LIKED

(Alistair) On a future Earth, regressed into pre-industry after an alien invasion, teenager escapes from attachment of mind-control device that keeps most humans docile, and flees hundreds of miles to join up, after adventures, with the surviving human resistance...

Sounds terribly hackneyed, doesn't it? And yet, it's anything but. Perhaps being written back in 1967, before such plots became the staples of more than a few YA books and any amount of bad fan-fic helps, but I suspect it it more that is really well written. Our protagonist, his friends, and the people he meets on his journey are well-drawn characters, the book is fast-paced and gripping, the setting is a realistic conception of a regressed, alien-dominated world, and perhaps most importantly, the plot both makes sense and neither underestimates/infantilizes the characters nor overestimates the capabilities and wisdom of people of that age, both during the course of the book and when they finally reach the stronghold of free men.

Excellent read. I look forward to the next in the trilogy, The City of Gold and Lead.

( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ce... ) ( )

Excellent. After this read the rest of the series: The City of Gold and Lead, The Pool of Fire and the prequel, When the Tripods Came ( )

Exciting story that boys would particularly enjoy. 1st in trilogy. ( )

Reviewed June 1998

Read with Caspian and Stirling over several weeks. They had a hard time keeping awake some nights, and one chapter took 3 tries to finish. Excellent story. The boys enjoyed trying to figure out what the characters were describing that the "ancients" once used. the story is thrilling and creative. The boys can't wait to start the next book in the series.

23-2008 ( )