Day of the Triffids

I think Wyndam was the forerunner of the seminal 'I am Legend' and the markedly less impressive 'Chasm' (it's easy enough to look up both authors).

I read this when I was quite young and before I was exposed to the horrors of crapulent science fiction film adaptations, and althought it depressed me, it was still good. The language is surprisingly uncloying (although not particularly modern, for obvious reasons). Worth a look.

I love this book. No two ways about it. The sense of doom, the sheer enormity of the predicament and the fear of the future make this a novel that leaves you thinking long after you've put it down.
I identify with this book in a number of ways, none more so than in the description and feelings of isolation the main characters are swamped in. As a Chester City supporter, I not only get that sense of isolation everytime I mention I'm a fan but also everytime I attend one of the games (we're not the best watched team in the world!). In fact, some of the games are so bad I'd often wished I'd brought one of my books to pass the time !

It's a good novel but it is rather cosy, I mean this in the fact that the protagonist ends up on the Isle of Wight, very cosy. It is a frightening book but many miss Wyndham's humour, the very fact that he was satirising the cosy nature of UK SF, something that has been apparent in UK SF since Wells. Like Wells, he was literally tearing to pieces the cosy UK, by destroying small towns and make the last bastion of humanity, humanity last chance being the Isle of Wight. Very funny. But we miss that. To some extent we project on it a modern reading, as does the 80s TV programme, mired in cold war fears - it's interesting how SF is one of the few genres where the reader can place a modern social model on to it.