08-16-2016, 01:28 PM
Got a very nice recent Penguin reprint of this in excellent condition at the Mountain View Library sale (my favorite book sale). I was going to just trade it but decided to read it first.
Perhaps some spoilers here.
I never saw the movie, so I came with only a vague idea about it. I figured it was a kind of weird plants from outer space thing, but no. The triffids are the result of plant experiments in the Soviet Union, and become worldwide long before the collapse, which is brought on by an apparent comet which leaves everyone who saw it blind. Some people luckily escape that and can still see. Then there is some sort of plague as well which takes down a lot of survivors. And the triffids start hunting the survivors.
Interestingly there is a lot of talk about creating a new civilization and not just squatting in the remains of the old. That really set this apart from most of these doomsday type books. It was set in the 1950s present time, so now it's alternate history (like H.G. Wells I suppose) with some period details that are long gone now. Perhaps a bit slow in places but I wonder if that's more the zeitgeist of the time of writing.
On the whole quite good and makes me wonder about his other books. Anyone read any?
Perhaps some spoilers here.
I never saw the movie, so I came with only a vague idea about it. I figured it was a kind of weird plants from outer space thing, but no. The triffids are the result of plant experiments in the Soviet Union, and become worldwide long before the collapse, which is brought on by an apparent comet which leaves everyone who saw it blind. Some people luckily escape that and can still see. Then there is some sort of plague as well which takes down a lot of survivors. And the triffids start hunting the survivors.
Interestingly there is a lot of talk about creating a new civilization and not just squatting in the remains of the old. That really set this apart from most of these doomsday type books. It was set in the 1950s present time, so now it's alternate history (like H.G. Wells I suppose) with some period details that are long gone now. Perhaps a bit slow in places but I wonder if that's more the zeitgeist of the time of writing.
On the whole quite good and makes me wonder about his other books. Anyone read any?
the hands that guide me are invisible
