Tripods: The White Mountains: Book 1

The Tripods #1

by John Christopher

Nobody knows how long it has been since the Tripods came. Nobody remembers life on Earth before they enslaved it. Humans live in scattered farms and villages, kept quiet and obedient by the mind-controlling Caps implanted when they reach their teens.

Will Parker's time is fast approaching - but a chance encounter with a madman convinces him that it may still be possible to resist the alien masters. So begins an epic tale of survival and defiance - and Will's journey to the White Mountains.

John Christopher's classic dystopian series is available for the first time in ebook format.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy, Childrens, Adventure

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 1967

About the author

Samuel Youd was born in Huyton, Lancashire in April 1922, during an unseasonable snowstorm.

As a boy, he was devoted to the newly emergent genre of science-fiction: ‘In the early thirties,’ he later wrote, ‘we knew just enough about the solar system for its possibilities to be a magnet to the imagination.’

Over the following decades, his imagination flowed from science-fiction into general novels, cricket novels, medical novels, gothic romances, detective thrillers, light comedies … In all he published fifty-six novels and a myriad of short stories, under his own name as well as eight different pen-names.

He is perhaps best known as John Christopher, author of the seminal work of speculative fiction, The Death of Grass (today available as a Penguin Classic), and a stream of novels in the genre he pioneered, young adult dystopian fiction, beginning with The Tripods Trilogy.

‘I read somewhere,’ Sam once said, ‘that I have been cited as the greatest serial killer in fictional history, having destroyed civilisation in so many different ways – through famine, freezing, earthquakes, feral youth combined with religious fanaticism, and progeria.’

In an interview towards the end of his life, conversation turned to a recent spate of novels set on Mars and a possible setting for a John Christopher story: strand a group of people in a remote Martian enclave and see what happens.

The Mars aspect, he felt, was irrelevant. ‘What happens between the people,’ he said, ‘that’s the thing I’m interested in.’

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A splendidly written science fiction yarn aimed at the lads and lasses but with enough clever going for it to appeal to older more seasoned readers as well. This is the second novel by John Christopher that I've had the pleasure of consuming and this gent certainly has the prose chops to spin a ripsnorter of a story. My previous experience, the dark, disturbing and fantabulous The Death of Grass), is one of the more under-appreciated apocalyptic SF books I have come across and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it.

Here's the bill of fare for this literary meal.

PLOT SUMMARY

Earth of the 22nd Century has been reduced to a few million bodies living a pre-industrial, pastoral existence maintained through subsistence farming. The seemingly content, unmotivated population is controlled by mysterious giant, three-legged machines known as Tripods**, whom the adults in the community worship and revere. Precisely who or what are the Tripods? That's the central mystery which is slowly unveiled (though not completely) during the course of the story. However, the reader quickly learns that the Tripods are the cause of Earth’s current, post-apocalyptic predicament.

The cornerstone celebration of the communities in the story is "Capping Day," so named because every child, upon reaching the age of 14, is taken by the Tripods and returned with a metal cap implanted on their skull. Uh...Houston...we may have a problem. This event marks the transition for the youth from childhood to adulthood and the moment when they take their place as full members of the community.

I don't want to spoil anything for you, but I think it's safe to say that all is not well in the land of the metal hats.

Our main character is Will, a 13 year-old boy months away from being given his metal toupee. Initially, Will is eager for his Capping Day to arrive but this all changes after a not-so-chance meeting with a vagrant named Ozymandias. Ozy reveals to Will the dark, sinister nature of both the caps and the Tripods and this fateful meeting reconfigures Will’s entire worldview. Suddenly he begins to notice the subtle “wrongness” of the people, including his parents, and vows to escape.

Ozymandias explains to Will that there is a small but growing group of people that are determined to fight back against the Tripods and offers Will the chance to join the resistance if he can make it all the way to the titular White Mountains. Thus begins Will's adventure during which he faces danger, excitement and a number of nasty Tripods.

THOUGHTS:

Christopher has a spare, breezy to read writing style that I really enjoyed. Despite being less than 200 pages long, the author does a magnificent job defining Will’s world. Christopher manages to convey significant information to the reader without resorting to rambling or overly prolix infodumps. This is a quality I really enjoy in SF books from this period which is epitomized in the works of Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny. This story as a whole is not in the class of the aforementioned, but his lack of circumlocution while telling his story is worth noting.

For all the positive things I have to say about the story, something about it didn’t connect sufficiently with me to be able to grant a loftier rating than 3 stars. I enjoyed the story, I liked the characters and I am curious to see where the next novels venture. For all that, I found myself a bit detached too from the narrative and was never swept away. I was very aware that I was reading and never fell into the world the author created.

I’m not sure why, but it happened. Maybe I’m defective. Regardless of the reason, I can only give this 3 stars, but I would still highly recommend it to my fellow readers, especially those that enjoy YA science fiction.

3.0 stars. Highly Recommended.

** I’m sorry, but ever since Austin Power’s Goldmember I can not hear the word Tripod without thinking of the classic scene between Michael Caine and Mini Me:


I know….I’m a child and I need help, but that is some funny sauce.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set some time after the events of When the Tripods Came. Future England—and, presumably, the world—resembles the times of feudalism.  Alien overlords control the humans by Capping them.

We meet Will Parker, 13, in Wherton, England.

Will makes a compelling narrative MC.  Frustrating at times, but also wholly believable—and fallible.
 
Ozymandias.  The mysterious, foreboding warning.
 
Will and his chubby cousin, Henry, escape before they are to be Capped.
 
They encounter a strange boy in spectacles: Jean-Paul “Beanpole” Deliet makes three.
 
The trio of teenagers begin making their way across Europe…
 
Not without its scares, thrills, and chills.  Loads of action and adventure elements.  Creepy but also fun.
 
Stands up very well on reread.

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Christopher’s influential and fun as a zombie-at-a-Mensa-party 1967 novel is a fantastic YA success.

Telling the post-apocalyptic story of a 13 year old in a world where alien tripod monsters (reminiscent of HG Wells The War of the Worlds creatures) control every aspect of human culture and keep us subjugated by means of a “capping” brain implant at the age of 14, Christopher spins an imaginative and timeless tale of adventure and perseverance.

Our protagonist Will notices he’s a little different than everyone else and this is further confirmed when a wandering “vagrant” (one whose capping was unsuccessful) singles him out for the revelation that there are many others like them who will not go gently into the tripods good night. Off Will goes to find the other rebels in the far White Mountains (the Alps).

Modern readers will see many themes common to the prevalent popular post-aps and dystopian YA books these days and Christopher’s writing is still so good and fresh that young readers today would like this. For those who really got into to this one, Christopher write three more books in this series.

Good fun, good sci-fi.

[Manny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book when I was about 10, but there's a moment near the beginning that's really stayed with me. It's one of those stories where Earth has been enslaved by alien overlords. There are, however, a few bright points in their miserable existences, and one of these is the annual games, where young athletes compete in a kind of Olympics to pick out the fastest and strongest.

The hero and his best friend are competing. They're both top jocks. They're pretty much certain that they'll win and be granted the mystical journey to the aliens's city that is the victors' privilege. The hero duly delivers. But his friend, who's a long jumper, screws up: he puts a foot wrong during his run-up and is disqualified. He and the hero look at the judges in stunned disbelief, but there's nothing they can do. One of them is going, and the other, poor guy, will have to suffer the bitter humiliation of being left behind.

It turns out there's a reason why the aliens want to find the strongest humans. They're from a planet with stronger gravity, and their cities use gravity generators which reproduce the conditions on the home world. The winners in the games will become their servants. But not for long, since daily exposure to high gravity does bad things to your heart and joints. The hero realises that his victory has bought him a death sentence. His friend has been granted a miraculous reprieve.

I was quite good at taking exams, but it occurred to me to wonder if they were as important as people made out.

[Blaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thinking of this, I saw how good things could be meaningless in isolation. What value did courage have, without a free and challenging mind to direct it?

I am doing a reading challenge this year, and one of the items is a book from your childhood. I remember really liking the Tripod series as a kid, so I decided to re-read the first book, The White Mountains. It lacks the depth and complexity of the better contemporary juvenile fiction, but for a 9-year-old, this would be solid alien invasion/government conspiracy stuff. Recommended for kids or for a nostalgia trip.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Notable en su momento, respetable ahora desde la generalidad.-

Género. Ciencia ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Las montañas blancas (publicación original: The White Mountains, 1967) nos presenta a Will, un joven preocupado por lo que la Ceremonia de la Placa hará con su primo Jack y, eventualmente cuando sea su turno por edad, con él mismo. Y es que los Trípodes, enormes máquinas metálicas, controlan con benevolencia a los humanos y hacen que todos ellos pasan por esa ceremonia que, en algunos casos, hace que las personas no vuelvan a ser ellas mismas. Primer libro de la Trilogía de los Trípodes.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a little embarrassing to admit, but I've been reading a lot of YA fantasy/SF novels aloud to my husband while he paints his new 40k army. I guess if you're going to dork out and regress, it might as well be all the way. So I pulled this novel out of the vaults--my fifth grade English teacher assigned it as part of an inspired introduction to genre fiction unit. This was our introduction to science fiction. I blame her for launching a number of excessively awkward adolescences. Anyway, this book is better and more exciting than I remembered. It's about an alternate future, though a near future, where aliens called tripods have taken over Earth, putting humans under their control by capping all the adults with a mind control device. There is a small band of rebels in the mountains who have managed to escape capping and the novel follows three boys who are running away to find these rebels in the mountains. Very exciting stuff. And there's a really wonderful and real pettiness and sense of competition among the three boys that sets this novel apart from others like it.

[Tina➹ lives in Fandoms · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Silver Stars
with Golden Sparks

RTC after reread

John Christopher was an author who mostly wrote sci-fi, about Post-apocalyptic worlds, each series has a different concept:

here it's about some alien Lords, who rule the Earth, for a very long time, slaving humans, so people have no control over their thoughts or their life. nobody knows who rides the Tripods & nobody questions them.
a world without Free will...

a teenage boy, Will, starts to question the traditions comes upon them by Tripods, while all the adults obsessed over Tripods without any good reason, he starts his journey differently. it is a dangerous path, into the unknown, to the White Mountains.
where there might be hope.

this series was the 1st Dystopia I read, years ago. (it was 2006 I guess, & at that time I didn't know Dystopia was a thing, I just knew this story that happened in future was different.)

such a great story.
full of surprises, rebellion & nice characters.


2019: It's been a while I've re-read it (maybe 9 years, I have no idea.) probably soon I will re-read it. I missed it.

[Mahdi Lotfi · Rating 3 out of 5]

تاب اول از سه گانه سه پایه ها :
1. کوهای سفید
2. شهر طلا وسرب
3. برکه آتش
4. وقتی سه پایه به زمین آمدند
کوههای سفید اولین کتاب از سه گانه ی مشهور جان کریستوفر نویسنده علمی تخیلی نویس است.شهر طلا و سرب و برکه آتش دو جلد دیگر این مجموعه اند.
بعدها جان کریستوفر کتابی با عنوان وقتی سه پایه ها به زمین آمدند را به عنوان مقدمه این کتابهای نوشت.

[Apatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tripods are cool, imagine these fearsome engines stomping around your neighborhood. They are not very practical though are they? Three legs don’t seem to be a very stable locomotive arrangement. The aliens came from light years away can they not spring for some aircrafts or something on wheels? At least double the number of legs for God’s sake!

When I first heard of this series I thought it was some kind of unofficial sequel to Wells’ awesome classic The War of the Worlds. Well, now I know it is not, but it is still a damn fine ripping yarn. The White Mountains depicts a future where alien overlords have been in charge of our planet for hundreds of years. This is not an origin story so we don’t know what happened when the aliens showed up and how they subjugated the human race. To keep humans docile the aliens weld mind control caps on the adults’ heads. The year when the story takes place is not mentioned, there is even a possibility that the tripods may be man-made rather than aliens. I imagine more will be revealed in subsequent volumes of this Tripods series.

The White Mountains is told from the point of view of Will, the thirteen-year-old protagonist. One day Will decides to run away from his home town to avoid the Tripods' “Capping” process when he comes of age. He is accompanied by Henry, a cousin he dislikes, but insists on going along, on their journey they are later joined by a bright French boy they call “Beanpole” because Will and Henry can't pronounce Jean Paul. Their destination is the eponymous White Mountain, where – Will is told by an apparently crazy old man – there is a community of rebellious “uncapped” people. The book is entirely about their perilous journey to this mountain.

I wish I had read this book as a wee lad of fourteen or younger I would have loved his book to bits and immediately read the remaining three volumes. As an adult reader I really enjoyed it but I wish it was more edgy and dark with lots of swearing! This series is generally regarded as children’s books rather than YA. One thing it does have in common with modern YA books is that the setting is a dystopian with mankind under aliens’ domination rather than some post-apocalypse government. I certainly prefer it to The Hunger Games, kids being chased by giant tripods is much more exciting than kids being chased by other kids.

The book is very fast paced with something happening on every page, and there is not much in the way of dialogue. The characters are not developed very much but in a book under 200 pages in length that is forgivable. Certainly Will seems like a bit of an idiot most of the time, Henry vacillates back and forth from being callous to caring, and Beanpole is defined by his intellect only. The other characters they meet on their way just serve to help to move the story along. There is a palpable sense of danger when the kids are being chased by the tripods, but the ending seems terribly rushed.

Any way, I am on board for reading the rest of the series. I would love to know what happen next.

Rating: 5 stars for kids, 4 for adults!

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this series of paperbacks long ago at a friends-of-library book sale because they looked classic and vaguely familiar, and suitable for seeding my home library with things for my kids to possibly discover. That hasn't happened (and not likely to now) and my own reading has been overdue.

Its closest comparison is The Chrysalids, published a decade earlier and far superior in terms of mid-20th century dystopian sci-fi for young readers. The White Mountains still has its qualities, however. It's not hard to picture it taught in school, in a time and place that this somewhat bland British boys' journey was deemed sufficient for such. It has a simplicity to it but will still test early reading comprehension, such as identifying the scientific concepts and technologies that "Beanpole" is rediscovering. At the same time it lends itself to a depth of character analysis and discussion suitable to primary school readers. This doesn't mean characters are engaging, just that they bear discussion, like why the reader thinks the narrating main character is such a petty, jealous, self-centered whiner who is chronically ungrateful for his companions carrying him the whole way.

In terms of dystopian fiction, it's vague about the supposed negative impacts of rule by the Tripods and being Capped. There is a vague conception of loss of freedom, but this is not truly demonstrated in the book.

I suppose in an earlier age, young readers may have been captivated with the characters' journey across lands to reach the White Mountains; 13-year-old boys on their own, sleeping rough, stealing and gathering food. The landscape descriptions are lovely and potentially new reading territory for many, but dull in the sum of time spent walking with not much of note happening. Compared with contemporary book options, I can't picture kids being interested in this now.

The ending is rather abrupt: the children technically read their destination but it rather glosses over that event and seems to jump ahead in time, but with only general statements. I'm not sure if this was meant as an enticement to read the next book, but taken on its own it's a lost opportunity. I'm going to read the rest of the trilogy regardless; they're short and easy books and, despite my criticisms here, smoothly written and easy to absorb.

[Marzi Motlagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

"سالهای زیادی از حکومت سه‌پایه‌ها میگذره؛ موجودات فلزی کلاهک‌دار که سالها قبل به دست بشر ساخته‌ شدن و حالا دارن به آدما حکومت میکنن!
با شروع حکومت سه‌پایه‌ها زندگی بشر دستخوش تغییرات بنیادی میشه: پسرفت!
شهرها ویران میشن و آدمای زیادی میمیرن و تکنولوژی و ماشین‌ها از بین میرن و در کل تمدن نابود میشه و زندگی برمیگرده به دوران اسب و گاری و محدود میشه به روستا‌نشینی.
در اولین نظر اینطور تصور میشه که چه خوب؛ آب و هوای سالم، زندگی سالم. چی بهتر از این؟ اما اصلا اینجوری نیست و فقدان یه عنصر مهم کاملا حس میشه: آزادی!
سه‌پایه‌ها مردم رو تحت اختیار خودشون در آوردن و هر آدمی که به سن ۱۴ سالگی میرسه براش مراسم مرموز کلاهک‌گذاری برگزار میکنن؛ مراسمی که هیچکس نمیدونه توش چه اتفاقی میفته اما یه کلاهک سیمی فلزی روی سر شخص فیکس میشه و تا ابد همونجا می‌مونه.
خاصیت اصلی این کلاهک مطیع کردن آدماست؛ رفتار اونا بعد از کلاهک‌گذاری به کلی تغییر میکنه؛ در مورد هیچی سوال نمیپرسن و هر فرمانی بهشون داده بشه بی چون و چرا بهش عمل میکنن. اونا فکر میکنن سه‌پایه‌ها عقل کل دنیان و هرچی بگن درسته و باید اطاعت کنن.
حالا تصور کنید توی این شرایط شما ۱۳ سالتونه و یکسال مونده تا کلاهک‌دار بشید که یهو با خودتون فکر میکنید اصلا چرا باید کلاهک بذارید و توی اون مراسم چه اتفاقی قراره براتون بیفته؟ و اصلا اگر نخواید کلاهک داشته باشید چی میشه؟
تو این زمان شما با یه پیرمرد آواره توی روستاتون آشنا میشید که همه فکر میکنن دیوونه‌ست اما اون یه نقشه میده دستتون تا برید جایی که خبری از سه‌پایه‌ها نیست.
از اینجای داستان سفر هیجان‌انگیز، پر خطر و پنهانی شما آغاز میشه..."

سعی کردم یه خلاصه‌ی بدون لو دادن ماجرا، از محتوای این سه‌گانه بنویسم که جلد اولش رو تازه تموم کردم. دو جلد دیگه مونده و اونقدر جذبم کرد که ادامه بدم‌. اولین چاپ ترجمه‌ فارسی این کتاب سال ۱۳۵۰ بوده و توسط کانون. ترجمه‌ی بی‌نقص و ساده‌ و روانی داره.

پی‌نوشت: گویا نویسنده بعدا یه جلد چهارمی هم برای این سه‌گانه نوشته که من فعلا ندارم و به خوانش همین سه‌تا رضایت میدم.

[DivaDiane SM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally getting down to listening to this with my son and my husband. Having read this as a 9 year old and again as a 20-something, I'm eager to read it with my 9-year-old son. We had a hard time getting into it, mostly because of the long (in reality only 4 minutes) intro by the author. I'm also questioning the choice of a clearly middle-aged man to read a story written in first person. But otherwise, his narration is very good. Will report on what my son and husband think.

Finished! Unfortunately, my son was not excited about listening to the rest of this book. But we basically forward him to while we were driving from the UK to Italy just after the COVID-19 complete lockdown had ended. We only had a half an hour left to listen to, so it was not much of a hardship. 😂

I am still in love with this book even though it was read by a clearly adult man. He was a good narrator, but I can’t get it out of my head the way he pronounced Chemin de Fer (Railroad in French) sounded to my ear like Schmand Fair, which made me think of a sour cream festival rather than the railroad (don’t ask, the Germans will understand). Nevertheless, I think if we are to continue with the trilogy, I will have to find copies of it to read from myself. My son could definitely read them himself, but since these were my favorite books at his age he will appreciate them more if I’m the one reading. He’s a bit weird like that.

Anyway, this is such a great introduction to the concept of self-determination and what it might mean to have that taken away. The MC is well drawn and undergoes a transformation as the book progresses. There is a relatively large cast of side characters and 2 side-kicks who are fairly well rounded. There is plenty of excitement and peril. All in all very enjoyable novel for 8-13 year olds.

This is at least my third time reading it. At least once as a 9 year old and then again when I was about 25. I’ve loved it every time.

[Amy H. Sturgis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This young adult dystopian science fiction novel (the first of a trilogy, followed by a prequel) is considered to be a classic, and it's easy to see why. The Tripods (machines? living beings? robots gone wrong? aliens from another world?) rule over the post-apocalyptic Earth, keeping humans in their (faux-medieval) place by means of "capping" them at puberty: that is, surgically implanting metal helmet-like contraptions on people to keep them docile and content. Young Will, the protagonist, flees his capping, and thus his coming-of-age adventure begins.

This is a "big idea" novel, and the characters are developed just enough to serve the plot and no more. That said, the big idea is a key one, namely the question of whether it's better to choose the security, safety, and contentment of being a servant, or to choose to be one's own master, even if that means living a life of danger and hardship and want. At its worst, the novel is wooden and predictable, but at its best, it's a compelling and thought-provoking young-adult treatment of a timeless issue. Considering how John Christopher contrasts the peaceful but uninspired stagnation of the novel's current day with the chaotic but excitinh innovation and progress represented by the ruins of the cities of our time, it's easy to recognize the conclusions he draws about the ultimate value of individuality.

[Bob Redmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best Young Adult authors ever, John Christopher, kicks of his masterwork trilogy with this book about a retro-future in which the world has been colonized by Tripods. Three boys, before undergoing the coming-of-age transformations of Capping Day (incidentally, this has to be the namesake of the Seattle band, remember them?), run away. Will they make it before the tripods find and brainwash them?

It's amazing how much Scott Westerfeld's PRETTIES has borrowed from this series--not that Westerfeld copied anything, just that Christopher organized things in his future world so well. Like Blade Runner set certain cinematic standards, it's impossible to write about kids in the future (at least one in which we have been colonized) without certain plot inevitabilities. On this reading, I also noticed how good is Christopher's craft: he leaves plenty to the imagination in his decriptions, dialogue, and storyline, unlike modern writers, who, with their gigabytes of word-processing, seem unable to do (hey, Stephenie Meyer!). The book is lean and yet illuminates much. It has held up well over the years and deserves the highest praise.

*

[Beginning with this book, I'm instituting a new note: "Why I read this book." The paths that lead us to a certain book at a certain time can bring all kinds of illumination to the reading of the book, if not the book review.]

WHY I READ THIS BOOK: Talking about death and graveyards with Greg Lundgren (of Lundgren Monuments), we agreed that our culture handles death in odd, dysfunctional ways. I praised Neil Gaiman's GRAVEYARD BOOK for helping undercut those notions, which led to talk of other best young adult books. One of my all-time favorites is The Tripods Trilogy (which I got from the library after seeing older neighbor Jim Burnham devour it on the school bus). I've read this book a half-dozen times but after finding it (in the 1970's paperback edition) in Half-Price books last week I could not help but tear through it again. (I had found all the used editions a while back but gave them to Erin Corday for a wedding present.)

[Veeral · Rating 3 out of 5]

After being immensely impressed by The Death of Grass by John Christopher, I decided to start his "Tripods" series right away.

Although the primary target for this series are the readers in the young-adult category, it is so unlike today's young-adult books where the post-apocalyptic/dystopian scenario just serves as an inconsequential and poorly developed background for a cheesy romance between hormonally charged teens.

The White Mountains introduces us to the thirteen year old teen protagonist, Will, and we follow him on his journey towards the White Mountains which is considered the only safe haven as well as the only resistance against the Tripods.

The book is short, dedicated to its plot and leaves the reader with a promise of something even more exciting, action-packed and grand in the succeeding books of the series.

I would definitely read the remaining two books - The City of Gold and Lead and The Pool of Fire - as well as the prequel When the Tripods Came in near future.

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

There seems to be some complexity to the Tripod novels and stories written by Christopher (actual name, Samuel Youd). Whatever their order, this book stands by itself as one a reader can begin with, without worrying about what may have been set or composed earlier. It does not, however, tell a full story. 'The City of Gold and Lead' (1967) and 'The Pool of Fire' (1968) complete this particular tale.
While ordinarily regarded as a young adult novel, I did not feel patronized. The protagonist and his companions are early teens and the author captures that phase of life well in my opinion. Indeed, one of the reasons I liked the novel was because of its evocation of youth and of the transition into adulthood. It is a boy's adventure though, everything being from the male perspective.
Finishing this while staying at another's home out of state, I was very disappointed not to be able to find the subsequent volumes. Even without those reading this was time well spent.

[Jackie "the Librarian" · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was in 6th grade, had just moved to the Seattle area, and was as unhappy as an uprooted, adolescent girl living under perpetually gray skies can be - but this book, read to my class by the teacher, showed me that, hey, it could be worse! I could be on the run, hunted by aliens in giant tripods who wanted to control my brain with a metal cap device on my head. It gave me perspective, you know?
A great introduction to real SF for kids.

[Maryam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given the time this book was written and target audience it could be a 4 star.
The idea certanly gets 5 though.

[Alaina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The White Mountains was a book that was never on my radar until recently. Not sure if that's a bad or good thing but I guess I'm happy that I got a chance to dive into it.

In it, you will meet Will, who lives in a world where alien lords rule over them. No one knows who is in charge of the Tripods that roam around the world.. but no one ever questions it either. It also doesn't help that they have zero control over themselves either.

Honestly, if I lived in this world... it wouldn't work. I would be just like Will and start to question anything and everything that was going on in this world. He goes against the grain and steps away from the sheep following the Tripods blindly.

Not going to lie, a lot happens in this book. I was mostly upset that Will had been planted with a tracking device more than anything. Other than that, I am happy with how things ended. Definitely going to see what the next book will be about.

[Maryam Behzadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

شاید دلیل اینکه نمی‌تونم برای این کتاب یه ری‌ویوی درخور بنویسم این بود که داشتم این کتاب رو برای دومین بار می‌خوندم( شاید هم واسه این بود که چند روز پیش تموم شده بود و یادم رفته بود که بیام همون موقع ری‌ویو بنویسم) ولی تمام چیزی که باید راحع به این کتاب بدونید این بود که باید در اولین فرصت( همین الآن مثلا) آب دستتونه بزارید زمین و این کتاب رو بخونید! همین‌قدر صریح… همین‌قدر واضح!

[Amin Matin · Rating 4 out of 5]

اولین کتاب ژانری که تو عمرم خوندم.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

There's nothing like a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel to take your mind off current ills, providing that what's described doesn't approach too closely to reality. That's the case with the first of Christopher's Tripods trilogy, which seems to describe a time which may be in the 2060s, roughly a century after when the novel was first published. There are echoes of H G Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898) along with aspects of medievalism which are reminiscent of Keith Roberts' alternative history novel Pavane (published a year after The White Mountains) and Peter Dickinson's dystopia in The Weathermonger (also 1968), but Christopher's novel has a quality all of its own.

Will is thirteen years old, living in the village of Wherton somewhere in Hampshire, not far from Winchester. He has not yet been Capped by the Tripods but his friend Jack is about to be, in what is evidently a coming of age ritual. He has anxieties about how this will change him, a state that is compounded by conversations with a mad-seeming Vagrant, who spouts bits of Shakespeare and Shelley -- he calls himself Ozymandias and sings fragments of songs like Tom O' Bedlam -- but informs Will of resistance to the Tripods in what is known as the White Mountains.

Will determines to escape the conformity that has been imposed on those Capped by the Tripods, but is encumbered by Henry, his bullying cousin, who discovers his plan and insists on accompanying him. And so begins a journey to the White Mountains that involves a sea journey, a traverse of an abandoned French capital, a horse-drawn journey by chemin de fer and a spell in a French château. All the while there is the menace of the Tripods and the fear that the cousins and their new companion Beanpole are being tracked.

The author has created a suspenseful narrative, effective because it's rarely predictable. While giving us plentiful details (all from Will's perspective) he constantly perplexes the reader with the uncertainties arising from a largely depopulated countryside, strangers who may be friends or foes, the necessity to steal or forage for food to avoid starvation, and the awful vision of the flexible metal tentacles that draw humans from the ground towards the mysterious maws of the giant tripods.

There are disconcerting things, such as ignorance of where the Tripods come from, why they have arrived on Earth, what beings control the perambulating machines, why and how they keep humans under control. More than that, Capped adults seem strangely uninterested in questioning this state of affairs, have no sense of history, indeed are unable to innovate in terms of technology or to comprehend scientific principles except in very primitive ways.

Indeed, the finicky reader may wonder at what process led to humankind's reversion to a way of life straight from the Middle Ages, with small pre-industrial agrarian communities owing fealty to local nobility resident in castles. This sense of cultures in reverse or at least moribund was evidently a common theme with British writers of the time, with Christopher, Roberts and Dickinson all publishing novels with this theme in 1967 and 1968. The same pernickety reader may also wonder at the physics and the mechanics that allow machines on three articulated legs -- vehicles moreover that tower over church spires -- to move efficiently and at speed across undulating or rough terrain. But perhaps these are a rabbit holes that it would be best to avoid falling into!

What I think we are meant to understand is that some youngsters, like Will, Henry and Beanpole on the cusp of puberty, may have an inquisitiveness and a suspicion of authority that no assurances those in control are benevolent will ever win over. The White Mountains is one of those novels where not explaining every detail is deliberate, where readers have (like Will and his companions) to work out for themselves what's happening from the limited cues on offer.

Thus it becomes a delight when the light dawns on how a certain kind of propulsion works, what the vast city with its underground tunnels is, what the curious metal 'eggs' with pins attached are, and what we actually call the White Mountains of the title. It's always good to come across a story in which we also vicariously participate in the quest undertaken by the protagonists. And hope that Shelley's words regarding a "colossal wreck" will come true for the Tripods.

'... Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies ...'

[Jonathan Terrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books are precious to me. But not the type of precious that requires a little hobbit to come along to my lair in my misty mountain hideout and steal them away, take them across some deserts and throw them into some smoking volcanic mountain. No these are precious for childhood reasons.

I first discovered the pleasure of reading through the power of the Chronicles of Narnia. My mother had a small bookshelf on which was kept all her favourite childhood books and as I learnt to read those were the first books which interested me. After all before I could read I was drawn to fairytales, dragons, monsters and above all dinosaurs. It seemed that the mysterious, the unknown and the alien were part of my flights of fancy. Talking beasts were merely my next step.

I moved from Narnia to other classics. I devoured Little Women (and its phrases like that that remind me why I must always be careful with cases), Lord of the Rings and Peter Pan. I even believe I read some Judy Blume so careless was I in what I read. I just read anything that was around the house then. And that was when I stumbled on an old paperback that had been creased and darkened with age.

The paperback had the kind of old pulpy image that on a shelf of modern fancy book covers sticks out like a sore thumb and says 'I have a boring cover do not read' (okay sure a book is not at all like its cover but the cover conveys a lot to the reader). So I read the blurb and looked at the fact that the book had obviously been loved and read many times. I asked my mum about it and she told me that yes The White Mountains was a very good book.

So I decided to read it then and there on the prompting of my mum's advice. And I was certainly glad I did.

To any modern reader of science fiction the premise would seem dated and old fashioned. But this was one of the forerunners of the clichés, this was a creator of clichés. And when I read it (when I still read it) it was as accessible then as it likely had been when it was first released. Perhaps it lacked the poise of say War of the Worlds and the beauty of its language but it was a heap of fun to read. It was also most certainly a novel aimed at the younger generation but also readable for the older generation.

The White Mountains follows the adventures of a boy (I forget his name in all honesty) in a society dominated by the godlike tripods. These metallic creatures come around and 'cap' a boy once he reaches the age he will become a man. When this 'capping' happens a metal plate is put into the boy's head and his entire personality changes. And so the main protagonist discovers that he is a boy nearing the capping age in a world where all men are capped and he is afraid. Until he discovers one man who is free and who tells him a tale of the White Mountains and of the tripods who dominate mankind. And so the protagonist heads off to these mythical mountains in order to be free.

Ultimately this is a fun novel which I personally preferred and still prefer to the War of the Worlds for its plot. Certainly War of the Worlds is more sterilised and more prim, proper and literary powerful - not lacking in purple prose. Yet in opposition The White Mountains and the ensuing books in the trilogy is in my opinion far more down to earth and as a result more human. In that regard it does not act in a condescending manner to its audience but rather reminds them of the struggles we all face in life and so we join in celebrating how a courageous and very human protagonist struggles against mighty powers far greater than himself.

[Philippa Dowding · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been cleaning my way through my office. Last week I scored: Way at the bottom of the bookshelf, deeply hidden, was this book AND the rest of the trilogy. The originals from my childhood! I absolutely loved this series as a child, I read it at about 11, and I couldn't wait to re-read it this weekend. I'm happy to say the story held up for me, and not just because of nostalgia. A favourite book is a very delicate memory thread to your childhood self. I remembered most of it, had brain-tingly "I remember this!" moments when I knew what was happening next, which is nothing like remembering a movie (which is much easier, I think) or a piece of music (easiest of all, for some reason). These are 40+ year old memories after all, deeply buried! The interior landscape I created as a kid was still pretty vivid. A few things I understand now as an adult that I didn't get then: the boys traipse through a destroyed Paris (I knew it was a city, but didn't know it was Paris), and I didn't realize the mountains were in Europe.
Anyway, if you like dystopic middle grade stories and you haven't read this one, I'd HIGHLY recommend it. It's one of the first of the genre for ages 9-12, perhaps THE first since it's from 1967, full of adventure, fear, creative in its premise, well-written and quite terrifying.
Imagine what the world would be like 100 years in the future IF HG Wells' War of the Worlds had come true. Who would resist? Where would the resistance hide? How would they survive? All great stuff for a 10-12 year old, and for the most part the writing is pretty timeless. It's a little sexist, there aren't any courageous girls in the story, for instance, but it's still a good tale (better than my last 1960s middle-grade read, A Wizard of Earthsea by Le Guin which was still pretty good). It reminds me a little of Riddley Walker (Russell Hoban) or as mentioned, War of the Worlds (HG Wells). If you like the genre give it a read, you won't be disappointed.
Riddley Walker

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a child and vividly remember certain particularly fraught scenes but not the overall plot. I read it again yesterday in one sitting.

This book doesn't age at all -- it just as fresh and readable and compelling as it must have been in 1967 when it was first published. The narrator is young Will Parker, still a child, not yet initiated into adulthood via the mysterious "capping" ceremony, where the child is taken briefly away by towering metal creatures called Tripods and fitted with a metal disc in the skull. This metal cap brings with it a sense of peace and deep desire to serve the Tripods. This divide between the Capped and not-yet-Capped is a deep gulf, interfering even with the closeness of the relationships between parents and children. At the beginning of the story, Will is just beginning to act on youthful urges towards mischief. Disturbed by the change he sees in his closest friend, who has just been Capped, Will takes a chance offered to him by a stranger to escape and make his way from Britain to the continent and into the Alps -- which, a century in the future when this story is set, are now called just the White Mountains. Will faces and overcomes hunger, sickness, and temptation and learns, by fits and starts, how to forge bonds of friendship and trust with two other boys making the journey with him.

I have nothing but praise for John Christopher's world-building, pacing, and tone. We see a future Europe through Will's eyes, limited by his understanding of the technologies and traditions have persevered in this future, but recognizing, as readers, the technologies he doesn't understand. Christianity has survived whatever great battle resulted in the destruction of the great cities and dominance of the Tripods. Will refers in passing to churches and cathedrals as familiar edifices and recognizes the partially destroyed Notre Dame when making his way through the remains of Paris. He also has absorbed at least some Biblical canon, making a reference late in the book to "how David had felt when he saw Goliath topple in the dust in the valley of Elah." It is clear, thus, that the Tripods are unthreatened by religious tradition, especially given that it tends to instill a respect for and acceptance of authority, even if that authority is shrouded in mystery.

In this first installment of the Tripods trilogy, clocks and watches are a recurring theme. Will's first rebellion centers around taking his father's precious watch from his desk and wearing it outside to show off to his friend. We learn from this episode that the not-yet-Capped children are subject to all the same whims and petty jealousies we recognize in ourselves: pride, greed, shame, the desire for status, the need to be recognized and valued. Time is the factor that provides a necessary sense of urgency to the story. Will and his companions are on the cusp of capping age and thus have very little time left to make their way across a continent without suspicion that they are trying to escape.

I hope that this book remains popular among young children because it is an excellent introduction to dystopian science fiction and doesn't talk down to the reader. Christopher's characters speak as twelve-year-old children would, but the inner thoughts of Will are rendered in a full, rich vocabulary that will challenge young readers to expand their own.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

review of
John Christopher's The White Mountains
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - September 30, 2020

I've mentioned before that H.G.Wells was an important writer to me as a young'un. His The Time Machine was particularly important but so was his The War of the Worlds. I've also mentioned that as a young teenager I had a picture of Wells & spouse sitting naked on the back porch of a cabin, presumably at a nudist camp. They were both a bit flabby, H.G. was wearing light-colored socks (probably white but the picture was black & white so I don't know) & sandals. I probably got that picture by picking it up at the side of a rural road where I lived, presumably left there torn out of a magazine, by a pervert possibly hoping to get somebody or another worked up. I was already a nudist so it just appealed to me that Wells was too. The point relevant to this review being that Wells established a mood of what one might call British 'pastoral' SciFi that I was very fond of. Tolkein's The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings trilogy & other things I was reading at the time did roughly the same thing in other genres. In other words, within a somewhat placid setting, some more or less honest simple folks are confronted w/ a hero's task & perform it staying true to their integrity &/or improving as a result of their hero's journey. What can I say? I'm a sucker for such a narrative, one so basic to my own ethical core.

The White Mountains fits right in, this is even the 1st book of a trilogy, like the The Lord of the Rings (but not as epic) & Gormenghast (another epic favorite), it's British & the setting is rural. It even seems to be targetted to a young adult readership, a demographic I generally avoid.

The 1st chapter is called "Capping Day", the meaning of wch is to become clear over time, the reader is just left to deduce that Capping Day is a sort of coming-of-age ceremony time. The 1st paragraph sets the setting:

"Apart from the one in the church tower, there were five clocks in the village that kept reasonable time, and my father owned one of them. It stood on the mantlepiece in the parlor, and every night before he went to bed he took the key from a vase and wound it up. Once a year the clockman came from Winchester, on an old jogging pack horse, to clean and oil it and put it right." - p 1

This identifies the human environment as being apparently without electricity. That's further developed:

"DANGER
6,600 VOLTS

"We had no idea what Volts had been, but the notion of danger, however far away and long ago, was exciting. There was more lettering, but for the most part the rust had destroyed it:

"LECT CITY" - p 9

Jack is a close friend of the main character, Will Parker. Will's life, despite our non-knowledge of what "capping" is, seems prosaic enough.

"Jack had always been around. It was strange, I thought, as we walked toward the village, that in just over a week's time I would be on my own. The Capping would have taken place, and Jack would be a boy no longer." - p 9

Christopher's writerly strategy is to put the reader in the midst of his environment & to gradually explain dribs & drabs of it as one might have them revealed if one lived there.

"What was known, though not discussed, was that the Vagrants were people for whom the Capping had proved a failure. They had caps, as normal people did, but they were not working properly. If this were going to happen, it usually showed itself in the first day or two following a Capping: the person who had been Capped showed distress, which increased as the days went by, turning at last into a fever of the brain. In this state they were clearly in much pain." - p 12

However, the Vagrants aren't always what they seem. Here's what one of them said to Will:

""I am the king of this land. My wife was the queen of a rainy country, but I left her weeping. My name is Ozymandias. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair."" - p 24

"In antiquity, Ozymandias (Ὀσυμανδύας) was a Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias

A related quote from the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem entitled "Ozymandias" is as follows:

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...

Horace Smith's poem of the same title is less related.

It would seem that the Vagrant might not just be free-associating or senselessly ranting.

""You are not a Vagrant!"

"He smiled. "It depends what meaning you give that word. I go from place to place, as you see. And I behave strangely."

""But to deceive people, not because you cannot help it. Your mind has not been changed."

""No. Not as the minds of the Vagrants are. Nor as your cousin Jack's was, either."

""But you have been Capped!"

"He touched the mesh of metal under his thatch of red hair.

""Agreed. But not by the Tripods. By men—free men."" - p 33

The Tripods! In Christopher's story the tripods that invaded Earth in Wells' The War of the Worlds have won. But the history of this invasion & the victory by the Martians has been forgotten by the Earthlings. Compare Wells' description of his protagonist seeing these tripods for the 1st time:

"And this Thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder." - H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

This remaking or augmenting of Wells must be a 'thing' because I'd previously read Stephen Baxter's The Time Ships in which he changed Wells' The Time Machine. I admit to thoroughly enjoying both reworkings.

"["]And it may be that the Tripods came, in the first place, from one of those worlds. It may be that the Tripods themselves are only vehicles for creatures who travel inside them. We have never seen the inside of a Tripod, so we do not know."

""And the Caps?"

""Are the means by which they keep men docile and obedient to them."" - p 34

Now, I'm not giving too much away, we're only 34 pages into the novel so a reader would learn this fairly quickly.

Will has the misfortune to be captured by someone whose intent is to shanghai him.

""Now then, no trouble. Save your strength for the Black Swan."" - p 61

Me being the kindof guy that I am I decided that since I had 2 DVDs of movies laying around named "Black Swan" I might as well watch the one that this reference was to, the 1942 pirate movie (&/or to Sabatini's book that the movie was based on) directed by Henry King & starring Tyrone Power & Maureen O'Hara, AND the one that has nothing to do with Christopher's reference, Darren Aronofsky's 2010 movie about ballet. WTF? Can't be too thorough.

The successful conquering of Earth by the invaders in the Tripods has resulted in humanity's technological knowledge being dramatically set back. As our heroes, Will & friends, travel thru ruins they find cars w/o knowing them. One particularly clever human, however, is capable of surmising.

"He said, "Places for men to sit. And wheels. So, a carriage of some nature."

"Henry said, "It can't be. There's nowhere to harness the horse. Unless the shafts have rusted away."

""No," Beanpole said. "They are all the same. Look."

"I said. "Perhaps they were huts, for people to rest in when they were tired of walking."

""With wheels?" Beanpole asked. "No. They were carriages without horses. I am sure."" - p 86

If the word "car" is believed to originate from Latin carrus/carrum "wheeled vehicle" we could play with it a bit & say that since a car is a horseless carriage that, therefore, removing riage from carriage is what signifies its horselessness & that, therefore, horse = riage. Hence a marriage is a marred horse. Or something.

Alas, that enables me to make a joke about the doomed romance between Will & Eloise.

""When the tournament is over, the Queen goes to serve the Tripods. It is always done."

"I said stupidly, "Serve them where?"

""In their city."

""But for how long?"

""I have told you. Forever."" - p 147

Will was expecting to marry her. Instead she'll become a work horse of sorts. That's the only marriage that'll come out of this mess.

END OF REVIEW OF 1ST BOOK OF TRILOGY

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow missed this series when I was a kid; really enjoyed this author's The Death of Grass and thought the prequel novel was pretty good too.

Teen Will lives in a world that has regressed considerably due to the foreign influence of the Tripods. In a society without serious science or decent propulsion, Will is certain of only one thing - he doesn't want to be "Capped". Nobody in this book knows what the caps do, but they suspect an unswerving loyalty to the overlord aliens.

Will escapes to the south, reluctantly joined by his cousin and later by another boy called Beanpole (a derivation of his French name, Jean-Paul). Their adventures are well described and episodic, culminating in a run to the south and a battle with one of the Tripods.

The first of a series, this book comes to a rather abrupt end, with a two page summary of "what happened next". This seemed clumsy to me, and didn't end the story well at all. I dislike being forced to read the next book to get the rest of the story - especially when it is the middle book of a trilogy and so will probably have to read two.

That aside, the story is good, and stands up well some fifty years later. I would recommend it to young adults, and would caution older readers to read the whole series or perhaps see The Death of Grass instead. Read this with my daughter, whose overall rating was "Meh".

[manuti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compré esta trilogía de saldo por el traslado de una librería de mi barrio (traslado, no cierre). Recuerdo que vi estos libros cuando se editaron y nunca me los compré o regalaron. Luego se hizo una serie de televisión que creo que pusieron en las cadenas autonómicas españolas, que para las series eran un desastre de horario, orden de capítulos y cancelaciones. La cuestión es que siempre me quedó la intriga de saber de qué iba la historia.
Las novelas se pueden leer de forma independiente porque en cada libro hace un poco de resumen de los anteriores, pero está claro que tiene más sentido leer los tres.
La novela entretiene y esta primera parte en concreto tiene un arranque bastante decente, por eso le doy 3 estrellas *** y la recomiendo como parte interesante de lo que eran las novelas de ciencia-ficción para adolescentes de los años 60. Una novela en la que no hay ningún personaje principal femenino y casi ni siquiera uno secundario, me resulta increíble pensar en que niña podría sentir algún interés o identificarse con estos personajes.
Hay críticas más positivas que la mía, además el libro fue bastante popular en Gran Bretaña y entiendo que el factor nostalgia hace que suban las valoraciones pero yo no le podría dar más estrellas.

[Agnė · Rating 2 out of 5]

An intriguing beginning, a boring adventure, a rushed, disempowering ending (in particular, I have in mind this sentence in the last paragraph: "Our leaders keep their counsel, and we are only newcomers and boys--we could not expect to know what the projects are, or what our part in them may be." How convenient! And not that different from being under the control of the Tripods...).

Also, I didn’t really care for any of the characters and kinda disliked the world-building, especially the confusing descriptions of the artifacts from our world through the eyes of the protagonists unfamiliar with them. Meh.