My favorite fiction book of all time is Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. I was introduced to the book through borrowed cassette tapes from the library of the 1960’s radio adaptation, which was very good. I listened to it all the time for years. Eventually I found a paperback copy, and then another, and eventually a nice hardback version (SF Masterworks) that is really hard to find now, if at all. Although the cover and the build of this book was really good, the text was obviously copied cheaply, but it was still just fine to read.
About fifteen years ago, I was able to get the really expensive leather-bound Easton Press version of eBay used, for $44. I like these kind of books, especially the lower-priced but still very nice Barnes & Noble Collectable Edition books.
This week, I found an omnibus of Windham’s work, a total of six books-in-one, but there were only a few of them available, as it was printed in 1980. My copy was shipped from Great Britain, but I’m glad to now have it! I tried reading one or two of his other books, but they never really had the same impact. I’m going to give it another try though (I paid enough for this one, I’d better!)
I have a remastered version of the radio play, but none of the movies or the miniseries, all of which aren’t in wide circulation. The 1950’s movie has the Triffids as big as trees, which is ridiculous, but as an old-school sci-fi movie it is okay. The 1980’s miniseries is far better, but I only have a weak VHS home recording from thirty years ago that I had bought online. There is a newer movie from the 2000s that I haven’t seen yet, but I think they “updated” a lot in it, so I’m not sure if it is as true to the book as it should be.
In any case, the book brings up a lot of interesting questions about society, and is a lot like the Walking Dead, but with better antagonists in the Triffids. And, almost everybody in the world has gone blind. Triffids are man-eating plants that can actually walk around. Before the night of strange, bright lights in the sky (that made everyone who saw them blind as of the next morning), they were domesticated and harvested for their oil. Considered very harmless, until they, due to the now blind human population, became better at sensing their place in the world and could do as they wished. Through sound and vibrations, they could find someone, slash them with their poisonous whip-like stinger, and wait by the body…
And they had this unique sound, a soft sort of sound that in the radio play, became quite terrifying.
There was a book that came out maybe twenty years ago called Night of the Triffids, by a different author, but it turned out to be very good, he even wrote in the same style of John Wyndham.
I’d recommend the radio play, if one was to listen without disturbance. Preferably in the dark. But if you want to try out a great read, this would be it!
randyrydberg.org 