The Tripods Attack

By John Mcnichol

Catholic-ometer: 4.5 of 5

Enjoyability: 4 of 5

A novel this time; a sort of restructuring of victorian culture and literature; combining old victorian characters and authors in a sort of new steampunk/gaslamp setting.

Since I enjoyed this book, let me start by getting my complaints out of the way.  This book is not children's fiction.  It's based on, and in, the fictions written for adults in the victorian era, such as Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown and War of the Worlds.  This might be a strange and difficult world for those unfamiliar with victorian-era stories to venture into, and it really should have provided a literary guide, explaining where it got all its characters and concepts from; if only to be polite to the original authors of those pieces.

This is, in essence, a piece of victorian-style fanfiction, re-imagining both the characters and the authors of classic victorian literature into a different kind of world; one driven by steam and run by secret conspiracies.  I've seen other reviewers say that this method doesn't work unless the portrayals are spot on, regardless of the changes, and...  I agree, sort of.  It would be better to say that the story can no longer use its celebrity elements as a crutch to stand on, since it warps them so unrecognizably into something else.  This means that the question of the actual quality of the story comes up.  Is it a good story, in and of itself?

In this respect, one could do a lot worse.  The main characters are H.G. Wells (pretty much a dead-on portrayal, from what I can tell,) G.K. Chesterton (seeming very similar to his real personality, but very different in shape and appearance,) Father Brown (a character written about by Chesterton, who seems to be basically accurately portrayed,) and "the doctor," who young Chesterton eventually refers to as "a snake."

The plot is as much a conspiracy thriller as an alien invasion story, though it certainly does have elements of both, and I'm afraid that it moves a bit slowly at first.  I would say that the first quarter of the book is gobbled up by Chesterton getting an assignment, meeting Wells, getting on a train, talking on the train, trying to save someone's life on the train, trying to stop the train from crashing, etc, with nary a sign of the tripods.  This section, to its credit, is kept interesting, because the dialogue and events are indeed involving and exciting ones, but through it all, one wonders; when will the tripods attack?

Well, it happens fairly quickly.  One of the martian machines from H.G. Wells' classic "The War of the Worlds" tips over the train and starts abducting people.  In this respect, the book does not take it easy in the slightest.  It's very vivid in its depictions of the war and carnage wreaked by the martians on the poor earthlings (in fact, I would say, it's a bit more gruesomely-delivered than even Wells himself probably dared,) and this won me over at first.  Then the doctor leads the group into a secret passage, and Chesterton gets lost in a cave, and begins to whine and whine, like the biggest weakling who ever lived.

This section is easily the story's weakest point, and it goes on for the better part of a chapter.  After that, there's martian-fighting, and finding out about the doctor's secret organization, and their connection to Chesterton himself, as well as the fate of Chesterton and Father Brown, all of which was, I thought, just a little disrespectful to the characters and people depicted, but at least it was entertaining and even a bit encouraging.

When all is said and done, there are only a few questions left to ask.  Is this book Catholic enough?  Well, it comes at you from a Catholic perspective, so yes; it is.  I only gave it a half point down because the real Chesterton wasn't involved with secret agents, and I honestly think it would have been a more interesting story if there'd been nothing special about him at first.

Is the book entertaining enough?  Well, there are dull or grating spots here or there, and the book's premise, as I said, takes a while to get underway, but I would say yes; it's sufficiently entertaining, and on the whole, is written rather well.

Is the book propaganda?  I wouldn't say so.  It just approaches fiction from a religious perspective (finally) instead of the tired, old, secularist one, which, in my view, has done more than enough damage to the world of fiction already.

Will this book convince people to become Catholic?  Probably not.  Still, it might encourage folks to read more of Chesterton's real work, and few people made the Catholic position seem as logical as it is, quite like G.K. Chesterton.  That was his real shining accomplishment; not fighting martians or secret agents.

I won't harp on any of these points, because none of them really upset or stunned me that much.  It's the elements of fiction stories, shown through the lens of Catholic Church teaching, and that's certainly rare enough that it deserves some support.