Rating: 
Summary: amazing start, danmable finish
Review: This book started off damn well. I have to say that the first 100 pages or so clipped along at a very enjoyable pace. As the reader you will be unsure as to what is going on. The world is tumbled into a blackness that is unexplainable and the plot takes on a charm that snakes you in. What I want to do is take the author by the lapels and slam his head into a post or dense wall. His prose is elegant and engaging far past expectations. In fact I'd have to say that for the style of writing he is engaging in, his skills in this regard are enormous. What I cant stand, literally want to yell at the guy over, is that this book became one of the most tired, predictable, unimaginative works of fiction that I have come across. Maybe I am being too hard on the author, but to take such a grand start and end up with a novel that I have read a thousand times before is almost inexcusable. I am rating this book at three stars, mainly because it starts off like a Kafka or Philip K Dick gem. Once the protagonist is rescued from his island it all goes down hill fast, so you might want to read this as a short story and leave well enough alone at this point.
Rating: 
Summary: 1 star in the name of its progenitor...taken in vain here
Review: This is a fair story but lacks the soul of the original. Personally I am amazed that it was approved because it is somewhat tacky and trite compared to its ullustrious predecessor. Of course if you're not a conservative when it comes to preserving the memory of 'Triffids' then you'll probably find this story is readable.I think the thing that bothered me the most was there was nobody in the book I could care about. They were caricatures- cardboard plot devices to move the story. And the mutation angle is quite absurd. Genetic drift, even in plants as highly 'evolved' as the triffids would require more than 15-20 years and mnay false starts to produce the particular type of triffid encounted in the book. And the human immunity at the end is laughable in its convenience! WHile I thank Simon Clark from leaving the hero of the first book out of his second work, David, his son, is the main character in this one. Again, he should have avoided links- thus comparisons- with the True novel because this is found very wanting. The story doesn't focus so much around battling triffids as david and co battling the General (re. the major in the original) with the triffids more coloring then texture. In short: an ordinary tale with little to recommend it or redeem it and the tacky cover art says it all: pulp fiction! SHould have never been published and shouldn't have the name Triffid in the title.
Rating:
Summary: A good read but falls well short of classic Wyndham
Review: This is an entertaining enough novel, but it's not a classic. The original John Wyndham novel was a marvel of understated adventure; Wyndham's prose was elegant and lucid. This, on the other hand, is little more than pulp adventure. Where Wyndham took two basic ideas - the introduction of the man eating triffids into a world where nearly everyone had gone blind - and mixed them together and pushed them inside and out and explored them thoroughly, Clark introduces new farfetched plot contrivances in almost every chapter, many of which go nowhere. There is at least one interesting idea; the rapidly evolving, possibly intelligent triffids, but these are almost incidental to the main story. There are some good things. The novel is refreshingly old fashioned, very readable, and occasionally exciting. None of the characters have post-modern angst, and there's little that's objectionable here. In any case, it would be hard to live up to the original, but, unfortunately, this novel doesn't come close.
Rating: 
Summary: My review of the Triffids
Review: Well, where can I start. Oh yes, I'd like to start by recommending Clark to any horror fan who appreciates good writing. Yes I've found my feet now.
John Wyndham wrote the original in the 50's I believe, So how do you write a follow up in the 21st century that has the same imapact? Well, read Clark's rendition and You'll find out.
I class myself as a huge Wyndham fan, so I was understandably sceptical about reading a follow up to one of my favourite novels that was, first of all written by Wydham himself, and over half a century ago, but let me tell you, had I not known it was not Wyndham, it would have taken some fathoming out.
Clark has got what it takes, he knows his stuff.
If you've not checked out Clark yet, don't ponder too long for god's sake, get out there and do so... Hats off.
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