The City of Gold and Lead is another sequel in The Tripod series. This book is a follow-up to The White Mountains (another book of the tripods trilogy). The author is none other than the most popular science fiction writer Christopher Samuel Youd pen named John Christopher. His works in science fiction are interesting and world-famous. The Tripods series is one of his highly-rated works that not only claimed dozens of awards but also featured as a TV series.
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Author: John Christopher
Genre: Science Fiction
Page Count: 224
Good reads rating: 4.1 of 5
My Ratings: 8.2 of 10
Published: 1967 (Original publication)
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks; Reissue edition (13 May 2014) (1600)
Language: English
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***Warning Spoilers Below This Point***
The City of Gold and Lead tells the further struggle story and building-up of the resistance group in The White Mountains. The story of Will, Henry, and Jean (nicknamed Beanpole) along with an introduction to a new character named Fritz, their recent adventures and their alternative lifestyle as a member of the resistance group is the principal theme of this book.
After about one year of joining the resistance group of the White Mountains, there comes a time when the boys felt appointed about taking a risky task. The task was to gather all the information regarding the tripods, their likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, and everything which will benefit and support their resistance against the tripods rule. The only way to infiltrate the tripods was the annual sports competition the tripods held to select the winners as the slaves to the masters. All the boys practised day and night in various games to win and to get themselves in the competition. But only Will, Beanpole and Fritz became elected to compete.
As the story proceeds the three boys reached the competition ground by facing and overcoming many hurdles on their way. They fought some tripods and captives, finally arriving at the games. At the games, only two of them won, Fritz as a runner and Will as a boxer while Beanpole failed at the jumping games. Will and Fritz continued their journey as slaves to the Tripods city as a reward to their victory, while Beanpole stayed in the city as a slave.
They reached the City in a tripod and there they came to know about the alien masters living in the city controlling the humans through tripods. The environment in the Tripod city was moist, hot, hostile and heavy in which humans can not survive. They gave all the human slaves masks to survive the alien habitat. They killed women and preserved them for admiration by the masters. Original masters selected Will and Fritz started serving them to gain all the information from them. The title of this book became extracted from the abundance of gold colour in the masters’ city and it compared the heavyweight of slavery to the weight of lead.
Will’s master was kind and treated him well, but Fritz’s master was mad and tortured him for no reason. Both Will and Fritz collected information and exchange notes with each other, but one day Will’s master read the diary of Will and came to know about his fake cap. To protect themselves and to maintain their secret, Will killed his master by hitting him hard in between his nose and mouth. Will and Fritz made the murder look like a natural death and planned their escape from the city. But Fritz stayed to prevent the suspicion. Will along with Beanpole escaped to the mountains along with all the information regarding the tripods and masters.
This novel receives my ratings of 8.2 out of 10 and offered another hit to the series of tripods. The book provides the readers with all the thrill, emotions and curiosity one needs to stay interested. Would I re-read this novel? Yes. Am I glad I read it? Yes.
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