The City of Gold and Lead

Having re-read The White Mountains, I couldn't exactly stop there. The second in the trilogy is where our inept hero (but at least he can catch, right?!) gets his ass saved by Beanpole at least twice. But not a single live woman exists in this book. The only woman in the trilogy is now dead and on display as a literal museum piece in the City of Gold and Lead.

I started wondering how the rebels living in the White Mountains could hope to sustain themselves without, you know, having kids. How exactly is a group of literally 100% men going to save the world if they have to replenish their stock all the time? I guess this is science fiction, where everything is possible, especially if it excludes women.

The second in John Christopher's Tripod trilogy which lives up to the promise of the first book, and unusually for a second book, exceeds it. Will, Beanpole and Henry are safely ensconced in the stronghold in the White Mountains, but a plan is being hatched by the leaders of the resistance to try to find a way into the city of the tripods. The champions of each event in the annual games held far to the north are taken as servants to the city, so if representatives of the resistance can be trained to win it will give them the opportunity to discover vital information in their fight against the tripods. Will and Beanpole are chosen, along with another boy called Fritz, and the first half of the book deals with their travels to the games show more and the games themselves, following similar lines to the first book. However, the book takes a darker turn once the successful boys arrive at the city and the horror of the tripods' rule becomes clear. And it was the description of the boys' time in the tripods' city that moved this book up from the three and a half stars that I'd given The White Mountains to the four stars that I'm giving this one. There was a genuine sense of horror and menace that was missing from the boy's own adventure feel of the first book.

Another really solid YA adventure story, and I'll be moving right on to the conclusion. show less

When revisiting a memorable book from childhood, it's interesting to go back and see what age it was recommended for. Scholastic says this series is for 6-8th grade, which seems a bit late. The 'great man' theory permeates this (absolutely fine, engaging) series, and I think it does a disservice to the reader's intelligence if they are really reading this in 8th grade (I mean, they are 13-14 years old at that point!). You have the normal issue with most book protagonists - everything important happens to them or near them or with their help, and layered on top of this is a coda where humanity goes back to it's warring ways because they couldn't trust one great man to lead them. I think this series is a fine introduction to science show more fiction for a young reader, with the understanding that it may reinforce weird beliefs about 'great men of history.'

I give books in a series, with a few exceptions, the same review. show less

Premise: Two young boys are humanity’s only hope to discover how to defeat the aliens which have enslaved mankind.

Setting: A future Germany which is at an almost Medieval level of technology, and an alien city where the Masters have set up an ecosystem where they can live on the earth..

Plot: Will, Beanpole, and Fritz enter a competition to enter the city of the Masters and serve the alien overlords. Only Will and Fritz succeed, and they must gather intelligence about how to defeat the Masters, survive their brutality, and then escape from the City of Gold and Lead, where the air is poisonous to humans and the gravity much stronger than they are used to.

Characters: Will hasn’t changed much since the last book. He’s still impetuous, show more impatient, and resentful. But at least he’s aware of his flaws and tries to overcome them. The other characters, Beanpole and Fritz, are not much more than stereotypes. Once again Will proves to be brave and is able to take action when required, although he makes some big mistakes. Interestingly, Christopher spends some time illuminating the characters of individual alien Masters.

Prose: Straightforward and unornamented. I wasn’t ever struck by a particular piece of language or narrative, but it does the job of relating this action-based tale.

Commentary: Again, every character in this story is white and male. There are literally no females in the resistance, which seems crazy, especially with our modern consciousness about diversity. That being said, I liked this book better than the first one. The story is more original. It drags through the initial competition (which I didn’t remember anything about) but moves quickly once the boys get into the city. I felt impatient with Will and his self-pity. It was interesting to see how not all the Masters had the same beliefs about the conquest of the Earth, which made Will’s ultimate victory somewhat bittersweet. Still a pretty good read, all things considered. show less

The second book in the Tripods series starts much like the first--Will, a human boy, along with two companions, travels the European countryside, this time not seeking to escape the mysterious Tripods who rule over the Earth, but to join them--to infiltrate their city to gain information for a human resistance movement. The first half of the novel mirrors the first very closely, in both its rich descriptions of food and landscape and its pancake-flat depictions of our human protagonists.However, a major shift occurs once Will reaches the city. Christopher's descriptions of the alien landscape are incredibly vivid and inventive and, unlike his equally lush descriptions of Europe, actually pretty exciting. What's more, some depth is show more finally introduced to one of his characters. Unfortunately, it's an alien antagonist who is humanized. Will's Master is sad, complex, and compelling. Christopher tells us time and time again how disgusting and revolting the character is, but that did little to curb the sympathy I felt for him as he proceeded to spill his heart (hearts?) to dull, dull Will, his only friend. I'm fairly certain that this was not Christopher's intended effect. But regardless, it made the sophomore entry in this series a riveting and involving read. show less

In my option, The City of Gold and Lead, is a great book about bravery. Furthermore, I enjoyed how the author used the alien ‘masters’’ dome city as the setting for part of the book. While the tone of the first Tripods book is more lively and friendly, the second book drives away from these themes. The author gives a first-person point of view as to how cruel the masters are. When Will and Fritz compare their alien masters later in the book, I was shocked to find out how different their masters were. For example, Fritz’s master would beat him for fun. While Will’s master, does beat rarely, his master is more curious then Fritz’s. This contrast debunks the theory that all masters’ are the same. One could say that the show more masters are like humans in several ways. First, they have their own personalities and hobbies. Second, they have their own technologies, cities, and social order. Another thing I noticed, is that history has repeated it’s self within this book series. This being, invaders (alien masters’) came to a new land. Here, they fought and over-through the lands’ leaders, and took in slaves. This has happened several times in mankind’s’ history. In a way, this is cycle is nothing new for humans. Only differences is, a different kind of creature were the ones to invade and enslave humans. show less

Like the first book of the series, it is clearly a children/YA book of it's time. I kept thinking if it were written today, it might be 600 pages and 5 volumes. Instead, he skips alot of complex character development and creation of an alien world and other themes and just goes for the action story. Our hero, Will, who is less of an immature whiny teen than in the previous book, takes a more prominent role in learning more about the Tripods and, possibly, how to defeat them. The complex lead up to that, involving a Games competition and adventures for Will and Beanpole, seemed needlessly long but once the aim of getting to the City is in sight, it moves very quickly. It took a few turns I did not expect and the Masters were not quite show more what I expected but it was all a very engrossing and fun read. Looking forward to wrapping it all up with the third book. show less