Book Review: Day of the Triffids

Posted on December 10, 2008 in Reading

[amazonify]0812967127::text::::The Day of the Triffids[/amazonify] by John Wyndham

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
A prophetic book. In the opening pages, you might see this as a neo-conservative warning against the socialism of post-War England, but closer reading delivers a different message, namely how fragile our civilization really is. In 1951, Wyndham saw many potential threats including creeping neo-fascism, germ warfare, orbital weapons platforms, and genetic engineering, all of which conspire to make the narrator’s life hell.

You are left looking around you and wondering how you might survive if the conveniences of civilization abruptly disappeared and your neighbors became disabled. On this point the novel offers visions that transcend the Robinson Crusoe and Garden of Eden fairy tales that many people take up at narrative’s beginning. You see their schemes fail one by one while some survivors take a clue and others barricade themselves into extinction.

The choices we make, Wyndham asserts, matter. Think now.

View all my reviews.

[amazonify]0812967127::text::::Order this book here[/amazonify]

For the record, this is not a paid advertisement.