Review: The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

I read this because Jean BookishThoughts on Youtube often talks about John Wyndham, and for once I was pleasantly surprised. I really, really liked this book, and it had me interested from page one!

The book is set in England, mostly London, but also some surrounding countryside, in the 1950s. I believe it was written in the 1950s too, so the setting is essentially “present day” but in the 1950s. Does that make any sense? What I am trying to say is that the author tells the story with his world view, which the reader at the time would know, so there is no need to explain things that might seem weird to us today (except the triffids). I hope that made sense…let’s move on!

The main character is Bill Masen, who is in hospital, when we first meet him. As he wakes up, he slowly finds out that almost everyone else on the planet has gone blind due to a meteor shower the night before, which he was unable to witness because his eyes had been bandaged. He enters the streets of London only to find society completely crumpled after only a few hours. People are groping their way to shops and stealing what food they can find, stepping on each other in the process. 

Now in this world there are triffids, a plant that can kill humans with a sting. These triffids have been “mastered” by humans, but once the caretakers of the plants go blind and are unable to control them anymore, the triffids take over. Since most people are blind, they can’t protect themselves and the plants quickly kill off a bunch of people and become something to contend with. 

The story basically deals with Bill and his fight to survive in this new world. However, he is not the only one left seeing, and small bands start to come together to form a new society. He quickly teams up with a woman, named Josella, and I really liked her. She was practical and adaptable and seemed to come to terms with things much more quickly than Bill, and realize the consequences of certain modes of conduct. I really appreciated that the woman wasn’t some timid creature completely dependent on the man for everything. She knew how to take care of herself. For the most part. Of course there was some romance there, but I felt like it was very superficial. But that might just be the time of writing. I’m sure some of the YA books we read today would have been banned in the 1950s for explicit content. 

What I found really interesting is the way different people react to the news that society as they know it has crumpled, and they must build a new one. Some vow to take care of the blind, even though it seems unlikely to succeed in the long run, some want to leave the blind behind to fend for themselves in a bid to ensure as many people survive as possible to build a new world, some again want to use the blind as basically slave labour to ensure survival. I found the moral struggles really interesting. Should you give immediate help, even though you know it won’t do any good in the end, or should you leave people to die, giving yourself (and the species) the best chances in the long run. Bill and Josella and the people they meet along the way all have different feelings, and we get a good view of all the possible societies that might come from these decisions and some good discussions about the pros and cons of each method. I won’t spoil it by telling you which society Bill and Josella end up picking. You should definitely read the book and find out for yourself. 

I gave this 5 stars out of 5 on Goodreads, and I will definitely be reading more John Wyndham in the future.