ANHOW Review of Books: A classic sci-fi trilogy -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

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Date Posted: 08:57:12 04/15/02 Mon
Author: mt. healthy mountaineer
Subject:

ANHOW Review of Books: A classic sci-fi trilogy

"The White Mountain"
"The City of Gold and Lead"
"The Pool of Fire"

by John Christopher
Published: 1969 by Collier Books

This classic trilogy was a childhood favorite of mine and I was fortunate enough to have found them at a used book store. I re-read them after 20+ years and still find them to be engaging and really quite good.

The premise is that an alien race called the "Masters" have taken over earth, destroyed its great cities and control men's minds with a device called "the cap". All people are capped at age 14 and human beings live in small villages at a near-medieval leel of technology.

The main characters are Will, Henry, Beanpole and Fritz who are all young men who question the priactice of capping and the presence of the Tripods - giant three-legged machines that enforce the capping and are worshipped by some and feared by the uncapped. These characters haed off for the White Mountains (actually the Alps) where free men are rumored to live. Eventually the series focuses on the struggle of the free men (as they begin to recover some of mankind's lost knowledge and technology) versus the Masters.

During the boys' travels we get to see the author's vision of a destroyed world, especially Europe, and how mankind reacts to the imposed (brain-robbing) peace and harmony of the Masters. The Masters are truly alien - we have very little concept of their motivation, how their bodies work, their technology or their society. These are not your garden-variety Star Trek humanoid-style aliens, and I think that it one of its great strengths.

I give this trilogy an "A"

Note: while looking for this book at Amazon.com to see if it is still available, I found out that there is a prequel book to the series about the invasion of Earth and that they are all sold as one large novel nowadays.

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Replies:

Re: ANHOW Review of Books: A classic sci-fi trilogy -- mvd, 11:30:33 04/15/02 Mon
- I don't think that is a relevant question -- Adilbrand, 12:11:03 04/15/02 Mon
  - Oh, I know -- mvd, 12:41:02 04/15/02 Mon
    - I miss the approval function -- mvd, 12:43:03 04/15/02 Mon
      - Re: I miss the approval function -- mt. healthy mountaineers, 16:51:15 04/15/02 Mon
        Re: I miss the approval function -- Adilbrand, 17:15:10 04/15/02 Mon
        It was gone, but is now back... (NT) -- mvd, 12:43:46 04/16/02 Tue
- Re: ANHOW Review of Books: A classic sci-fi trilogy -- mt. healthy mountaineer, 16:48:37 04/15/02 Mon
  - I see. No biggie. -- mvd, 17:06:00 04/15/02 Mon
    - Re: I see. No biggie. -- yarosev, 18:28:17 04/24/06 Mon