If you haven't read beyond the first book, DONT ...
919888
If you haven't read beyond the first book, DONT READ THE AUTHOR'S MESSAGE IN THE BEGGINING, it contains huuuuge spoilers about the other books. :'(
4754085
if u haven't read all in the series, then go back and buy From the beginning. This book put in a new twist I didn't see coming. You need to read this.
3206832
This is the fourth in a series.  I think it is important to read all of them before you get to the 4th.  It is a story of relationships, how they affect us and how they evolve. If you miss the evolution and history of the characters you are missing an important part of the story.  If you just read the last book, you won't really understand why the things it says are important.
2106845
Review:
I had not read book 1 before reading this book==DON'T make that mistake. Get the first book or you'll be lost.  Hal, Callie and Nia are a wonderful trio of friends trying to find the whereabouts of Amanda.  I'm not sure Amanda can be called a 'friend'.  No one really seems to know much about her at all.  I look forward to the next book in the series ( I understand there are 8).  I have my own suspicions about who Amanda really is.....
4799003
Based heavily on previous book events so anyone who has not read them may be a bit lost or feel as though they have missed something. Earlier books are all excellent, so wortht he set up read, but definitely not a stand alone.
4882077
It's JLA, so in my book that's at least a four star read, right off the bat. But if you need convincing than you obviously haven't read her YA series The Covenant which starts with Half Blood and is set in the same world. So go read that first and you probably won't need a review to get you to read this one. But since I know some of you are stubborn I'd say read this one and if you like it even a little, then get over yourself and go read the original series. You don't need to in order to understand or appreciate this book, but it was good and gives you the details  of what lead up to this book from another characters POV.
4920821
I'm going to have to be really honest here: I haven't read the book properly.  Amazon offered it, and the previous books all had good reviews, so I took them up on the offer.  I immediately used prime to order the first books on the series, as well as the side books that the author has written in this world.  I thought I'd have time to read them all before this review came due.  I  was wrong, and now I'm late and I really don't want to read this book since I've invested so much time into reading the series correctly (in order).  I just need to read more, and read faster.

But I need to review this book, because, as I said, I'm late.  To do that,  I simply dedicated a morning spent carefully reading two or three page excerpts at random.  It hasn't ruined anything for me, that I know of (yet), and I've randomly read a lot of pages throughout the book.  Quite a few things were a little tantalizing to read.  I'm sure when finally get to it in order that I'll probably have a little foreknowledge of what's coming, but oh well, I know it's going to be good!

My first thought is that is more of the same that I already knew (assuming this isn't your first book of the series): he's a good writer.  Especially when I'm just jumping around randomly.  But the exposition is notably good.  Good enough that I never really feel lost in it.  Just enough is said to either remind me about what's going on (if I already knew) or give me a heads up if I didn't recognize anything.  So, if you're just completely crazy and want to read this book first, it probably wouldn't go poorly for you.

My second thought is "why oh why did I invest in a novel series that wasn't done yet?"  I'd thought I'd have learned my lesson by now.  I should only read novel series which are finished!  I'm going to really regret reaching the end of this book because then I have to wait.

Overall, I'm quite happy that I was introduced to this entire series.  This one included.

As for the plot, I almost never go into that in reviews.  Go to google if you want to read about the plot, lots of people have surely lain it out by now.  There's probably a wikipedia page on it already.  I, instead, talk about my likes and dislikes.  And, for what little exposure I've had to this novel, I like it!  Mostly because he's a good writer, and those are hard to find these days.  I also like it because (the entire series) has an interesting and somewhat novel world that it takes place in.
3912648
Just buy it now, and read it. Unless you haven't read the first, then please start at the beginning, you won't regret it!
1517850
Doesn't follow the main character, this book is mostly about another character, the young woman (pirate?) released at the end of the first book.  You can probably skip it and go straight to the third book (which I liked more) and back to the main character, without missing much (she hasn't made an appearance in the third book).

However, some of the secondary cast from this book do reappear in the third book, but again, it's not much of a problem if you skip this book.
1223565
I'm keeping this short because if you've read the first book, you already know if you want to buy this one or not - anything I tried to say would end up spoiling something.
2490870
While this author has certainly touched on something I'm not used to reading, African-american lesbianism, the first book was much better than this one. When you think of the AFTERMATH, you are looking for the results/consequences of what went on in the first book. While the second book gives more insight into one of the main character's, Monica, it also introduces a lot of new characters. That's not what an AFTERMATH is supposed to be about. Now I'm forced to find out what happens with the original characters while trying to figure out what the new character's roles are in this book.
2386088
This was a great follow-up to the first book. If you liked the first book you will like this one. Some seem to have reservations about the first person narration but I like it and don't think the story would be half as good in another style. Is Katana too fixated on her hair and her butt? I don't know, but everyone has some unique quirks; those are a couple of hers. If you read the first book and didn't like it you won't like this one. If you didn't like the first one then read this one and complain... let me show you the Libor hand sign for "knife."
3701963
Gotta read the first one first, then this makes a great followup.
1261377
Call me odd but I actually chose to read book 2 before book 1. I sometimes do this because often the middle of a book or series gives you a better idea of the quality of the book. And so I went back to the first book and found it flowed as well as the second book, but was a little short. I suspect the author intended book 1 as a teaser to get you into the series, but frankly I was already hooked with book 2. Do yet the next ones in the series  its well written and a fascinating world.
1600017
This is a good book, but you really need to read book one first.  This book wraps up the story, it is really a 2 book story, not a trilogy.
4382614
If you've come this far you should probably just read it. There is two more books in the series I guess.
3217099
First of all, I hate the reprint covers.  The covers themselves are silly looking, and the numbers on the side are misleading.  I would not read When the Tripods Came until after you've read the entire series (The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead and The Pool of Fire).  When the Tripods Came is a PREQUAL, and if you read it before the other books, you lose the sense of "what happened to our world" that you want to have when you read the series.  So, if you even want to read this book (it's not really needed with the rest of the series; the characters are not the same anyway and the story is only interesting if you want to know what happened to the world, but it is pretty much explained in the other books anyway), go ahead and read it, but you don't lose much by not reading it.  (But, as a message to all, don't read this book first!  It is not the first book!)