I've enjoyed several of Wyndham's novels and short-story collections (see my BookCrossing copies here), so when I found this rather battered but still readable softcover at the Book Cellar I picked it up.

Wyndham's known for "cozy catastrophe" books, with the "cozy" referring more to the focus on a handful of characters and their immediate concerns rather than with global devastation. Here, main character Bill wakes up in hospital (where he's been for several days undergoing treatment on his eyes) to find an unusually silent world; after some hesitation he risks removing his bandages and finds he can see - but what he sees is a London in (quiet) chaos... Turns out nearly everyone has gone blind after watching a spectacular meteor shower (or at least some kind of celestial light show), and society has promptly collapsed.

The nightmare scenario unfolds as he makes his way through the city, finding some people sitting helplessly waiting for help and others aggressively trying to capture the few sighted people they can find, to force them to lead them to food and shelter. Bill rescues a woman from one of the more aggressive victims, and they set out to look for help and/or answers.

The narrator's tone is rather calm and rational, even in the face of all this horror and confusion; he realizes early on that the scope of the problem is far too great to allow for helping all of the victims, and tries to focus his efforts. The book takes him through several different groups of survivors, each with their own views on how best to cope with the situation (some more successful than others, and some much more draconian than others).

And as if the plague of blindness weren't bad enough, there are the triffids - a type of plant that can move from place to place, and that has a poisonous whip-like stinger as well. The things were useful commercially and had been farmed extensively, with their stingers being very little threat to prepared (and sighted) people. But now the humans can't see them coming, and the plants are on the loose...

The combination of factors leads to some challenging situations, with our heroes making their way to a small homestead in a remote area where they try to build fences and traps to defend against the plants. But can they hold out there? And what of other survivors - what's happening in the outside world?

Dry humor, suspense, touches of romance, and some truly horrifying scenes - an enjoyable end-of-the-world story {grin}.

"It must be, I thought, one of the race's most persistent and comforting hallucinations to trust that 'it can't happen here' - that one's own little time and place is beyond cataclysms."

[Some years ago I enjoyed the 1962 film based on the book, though it does depart a good deal from the book. There have been a couple of more recent adaptations that I haven't seen, though I've added one to my Netflix queue. There's a TV Tropes page on the book and film that may be of interest.]

I plan to leave this book in a bag, suspended from a (non-walking) tree in the walkway between W. Pearl and the Elm st. garage (next to the Fortin-Gage florist's; hope they don't mind!), at about 1:30 or so. Hope the finder enjoys the book!

*** Released as part of the 2013 April Chill-of-the-month read/release challenge, theme: Gaia's vengeance/nature. ***

*** Released as part of the 2013 Movie release challenge. ***