read which again I wasn't expecting.

I'll be returning to John Wyndham again.

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