The Tripods Collection: The White Mountains; The City of Gold and Lead; The Pool of Fire; When the Tripods Came

Brilliant Sci Fi work
Yet another brilliantly written series by John Christopher. I never saw or read the story as a young person, at the age of 60+ I have only recently discovered The Tripods! The story is written in a time after people have been ruled by Tripods for some time, and there is no war, dissent and peace reigns. This sounds idyllic, however there is also no freedom, and the mind of people is only free until they are 16, after which they are ‘capped’ and kept under control, leading an almost.robotic yet happy life – without freedom or choice – that they never question. The story begins when some young people who are soon to be ‘capped’ and have their own thoughts about not wanting to be ‘capped’. They are influenced and aided to leave by a ‘vagrant’ who knows much more about the wider world, and the boys set off on a dangerous adventure across Europe.It is an excellent series, and a great shame it was never completed on DVD, thank goodness for imagination!

A Great, and Original, Science Fiction Epic.
An awesome read. I actually discovered The Tripods by inadvertently ‘watching’ the first two books (1980s BBC series), so was eager to see how the story ended. I couldn’t put the final two books down and sadly polished-them off in two days. The set would be a great holiday read for both children and adults alike. When Disney finally pull their finger out and make a trilogy of films, this has the potential to be one of the greatest series of all time. A brilliant story. Thank you John Christopher.

The Tripods quadrilogy
First read the Tripods many years ago. Still love the trilogy. Never read the fourth book before. It adds a fascinating new aspect to the saga. A very welcome addition to the collection.

I loved this series and was delighted to see it reissued
This set took me back to my younger days. I loved this series and was delighted to see it reissued. As good as I remember it, with adventure and courage, coming of age and a nod to War of the Worlds and the older Sci-fi books. Cleverly written with a world which is obviously Earth but could be near or far future, or even an alternate now. Medieval future, dystopian and dark but with hope and the battle of the human spirit. The ending is especially well done.Recommended for young sci-fi fans and those wanting to find a simple, yet complex group of stories who are ypung at heart.

Schöne Geschichte, leicht zu lesen.

(Note: This is a review of the first three books in the set.) After writing a series of “Broken Earth” genre novels in the Fifties and Sixties, of which the most famous is probably “No Blade of Grass”, British author John Christopher turned his hand to these novels for young adults. Wildly popular when first published, beginning in 1967, the first two books were even made into a BBC series. The first three books are set in a post-alien-invasion Europe, after the mysterious conquerors of Earth have erased technological civilization and forced humanity back into a pre-industrial agrarian state. In the first book, the aliens themselves are never seen in the flesh, just striding across the country in their huge Tripod machines. To keep us subjugated, the aliens cleverly co-opt the tradition of a rite of passage to fit each adolescent human — they have to wait until the subject’s skull has attained roughly adult dimensions — with a mind-control device, a fine silver-mesh Cap which becomes a part of the victim. The narrator runs away on the eve of his Capping ceremony and sets out on a perilous journey across the Channel to join the resistance in their Alpine base, and ultimately take an important part in the final struggle to stop the aliens before they can “xenoform” the Earth’s atmosphere into a lethal facsimile of their home planet. The fourth book is a prequel, set during the days of the invasion.One of the best things about the original trilogy is the way its main protagonist starts out as headstrong, selfish and rather unlikeable, but matures over time, through hard experience. I also enjoy its echoes of Wells’ “War of the Worlds”, some obvious, like the eponymous Tripods, and some not so obvious. Although in this case the ETs originate from outside our solar system.The main problem with the trilogy is a common one for novels published at a time when “juvie” SF was — with a few exceptions like Madeline L’Engle and Andre Norton — pretty much exclusively written for a male audience. So there’s something of a dearth of female characters, much less strong ones. Nevertheless, these are gripping reads, well-plotted, with plenty to say about friendship, self-sacrifice and the truest kinds of heroism. Ever since I first encountered the series back in the mid-1970s, I re-read them every decade or so, for fun. I’ve also made it kind of a personal mission to introduce young readers in my family to Christopher’s Tripod series. They deserve not to be forgotten, so it was great to be able to purchase new editions for a great-nephew, instead of having to hunt down the old Colliers paperbacks.

J’aime beaucoup cette quadrilogie qui s’adresse aux enfants et adolescent aussi …Je l’ai choisie pour la redécouvrir, alors que je lisais les trois premier tome en 1995 à 12 ans, car le quatrième n’est disponible qu’en anglais !Pour tous ceux qui rêve de monde donc et de science-fiction. (Ce qui me permettra aussi d’améliorer mon anglais.)