When British science fiction writers are good, they have a way of imparting a devastating reality to their inventions, and this is true of John Wyndham's first book "The Day of the Triffids". The people of earth, 90 per cent of them blinded by inexplicable green radiations from the sky, fall an easy prey to the Triffids, an ambulant plant-form which can kill with a stroke of their poisonous lashes. How William Masen, a biologist, builds up one of the small communities to fight the rule of the unreasoning plants makes an engrossing addition to science fiction.

Villiers Gerson, "Spacemen's Realm," in The New York Times Book Review (© 1951 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), July 22, 1951, p. 19.∗