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Search tags: John-Wyndham
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review 2020-05-28 13:43
The Day of the Triffids
The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

by John Wyndham

 

I didn't really know what to expect from this one apart from evil plants, so enjoyed the thrill of discovery as the plot slowly unfolded in the early chapters. It surprised me that there was so much of the plot focused on the issue of everyone going blind from an unrelated source before it got to any significant story about the carnivorous plants.

 

It did help set up the end of the world situation though, and showed much of the moral dilemma involved with deciding how much to help others in an unprecedented situation and whether your own survival would be compromised.

 

I'd class this as a Dystopian novel, though the man-eating plants do lend a Horror aspect. More of the plot involved survival in difficult circumstances long before the plants feature significantly.

 

There were times I wanted to shout at the characters "Why don't you..." or "Why haven't you..." and get them to do a few obvious things to improve their situation. I even wondered why it had become such a classic of Horror because much of it was more tame than I had expected. It wasn't what I expected at all, but it still made for an enjoyable read.

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text 2020-02-16 19:18
Reading progress update: I've read 66 out of 220 pages.
The Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham

Gosh, this is so boring. It´s so boring, after having finished two chapters in the morning, it robbed me of my will to read for the rest of the day.

I haven´t made up my mind up just yet whether or not to DNF this book, but I´m really close to actually doing it.

 

Edit: I tried to read another chapter and I can´t do it. DNF on page 67.

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text 2019-10-25 14:41
2019 Halloween Bingo - Doomsday
The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.

 

Damn, I was convinced this was going to get me my fourth bingo. But not quite, as I still need Murder Most Foul to be called.

 

 

 

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text 2019-10-24 01:53
2019 Halloween Bingo - Doomsday
The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

Can't have Halloween Bingo without John Wyndham.

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review SPOILER ALERT! 2019-09-02 23:42
The Kraken Wakes
The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham

‘I don’t care. I don’t mind working hard when there’s hope. It was having no more hope that was too much for me.’

This may come as a spoiler to people but I have to get this off my chest because I absolutely detest books whose title promises something that the book does not deliver:

 

The is no bloody kraken in this book. 

 

The kraken only appears as a reference to a poem by Tennyson in which the ills of the world are unleashed. And while this describes the story of the book perfectly, it does little for the unassuming reader who has come here for a kraken adventure.

 

With this out of the way, there were some marvellous aspects of human behaviour laid out in this book - mostly I fear, human behaviour at its worst. One was the way that fear-mongering and distress will cause people to divide into an us v them mentality. Another, was that despite a likelihood of survival being better in a group, everyone is seen as a victim first, then as an asset to accomplish a common goal. 

 

As this book was written during the Cold War, the utterly stupid assumption that dropping atom bombs on a problem would solve it made an appearance, too. And this assumption was flaunted quite readily as a solution. Of course, it was of absolutely no help whatsoever.

 

And so it took the near destruction of the world for some nation, who at the time of writing had been written off, to find a solution. 

 

There really is much truth in Wyndham's observations of humans and politics, even tho his description of technology was dated even at the time of writing. This book is sci-fi, but it really is not about fancy technology at all. If anything, it is about the destruction of civilisation by an unknown force who ultimately causes a type of disaster that is very real to the present reader - the melting of the ice caps.

I really admire Wyndham's foresight on this point along with his observations about humans. 

 

Unfortunately, Wyndham's style of writing was not for me. In particular, our main character's narrative was abysmally boring. It was really only when conversing with his wife or some other characters that the story really came to life. This made the reading experience an exercise in drudgery, and the book deserves so much better.

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