The Tripods Attack! (The Young
Chesterton Chronicles) by John
McNichol
This Book Is Awesome
They are coming Sixteen-year-old Gilbert Chesterton is orphaned and
friendless, stuck working a menial job in grimy turn-of-the-century London.
Then one night strange lights fill the sky, and a hail of giant meteors
crashes into a field outside the city. The next day Gilbert is amazed to find
himself hired by a newspaper and rushed out to investigate the scene. Is it
a harmless natural phenomenon, or the first wave of a Martian invasion?
Gilbert soon learns he s not the only one asking that question, and hes
joined by three strangers with their own interest in the fantastic events:
Herb Wells, journalist for a rival paper. Affable, streetwise, and
selfconfident, Herb s only too happy to teach young Gilbert the ways of the
world. But when it comes to getting the story (and the fame) he warns it s
every man for himself. An enigmatic bearded man known only as the
Doctor. He s suave, cultured, and friendly maybe too friendly. And he

knows things about the cosmic visitors. . .things no ordinary man should
know. How much he s hiding is anybody s guess. Father Brown, a short,
mild, middle-aged priest with an extraordinary talent for solving mysteries.
Gilbert doesn t know much about Christ or the Church, but Father Brown
will teach him lessons of faith, love, and courage. The companions fly
frantically from danger to danger, battling street thugs from London s
underworld and mechanical creatures from another world. As Gilbert is
drawn deeper into the threat of the mysterious tripods, he unveils a sinister
conspiracy that may hold the key not only to the fate of mankind, but to the
accident that took his parents life. And so with only his friends, his wits,
and a tattered holy card to help him, Gilbert must race to save the world all
the while struggling to reconcile his troubling past with his budding faith in
God. The Tripods Attack! is the first volume of the Young Chesterton
Chronicles, a delightfully inventive fiction series for teens to adults that re-
imagines the famous Catholic author as a young man living in an
alternative Edwardian age of steam-driven wonders.
Personal Review: The Tripods Attack! (The Young Chesterton
Chronicles) by John McNichol
Years ago, I edited a tiny Catholic 'zine devoted to science fiction, both
classic and contemporary; one of the things I hoped to see in the future
were Catholic science fiction novels that were both authentically Catholic
and authentically science fictional, the sort of book that both Catholic
readers who truly live and love their faith and readers of well-written
science fiction could both enjoy. I may not have achieved that vision before
reality obliged me to shut down publication, but this book definately makes
that vision real!
I cannot get over how excellent this book really is. Author John McNichol
brings together elements that you wouldn't think would fit together at first,
but which wind up working excellently, much like a well-made anime
series, and I could see this book brought to life as an animated series or a
big-budget Hollywood blockbuster, in the order of Sky Captain and the
World of Tomorrow (Widescreen Special Collector's Edition). There are
echoes of all kinds of things: the real G.K. Chesterton's own Father Brown
is a main player, as is a character eeriely like the insidious Professor
Moriarity from the Sherlock Holmes series; the plot heavily evokes both
H.G. Wells's "The War of the Worlds" and also C.S. Lewis's "Space
Trilogy" (Out of the Silent Planet, and Perelandra, especially); "gosh-wow!"
technology straight out of Hugo Gernsback appears, but it's promptly given
a Chestertonian "gosh-wow, it's soul-sucking when man becomes it's
servant instead of it's master" nudge; an alternate United States of
America straight from the pen of Harry Turtledove is alluded to; there are
steampunk computers straight out of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's
"The Difference Engine; a shadowy organization turns up, that would put
SEELE of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" to shame, and the whole story
resounds with G.K.C.'s own blend of swashbuckling derring-do and
intelligent wry wit. This might make the story sound like a grab-bag of
ideas, but McNichol manages to bring all these concepts together into

something wonderful. G.K.C. would heartily approve and probably chuckle
over his heavily fictionalized doppelganger. I could use pat phrases like
"It's impossible to put down" and "It's the kind of book that both adults and
young adults can enjoy", but they fall short of the mark. Read it and rejoice!
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