In just a year, he make the passage from boy to man, marked by the ceremony in which a Tripod will reach down and take Will into itself. Thirteen year old Will is both excited and terrified at the prospect of his Capping Day, every child’s first true interaction with a Tripod. Now, so many years later, humankind’s old achievements are forgotten relics, while the Tripods watch from their metal hemispheres above. The Tripods came, bringing with them absolute authority and upending human life. That time has long passed, though, and humanity has fallen.

Once upon a time, humans built great, magical things – great machine carriages that could travel on rails, enormous ships to sail vast seas, and towers, and tunnels, and other such marvels. (Truthfully, John Christopher has been on my radar for years, ever since I desperately tried to find a copy of The Death of Grass before being repackaged in the US!) Tripods, teenage protagonists, and a desperate bid for freedom against alien oppressors – how could I resist? Why did I read this book: I’ve had my eye on this book ever since it popped up on an Old School Wednesday poll last year. Standalone or series: Book 1 in the Tripods series The prequel, When the Tripods Came, explains how the Tripods first invaded and gained control of the planet. The Tripods trilogy follows the adventures of Will and his cohorts, as they try to evade the Tripods and maintian their freedom and ultimately do battle against them. For Will, his time of freedom is about to end–unless he can escape to the White Mountains, where the possibility of freedom still exists. But for a brief time in each person’s life–in childhood–he is not a slave. They have no control over their thoughts or their lives.

Now people unquestioningly accept the Tripods’ power. Long ago, the Tripods–huge, three-legged machines–descended upon Earth and took control. Publication date: First published in 1967 Genre: Dystopia, Post-Apocalypse, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Today, Thea reads the first book in John Christopher’s Tripod series, The White Mountains! What better way to snap out of a reading fugue than to take a mini-vacation into the past? We came up with the idea towards the end of 2012, when both Ana and Thea were feeling exhausted from the never-ending inundation of New and Shiny (and often over-hyped) books. Old School Wednesdays is a weekly Book Smuggler feature.

The White Mountains by John Christopher