Dixie Tenny's Blog: Born to Read - Posts Tagged "post-apocalypse"
Post-Apocalypse for the Younger Set
A friend of mine sent me a set of books he loved as a child, and I just finished reading them, or, I should say, devouring them. They are the "Tripods" series, by John Christopher. If the idea of aliens referred to as Tripods seems funny to you (as it did to me), you won't find anything about them in any way humorous once you start reading the books.
As we begin, in The White Mountains, Tripods have been in control of the Earth for over a hundred years, and have made many changes. Humans are "Capped" at age 14 and from that point on, they are serenely happy doing whatever the Tripods want them to do, even if that means being taken into one of the three Tripod cities as a servant, never to return. Serene and happy, that is, unless Capping turned a person into a Vagrant, the few who are adversely affected by the procedure and wander their areas of the Earth forever afterward, mostly talking gibberish and being compassionately cared for by the Capped.
Our hero Will encounters a Vagrant shortly before he is due to turn 14 and be Capped. Eventually he realizes this is no ordinary Vagrant, but an un-Capped adult posing as one, in order to recruit those young people who have doubts about the Tripods and the Capping into a growing resistance against the alien overlords.
The first and second books end with cliffhangers. I recommend buying all three (The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, and The Pool of Fire) at once, because no reader is going to want to wait to find out What Happens Next.
There is a fourth book, When the Tripods Came, a prequel that was written some twenty years after the series. I recommend reading the original three first. The prequel is equally gripping, but part of the pleasure of reading "The White Mountains"
is having to figure out as you go who the Tripods are and how the Earth got into the state you find it in at the beginning of that book.
These books are not for the faint-of-heart youngster. They are truly scary, and truly gruesome in some parts. But for the older child (or adult) who can handle them, these are outstanding books that tell a fascinating story.
As we begin, in The White Mountains, Tripods have been in control of the Earth for over a hundred years, and have made many changes. Humans are "Capped" at age 14 and from that point on, they are serenely happy doing whatever the Tripods want them to do, even if that means being taken into one of the three Tripod cities as a servant, never to return. Serene and happy, that is, unless Capping turned a person into a Vagrant, the few who are adversely affected by the procedure and wander their areas of the Earth forever afterward, mostly talking gibberish and being compassionately cared for by the Capped.
Our hero Will encounters a Vagrant shortly before he is due to turn 14 and be Capped. Eventually he realizes this is no ordinary Vagrant, but an un-Capped adult posing as one, in order to recruit those young people who have doubts about the Tripods and the Capping into a growing resistance against the alien overlords.
The first and second books end with cliffhangers. I recommend buying all three (The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, and The Pool of Fire) at once, because no reader is going to want to wait to find out What Happens Next.
There is a fourth book, When the Tripods Came, a prequel that was written some twenty years after the series. I recommend reading the original three first. The prequel is equally gripping, but part of the pleasure of reading "The White Mountains"
is having to figure out as you go who the Tripods are and how the Earth got into the state you find it in at the beginning of that book.These books are not for the faint-of-heart youngster. They are truly scary, and truly gruesome in some parts. But for the older child (or adult) who can handle them, these are outstanding books that tell a fascinating story.
Born to Read
I have turned to books for knowledge and pleasure ever since I was a very young child. One of my favorite memories is climbing out my bedroom window into the Russian Olive tree that grew beside it, cl
...more
- Dixie Tenny's profile
- 18 followers
