Unless I get really busy and finish book three at work tomorrow, I'm finishing off 2019 with book #65 read, also known as The City of Gold and Lead, book two of John Christopher's Tripod Trilogy.
Again, we're being narrated by Will, who, along with cousin Henry and Jean Paul (Beanpole), made it to the sanctuary of the White Mountains in the last book. We learn a little of the Resistance in this book, mainly that it's headed by Julian, and that they've been up in the mountains since the Tripods came. The boys have been getting educated both in books, language, and fighting; a plan is underway to send at least three youths to Germany for a competition that would get people into the realm of the Tripods.
The Council ends up sending three boys; Will goes to the games as a boxer, Beanpole as a long and high jumper, and Fritz as a runner. Henry, of course, is upset at not being selected, and Will is not ecstatic to hear about Fritz, since Fritz is taciturn and reserved.
The three of them walk down into Germany and catch a boat run by a supporter of the Resistance, who also is as mad as Ahab, only less obsessed. When the captain goes into town and stays out longer than expected, Beanpole and Will go in to find him. Will gets in a bar fight and winds up in a gaol, Beanpole finds him and breaks him out, but their ship has left without them, forcing them to raft upriver on the side of a barn, then stealing a hermit's boat after a long lesson in why an individual is not a threat to the Tripods, and why an individual is also not a resistance supporter.
Anyway, they do end up making it to the games, where Will gets in as a boxer, Fritz wins one of his events, and Beanpole almost wins, but gets disqualified on a technicality. As such, Fritz and Will get honored by being taken by tentacle into a Tripod and then to one of the three cities of the Masters.
The City is domed, and filled with pyramids, and the boys taken from the games are first dressed and given rebreathers, then led to to a place where the masters can choose them as servants. (There's a lot of threes in the city. the pyramids have three sides, the time in the city is kept in 9 periods, with 9 segments in each period, the Masters themselves have 3 legs, 3 tentacles, and 3 eyes in a vaguely conical shape.
Will gets lucky, sort of, as his Master is fairly benevolent at first. When he finds Fritz later on, Fritz hasn't been as lucky, getting beaten fairly regularly. Will does take advantage of his Master's affections, learning what he can of the Master's plans and weaknesses, as well as seeing the Hall of Beauty, where the beauty of the earth is forever preserved like butterflies in a glass case.
We hear of the thick green atmosphere in the dome, and the extra gravity, causing the servants many issues. We see Will and Fritz trying to figure out how and when to escape. And when we get that far, we see Will escape, finding Beanpole outside the city, and a 12 day vigil in which Fritz does not appear.
There are things in here I read differently as an adult than I did whenever back in my youth I last read these. Among other things, Will's treatment by his Master does suggest something rather more untoward than I caught as a kid. The Masters might reproduce by Parthogenesis, but Will's master does seem to enjoy getting high on Gas Bubbles and having Will rub him. We also get the first signs that other than the Masters entire plan to corrode the atmosphere in 4 years' time, they've been a benefit to human society's ability to get along.
While most modern young adult dystopian fiction revolves around humans being evil to humans, making the enslavers of humaity from outside of humanity helps hide the kicker that we're really our own worst enemies. Which I'm sure we'll return to in the finale.
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