John Christopher (1) (1922–2012)

Pessimistic futuristic story about climate change. Well written, and engaging. Especially fascinated to the state of poverty the characters were reduced to and how they survived - touching on a Knut Hamsun style of living. Plot: Londoners move to Nigeria to flee the frozen summer. The book is split into three parts; one in London as the journalists discuss the pros and cons of a possible freeze, whether to invest in fuel companies, whether the scientists are exaggerating, how the snow fell in November and as spring approached there was no sign of any thaw. Part two where two of the Londoners had moved to Africa, but found they had no money, forced to live in poverty and encountered racism and hardship whilst slowly trying to rebuild their lives. Part three is a return to London as a journalist reporting current conditions, only to find a reduced population, and a few people in power resorting to military means to protect their areas.… (més)

This review was also posted here - https://cavetothecross.com/blog/tripods-the-white-mountains/

Having an affinity for War Of The Worlds and alien invasion and dystopian novels and enjoying stories of one-man-against-the-system and escaping society this book probably does the best job of hitting all those marks.

While being a Young Adult Novel, being a story from 1967, this either feels more general because we've gotten less mature or the story holds up as generally good sci-fi. Taking place in a post-war with the Tripods, humanity lives in small villages in relative peace and functions just like any small town. In our initial setting there's mills and churches and homes and community centers. The only catch is that around everyone's 14th birthday a Tripod "caps" you and you become servants to them. The big catch is that no one knows, not even us as the readers, what the Tripods are or what capping even does. Aliens or robots or an unseen nation-state? Capping seems to quell any rebellious spirit against the Tripods but there is something mostly "off" about people that our main character Will seems to notice as his time of capping gets closer. Will's rebellious spirit causes him to want to run away and does so when he meets a fake capped person who tells him about a land of freedom. And it's off on the adventure we go.

Will is a whiney teenager but he's not without his redeeming qualities. Both sides of this swing make him a very believable character and adds some naivety we'd expect from a sheltered life. His adventure out into the world feels very My Side Of The Mountain/Hatch like with the looming danger of Tripods that are unknown and unrevealed.

Will's adventures out into the world and resolving to find freedom is a tale that speaks to a number of people. The setting is quickly established but mystery surrounds to much to uncover. Other than just sheer desire and the loss of one of his friends to capping, it would have been good to develop more of why Will wanted to rebel and run away. One could argue that this would limit in relating to Will, but the character is introduced well enough and it could be done with expanding out that desire for freedom and liberty or that reason why the Tripods should be distrusted when everyone else seems ok with it.

Will seems to grow and change and not always for the better; which, again, puts his character into the believable camp. He almost seems like a YA Holden Caulfield who wants to break free but also do it alone but then resents the isolation of being alone from his point of view. There are times when the author does a good job of showing a flourishing of understanding of striving for liberty. One line stands out well as a turning point, "I have traveled a long road since leaving the village, not only in hard reality but in my attitude towards people. More and more I had come to see the Capped as lacking what seemed to me the essence of humanity, the vital spark of defiance against the rulers of the world. And I had despised them for it." What a great line and a great moment of character growth - although the building to that moment seems to have lost some of the details along the way.

The unfolding of the world is done quite well. The description of old-world tech is there but sometimes the lack of detail or description that the character doesn't have makes it difficult to guess. The author doesn't come from an Ernest Cline authorship of revealing the answer to your reader and then shoving their nose in it again and again in case someone zoned out in your explaining everything to them. The different types of societies discovered are odd but also familiar. In post-apocalyptic worlds, you want to enjoy the journey to see what the world has become and reading this book some 50 years after publication you get more tones of an alien and changed world. With a YA novel, I don't expect long explanations about the loss of the human spirit or why religion is still practiced and clearly there would be a religion of the Tripods that would form. The world is built so that it's stable for believability but the imagination of explaining between the lines has a lot of freedom.

One of the biggest drawbacks, without spoilers, is the ending. From my understanding, there wasn't a whole trilogy planned, and the end - just happens. I enjoyed the mystery of a number of plot points still didn't have mind-blowing revelations but the abrupt and, frankly, borning nature that's less than half a page is disappointing.

But I'm cheating and know there are three other books which I, of course, am going to immediately read. For those actual young adults, the story is straightforward and hits on the themes of the human spirit and liberty. For the adults who haven't lost the desire to read books about running away and being the lone person standing up against the world, you can find yourself in this story as you try to escape - The Tripods!

Final Grade - B… (més)

This review was also posted here - https://cavetothecross.com/blog/tripods-the-city/

The second book in the series expands the story and reveals some of the secrets kept in the first book. While not planned as part of a series, the first was such a hit (along with a TV series in the UK) that the author produced two sequels and a prequel. An interesting note in the preface is that even though called The Tripods series, the author didn't realize he had "borrowed" the tripods' design from Well's War of the Worlds alien craft until it was about to be published. I don't really buy this story but I also don't see what the big deal with it would be. Call it an homage to how creepy the tripods are!

Another thing the sequel does that could be said to be a negative was reveal a lot of the hidden details from the first book. Are the tripods alien in origin or are they sentient mechanical machines or are there men inside? What do the caps do and to what extent do the tripods have in contact with them? How was Earth conquered and when? A lot of the details are fleshed out that the reader may have enjoyed not knowing.

But if you want to jaunt on then the book picks up almost at the end of the first book. Will and company are still in focus and they're training for some the games that are used by humanity to see who will go into the Tripods' city and serve them. A small group of rebels will go in under disguise in hopes of gathering intelligence for the rebels to use. So the three characters need to be chosen by the rebels to represent in the games, then they have to win the games, then they have to get into the city, and then they have to survive and get out and back to the rebels. So obviously there is no drama or action that will be had.

No spoilers here of course. The plot moves along well and for a Young Adult Novel, it's interesting to see the pacing for something written in the 1970s vs today. The pacing is done well again and with the usual action, tension, and release that lends to a good read. There are setbacks and hurdles both physical and psychological that must be overcome or faced. That's another good part of the book, especially one from a first-person point of view, our main character Will is starting to see his youthful faults and he struggles to try and overcome them. The character growth follows the main plot of espionage in an interesting way that parallels each other and plays into both parts of storytelling. There are areas where one may feel like an exposition dump is happening but the setup for it is plot specific so there's no, "As you know..." happening here.

Just an aside, there's one element to the story that made me shudder thinking back to my reading of Octavia Bulter's "Dawn" book which I thought was one of the worst sci-fi books I've ever read. While I don't believe the sexual aspect of that is to be conveyed here (and thus safe for youth to read) it was a scary feeling that I might have to relive the trauma of reading that story again.

For those wishing to want more details to the mysteries and continuing the story of Will and his rebellion against the Tripods, I believe this will be enjoyed. Final Grade - B+… (més)

Written for a younger audience than I was expecting, this is a good introduction to a range of dystopian and sci-fi concepts, with a pleasantly anti-authoritarian bent. I wish I'd known about these when I was younger.

The protagonist is a bit of a whiny brat, but many kids are, and I'm sure it'll be a coming of age story in which he stops being so useless by the end of the third book.

It is a little light on incident, and I could see how some would find it boring, but it's a charming little adventure so far.… (més)