The Guardians

by John Christopher

Book Overview

One of a series of fiction for schools. The moral of this story, set in the 21st century, is that freedom has to be won and kept by the young. It won the "Guardian" Prize for Children's Literature. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1481418343
• ISBN13: 9781481418348
• Release Date: November 2014
• Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 10 to 13 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 8

Customer Reviews

not up to The Tripods, but still quite satisfactory

I have never been a fan of "young adult sci fi" as an independent genre, but, having been introduced to Christoper's legendary "Tripods" trilogy (from which even the 2005 movie version of "War of the Worlds" borrowed liberally) as a young boy, I figured I'd read "The Guardians" when I stumbled across it on a library table and had two hours to kill. Despite what many here have said, I would without compunction characterize "The Guardians" as a fast-paced adventure story. It details the adventures of one Rob Randall, a boy raised in a not-too-distant England, which has been subdivided into "the Conurb"--where Rob grew up, devolved into a bread-and-circuses-type situation where the masses can only be kept at bay through government-sponsored violence--and "the County"--where wealthy families and their live-in staffs luxuriate in nineteenth-century torpor. Afer Rob's father dies, he is spirited off to a rigorous boarding school where he runs afoul of the military-style discipline and is impelled to flight by his classmates' sadism. Rob succeeds in escaping under the legendary, underwhelming "fence" that divides the Conurb from the County. After injuring his foot and finding himself quite helpless, Rob is befriended by Mike, a well-to-do country boy who discovers Rob while out riding his horse one day. Mike's mother--discovering food missing from the kitchen and extracting the truth from a recently-fallen-ill Mike--rescues Rob and quickly incorporates him into the family. Rob and Mike are fast friends and are both quite happy until, one day, a wealthy visitor sees through Rob's thin veneer of "I'm Mike's cousin from Nepal"--backed up by Rob's having read a book or two about Nepalese customs, fauna, tourist attractions, etc.--and is about to deliver him to the authorities. We ultimately learn that, while Mike's father was long ago biotechnologically "subdued" (reminiscent of the "capping" in the Tripods trilogy), Mike is quite a rebel himself, "escaping" the superficial happiness of the County for the challenge of the Conurb. At the end of the story, a trepidation-filled Rob slips back under the fence to hunt for Mike, who provided Rob a forwarding address. The story wraps up rather too quickly, and I personally would have enjoyed following Rob's life story for at least a bit longer, yet Christopher does an admirable job of painting the essential elements of an imperfect future world and exploring the tormented psyche of a nice boy inextricably caught in that unforgiving world.

The Guardians

I read this book as a part of a study to do with books. This book deals with a lot of moral issues including thoughts on social control. In the book, John Christopher describes the place as being totally different but actually were under the same group of people who wanted to make England a better place. he shows the different ways of control and how people will go to certain extents to stage a rebellion!! This book is one of the best I have read and makes it a fantastic book for teens!!

Very intresting

The Guardians Book review. This book is about a boy called Robin Randall who is has not settled into a boarding school called Barnes Boarding school and gets teased like a normal new boy would be. He decides to escape into the country where his mother was born. It was a hard decision to make and Rob shows his courage by crossing. It was a hard choice due to the County and Conurb were enemies. It was set in 2053 in the future. This book I think is not well paced, as to much things happen in one chapter, especially in the 10th chapter as to many things happen as Robs true identify is spotted by Sir.Percy. I also do not like the story line, as it is very untrue but then again some readers find that good. It is also a bit confusing so therefore you could get lost and confused. It is one of those books which start of boring then get exciting for the last 5 chapters and it finishes with you wondering what would happen next. That is why I thought it would be a good idea for the author to do another book following on as it does not finish well wondering well Mike meet Rob or not. I recommend this book to people that like adventures and can get really into a book. I give it 8/10.

Classy vision of the future!

"A 21st Century book describing England split into Conurb and County, only being one or the other. The young Rob Randall from the Conurb finds himself in an unstable position after his rebellious father and his mother had both died. He attempts the life-threatening mission of crossing the barrier between Conurb and County. He falls into County gentry and finds himself into a handful of problems." I found the book quite slow and hard to read at first, and had we not been made to read it, I probably wouldn't have carried on, but as I got to the end, I regretted it. The last two chapters swept me off my feet! I wanted to read it over and over again because there was so much drama and action in it. John Christopher wrote the book in 1970, trying to put across his view of what the world will be like in 2053, with the Country divided into two different ways of living. I thought that the idea of a group of people called the Guardians looking after both Conurb and County was a good idea. All in all I thought that the book was very enjoyable and easy to read and if a sequel of it came out, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it.

What a vision of the future!

The year is 2053, and Britain is divided into the tightly packed Conurb and the leisurely County. The people in the County don't work, and they live a very easy life, with hobbies such as growing miniature trees. The Conurbans work in crowded cities with hi-tech entertainment, such as Terraplaning, the bloodthirsty Games and lots of riots. Rob is a Conurban, but he doesn't fit in with everyone else. He would rather read books, while others watch Terraplaning and the Games. When Rob's father dies, orphaned Rob is sent off to Barnes Boarding School, which he hates. Rob decides to try and cross the barrier, which people say is a hundred feet high and electrified, and enter the County. When Rob reaches the barrier, he finds a fence, which is about twelve feet high. He realizes that the fence is big in people's minds, to stop them crossing, but small in reality. He digs a hole under it, and crosses. A boy, about the same age as him, named Mike Gifford soon finds him. Mike shows him a cave, which Rob lives in for a few days. However, Mike's mother soon finds Rob, and offers to take him into the house, and pretend he is a cousin from Nepal. How long can Rob stay in the County, fooling the officials? How long will Rob be able to pretend to be one of the Gentry? How long will it be until someone finds out the truth? The whole point of the book is about freedom, and how most people are not free, because they all have to go along with everything else in the Conurb. They are not free to do what they want to do. The book is written in a strange way, but it is intended to be strange, with lots of hidden technology in the County which people don't know about. The County seems to be calm and comfortable, but underneath it is ruthless, with a false sense of security. I feel that this is a good read and I would not hesitate to buy a sequel if there was one. For a long time there didn't seem to be a lot happening, but the last chapter had a lot of twists I it, making it an excellent last chapter. The book ends very openly, with lots of possibilities for a sequel, or next chapter, and I feel it is a shame that there isn't anything to follow it with.