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I'm trying to find a sci-fi story I read in the mid 80's which I think was for roughly the 10-15 age range. Things I can remember:

  • I think the protagonist was a teenage boy. He might have had a dog.
  • There had been an alien invasion which had destroyed most of society, with only small groups of survivors trying to fight back
  • The aliens used drones such as flying robotic birds with flame throwers that hovered in the sky and hunted for survivors.
  • Set in the UK possibly, but I might be conflating that with John Christopher's Tripods books which had a similar feel and that I read about the same time.
  • They captured one of the 'birds' at one point and discovered it was full of a red gelatinous substance : some kind of alien technology for controlling the machines
  • I think no-one had seen the aliens, which were a mystery (at least at the start of the book), but that might also be conflation with the Tripods.

Not a whole lot to go on I'm afraid.

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  • Not certain enough to post as an answer, but The Huntsman by Douglas Hill (best known for the Last Legionary books) matches some points and fits with the timeline.
    – KerrAvon2055
    Commented Feb 1 at 23:08
  • If it is The Huntsman the "birds" are called spywings. The protagonist Finn does catch one but is full of mechanisms and a green fluid not a red gelatinous substance. The spywings don't have flame throwers but the aliens (the Slavers) do use heatlances. If this ring a bell with you then maybe @Kerr could post it as an answer.
    – John Rennie
    Commented Feb 2 at 6:31
  • If so then it is a duplicate of scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/251903/… I'll have a look later to see if I can dig out my copy for a good answer to this question.
    – KerrAvon2055
    Commented Feb 2 at 6:39
  • The name of the book doesn't sound familiar, but "spywings" as the name for the birds does. Looking up what details I can find rings a few more bells. Can't be certain, but there's a good chance that's the right book, allowing for unreliable memory from 40 years ago. I'd accept it as an answer if nothing else is suggested that I recognise.
    – PhillS
    Commented Feb 2 at 7:54

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