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Summary: The Tripods: The White Mountains
Review: The White Mountain Boys take place in the future. It is about three different boys who go on a journey to the White Mountains,the Alps. They take this journey to try to get away from the tripods. Earlier men built tripods so that they could serve them, but the tripods took over the people. Soon, they capped them by cutting off their scalp and putting a metal cap inside their head. The cap controls people's brains and tells them to do different things. The three boys take a long thrilling journey to the White Mountains because they believe it's tripod free. As the book continues on, the boys go on many different adventures. How will the three boys be able to escape the tripods uncapped? I thought The White Mountain Boys was one of the best books I've ever read. It is incredibly exciting and sensational. I would propose this book for ages 8-185. It is a book you would never want to disregard. So read The White Mountain Boys by John Christopher!
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Summary: Simply Wonderful
Review: This trilogy lit my childhood passion for reading. As an adult, I look back fondly on these books and remember the adventures they describe as if they were my own. I strongly recommend this trilogy for its sense of wonder and for its absolute conviction in the world it describes.
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Summary: A Great Adventure
Review: The Tripods is one of those few series that improves with everybook. While the first is reminiscent of other alien invasion novels,though itself riveting, the three sequels explore a new concept. In other novels, the humans repulse their slimy invaders just in time. Not so here. The reader is brought to the height of excitement as a human rebellion rises from the ashes of defeat to challenge the tripods. The stakes are high and the adrenaline is always kept running. The reader can care for and love the well developed characters. The human spirit shines as it fights for what matters most. I plowed through each book in less than a day and still wanted more when I had finished. The Tripods is the old fashioned epic reborn anew.
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Summary: Better than even Rand, Dostoevsky, Lewis, etc.
Review: The Tripods books have probably had a more profound influence on my life than any other book or group of books I've ever read. Christopher not only tells a gripping tale, but explains a philosophy in a way that a third-grader can understand. In my opinion, most books for children write as if the children were stupid and uncomprehending, or only devolop stock moral lessons, but Christopher writes in a way that respects the reader's intelligence and allows the reader to ponder morality for himself. Not only do I recommend the Tripods books for inquisitive souls, but also The Lotus Caves and The Guardians by Mr. Christopher. Both are exceptional books of at least the caliber of the Tripods. If for nothing else, get Christopher's books for the great entertainment value they'll provide the children in your life. Yes, grown-ups can read them too, but I don't know if they'll understand them as well as their kids.
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Summary: Books about mind control for readers of all braintypes
Review: These books are written by a British sci-fi writer who's been marvelously successful in both adult and youth-adult genres. His main motif is always catastrophe and the survivors' attempts at adjustment and survival. In this series, which I read as a child, then teen, then several times as an adult, I sensed since youth a distinct creepy certainty that this author was trying to shout at me - WAKE UP! But exactly which "propaganda" from which "tripod" in my life should I be alert to? In my youthful confusion and intellectual rebellions, I took it to be the Catholic Church that was the mind-control tripods. As an adult, I thought of some of the literate symbols of control: the silver-mesh caps given to boys only, when they reach their 13th birthdays. This sounds remarkably to me like the Jewish custom of the Bar Mitzvah, focused on the boys, and bestowing on them a beanie-like cap to "control" their thoughts , to focus them towards God. The Christians adapted this in their confirmation services to early teens. Some critics here on Amazon have pointed out that the exclusion of girls in the action of resistance makes the stories seem dated. I disagree. As most young and older folks know, life is full of sex-based divisions. Girls don't take off to roam the countryside and live in the rough, because they and everyone else knows which kind of prey they'll become - which a boy wouldn't. Boys stick together in youth and teenhood, to have adventures, to do gritty and dirty things. Girls do their thing, usually together, yes, even these modern days. Furthermore, what is he really saying? That the boys are the most easily prey to brainwashing and rebellion, so that the "gods from outer space" see immediately that the girls are naturally resistant, or indifferent, or of somehow, no account. In this regard, I do take umbrage with John Christopher. Everyone knows how devious and determined a girl can become if she feels oppressed. Witness Patty Hearst or Joan of Arc! I've known many a tough and stalwart female rebel in my time, in many countries! John Christopher is an ouÝstånding writer for thinking teenagers and adults. Go to any library and look for ALL of his books. These about the TRIPODS will only whet your appetite for more thought-provoking, anti-television books. Those who want to know more about him, type his name on an internet search and find out who he REALLY is. You have only heard his penname.
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Summary: Greatest Juvenile Science Fiction novels I ever read
Review: I do not think there are three juvenile novels that I enjoy nearly as much as these three. The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead and The Pool of Fire are absolutely perfect examples of Juvenile fiction. The books teach moral lessons as well as tell a rip roaring good tale.Without giving to much plot away this tale is covers a not too distant future when Aliens who roam the Earth in giant Tripods rule the land. Every person who reaches puberty is capped and there mind is controlled or at least molded by the Tripods. These three books follow a group of runaways and rebels who have never been capped and who desperately want to free Earth and its inhabitants. This band of rebels must find a way to defeat the Aliens without knowing who they are, what there weaknesses are or any worthwhile knowledge. On top of this the 'rebels' have to defeat these space age aliens with technology at roughly 19th century levels. These books are even more remarkable as they were written in the late 60's. I first read these books as a cartoon serial in 'Boys Life' in the early 80's. I enjoyed the tale back then and still enjoy the stories now. I highly recommend all these books for kids and or there parents. Read and enjoy.=
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Summary: A good girl's adventure story
Review: I'm a girl, or I was 25 years ago, and I read (and re-read, and re-read) these books back in Junior High School. Loved them. Loved the vocabulary.
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Summary: A good boy's adventure series
Review: I have been reading the books of the trilogy (excluding WHEN THE TRIPODS CAME) to my son, aged 8. Neither of us has seen the TV adaptations. Despite the age difference between Will - the protagonist - and my son, he has enjoyed the stories. From my own point of view as an adult SF reader there are number of flaws which have detracted from my own enjoyment. Warning - spoilers follow. Good stuff first. Will is an engaging, if self-conscious, hero and the other characters are well constructed. The author builds a reasonably consistent scenario of alien invasion and conquest of Earth. The aliens themselves are interestingly like and unlike humans - just different enough to be believable. The moral aspects of the enslavement of humanity and the immoral things that Will has to do in his struggle - e.g. stealing an island-dwelling hermit's boat - are well managed. Now for the gripes. For a story written in the first person, the style is over-literary. Will, who is around 12 when the series begins, writes like someone who swallowed a dictionary, a grammar *and* a thesaurus when he was born. Certainly he doesn't sound like any teenager I ever met. Which leaves the possibility that what we are reading are his memoirs, written in leisurely and literate old age. This is never specified, though. These are definitely books for boys. There are practically no female characters and the function of the only one who is paid any attention at all - Eloise - is to be a quite nicely handled love interest for Will. Women have no role in the battle against the invaders, apparently. This single feature of the books places them firmly in the Victorian tradition of boy's own stories and dates them pretty badly. Next; although the opening post-technological scenario is well set up, continual descriptions of common 20th century artefacts from a naive viewpoint soon start to grate. Shmand-Fair, indeed! The SF reader in me wants to know more about how the slavery-via-mind-control system works sociologically. He also wonders why the Masters, who do everything in threes, have a *single* power source in their cities with a *single* on-off switch. No standby system? What happens when the Pool of Fire needs maintenance or refuelling? Lastly; of course the books are derivative, but there are enough fresh ideas to hold the reader's attention. In summary; good stuff for pre-teen boys who can take the somewhat stilted language.
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Summary: The best book I have ever read!
Review: This series was the best i have ever read, i waas intrueged and couldnt stop reading the books untill i had finished them all, i read day and night, ALMOST OBSESSED! Like i said, best book ever published
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Summary: Marvellous thought-provoking/adventure read for all ages!
Review: I read the trilogy (actually #2, #3, and #4) years ago in school and was overjoyed to find this new boxed set! The first book was great to read - always wondered how the world got to the state it was in at the start of The White Mountains. Anyway, don't be put off by the YA label - that is hogwash! I enjoyed it more this time around than I did years ago in school, and I understood and appreciated a heck of alot more of it this time. The books are certainly very thought provoking, exploring the essence of free will and its value. Also explores question of nationalism vs. uniting mankind for the greater good. I just can't say enough, I am so glad I ordered this set! :)
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