Title | The Tripods: When The Tripods Came | |
Author | John Christopher | |
# of Pages | 240 | |
Best for Ages | 11-13 | |
# of Clovers | | |
# of Times Read |  | |
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Setting:
This book is a science fiction novel, that takes place before the original Tripod series. It is told in the first person, and focuses on a human teenage boy, Laurence, a.k.a Laurie. . This book takes place in Europe, but mainly in England and Switzerland.
Plot:
Laurie and his friend Andy are camping. They are woken in the middle of the night by a strange noise. When they look out there is a giant metal dome, with three massive metal legs, slowly approaching. Laurie and Andy wait , and then a tank comes. The tank attempts to fire on the thing, only to be crushed. Then a Royal Air Force Fighter comes and bombs the beast into oblivion. The media makes light of the landing of the thing, now known as a Tripod, but Laurie and Andy are questioned almost constantly. The boys learn that there were three other landings, one in the Soviet Union, one in America, and one in Europe. On television, a show called “The Trippy show” starts to play. Laurie’s little sister, Angela, soon becomes addicted to it. So when he forgets to record an episode, his sister begins to attack him. Laurie soon learns that this is happening world-wide. People known as “Trippies” begin migrating all over the world, swarming the new round of Tripods that have landed. The “Trippies” start wearing metal caps, that give them orders from the Tripods. Laurie and his family move to Switzerland, but are no safer there. Will he and his family stay safe from the iron beasts? Or lose their free will?
Recommendation:
This book in my opinion was kind of weird. The mind control part was odd, and at one point, a girl falls off a Tripod, and dies saying “Hail the Tripod”. So, I felt kind-of weirded out, and it was really real. It had me convinced that a Tripod was just going to appear outside of my window. Overall, not the best book, but I like the original trilogy better.