Thomcat
6/8/2015
Excellent book describing the survival of one man, this story is told entirely from his perspective. This apocalyptic tale was written 65 years ago and holds up quite well today.
The planning and travel to a safer location remind me of The Death of Grass, though competition was more fierce in that tale. The latter parts of the book describe years passing, much like the narrative of Earth Abides. Also like that book, these characters spend a lot of time collecting stored food from the previous civilization. In comparison to those two books, this one had a stronger story line and better characters (motivations and growth). Female characters are also well written.
I wanted to know more about the Triffids, and how (or whether) they were connected to the green flashes. Various characters speculate that they were not, but the topic is not touched on often. In later stages, our main character laments his lack of training in farming, etc - he could have used a copy of The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch.
My library copy of the book also contained a 9 question Reading Group Guide, looking at politics and societies and economics. These are also well thought out. One interesting question was whether this novel was timeless or dated - I would definitely lean towards the former. Cell phones and text-to-speech would help more modern victims, but the outcome would likely be the same.
I plan to check out the movie, which is more plant horror if I recall correctly. Regardless of that, I highly recommend reading this novel.