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Read When The Tripods Came (2003)

When the Tripods Came (2003)

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Genre
Series
Rating
3.72 of 5 Votes: 1
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ISBN
0689857624 (ISBN13: 9780689857621)
Language
English
Publisher
simon pulse

When The Tripods Came (2003) - Plot & Excerpts

A nice stand-alone novel that is a prequel to the more-famous "Tripod trilogy." Reading this doesn't really enhance the reading of the Tripod trilogy, but it is a good story in its own right. It's a bit like reading Bujold's Barrayar prequels, Dickson's Dorsai prequels, Moran's Emerald Eyes, or even Asimov's Foundation prequels: they are in no way necessary to the plot of the main series, but they're still fun to read. Christopher is clearly making a statement with this book about how people conquer themselves with passive entertainment, and seeing the passion of fans of TV shows on sites like Fanpop, it's even more current than when Christopher wrote it in the 1980s. Sure, he wasn't able to incorporate "shipping" or similar modern trends in his novel, but you can see the related concerns in this story. Because of this mechanism - the aliens use TV programming to effect mind control - it also bears comparison to The Mysterious Benedict Society. That poor book - I seem to be comparing it unfavorably to everything else I read lately. Since they cover the same mechanism for world domination, I have to say that I found When the Tripods Came much more engaging, even though I found the protagonist pretty tiresome. He spends most of the book in denial about his seething resentment to his father and his step-mom (yes, it's a YA book, so he has to have at least one parent dead or departed), but it consistently informs his actions. Though I didn't find him likable, I did find that character work believable. I had some problems with the naivete of the characters in places, though: much the same frustration I had with "I am Legend" in that the characters have a very hard time grasping the nature of their situation. I bothered me with the protagonists, though I found it more believable with the Swiss and their xenophobia. I guess I want my protagonists to be just a bit smarter than their opposition, and am disappointed when they're not, even if that is more realistic.

Oh, John Christopher. I just reread the Tripod Trilogy, which I'd loved and reread many times during childhood, and Joy discovered this prequel and gave it to me for Christmas. I still love the trilogy and it's very cool to read his story of how the Tripods came , but I'm irritated now by something I didn't notice as a child: he can't (won't? doesn't see the need to? hasn't noticed the oddity of failing to ever?) write from a girl's perspective. Every hero is a boy. His secondary female characters are not badly drawn, but the center of the story, the center of his world, is always boys. They tend to be obsessed with pride, jealousy, the shallowest kind of honor, and other macho values, something I found moving in the Sword of the Spirits trilogy (where they are Luke's tragic flaws) but merely tiresome after a while in the Tripod trilogy and The Lotus Caves, which I also reread last month. It didn't help that I also reread The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet around the same time--SO patriarchal--the author, Eleanor Cameron, is a woman, but her consciousness was far from raised when she wrote this marvelous book. I had a brief flare of hope when I saw from the intro to When the Tripods Came that one of the main characters was a Laurie, thinking maybe in the intervening 20 years Christopher had decided to stretch a little, but no, it's short for Laurence.

What do You think about When The Tripods Came (2003)?

EXCITING PREQUEL TO A FABULOUS SCI FI SERIES!Although fourth in the series in terms of publication dates, this book is actually set earlier in time than the famous triology, giving us a chance to witness the Invasion firsthand. We meet all new heroes, of course. This story starts off slowly and seems somewhat bland after the first wave of tripods is exterminated. But gradually we realize their insidious plan to take over the Earth by Mind Control--mass Brain Washing via the media. People--kids as well as adults--start Tripping Out; pretty soon the majority of the population is saluting and chanting: Hail the Tripods! Is this tne end of human civilization? Young Laurie and his family (lead by the courageous father) undertake a dangerous, circuitous journey to escape the menace to free will in England; they feel that safety lies in distant Switzerland,Europe's Land of the Free. But can the mountain-bred and peace-loving Swiss both human and alien attack? Is the human race doomed as Capping becomes mandatory even in the snowy Alps? This book extolls the virtues of being Human: the right to choose one's own destiny and the inate will to survive. If you have read the triology, Now it all Falls into Place! If you have not, Read This First! (Apirl 19, 2013. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)
—Gale

Reviewed by Kira M for TeensReadToo.comSomething is not right in England.Laurie's little sister recently started watching a show called Trippies. One day, she disappears. When they bring her back, all she can talk about is peace and Tripods, an alien race bent on bringing peace to Earth. Although they manage to dehypnotize her, people all over start disappearing and showing up with helmets that allow the Tripods to control their brains.Soon the whole world is conquered by this strange alien race, and Laurie and his family are driven into hiding underneath a hotel in the mountains. Can they find a way to take back Earth with the odds stacked against them?WHEN THE TRIPODS CAME is a book well worth the read. The suspense and adventure in the story draw the reader in and make them want to keep reading. The characters are believable and the author does a great job of capturing why humanity is the way it is.Readers who like science fiction, continuing series, and adventure books will all enjoy this read and the others that follow.
—Jennifer Wardrip

When I was a mere lad I was introduced to John Christopher by way of The White Mountains. I instantly related to the young boys who escaped being capped by aliens, which would make them like everyone else. They risked life and limb to cross a dystopian Europe to escape that fate. I reread it as an adult and saw their flight from “normality” in my own escape from rural NJ to New York to live life on my own terms as a gay man, a reading that Christopher probably never foresaw. I was curious to read his prequel to the successful trilogy. I really wanted to like this book, but it read like a forced and unnecessary explanation of the original invasion of the Tripods: part War of the Worlds, part Invasion of the Body Snatchers, part The Day of the Triffids. Although I would handily recommend it to any pre-teen reader, along with the much better trilogy and some of Christopher’s other work, I can’t do the same for an adult. The only benefit is that it exposes the evils of television… and television is very evil in these pages.
—Sean Meriwether

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