The Night of The Triffids (2001)

The Night of The Triffids by Simon Clark, is a "Sequel" that follows on were John Wyndham's "The Day of The Triffids"     left off.... 
 (this is not a remake)

The story evolves around "David Masen" the son of "Bill Masen" from the original story. It starts out on the Isle Of White, which is where they were heading for at the end of the original story. You may remember when they left Torrence and his soldiers at the mercy of the Triffids.. after pouring honey into the petrol tank of their A.R.V. and thats were it ends as they drive off in the Land Rover.

Its plot is set 25 years after the blinding and the triffid invasion, but life still goes on upon the island. David is now a young man and is also a Pilot.   Sadly this has yet to be made into a Movie or a Tv Series, but it has been released on Cassette Tapes as an unabridged Audio Book read by Steven Pacey.
12 Hours 30 minuets in total, released 2002

He does well with varied accents as he reads the story, but it lacks any sound effects, music or other voice actors. But don't let that stop you listening to it, because its not a bad story. Or you could always read the book..

David wakes to total Darkness which probably put a few people off as that's how Bills story kinda started, but this darkness isn't due to a triffid sting, this is due to some form of solar storm. A similar thing that caused the blindness. A celestial event that's covered the earth in darkness.

Unsure whats happening David heads to the old post office to use the radio, but on his way he encounters triffids (their now on the island and their invasion is underway in the darkness) After warning people over the radio he's sent up in a plane to see if he can reach daylight above the clouds. Taking Seymour with him so that he can take notes while David fly's the plane they climb and climb and climb some more....  After realizing their appears to be no sun and running low on fuel, they decide to head back to the island, unfortunately they loose radio contact with the Island and with no landing lights they end up stuck up their and they are running out of fuel fast.

David has no choice but to try to land the plane, but clearly he can't risk that on the island so he brings the plane round and begins his descent.  He lands the plane rather abruptly on the outskirts of the mainland and with the landing gear UP as to not flip the plane on landing (a take off if daylight every comes back will be impossible) Both stranded on what seams to be a bogged down marshland that's drifting away from the mainland.... It's not long before triffids appear, and before they know it Seymour becomes lunch for the triffids.

David shelters in the cockpit of the plane while the triffids swipe at the cockpit canopy determined to kill him and eat him. with no food left he takes his chances exiting the plane with the helmet on and the visor down, in hopes that & his pressurized flight suit will save him from being stung.

He meets a young girl who apparently can't speak and is trying to earn her trust, which he shatters when he pulls out a gun and shoots at a triffid, a gun, a sound, a noise so loud, a noise she's never heard, sends her running, not just running.. but running right into the path of many oncoming triffids.

Assuming shes dead, he spends his awake time trying to cut a boat free from the vines & sleeps in the safety of the cockpit. He's almost freed the boat when he notices a steamer sailing past his floating little prison, he signals the ship and it comes in close to pick him up. as the captain is leaving he begs them to wait while he tries to see if he can rescue her (in the days after she ran off he new someone was still alive because things went missing while he was sleeping, and someone left him 2 rats as a gift on the wing of the plane)

They rescue her & set sail for what appears to be the Ilse of White, but is in fact sailing to New York... Unbeknown to David at the time... their is someone in American who want's to meet the son of William Masen.. David's far from pleased when he realizes the ships heading in the wrong direction but has no choice but to go along for the long voyage to America.

David had already been a little to loose lipped about where he was from and he also told them his father Bill Masen and Jack Coker had managed to design a machine that turns triffid oil into fuel... Fuel that can run cars, boats, planes, in fact any engine at all. When this news got back to their New York base in America, that's when the ship was ordered to return home.

Things appear pretty normal in America, cars on streets, shops open for business, even the trains are running... Just like the world hadn't ended... But behind the scenes is a dark secret to how they manage to live in the luxury that they do.  And Davids host Kerris Baedeker's biological father General Fielding has ulterior motives and an old score to settle (an eye for an eye as they say)
Have you worked out who her father realy is yet?

Torrence in the 1981 BBC Series

Torrence in the 2009 Re-Make

Continuity Oddities:
When Kerris Baedeker takes David to meet her father they do that whole, this is how the elevator looks & works, yet when they go back into the city later on they end up explaining the elevator details again. Also when hes got the jug of water and the tin cup, the tin cups then referred to as a Glass, also he seams to leave that plane (for good) twice... not many continuity problems in this compared to some stories, but enough (considering this is a reading of a book)
Oddly this Book was written 50 years After the original story

If you can find an Unofficial MP3 download version you should give it a listen, other than that its only available on Audio Cassette Tapes OR Book.   I actually had a listen to the (1957 BBC Radio Production The Day of the Triffids) featuring Patrick Barr / Monica Grey before listening to this, and the 2 stories make a great combo if you like this sort of stuff.

I have also seen this floating round as an Adobe Acrobat PDF File

 An audio editor in the UK took music "his own music" and dubbed it over a section of the "Night Of The Triffids" Audio Book, It's over on YouTube, he also added sound effects and ambiance, making the 2001 Audio story sound so much cooler, and it gave it a hint of the 1981 series style, It can be heard here
he also did the same edit of the Audio Story but with Music from the Official 2009 BBC 2 part series, and that version can be heard here

As both those short edits are unofficial & very short, it is unknown at this time if the Audio Book will ever make it officially onto CD/MP3 or onto the Tv or Cinema screens. The chances of this guy ever releasing his version are very doubtful... Due to Anti Piracy Laws.

If anyone owns the Book, OR the Audio Book, please get in touch and send us some Scans of the front & back of the book or tape box and maybe scan the tapes for us to...
Best Image i have so far is this...

I DON'T no if this site is Genuine or not, but you can get a 1 day membership for $3.40 something, it totals to $4.80 by the looks of it & allows members to download 1 free audio book, to which this is listed as free  (GET ADVISE FIRST AS IT COULD JUST BE A SCAM) it was a Related ADD on Amazon and the page offering it is Here


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