- Paperback: 480 pages
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; New edition edition (18 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340766018
- ISBN-13: 978-0340766019
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 11.2 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 21,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Simon Clark's The Night of the Triffids is the authorised 50th-anniversary sequel to The Day of the Triffids (1951) by John Wyndham, that classic SF nightmare which gave our language the word "triffid".
Clark's opening consciously echoes Wyndham's. In Day, narrator Bill Masen woke to a world blinded by strange radiations. Twenty five years later, his son David wakes to a different mysterious darkness. When people can't see, those deadly walking GM vegetables the triffids have the advantage. They got out of hand in Day and now not only dominate the continents but are learning how to invade human refuges like the Masens' Isle of Wight.
Air pilot David's high-altitude investigation of what's hiding the sun leads to unexpected dangers and contact with explorers from triffid-besieged Manhattan Island. A wonderful place but with something rotten underneath--and its leader's plans for reclaiming the Earth verge on the insane.
Simon Clark, a devoted fan of The Day of the Triffids, is best known for horror fiction. Although he does a fair pastiche of Wyndham's very British understated narrative style, this often escalates into darker imagery and moments of memorable nastiness. The triffids have evolved new, lethal tricks but these pale into insignificance besides the unspeakable things that obsessed humans can do to one another. In the long run, coping with triffids may well be easier.
The Night of the Triffids builds to a slam-bang action climax, not terribly Wyndhamesque but still gripping. A good old-fashioned read with slick modern trimmings and hints of another sequel. --David Langford --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'The hottest new purveyor of horrific thrills currently working on these shores' -- Big Issue Praise for Simon Clark: 'A master of eerie thrills' -- Richard Laymon 'Simon Clark is a well-established horror writer whose stories are told with pace, style and always with a surreal twist' -- Newcastle Evening Chronicle 'To say that Simon Clark is the best novelist to emerge this decade is self-evident. Simon has simply outgrown genre restrictions' -- Andrew Darlington NIGHT OF THE TRIFFIDS, essentially a story of good versus evil, is an intriguing and enjoyable sequel that should delight appreciators of Wyndham's work. Simon Clark dedicates his novel to the memory of John Wyndham (1903-1969) -- The Third Alternative "A definite confirmation of this author's growing reputation as one of the top genre novelists around today." -- Starburst (The Night of The Triffids) "Readers will relish Clark's uncomplicated cocktail of chlorophyl and human blood." Financial Times on The Night of the Triffids -- Financial Times 'The writing is crisp and unfussy' -- The Scotsman 'The pace of the story is breakneck and the climax exhilarating' -- The Scotsman 'Simon Clark is a wonderful writer. He has what it takes to be another Stephen King.' -- Bentley Little - Hell Notes.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Return of The Triffids,
By Rod Williams (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Night of the Triffids (Paperback)
The novel, as an homage within an homage, begins as the original does with the disorientation of both the reader and the narrator as they awake and try to work out why their world has changed.Twenty-nine years on from John Wyndham's classic, the original narrator's son David takes up the tale. Those unfamiliar with 'Day of...' (shame on you!) will be neatly brought up to date by his reminiscences in which he gives an overview of post-apocalyptic life among the Triffids, which the population now harvest to provide the raw materials of daily existence. Clark is true to the spirit of the original - managing to capture Wyndham's style - and cleverly creates a society which, because of the lack of scientific and social development, has changed little from Wyndham's England of the Nineteen Fifties. Due to a combination of unfortunate events David is taken to New York which is being ruthlessly controlled as an apartheid slave society where blind and black people are excluded from 'whites only' areas. In a sense this can be seen as a continuation of social values which were acceptable, if not widespread, in Nineteen Fifties America, and may indeed be prevalent in today's USA in many areas. My gripes are minor. The Triffids themselves are lessened by new and improbable mutant forms. An aquatic species emerges in the USA where, ironically, all the Triffids are bigger and nastier than their European counterparts. This might have been expected in warmer parts of the US (The original talks of ten-foot specimens found growing in Africa) but not in the more temperate New York. Some sixty-foot specimens appear near the end of the novel which stretches credulity to breaking point for me, given that at least three independent communities have been studying the Triffids for the last thirty years and have presumably seen no major changes in the creatures' physiology. Also, one might have expected some kind of climatic change with the loss of humanity's mechanised fuel-driven civilisation and the re-encroachment of vegetation in large areas around the world. The ending, although exciting, seems somewhat rushed and contrived, but this didn't mar what I found to be an un-put-downable thriller, which hopefully will bring many new readers to the original novel to find out where it all started.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Such a disappointment,
By Mister Terne (Wiltshire, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Night of the Triffids (Paperback)
When I found out that there was a sequel to one of my favourite novels, I jumped at the chance to read it and put several other books that I had all ready started on hold. What a terrible error of judgement that decision became.
The book started out intriguingly enough, with the world being plunged into darkness and triffids loose on The Isle of Wight, the supposed safe haven that Bill Mason escaped to in the original novel. However, simple ideas that riff on notions first presented by Wyndham soon give way to some very silly notions indeed. I could just about accept the idea of underwater triffid life, but by the time I was faced with gigantic, 60-foot forms of the plants the only option was to give up. In writing this review, I am putting to rest all memories of this truly terrible novel. Having said that, I will continue to harbour the hope that one day someone will write a great sequel to one of the greatest novels ever written.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Triffids live again,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Night of the Triffids (Paperback)
...As John Wyndham's 'Day of the Triffids' is one of my favourites, I was interested to read this new sequel.I must confess than when I started to read the new book, I expected to be disappointed. Surely nothing could be anywhere near as good as the original. However, in about chapter 3 of the book,I was suddenly hooked and just couldn't put it down. Wisely, author Simon Clark has written about completely new characters and a story taking place 25 years after the original book ended, as David Mason finds himself in a series of exciting adventures taking place in American, a land where people still have to keep the Triffids at bay. The action goes along at a cracking pace, but David still finds time for romance in the middle of a world falling apart. If you enjoyed the original book, 'The Night of the Triffids' is well worth reading. This book also has an ending that could be continued. Does Simon Clark intend to write more about the Triffids ??
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