The City of Gold and Lead

How had it happened that men who had moved with ease and splendor about the earth had been conquered and enslaved by the Tripods? and how would a handful of shattered remnants succeed where their forefathers had failed? The first question is answered, the second awaits a sequel in this, the successor to The White Mountains (136, J-48). There is no gradual shock of awareness this time and little self-discovery; the reader is transported almost immediately into the City of the Tripods, the city of gold and lead, as Will and Fritz, wearing the false Caps of the subjugated, succeed in the athletic contests that will make them the favored slaves of the Masters, and spies. But humans cannot survive for long in the heavy, sticky clime. Will is fortunate in his considerate Master; their friendship (modeled after man and dog) discloses to him the source of the Masters' power over men but is also his undoing - having killed his Master in self-protection, he must escape from the City and return to the White Mountains to report. As read after The White Mountains, this is a suitable extension of a harrowingly convincing supposition; as read on its Own, it is superbly written science fiction - to catch the complex undertones, it is necessary to read the two in sequence (Kirkus Reviews)