I enjoyed looking back at this book after many years. The device of having the initial cause of blindness (the comet, or whatever it was) and the subsequent danger of Triffids still seems clever, but despite the scifi danger of "the other" the book is more about exploring what we would do and how we'd survive if the fabric of civilisation breaks down. It's still a good examination of the sociological impact of these changes and adjusting to a world where much expertise, resource abilability and technology has been lost.
I found the dialog, especially between Bill and Josella, to fall somewhere between stilted and unlikely and I can't remember a book that inlcuded so many cigarette breaks. Sure, it was dialog of its time, but other works of the time have much more believable portrayals of relationships and crisper dialog. Also, Bill's single-minded determination to find Josella didn't gel with the short period of time they were initially together and his avowed status as an independent man without ties, but then it's not a book to read for it's relationships.
It was a very fresh take on response to a post-apocalyptic life. The ideas are clever and it does examine a number of different variants of how communities / groups / societies could reorient themselves. It probably deserves more than 3 stars, but the dialog and jerky movement from plotpoint to plotpoint pull it up. I did enjoy it though - 3.5 stars for mine (rounded up because goodreads doesn't do half stars).
No comments:
Post a Comment