The Day of the Triffids

De: John Wyndham

Narrado por: Kingsley Ben-Adir

In 1951 John Wyndham published his novel The Day of the Triffids to moderate acclaim. Fifty-two years later, this horrifying story is a science-fiction classic, touted by The Times (London) as having 'all the reality of a vividly realised nightmare'.

Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen. Removing his bandages the next morning, he finds masses of sightless people wandering the city. He soon meets Josella, another lucky person who has retained her sight, and together they leave the city, aware that the safe, familiar world they knew a mere 24 hours before is gone forever.

But to survive in this post-apocalyptic world, one must survive the Triffids, strange plants that years before began appearing all over the world. The Triffids can grow to over seven feet tall, pull their roots from the ground to walk and kill a man with one quick lash of their poisonous stingers. With society in shambles, they are now poised to prey on humankind. Wyndham chillingly anticipates bio-warfare and mass destruction, 50 years before their realisation, in this prescient account of Cold War paranoia.

About the author: John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Benyon Harris was born in 1903, the son of a barrister. He tried a number of careers including farming, law, commercial art and advertising, and started writing short stories, intended for sale, in 1925. From 1930 to 1939 he wrote stories of various kinds under different names, almost exclusively for American publications, while also writing detective novels. During the war he was in the Civil Service and then the Army. In 1946 he went back to writing stories for publication in the USA and decided to try a modified form of science fiction, a form he called 'logical fantasy'.

©1951 John Wyndham (P)2021 Audible, Ltd

Better Than the Movie

I thoroughly enjoyed this book which was different from the movie. In my opinion, even though I love the movie, I enjoyed this book more. The narrator was perfect and conveyed the right voice for each character.

Great story - shame about the narration.

A brilliant novel of an apocalyptic future that is, by now, very well known. So many have taken inspiration from Wyndham. I’d never read it before and am very pleased to have listened to the thrilling journey of Bill Mason.

The narration, however, was really lazy. Having heard numerous great performances I was so surprised that this one was so unrehearsed. Kingsley frequently reads voices in the wrong accent before realising and correcting himself. He has little ability to predict punctuation and sentence structure and almost no library of dialects at his command. You either get a bad Michael Caine impersonation for about 10 different characters or a standard middle class English accent for everyone else.
I realise that Wyndhams writing is rather ‘Jolly good old boy’, so making it more contemporary in performance is a good idea - but this feels like amateur work. Not in the same league as so many great readers on audible. Such a shame - fortunately the story is good enough to survive it.

Classic

While the pacing is a little uneven, you come to care for the main characters and their plight. The dashes of philosophical musings throughout are just as relevant today as they ever were.

Per usual, humans are part of why the world gets darker before there is light.

I did want some more time in the ending to close things off but it was a lovely read.

Classic Excellent

It has been decades since I’ve found such a fine example of my old, favorite sub-genre of apocalypse fiction. It ranks with Alas, Babylon and Earth Abides, Lucifer’s Hammer, Canticle for Leibowitz, and other classics. I wonder if much of this zombie nonsense was ripped off from this excellent source. I suppose it is all Greener than You Think, Albert Wiener! ;-)

Captivating

I truly and deeply enjoyed this listen, looking forward to more from the author. Narrator did a wonderful job on voicing all the characters in the story

Good story but outstanding narration

Enjoyed listening to this story, but it was the narration which really took it to another level. Kingsley Ben-Adir’s narration really is more voice acting than narration, and despite the many passages in the book with different characters speaking in turn, I could always tell who was who because each had a distinct “voice.” Disappointed to see that this talented narrator has done so few other audiobooks!

Nice read of human survival

What a great novel that has definitely influenced other novels along the way as well as survival movies about end of days

Great story with a good narrator.

I've always enjoyed this story and Kingsley's read here is a good one. He didn't create a lot of differentiation between the characters, but it was a good read nonetheless. John Wyndam's story of blindness and killer plants run amok is still as engaging today as when I discovered the miniseries adaptation on PBS years ago.

A Sci-fi Masterpiece

I love The Day of the Triffids, it's a spectacularly timeless tale that is expertly narrated in this iteration. There are a number of versions of the story available, some of which have been (needlessly) edited down to omit some moments of context that I feel enrich the narrative. This version of the story, as far as I can tell, is an unabridged edition.

If you're a fan of sci-fi or horror (or even more specifically, zombie movies, which seem to have borrowed a whole lot from this novel to form the tropes of the genre), then I reckon you'll thoroughly enjoy The Day of the Triffids. The story is a slow burn at times but I feel that this gives the reader/listener the proper amount of time to immerse themselves in the moments of respite, which elevates the moments of terror.

Compelling Start But Story Drags After Awhile

Less action oriented than expected. Instead, dwells on the philosophical aspects of the world ending as we know it.