The Pool of Fire (Mass Market Paperback)

by John Christopher (Author) "Everywhere there was the sound of water..." (more)
Key Phrases: communal places, invisible rays, green air, White Mountains, Six Against the City, Entering Place (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

35th Anniversary Editon with New Text and a New Preface by the Author!

Will Parker has managed to escape from the City of Gold and Lead, where he served as a slave to one of the Masters who rule the modern world. And he has not only discovered what lies behind the Tripods' power, but also how the Masters heartlessly plan to destroy the Earth.

About the Author

John Christopher (Sam Youd) was born in England in April 1922, during an unseasonable snowstorm. His early years were spent in Lancashire and Hampshire. He left school at sixteen to work as a local government clerk until being called up for army service in 1941, and spent the following four and a half years with the Royal Corps of Signals, in Gibraltar, North Africa, Italy, and Austria.

On leaving the army he renewed a teenage ambition toward being a writer, and in 1947, on the basis of an unfinished novel, won an Atlantic Award, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, which enabled him to devote himself to writing for a year. He tried to justify the award by writing serious novels, but subsequently also wrote detective thrillers, light comedies, novels based on cricket, and science fiction, to which he had been passionately devoted in his early teens. After several adult science fiction novels, he was asked to write for the young adult field, and ended up writing sixteen books in that genre, including The Guardians, The Lotus Caves, Dom and Va, Empty World, and the Sword and Fireball trilogies, as well as the Tripods trilogy. Following a BBC television series in 1984 based on the Tripods books, he wrote a prequel, When the Tripods Came, explaining how it all came about.

Sam Youd is a widower with five children and numerous grandchildren, and lives in Rye, in the county of Sussex, England. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689856695
• ISBN-13: 978-0689856693
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,753 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 3 in The Tripods Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Pool of Fire, March 9, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Pool of Fire: The Tripods Trilogy (Mass Market Paperback)

The novel The Pool of fire is a very enjoyable book to read. It held my interest because of it's thrilling rush of action, which John Christopher has a great style of this technique.

In the novel a few favorite passages were made. As a tripod destroys Will's boat while they are traveling in the war. This interested me because it put a true meaning to true meaning "up a creek without a paddle" and all the gear that was saved had to be carried. Another part of the book that interested me was when Will had to escape slavery by going down a sewage pipe. The reason this drew my attention was because of the humor.

In The Pool of Fire John Christopher has a great way of keeping my interest. He managed this by always has something big or major going on.

As I read this novel I learned some great vocabulary. I would also recommend this book to any body because it's so action packed.

Ryan
Creston Ca.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Ending, May 8, 2004

By	Xavier E. Suarez (Bak Middle School of the Arts_West Palm Beach, Fl USA) - See all my reviews

The Pool of Fire is the last of The Tripods Trilogy. In this novel the reader enters the fascinating world where humans no longer are in control of the planet, but are enslaved by the ruling cast referred to as the masters. Will, Jean-Paul, Henry, and fritz are left with the challenge of aiding the rebellion in hope of destroying the Masters before it was too late. John Christopher has a wonderful style of capturing the readers and especially my attention in this novel. Of course there are some very important details that John Christopher could have done to improve the novel and to reach its full potential, such as the descriptions of many of the events and actions that were undertaken by Will and his companions. This left me with some sense of yearning and disappointment for more descriptions of the events that took place. Also it left me astonished that John Christopher did not attempt to mold the character of Will by the end of the story or even all three of the books that this character has been in. The ending was also vague and skipped many years in a short amount of pages. This left me wondering what happened between the time of the defeat of the Masters and the development of a space ship. This was disappointing considering that I was looking forward to reading this book and finding out that the ending was in all not that exciting or interesting. Considering that this is the last book of the Trilogy John Christopher should have taken more measures to see to it that the ending was more informative of the aftermath of the events. After the climax it just completely died and just left me. John Christopher also did not manage to say how the world recovered from the grip of the officious Masters. Yet despite these faults, there were many qualities that Christopher John managed to succeed. I was bonded into the world created which was filled with adventures and dangers, with John Christopher's style of writing. Another quality that makes this book worth reading is that John Christopher involved all four of the main characters to fit important roles that make the reader highly interested. Though the novel had some weak descriptions the overall flow of events were incredible and left me wanting more. Most of the book was upfront about the events, even though John Christopher could have elaborated more. The good thing about the ending was the situation that took place, which left me and probably many readers in complete awe. John Christopher also has the gift of surprising his readers by leading them onto a certain path and then completely turning the tables on them and knocking them off their feet. At least that's what happened to me. Not only did John Christopher entertain the reader but he also had some messages that could be interpreted there. This novel also teaches the importance of unity and the things that could be accomplished if man could work together in peace.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, November 5, 2006

By	K. Frazier - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Pool of Fire: The Tripods Trilogy (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the fourth and final book in the Tripod series. In order, they are: "When the Tripods Came", "The White Mountains", "The City of Gold and Lead", and "The Pool of Fire". This entire set is an excellent read that both young teenagers and adults will enjoy. My daughter and I really enjoyed these books!