Any fan of post-apocalyptic zombie literature should pick up a copy of John Wyndham’s book, Day of the Triffids. This is a wonderful book that has all the ingredients of a good zombie fiction – mass chaos, civil unrest, and of course, people being munched. This book was written in 1951 when zombies hung out in Haitian plantations instead of American malls so one can argue that this is the first incarnation of zombie fiction even though there are no zombies in it.

The Day of the Triffids starts with a strange meteor shower that illuminates the sky with a fourth of July merriment. The following day, everyone who witnessed the display wakes up blind. That’s when the trouble starts.

The triffids themselves are harmless house plants when domesticated, but when left to their own devices, they are lethal. They are carnivorous plants who have mutated to walk. No one knows how they arrived on the scene, but most suspect they were a biological weapon experiment gone wrong. They have long stingers that can kill a man from a distance, and once felled, the triffids strip the flesh off the decomposing bodies to feed.

When the story starts, the triffids are already in every nook and cranny of the world, yet they are kept in check by people. Once the world has loses its sight, the triffids become the de facto rulers of the planet, killing the blind people en masse in the city streets.

I must have read this book five or six times, and each time I finish it, I always do so with a smile. The book isn’t just a depiction of the fall of society, but rather, the genesis of a new one.

Alas, there have been several movie versions and each one has been some kind of terrible. This new version looks a little action packed for my liking. For instance, the triffids never grabbed people (like in this clip) but smacked them with their stingers. One minute your walking. Next minute you’re dead. Granted, it doesn’t imbue the same tension such as a man wrestling with a plant, but it made neighborhoods into death zones.

In any case, do yourself a favor and read the book. You won’t be disappointed.

The New Triffids: Surprisingly Scary, But Not Horrifying Enough (io9.com <- new window)