Book – When the tripods came

Book – When the tripods came

Author: John Christopher

Score: 7/10 

Year: 1988 (my edition 1990)

Publisher: Simon Pulse

ISBN 0-689-85762-4

Pages : 151

Language: English

I don't tend to like prequels, but as this came in the boxed-set of the original Tripods trilogy, I thought to give it a chance. 



In the preface, John Christopher, the author, explains a few of the reasons which lead him to write this prequel. the main two are : 

1. he was unhappy with the way the BBC had veered so far away from his original story in their tv-adaptation in which they remained more or less faithful to the first book during the first half of series 1, before they took increasing liberties and to arrive to a whole different path during the remain series and a half before they pulled off the plug on the show
2. He had received critics from scientists during this BBC show, pertaining, basically, to his lack of imagination in regards to the infrared technology, which was only its beginnings in the 1960's when he wrote the trilogy ; not foreseeing the growth and daily use by the mid 1980's, yet along its possible existence in the late 21st century. 

So, he wrote this prequel as an answer to the critics, and also to peer into the past of the trilogy's setting, by giving us the earliest days when the tripods came to conquer Earth and the humans inhabiting it. 

Just like the trilogy, the prequel is written in the first person. The narrator is Laurence, most often referred to as Laurie, who shares a few character traits with Will Parker, but has enough differences in style and personality that he isn't a mere literary copy, which is a good thing. 

I found that though prequels aren't always necessary, this one was rather well written, with an increasing level of complexity - within the limits of a young adult, 1980's science-fiction novel. It's not a great literary oeuvre, nor is it supposed to be. Although it does a better job giving names that are far less revealing than that of Will Parker and the battle for free-will and free-thinking of the original 1967-68 trilogy, the story itself doesn't hide anything and uses very few metaphors in its composition. 

The main themes in this book series are about human's freedom of thought and of body ; in this prequel, the notions are also repeated and we can see that the social elements and fears of the 60's had grown even further by the 80's ; so depictions of the dangers of human freedoms being taken away by subversion and conditioning - through the cap and the cult of the tripods that grows slowly but surely in this prequel through TV and an increasing number of hurdles and limitations important to humans, would become the prominent element of absolute adoration humans have towards their masters in the original trilogy. 

The narrative grows organically, based on a few lines from the trilogy, as a way of story telling and back-tracking those few key phrases from the earlier work, and in this, John Christopher manages rather well, to develop plausible plots, despite easy to make parallels and the rather evident possible conclusions the story, and chose wisely to end it after a mere 151 pages as dragging it would've probably been a huge mistake. 

Overall, when the tripods came expands on known facts from the original trilogy, while giving a few new elements and I like the direct causal explanations as well as the various differences in characters and story.

I like that despite the fact the main protagonists are teen boys, there are a few lines towards the end where female characters get their say and aren't diminished because they stood up for themselves. 

My biggest qualms are some of the dialogues regarding animals, but have to accept the context of 1988's writing - even if it shows a bit of speciesism.

This is the overall look of the Tripods series, with the ISBN  0-689-02773-7