So, finished John Christopher's The Pool of Fire this afternoon, wrapping up the original Tripod Trilogy. (There is a prequel, written several years later, but it's going to be a few days before I get there.)
Anyway, we open with Will and Beanpole passing on what Will learned in the city of the Masters to the Council. He even gets chastised by Julian for his impulsive behaviour, rightfully pointing out that Will's actions meant that Fritz didn't get out. It also introduces council member Pierre, who shows up again in the finale as an antagonist to Julian. Interestingly enough, even though we're meant to dislike Pierre, he has a point, as does Julian, as they discuss freedom vs social compacts.
Anyway, with a time frame of less than four years before the Masters' ship is due to arrive and turn Earth's atmosphere into something breathable to the Masters, Will is set to be shipped out to recruit a resistance among the youth in the East. He's less than thrilled about this, until he finds his partner is Fritz, who seems to have survived the City after all.Cousin Henry winds up in the Americas, recruiting there. Beanpole goes to work in a lab.
After Fritz and Will return, they get shipped to Beanpole's lab, where they help capture a Tripod and the Master within. A fight between Will and his ship captain nemesis for the last book leads to the revelation that the masters can't detect alcohol, and indeed, it makes them immobile for several hours.
And this leads into the attacks on the cities, wherein Will and Fritz break into the European City, sort of in sync with break ins to the Asian and American cities. The goal is to slip alcohol into the water supply and destroy the cities from there. We also find the Pool of Fire, the source of power for the Cities. Turning it off makes the Caps fail, leading to the former slaves helping Fritz and Will to find a way to break the dome.
After escaping, with the masters dead and the Tripods outside the city dead as well, we learn the Asian city fell as well. Henry's attack on the American city (sitting astride the Panama Canal) didn't fare as well. As such, it becomes necessary to try an air raid, as less han a year remains before the Masters's ship arrives. The first one fails, and the second, done with Hot Air balloons nearly does as well, until Henry, after making a moving speech to Will prior to the raid about whether or not Man will return to its old ways of war and separation, lands on the dome and sets off the bomb with him holding it, destroying the last City.
And then... We find out the ship came and bombed the Cities to prevent Man from learning their secrets. (Bit late for that.) And we return to the White Mountains and the Council of Men, where the council is trying to basically form a United Nations, or a better world government. Which is where we meet Pierre again, and the fight comes out again between the nations, as the debate on whether or not Julian is a tyrant or not comes out.
Despite the advances in scientific knowledge (becoming an interstellar race within 50-100 years), the nations of men again separate into their tribes, leaving our 3 survivors to try to unite the world.
So, in the end, the magic I remember from my long ago reading remains, even if some of the issues have become clearer with time and a changing society. While Christopher's concerns about mankind's inability to get along have remained largely true, the books, written in the mid to late 1960s, also lack in any kind of female representation. (Which seems to be a trait of British Boys' Fiction. See Lord of the Flies.) While contemporary YA post apocalyptic more than makes up for this lack of representation, this is a relic of an earlier time, that folks might want to be aware of, less they expect Katniss to come in and save the day. However, the recurring discussions on the nature of man remain just as valid now as they did in 1968.
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