Book 22 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! As is now default for me, my link to the book is through my bookshop dot org affiliate account.

In each of the modern printings of John Christopher’s The Tripods books, Christopher gives a preface to the text. In the first two of the series, he talks about some of the behind-the-scenes of writing the novels, but in the third book he becomes much more philosophical, and asks: if humanity wins against the Tripods, what comes next? After winning the war, how does one win the peace? The novels describe how the Masters of the Tripods eliminated war and conflict by mind controlling the vast majority of the population; if that control is removed, can humanity learn from its mistakes and move forward?

The Pool of Fire follows The White Mountains and The City of Gold and Lead in following a young man named Will Parker as he flees the control of the Tripods and joins an active resistance movement of free humans. The Tripods conquered humanity many years before and now “cap” every human when they reach puberty, stifling their creativity and their will to resist the orders of the mysterious Masters. The first book follows Will and friends as they flee from home and the threat of being capped by the Tripods; in the second book, they undertake a covert operation into a city of the Masters to learn their nature and their weaknesses. In the third book, the knowledge they gain is used in a plan to defeat the Tripods; this plan is especially urgent because Will’s actions in the first book have convinced the Masters to eliminate humanity once and for all…

The first book is very much a road trip-style story in a post-apocalyptic setting. The second book turns more to a horror and science fiction combination as Will and allies infiltrate the City of Gold and Lead as slaves of the alien Masters. The third book becomes more of a science fiction action adventure tale, as humanity finally launches a direct attack on the Masters and their cities. I found it noteworthy that each book definitely has a different tone, but all of them work well together and tell one consistent and epic story. In fact, it is quite remarkable how well it works, considering these are relatively short young adult novels. Christopher masterfully manages to build an epic tale about the liberation of humankind starting from a single young man in a small village and does it all in somewhere around 800 pages total!

I don’t want to say too much about where the third book goes in its plot, but suffice to say it is a fitting end to the trilogy that takes a number of unexpected turns and keeps up the tension throughout. Overall, the entire trilogy is well worth reading — it is an enjoyable and immersive story of resistance against alien invaders. Christopher thought long and hard about every aspect of his worldbuilding, and it shows.

I found myself caring a lot about all the characters and their ultimate fates throughout, which again is quite impressive considering the relatively small number of pages we get with them. In the third book, Will Parker’s greatest weakness is still his impulsive and hotheaded nature, which is contrasted by his friends and some of the leaders of the resistance. One thing that is worth pointing out that only occurred to me after finishing the saga, however: there are almost no female characters. Will and his allies in the fight against the Tripods are entirely men, and they only meet a few women along the way. This isn’t a particularly big sticking point for me, but I found it rather curious.

I wanted to comment on one small spoiler before wrapping up my discussion of these books. As you might expect, humanity does in the end succeed in throwing off the threat of the Masters, but that does not mark the end of the conflict. The final chapter of the book focuses on leaders throughout the world coming together to begin the building of a new civilization. This, sadly, does not go very well, and wraps up with the planned council dissolving in anger and threats. Here we have come back to the question that Christopher asks in his preface: can humanity come together to make peace as effectively as they make war? Though the last chapter is a bit melancholy because of this, it does end on a positive note. Will and his friends decide it is time for one more mission, taking the rest of their lives: figuring out how to bring lasting peace and prosperity to the world.

There is one more novel that Christopher wrote in the world of The Tripods, the prequel novel When the Tripods Came. From what people have told me, it is not as essential or worthwhileas the rest of the books, so I will probably not pursue it at this point. The Tripods trilogy by itself tells a compelling, thrilling, and thought-provoking story that has left me satisfied.