| Title | : | The Tripods Trilogy (The Tripods, #1-3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0020425716 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780020425717 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1967 |
The Tripods Trilogy (The Tripods, #1-3) Reviews
-
I read this as a young teenager and was driven by my passion for H.G. Well's The War of the Worlds. It is a gripping read for the younger reader although I found it a little simple when I re-read them in my late 30's. It is a series of 4 books with the initial trilogy written in the late 60's and the 4th novel being a prequel written 20 years later. All of them are a great read and introduce confronting situations that every teen has to face although these are in a rather unusual setting - namely the future Earth (circa 2100) after an alien race has invaded and suppressed/enslaved humanity.
I bought the series for my teen daughters who enjoyed them. I recommend reading them in the order they were released with the prequel (when the tripods came) last.
The series consists of:
The White Mountains
The City of Gold and Lead
The Pool of Fire
When the Tripods came
Plot ***Spoilers***
The White Mountains
In the year 2100, the world is controlled by machines called Tripods. Life goes on largely as it had in the pre-industrial era, as all of humanity is subject to mental controls which prevent anyone from challenging the established order. Will, a thirteen year old living in the small English village of Wherton, is looking forward to the transition to adulthood which will take place on the next "Capping Day", until a chance meeting with a mysterious Vagrant named Ozymandias sends him on a quest to discover a world beyond the Tripods' control. He is accompanied by his cousin Henry, and a French teenager named Jean-Paul, nicknamed "Beanpole" for his height and slimness, and punning similarity to his real name.
On their journey the boys have many adventures. The novel climaxes with the discovery that earlier on Will was captured by a tripod and implanted with a tracking device and that the tripods intend for the boys to unwittingly lead them to the human resistance (an organisation which the boys have been seeking). Harry and Beanpole remove the device which causes a nearby tripod to attack the group. The boys defeat the tripod and eventually reach, and offer their services to, the resistance, located in the titular White Mountains.
The City of Gold and Lead
Will, Henry, and Beanpole have spent a year living among the free men in the White Mountains. The Resistance now charges Will, Beanpole and a German boy, Fritz, now wearing realistic yet harmless caps, to infiltrate a Tripod city by competing in a regional sporting exhibition: the winners of the events are always offered to the Tripods for service. Will, a boxer, and Fritz, a runner, win their respective contests, while Beanpole fails to win in the jumping events.
The winners are taken by Tripods, which they discover to be machines operated by living creatures, to the Tripod city, which is located in a sealed, pressurized dome that sits astride a river. Inside the city, the boys are confronted with the actual aliens, which they refer to as the Masters. Human males are made servants for life inside the cities, while beautiful females are killed and preserved in museums of sorts, for the Masters to admire. The Masters themselves live under environmental conditions lethal to unprotected humans, and even with the breathing masks the slaves are provided with, the artificially increased gravity inside the cities rapidly wastes them away; hence the annual sporting competitions to select the fittest and most resilient of the human stock to attend the Masters' needs.
While Fritz is severely abused by his Master, Will's Master turns out to be rather benevolent. From him Will learns much about the Masters' origins and habits, and eventually the Master trusts him so much that he reveals an upcoming operation in which the Earth's atmosphere is to be replaced by the Masters' toxic air, eventually killing off all life on Earth and enabling the Masters to assume full control of the planet. Will meticulously records every piece of information in a diary. When the Master one day finds that diary and confronts Will, the boy kills him with a punch to a sensitive nerve cluster in order to maintain his secret.
With time running out, Will and Fritz prepare their escape via the river which flows through the city. With his mask sealed airtight, Will manages to escape, though he nearly suffocates but for the timely assistance of Beanpole, who has been waiting hidden in the ruins surrounding the Tripod colony. The two wait for Fritz, but he does not appear, and in the end the coming winter forces them to return to the White Mountains without him.
The Pool of Fire
Will returns to the headquarters of the Resistance after several months in the City of Gold and Lead, where he and Fritz (who has escaped the city some time after Will and found his way back to the Resistance) travel to Eastern Europe, the Caucasus region, and the Middle East and set up resistance cells with young boys who question the power of the Tripods. The cult of the Tripods is strong in the Middle East; the Masters via the Caps have replaced Islam with a religion worshipping the Tripods - with some similar features.
The resistance then ambushes a Tripod and captures a Master. Upon the discovery that alcohol has a very strong soporific effect on the Masters - and that, unlike other incapacitating agents which are tried, is undetectable by them - the Resistance schedules simultaneous commando attacks on the cities. Will is one of the leaders of the attack on the European city.
By introducing alcohol into the city water system, the raiding party is able to incapacitate all of the Masters and ultimately to destroy the integrity of the city's sealed environment, killing all the Masters. The attack on the second city, in eastern Asia, is likewise successful, but the attack on the last city, in Panama, is not. Assuming that the Masters in the city will have killed all their human slaves, thus precluding a second attack by infiltration, the Resistance attempts an aerial bombing using its newly constructed aeroplanes. This attack also fails — because the Masters can disable the motors from a distance, presumably with an electromagnetic pulse. Fritz then leads an attack launched from air balloons, which succeeds, although at a terrible cost to the friends: after all the other bombs have been deflected away harmlessly by the city's impregnable dome, Will's cousin Henry lands his balloon and detonates his bomb by hand.
The world is liberated from the Masters' thought control and technology is rediscovered rapidly. The Masters' spaceship finally arrives, only to launch nuclear devices that destroy the remains of the cities, presumably to prevent the humans from reverse engineering the Masters' technology and using it to launch a retaliatory expedition against them, and once this happens the captive Master abruptly dies. Humanity is saved, but the saga ends with a renewal of nationalist sentiments, Europe being once again divided into rival nation states and tensions building up towards war.
When the Tripods Came
When the Tripods Came is set in the late twentieth century.
In the second book of the main trilogy, one of the Masters tells the main character about the Masters' conquest of the Earth. The plot of the book follows the description of the conquest previously given. It is revealed that the Masters were afraid of the technological potential of Humanity and decided on a pre-emptive strike. Unable to defeat Humanity in a conventional war, the Masters use their superior mind-control technology to hypnotise part of Humanity through a television show called The Trippy Show, and then use the caps to control them permanently when they eventually land. The tripods then cap other people until the capped are in control in most places.
Like the narrator of the original trilogy, the narrator of When the Tripods Came is a young English boy, known as Laurie. As society slowly falls under the control of the Masters, he and his family escape to Switzerland, which has adopted an isolationist stance in order to hold out against the initial invasion. Eventually it is invaded by France and Germany, who have fallen under the subjugation of the Masters, and the narrator is forced to flee into the Alps with his family as the Swiss are also enslaved by the Masters. Here, they establish the "White Mountains" resistance movement that features heavily in the original trilogy, and the book ends on a hopeful note. -
I absolutely love this trilogy. I discovered it via the BBC Television adaptation of 1984/5. Unlike the TV series (which I do like very much), the story rattles along at a pace. The idea of people being Capped so as not to question the status quo has always resonated with me. The Tripod city in the books is a much harsher place than the one depicted on screen. For a children's trilogy, the issues concerning one's freedom to think and speak are handled in a mature way. It's told in the first person from the point-of-view of 14-year-old Will Parker. The other main characters are Will's cousin Henry, French would-be inventor Beanpole (Jean-Paul), and the taciturn German youth Fritz. It is not without reason that the Tripods trilogy is described as "almost unbearably exciting".
-
These books were one of the few that got me to really start reading on my own as a child. I don't know how accurate this rating would be today, though, since I haven't read them in 12 or 13 years. :)
-
Read these as a teenager and loved them. Read them again about ten years ago, and loved them still!
-
Tripodien Aika on John Christopherin nuorten tieteisseikkailu kirjasarjan yhteisnide, joka alunperin julkaistiin kolmessa osassa: Viimeinen tukikohta 1967, Lyijykaupunki 1968 ja Tulinen pyörre 1968.
Tripodien aika on post-apokalyptinen tarina, jossa ulkoavaruudesta satoja vuosia aikaisemmin tulleet Tripodit, jotka ovat jättimäisiä kolmijalkaisia koneita, ovat orjuuttaneet ihmiskunnan. Tripodeita ohjaavat näkymättömät muukalaiset (myöhemmin nimetyt"Mestarit"), joiden ulkonäkö paljastetaan vasta kirjasarjan viimeisessä osassa. Keskiaikaisen kulttuurin tasolle taantunut tyytyväinen ihmiskunta elää kylissä ja pienissä maalaiskaupungeissa täysin Tripodien valvonnassa ja ohjauksessa.
Tripodien aika oli myös yksi ikimuistoisimmista BBC:n TV-sarjoista 1980-luvulla, jonka muistan myös itse hyvin. Se oli yksi suosikkisarjoistani ja jokaista uutta jaksoa odotin aina malttamattoman jännittyneenä. TV-sarja oli yllättävän julma ja samaan aikaan kiehtova outoudessaan sekä myös ahdistava ja tietenkin järisyttävän jännittäviä, kun ajatellaan, että se on suunnattu nuorille lukioille. Ja saman vaikutuksen tekee tämä kirjasarjakin. Kuolemaa kirjassa käsitellään paljon ja selvästi kirjailijaan on vaikuttanut Toinen Maailmansota Euroopassa, juutalaisten työ-ja tuhoamisleirit sekä ns. yli-ihmisten oikeudesta päättää alempana pitämiensä ihmisten elämästä.
Tarinan alussa 13-vuotias Will poika, joka asuu Whertonissa Englannissa, odottaa pelokkaana seuravaa vuonna tapahtuvaa "kampitusta". Kun ihminen täyttää 14 -vuotta, hänen päähänsä laitetaan implantti, joka tekee hänet tottelevaiseksi ja säyseäksi Tripodeja kohtaan. Tulevaisuus näyttää uhkaavalta, sillä Will haluaisia olla vapaa ja päätää itse omista asioistaan. Kun paikkakunnalle saapuu vastarintaliikkeen edustaja ns. "vaeltajaksi" (joukko ihmisiä jotka ovat jostain syystä säästyneet implantin laittamiselta) naamioitunut Ozymandias, joka saa Willin lähtemään pakoretkelle yhdessä serkkunsa Henryn kanssa. Pojat saavat tietää, että valkoisilla vuorilla eli Alpeilla sijaitsee viimeisten vapaiden ihmisten tukikohta, ja tätä turvapaikkaa kohti pojat aloittavat vaarallisen pakomatkansa.
Kirjan tarina on koukuttava ja "Mestarien" kaupunki ja itse Mestarit ovat uskottavasti ja kiehtovasti kuvattu. Muutenkin kirjan maailma ja tapahtumat ovat uskottavia ja todentuntuisia. Ja vaikka henkilökuvaus pakkaa usein olemaankin nuortenkirjoissa hieman kaavamaista ja latteaa, niin ainakin Willin persoonaan on saatu hieman enemmän särmikkyyttä, sillä hänen itsepäisyys ja lyhytpinnaisuus johtavat hänet usein vaikeuksiin. Jännitys säilyy aivan loppuriveille saakka ja loppuratkaisu on yllättävä. Tätä nuorten scifi-seikkailukirjasarjaa voi myös suositella kyseisestä genrestä kiinnostuneille aikuisille. -
John Christopherin 1960-luvulla kirjoittama scifi-romaani on jännittävä kuvaus tulevaisuuden maapallosta, jolle saapuneet vieraat valloittajat ovat taannuttaneet yhteiskunnan keskiaikaisiin oloihin ja ottaneet käyttöön "kapituksen", kaikille varhaisnuorille tehtävän operaation, jossa päähän asetettava metalliverkko tekee ikantajastaan lammasmaisesti isäntiään tottelevan orjan. Se on kuitenkin vasta alkua, ja jotain kauheampaa on vielä luvassa...
Vapaiden ihmisten vastarintaliike on kuitenkin olemassa, ja tripodeja vastaan suunnattuun taisteluun tempaistaan myös 13-vuotias englantilaispoika Will ystävineen.
Nuorille suunnatusta kirjasta nauttii myös varttuneempikin lukija. Christopherin päähenkilöt ovat heikkouksineen ja puutteineen mielenkiintoisia (joskin ehkä vähän yksiulotteisia) hahmoja, eikä kirjan maailmakaan ole aivan mustavalkoinen paikka, hallitsivatpa sitä sitten ihmiset tai tripodit. -
A very intriguing and enjoyable read.
My favorite character was by far Beanpole. He invents glasses, thinks up steam power, fights tripods with hand grenades, and creates a hot-air balloon. He also demonstrates a lot of character (as well as brains) in the end.
I loved the clincher in the end, that makes you wonder whether the tripods had the right idea in wiping out humans. Can peace and liberty ever go together? -
I'm not actually sure if I read the entire trilogy, or just one or two books, but whichever way, they were memorable and wonderful and stand out as one of the most amazing children's sci-fi books I read.
-
In 1987, I was in the 6th grade when Mrs. Meister, the junior high librarian, did a science fiction presentation. My little soul’s mouth dropped open and urged, “I want to go to there.” I had been scouring the children’s’ libraries available to me to sate my soul’s hunger for the extraordinary and had been consuming a heavy diet of non-fiction about ghosts and weirdly adapted classic horror monster fiction for kids. But her summary of this story plus that iconic cover. I claimed it for check-out that day and a lifetime passion for the genre was born. In my youth, I read quickly and for plot, only passively processing the subtext, character development or themes that lit up my brain’s analytical pleasure centers. I usually forgot the plot just as quickly. But some specific scenes from these books have stuck with me, even though I couldn’t keep them in context.
So, I just re-read this series and found myself pleasantly engaged by more than just nostalgia. Treating the trilogy as a single novel, it reads as a war narrative, with the male (all of them are unapologetically and exclusively men) protagonist traveling through his coming of age and hero’s journey with emotions, self-doubt, adversity and lucky victories. The descriptions of the aliens are precise, compelling and pre-digital. It was written in 1967 and I assume the author was a WWII vet. It ends with a hopeful ambition to work toward world peace in a world that is no longer united against a common foe. Despite the simplicity of themes, i enjoyed the nuance of supporting characters even when their backgrounds weren’t fully fleshed. -
Solid trilogy. Good read for the younglings
-
A favorite from my youth!
-
read this cause of the cover back in 7th grade and it was 100% worth it. don’t remember anything about the book but it’s a definite sci-fi must read
-
Quaint. 3.5 stars
-
Un libro simple para alguien mas mayor pero para un niño es facil de seguir e interesante. Acaba con una nota realista que hace pensar.
-
The rating I've given for this book is honest and accurate: one star; I didn't like it. However, this is unlikely unbiased. I was forced to read this in middle school in "Reading" class. It's the first book I remember ever being forced to read, after years of choosing and reading hundreds of books for myself that I appreciated. If I did not already have a very firm foundation of reading that had nothing to do with school and assignment, it's possible this experience would have turned me off against reading in general; I wonder if that's what happens to so many other students and why so many people don't read.
I hated having to read this book and many other books required of me through middle and high school. Hated them. When I was given at least multiple choice of books to read for class assignments, I had much more peace and joy, and was exposed to such treasures as 1984, Brave New World, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Of Mice and Men. When forced, I learned to hate The Tripods, Heart of Darkness, The Invisible Man.
Perhaps I may/must reread The Tripods Trilogy, to see how much was the book itself and how much was the horrible circumstances. -
Reading the Tripods trilogy nowadays (I first read the books when I was about 14), I'm struck first of all by their Wellsian style and elements (I read them before I'd read 'War of the Worlds' or other of Wells' scientific romances). I'm also struck by their powerful allegorical overtones - fictions of the atomic age that look backwards to the Second World War (a desperate resistance movement fights totalitarian overlords) but which see youth as the hope of the present (very 1960s). Is Julius, the all-seeing overlord in his redoubt, a Churchillian figure? Is the use of an alpine redoubt ironic (it was where the Nazis were supposed to be planning a 'last stand')? Is the almost complete absence of female characters an indication of intended readership? My TV tie-in edition says that the books are 'unbearably exciting' but I found them rather pedestrian and the final overthrow of the aliens quite disappointingly straightforward. All in all, the sequence is fascinating, but largely because it has that typical SF quality of being as much a view of its present as it is a vision of the future.
-
Rating is from my 12 year old self, planning to re-read...
-
My editions were published by Collier books (copyrights in the mid to late 1960s)
Each of the three books in the series has a different societal issue it addresses heavily influenced by the time period and cultural background that the author came from.
They are all united by the alien invasion dystopian backdrop as as described in a simple voice familiar to readers of the survival genre (Robinson Crusoe).
The first book dealt with youthful rebellion in the face of complacency exhibited by the elders and adults maintaining the status quo of subjugation by the Tripods. The character of Ozymandius seems to embody the famous “ turn on, tune in, drop out” mantra of the hippy counter culture as he wanders the world as a bearded unkempt vagrant spreading a secret message of rebellion among the uncapped youth.
The second was an exploration of slavery. While not a subject unique to the era it was written, I can’t help but think it was inspired by the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s era it was written in.
The last a triumph over the alien “ Master race” only to realize that the only thing keeping humans from killing each other was being united in the face of a common enemy. The author was born in the 20s, saw the rise of that other “master race” and defeat of the Nazis..only to see the Cold War and other examples of the inhumanity of the human race.
All of the above put this in my “ time capsule” shelf. This is firm must read for anyone who is a fan of the YA dystopian genre. -
3 books in one fat paperback that at first glance seem inspired by
H G Wells's
War of the Worlds. Set 100 to 200 years after alien machines have taken over Earth and enslaved the adult population.
Shortly before he is due to be "Capped" and become an adult, country boy Will is offered an alternative by an itinerant vagrant. His subsequent adventure leads him to a resistance group and the fight back against the aliens. The aliens are distinctly inhuman both in appearance and in living requirements. Their behaviour is moderately alien. Some of the successes against the aliens are hard-won and others seem too easy. There are also setbacks, but sequences that seem too cosy.
In addition to a fight against the odds adventure story, there are a number of "lessons" that
John Christopher weaves into particular chapters. Some are to gain the empathy of teenage readers and others to educate teenage readers. These are quite obvious to adult readers. -
In my teen years I picked up the middle book of this trilogy 'the city of gold and Lee's however it being a bridge to two other books it remained unread and I must have got rid of it ages ago...I did hear after that the story of how this Trilogy was turned into a BBC series but in a similar way remained unfinished as it followed the first two books before money ran out of something.
Anyhow as these things do the book and series gained cult status and I changed upon this at a charity shop and thought I would give it a read....it may be a young adult piece but the writing is very strong and it works as a decent sci fi book describing a world that has regressed to the point where human achievement in a industrial sense just isn't there..the tripods themselves are pretty much responsible for this 'family's humans at a stage of young adulthood to prevent insurgence.
I found this a fairly rapid read ..partly as it is generally aimed at a younger audience and ultimately as it's a good tale that draws you in....it remins fairly dark throughout..the heroes have feet of clay and to be honest humankinds future as the book closes doesn't look all rosy as the lack of a common enemy brings forth old rivalries.
However this is all to the good and In many ways steeps the fantasy in some sort of reality.... -
When I first saw this title, I didn’t think this series would be epic. The Tripods by John Christopher is a series about young boys saving their world from aliens who control robots that look like camera tripods.
Everyone they know has to wear a cap once they turn 14, to be controlled by the aliens. The protagonist, Will, met with a strange man that told him about the outside world. He and his cousin, Henry, and a French kid they nicknamed as ‘Beanpole’, joined the resistance to fight against the Tripods.
Not entirely sure how alcohol can make aliens sleepy, but that’s how the resistance group found out. They planned a strategy to sabotage the atmosphere of the place all the Tripods are at, in which it’s like pouring alcohol to make the air “poisonous” to the Tripods and make them sleepy. Once it’s done, the resistance attacks and they won. However, because of an act of bravery, Henry’s life was lost and he is remembered as a hero. -
Fast read. Interesting concept of alien subjecation of human race that's been going on by mind control for 100 years. Written for Junior reader set but fast read for adults. Bittersweet ending. I read the prequel first. Recommend you do that to appreciate the background of aliens' snobbery. Flawed main character rushes into things/ makes mistakes. (beating of human slaves, those whose minds are broken, some stealing food, runaways, bombs, tearing of people seen from far away, not too graphic) 11 and up
-
I remember reading this book when I was 10 or 11 and I absolutely loved it. I read 3 of them in one week or even less. Even though that it's a really old book and not many people around my age know about this I still recommend all the teenagers to read this book at least once, and believe me, you can't put it down when you start the book. wish I could explain why I liked it or give more description but I can't remember anything about it except the joy that I had while reading the book.
-
As a child I wasn’t a great reader so when my Firth grade teacher entice me with this series full of fantasy fiction, I couldn’t put it down.
Thank you to the writer John Christopher for an amazing and some what frightening world in the very near future.
My love of reading, writing and sci-fi began with your book. -
A great, timeless dystopian novel that I recommend to everyone. Personally, I found it to read more like a synopsis than a novel, but I still loved it nonetheless. I recommend it to all YA enthusiasts who are tired of the mainstream.
-
One of my favourite books as a kid. I read it in elementary school and lots of parts of it stuck with me. I read it to my daughter when she was a baby and was impressed with how much I enjoyed it again, understanding far more.
