The Night of the Triffids

Clark's book takes up Wyndham's story of mankind struggling to survive the relentless spread of the Triffids across the world.Now the tale is no longer that of Bill Masen,Wyndham's hero and narrator,but of his son David.

The tale starts off 25 years later with a scenario eerily reminiscent of the earlier book when David wakes up to total darkness. Clark's book,however doesnt stay very long in the parochial setting of the Isle of Wight (did Clark take heed of Brian Aldiss' rather derogatory description of Wyndham's Day of the Triffids being a ''cozy catastrophe'?)'. Now we will travel over to Manhatten and the eastern seaboard to look at the American solutions to the battle with the Triffids and how they arrange society to cope.

I really enjoyed the early part of the book,seeing how the big bad triffids have developed,and that was great fun. But the last section is all about a megalomanic wanting to take over all humans so as to fight the triffids. Some rather big coincidences and plot holes here,but the book is fast paced,the characters interesting and all in all it makes a rattling good read,but not of course equal to the original. Still,a likeable and enjoyable homage to the Wyndham classic