Goodreads Review: The Pool of Fire

Posted on February 20, 2009 by Phoebe 26No Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.phoebenorth.com%2F2009%2F02%2F20%2Fgoodreads-review-the-pool-of-fire%2FGoodreads+Review%3A+The+Pool+of+Fire2009-02-20+19%3A44%3A00Phoebehttp%3A%2F%2Fphoebeeating.dreamhosters.com%2F%3Fp%3D26

The Pool of Fire by John Christopher

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars

John Christopher’s final entry in the core tripods trilogy stands out as an excellent example of the series’ flaws. This is a scattershot tale of military missions, of man’s drawn-out and plodding victory over the ruthless aliens who have ruled over the Earth for more than a century. Each mission is dryly recalled and poorly developed; the action does not build in any particular way, and because we’ve already encountered each of the settings in this third book before, even Christopher’s usually lush descriptions of scenery are absent. The human characters, again, are flat–and as in the second book, one of the most sympathetic personalities is that of an alien villain.

Meanwhile, the men here–and there are only men; not a single female character has been present since the first novel–are terrifically bland, occasionally violent, and overall unsavory. We are meant to sympathize with them wholly because they are human and seek freedom, but it’s largely unconvincing, particularly when the most sympathetic human character (nerdy scientist Beanpole, whose presence is refreshing in the cast of militaristic characters) starts to reiterate arguments against humanity’s freedom which were raised earlier by one of the alien overlords.

But most disappointing of all is the novel’s ending; the men win a very clean victory, totally exterminating the Masters. Deeper, more satisfying possibilities–learning to live in harmony with the aliens, some of whom have shown themselves to be moderate in the attitudes towards humans–are rendered totally impossible. Instead, we’re left with a bunch of violent men squabbling amongst themselves for leadership. For me, this felt like a very shallow victory.

Oh, and at one point, our hero refers to Asians as “little yellow men.” Maybe this sort of dialog is meant to help emphasize how the series hearkens back to nineteenth century boys’ adventure stories, but to me it really only underscored how horribly backwards all of the human characters seemed to be.

View all my reviews.