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370th out of 2,946 books
—
12,390 voters
The Tripods Trilogy (The Tripods #1-3)
Long ago the Tripods, gigantic three-legged machines, descended upon Earth and took control. They used "Caps," administered ceremoniously near each child's 14th birthday, to control humans' brains and keep them docile. Now there is pleasant life in villages, little technology, and no war--but there is no freedom either. In this powerful and suspenseful series, 13-year-old...more
Boxed Set, 0 pages
Published
December 28th 1988
by MacMillan Publishing Company
(first published 1972)
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Okay, now this might sound weird but a few years back (not as long ago as you might think) I got into a kick of reading young adult adventure.
I blame Robert A. Heinlein for this... I was trying to finish up all his books and he wrote some YA books. After this Amazon in there infinite evil "suggested" I read a few other books. I looked into some of these suggestions and found the Tripods Trilogy.
It was like War of the World 100 yrs after, mixed up w/ some Jules Vern and some, you guests it, Rober...more
I blame Robert A. Heinlein for this... I was trying to finish up all his books and he wrote some YA books. After this Amazon in there infinite evil "suggested" I read a few other books. I looked into some of these suggestions and found the Tripods Trilogy.
It was like War of the World 100 yrs after, mixed up w/ some Jules Vern and some, you guests it, Rober...more
This is one of those brilliant, classic YA sci-fi series. The BBC adapted books one and two into a terrifyingly low-budget yet still utterly fantastic TV show in 1984-5. The books are set in a society brutalized from modern civilization back into a more rural, beaten-down state by alien invaders who travel in vast machines known as Tripods (three legs and all that). The alien machines control humanity by grafting mind-control "caps" to everyone's skull when they turn thirteen (it's tough being a...more
The rating I've given for this book is honest and accurate: one star; I didn't like it. However, this is unlikely unbiased. I was forced to read this in middle school in "Reading" class. It's the first book I remember ever being forced to read, after years of choosing and reading hundreds of books for myself that I appreciated. If I did not already have a very firm foundation of reading that had nothing to do with school and assignment, it's possible this experience would have turned me off agai...more
I read this as a young teenager and was driven by my passion for H.G. Well's The War of the Worlds. It is a gripping read for the younger reader although I found it a little simple when I re-read them in my late 30's. It is a series of 4 books with the initial trilogy written in the late 60's and the 4th novel being a prequel written 20 years later. All of them are a great read and introduce confronting situations that every teen has to face although these are in a rather unusual setting - namel...more
One day in my middle school library, I very vividly recall picking up what turned out to be the second book of this trilogy, The City of Gold and Lead. It was the first book I can remember just picking up and reading of my own volition--not something given to me by an adult to read (whether for education or for pleasure; I'd certainly read other stuff before then, you know, Boxcar Children, The Hobbit, etc., but all at the behest of some patron or other). So, the Tripods trilogy has a special pl...more
I absolutely love this trilogy. I discovered it via the BBC Television adaptation of 1984/5. Unlike the TV series (which I do like very much), the story rattles along at a pace. The idea of people being Capped so as not to question the status quo has always resonated with me. The Tripod city in the books is a much harsher place than the one depicted on screen. For a children's trilogy, the issues concerning one's freedom to think and speak are handled in a mature way. It's told in the first pers...more
Ja heti alkuun disclaimer: Ei tämä ole viiden tähden kirja. Ehkä kolme ja puoli tai neljä tähteä, mutta kun tätä lukiessa on pakko pelata nostalgiakortti pöytään, niin yhdessä sen maailman pelastamisen, dystopian ja sopivan karmivien ja humanististerroristisien maailmanvalloittajien kanssa, meillä on koossa voittava yhdistelmä nuortenkirjallisuutta. Ja kun aikakin on ollut poikkeuksellisen lempeä tälle scifi-kuvaukselle on vanha setä myyty. Tämä oli niitä kirjoja, jotka tekivät minusta scifi-fan...more
John Christopherin 1960-luvulla kirjoittama scifi-romaani on jännittävä kuvaus tulevaisuuden maapallosta, jolle saapuneet vieraat valloittajat ovat taannuttaneet yhteiskunnan keskiaikaisiin oloihin ja ottaneet käyttöön "kapituksen", kaikille varhaisnuorille tehtävän operaation, jossa päähän asetettava metalliverkko tekee ikantajastaan lammasmaisesti isäntiään tottelevan orjan. Se on kuitenkin vasta alkua, ja jotain kauheampaa on vielä luvassa...
Vapaiden ihmisten vastarintaliike on kuitenkin olem...more
Vapaiden ihmisten vastarintaliike on kuitenkin olem...more
This is nothing less than a classic. I read this trilogy when I was about 12 and it drew me in like no other book at the time. The images of the tripods and the scenes of the "capping" are haunting. The series conjures a society that is pastoral and yet eerily wrong. What the tripods are, and where they came from, is not revealed until the final book, "The Pool of Fire". You won't be able to stop reading before that.
A very intriguing and enjoyable read.
My favorite character was by far Beanpole. He invents glasses, thinks up steam power, fights tripods with hand grenades, and creates a hot-air balloon. He also demonstrates a lot of character (as well as brains) in the end.
I loved the clincher in the end, that makes you wonder whether the tripods had the right idea in wiping out humans. Can peace and liberty ever go together?
My favorite character was by far Beanpole. He invents glasses, thinks up steam power, fights tripods with hand grenades, and creates a hot-air balloon. He also demonstrates a lot of character (as well as brains) in the end.
I loved the clincher in the end, that makes you wonder whether the tripods had the right idea in wiping out humans. Can peace and liberty ever go together?
I assert Christopher is the father of young adult dystopian science fiction.
I read these three books at an early age and found them engrossing and creepy as hell, especially the first book where the parents turn on the boys and the fate of Will's "girlfriend" revealed in book three.
Holy crap these three books are good. As a trilogy, it's perfect YA.
No vampires.
I read these three books at an early age and found them engrossing and creepy as hell, especially the first book where the parents turn on the boys and the fate of Will's "girlfriend" revealed in book three.
Holy crap these three books are good. As a trilogy, it's perfect YA.
No vampires.
This is a sci-fi trilogy that I devoured in my youth and have revisited during the last week or so. Does it deserve 5 stars? Perhaps not. It's hard to be objective when memories prevail of loving these books decades ago. Though the trilogy is geared toward a young audience, I really enjoyed reading it as an adult.
This was a comic strip in Boy's life (the magazine that Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts get). I liked the strip so much, I read the books (and reread them in 2005 on a lark).
The series is set in a time where "tripods" rule the earth, which is now an agricultural society (again). A boy who is about to be "capped" a process that signifies adulthood, finds out that the capping process is a way for the Tripods to control humans, and runs away.
The trilogy is about the boy's journey to the "resistance" an...more
The series is set in a time where "tripods" rule the earth, which is now an agricultural society (again). A boy who is about to be "capped" a process that signifies adulthood, finds out that the capping process is a way for the Tripods to control humans, and runs away.
The trilogy is about the boy's journey to the "resistance" an...more
incredibly creppy. really great!!!!!!
i was so engrossed that i couldn't put it down, i had to find out what happened, who died, who was taken...
anyway sure most of u will love it too.
But's it's just about as sci-fi as u can get so if u don't like sci fi
don't read these books
i was so engrossed that i couldn't put it down, i had to find out what happened, who died, who was taken...
anyway sure most of u will love it too.
But's it's just about as sci-fi as u can get so if u don't like sci fi
don't read these books
First read these after seeing the TV series and recently re-read while on a nostalgia trip. Pleasantly surprised at how the political aspects still resonate, and how pessimistic the ending is for a kid's story. The prequel, 'When the Tripods Came.' is also worth a read.
I read this series in high school and LOVED it and have been trying to find it again ever since! I'll have to re-read it because my memory is getting vague, but for some reason this book stuck in my mind and I haven't been able to forget it. Great young sci-fi read!
I need to re-read this, but adored it when I was a kid -- felt that it asked some really good questions that books rarely ask kids of that age. In retrospect, it was probably sort of formulaic and dull, but at the time, it was ground-breaking for me.
For some reason I LOVED these books 15+ years ago when I read them. There was the perfect mix for me of peril, heroism, fantasy, and girls, to make it a very engaging read for a preteen. These and Dune (bleh) are the only sci-fi books I think I have ever read.
I recently reread the trilogy 30 years after first reading in junior high. It is still a fun concept for a book, although the technology of the aliens did not hold up very well. nor did the physical anatomy of the tripod aliens.
May 23, 2011
Bill Talcott
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone
Recommended to Bill by:
High school friend
I loved this series. A friend of mine loaned the first book to me when I was in high school. It was then that I discovered how much I loved to read. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the next books and read them.
I remember reading The White Mountains as a middle-schooler and loving it. I don't think I read the other two, and I haven't read The White Mountains as an adult, but I still remember it, so that says something.
I'm not actually sure if I read the entire trilogy, or just one or two books, but whichever way, they were memorable and wonderful and stand out as one of the most amazing children's sci-fi books I read.
I'd never read this but seen some of the TV series when I was a kid. Picked up a nice boxed copy second hand and thought I'd give it a go. Well-rendered aliens, fast-paced, convincing and exciting and bracingly bleak in places - Jack Vance meets Cormac McCarthy, but a little let down by hasty plotting and lurches in the story, not to mention the lack of any strong roles for female characters - in fact there seem to be no women at all in the resistance movement. I recommend it though as the writi...more
One of my favorite books in my teenage years about aliens using technology to suppress and control the thoughts of man. An extension of the aliens from War of the Worlds.
Very much a comfort blanket set of books for me. Alien invasion with wartime rhetoric. John Christopher is a brilliant writer and has captivated me both young and old.
No matter how old I get, I still settle down every couple of years to reread the tripods books. Classic sf/adventure/buildungsroman fare for everyone.
Jun 16, 2011
Susan
marked it as to-read
Thanks to a friend I just rediscovered these. My 3rd grade teacher read it out-loud to the class, and I was riveted... wonder if it will still engage me....
For me the most effective part of the story is the end, where after all fightings and combats the tragedy of man's selfishness, envy and hostility begins!
Master of the dystopian novel before they were shoehorned into genre fiction john Christopher is almost "the daddy" in this
Masterpiece work
Masterpiece work
This was my first taste of science fiction growing up and I loved it, and I still love it. Very well written, and it moves at a fast pace.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TV We've Just Wat...: John Christopher's "Tripods" in glossy fanzine | 1 | 5 | Dec 08, 2012 03:17pm |
John Christopher
is the pseudonym under which the British science fiction author Samuel Youd has been most successful. Youd has written under the following pseudonyms:
• John Christopher
• Stanley Winchester
• Hilary Ford
• William Godfrey
• Peter Graaf
• Peter Nichols
• Anthony Rye
He is best known for The Tripods trilogy, published under the pseudonym John Christopher.
His novels were popular during the...more
More about John Christopher...
• John Christopher
• Stanley Winchester
• Hilary Ford
• William Godfrey
• Peter Graaf
• Peter Nichols
• Anthony Rye
He is best known for The Tripods trilogy, published under the pseudonym John Christopher.
His novels were popular during the...more
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Jun 13, 2012 08:10am