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The Last Tribe
Imagine being alone in the world, one of only a handful to survive a global pandemic. Not only do you struggle to find food, water, and shelter, you deal with the sadness and loss of everyone you know, and everything you have.
Fourteen year old Greg Dixon is living that nightmare. Attending boarding school outside of Boston, he is separated from his family when a pandemic strikes. His classmates and teachers are dead, rotting in a dormitory turned morgue steps from his room. The nights are getting colder, and his food has run out. The last message from his father is get away from the city, and meet at his grandparent’s town in remote New Hampshire. Knowing the impending New England winter could be the final nail in his coffin, he packs what little food he can find, and sets off on his one hundred mile walk north with the unwavering belief that his family is alive and will join him.
As the fast moving and deadly disease strips away family and friends, Greg’s father, John, is trapped in South Carolina. Roadblocks, a panic stricken population, and winter make it impossible for him to get to his son. John and his three brothers appear to be immune, but they are scattered across a locked down United States, forced to wait for the end of humanity before travelling to the mountains of New Hampshire.
Spring arrives, and the Dixons make their way north to find young Greg. They meet others along the way, and slowly form the last tribe of humanity from the few people still alive in the northeast.
Fourteen year old Greg Dixon is living that nightmare. Attending boarding school outside of Boston, he is separated from his family when a pandemic strikes. His classmates and teachers are dead, rotting in a dormitory turned morgue steps from his room. The nights are getting colder, and his food has run out. The last message from his father is get away from the city, and meet at his grandparent’s town in remote New Hampshire. Knowing the impending New England winter could be the final nail in his coffin, he packs what little food he can find, and sets off on his one hundred mile walk north with the unwavering belief that his family is alive and will join him.
As the fast moving and deadly disease strips away family and friends, Greg’s father, John, is trapped in South Carolina. Roadblocks, a panic stricken population, and winter make it impossible for him to get to his son. John and his three brothers appear to be immune, but they are scattered across a locked down United States, forced to wait for the end of humanity before travelling to the mountains of New Hampshire.
Spring arrives, and the Dixons make their way north to find young Greg. They meet others along the way, and slowly form the last tribe of humanity from the few people still alive in the northeast.
722 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 7, 2015
601 people are currently reading
1511 people want to read
About the author
Brad Manuel
5 books128 followersBrad Manuel lives in Raleigh, NC with his wife and two sons. His road to publishing has been a long and winding one, but like all journeys, the trek has been just as much fun as the destination. When he's not writing (or more likely editing), Brad coaches his sons' sports, spends time with his wife, and occasionally plays golf.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 634 reviews
July 16, 2015
The Apocalypse by Betty Crocker.
I suppose I should preface this with a spoilers warning but honestly what little plot development there is, is so thinly veiled that you will see it coming long before you remember anything I said in this review.
I will say that this book has everything every other post-apocalyptic thriller has. It just doesn't do anything thrilling with them.
Uninspired pandemic that wipes out most of humanity? Check. Only make sure it's the most polite and convenient version of the flu ever.
A small band of humans grasping for resources in a world turned on it's head? Check. But not really a problem since that super nice flu killed everyone so quickly and was even so helpful to cut their appetite first that there is more food than ever just laying around. Seriously our rag tag group of heroes eat better after the end of the world than most people most alive today.
What about bad guys? There must be people that were twisted and evil from before the "rapture", and yes that is the name of the flu, that they seek only to harm our heroes on their quest for another bread recipe. There are, but a stern talking to or a cryptic set of instructions to an exit an hour up the road from where one has lived his whole life is all that is needed to send them on their way. No harm. No foul.
What about the main characters in the book? Surely the death of every one they know affects them in deep psychological ways that add depth and color to their personalities and shape the new world they inhabit. Nope. Even the ones that did suffer the loss of their love ones tell their story like it was something they saw on T.V. the night before. And that raises another issue. The book starts off following a group of four brothers and whats left of their family after all but 1 in a million people across the globe are killed within a matter of weeks. Only the brothers are so generic that it's hard to keep up with which one is which. Except Todd because absolutely nothing bad happens to this guy. Him and his whole family treat the end of the world like it's a 4th of July camping trip. The other brothers have their share of losses but since you don't get any back story on them it doesn't actually matter. There is never any real connection. So out of all of that the main plot of the book takes shape. Four brothers need to get from where ever they are back to their childhood home in Hanover, MI. to regroup and figure out how to live. Along the way the will meet some groups of people more helpful and convenient than the virus that started this whole mess. If there is a laundry list of the most helpful people you could come across in your journey of survival it has to this group of interchangeable characters. A teenage super genius, a neurosurgeon who really wants to be a farmer, a veterinarian, a nurse, a priest and a pilot. Why would you need a pilot? Well obviously because after you get to the north east and see how cold it is the next best thing is to find a fully fueled 777 that you can convert in to a modern day Noah's ark and fly yourself to Hawaii because the 13 year old super genius said it was the best plan ever. So they did it. And once again ate like kings.
So if any of that seems like something you think you might like and you really enjoy more thought given to the planning and description of a meal than plot and character development then this might be the book for you.
I suppose I should preface this with a spoilers warning but honestly what little plot development there is, is so thinly veiled that you will see it coming long before you remember anything I said in this review.
I will say that this book has everything every other post-apocalyptic thriller has. It just doesn't do anything thrilling with them.
Uninspired pandemic that wipes out most of humanity? Check. Only make sure it's the most polite and convenient version of the flu ever.
A small band of humans grasping for resources in a world turned on it's head? Check. But not really a problem since that super nice flu killed everyone so quickly and was even so helpful to cut their appetite first that there is more food than ever just laying around. Seriously our rag tag group of heroes eat better after the end of the world than most people most alive today.
What about bad guys? There must be people that were twisted and evil from before the "rapture", and yes that is the name of the flu, that they seek only to harm our heroes on their quest for another bread recipe. There are, but a stern talking to or a cryptic set of instructions to an exit an hour up the road from where one has lived his whole life is all that is needed to send them on their way. No harm. No foul.
What about the main characters in the book? Surely the death of every one they know affects them in deep psychological ways that add depth and color to their personalities and shape the new world they inhabit. Nope. Even the ones that did suffer the loss of their love ones tell their story like it was something they saw on T.V. the night before. And that raises another issue. The book starts off following a group of four brothers and whats left of their family after all but 1 in a million people across the globe are killed within a matter of weeks. Only the brothers are so generic that it's hard to keep up with which one is which. Except Todd because absolutely nothing bad happens to this guy. Him and his whole family treat the end of the world like it's a 4th of July camping trip. The other brothers have their share of losses but since you don't get any back story on them it doesn't actually matter. There is never any real connection. So out of all of that the main plot of the book takes shape. Four brothers need to get from where ever they are back to their childhood home in Hanover, MI. to regroup and figure out how to live. Along the way the will meet some groups of people more helpful and convenient than the virus that started this whole mess. If there is a laundry list of the most helpful people you could come across in your journey of survival it has to this group of interchangeable characters. A teenage super genius, a neurosurgeon who really wants to be a farmer, a veterinarian, a nurse, a priest and a pilot. Why would you need a pilot? Well obviously because after you get to the north east and see how cold it is the next best thing is to find a fully fueled 777 that you can convert in to a modern day Noah's ark and fly yourself to Hawaii because the 13 year old super genius said it was the best plan ever. So they did it. And once again ate like kings.
So if any of that seems like something you think you might like and you really enjoy more thought given to the planning and description of a meal than plot and character development then this might be the book for you.
June 24, 2023
I’ve ranted before about how I enjoy science fiction but just can’t deal with monsters, aliens and supernatural powers, So I was attracted to this tale of post-apocalyptic life which, if the blurb were to be believed, seemed to be a version of The Stand without the bits I didn’t like. And was it? Well, yes – pretty much. But that’s to over simplify things.
As the reader picks up events, the deadly disease is already rife in one small city in America. A few people are dying and it’s beginning to get a grip on the population. It’s soon evident that it’s a fast killer: some symptoms similar to a dose of the flu, a quick few days where the patient seems almost deliriously happy (hence the name widely applied to this plague of ‘the rapture’) and it’s all over. It spreads rapidly too and it’s not long before the city is in lock-down in a vain attempt to stop it spreading. It fails, of course, and soon the disease has spread everywhere – it’s all across America and all around the globe.
We meet a family – a couple and their boys – and one of the children has symptoms which might be onset of the dreaded lurgy. The father is convinced it’s just a normal case of the flu and he decides to stay in their home and avoid the government people who are knocking on doors, asking questions and carting away the bodies. He’s suspicious of them and doesn’t trust their motives. But there’s a problem, one of the sons is away at a camp and can’t be reunited with them. A series of phone conversations is hastily arranged with the son and other family members and a plan is hatched for any survivors to meet up at their old family home in New England, in the spring, some months hence.
This scene setting is well very executed and it certainly sets things up nicely for what is to follow. Though as the story develops I had a few minor gripes:
- The whole book is very good on practical advice, should this unhappy event ever visit. The steps taken by survivors seem rational and well thought out. But perhaps it’s too organised. It just so happens that most of the group we follow are well balanced, logical thinkers with just the right mix of skills.
- There is little conflict here. People accept what’s happened and get on with it; they agree on most things with little argument. This did feel a little too easy for my tastes. Yes, there are a couple of ‘difficult’ people, but they don’t stay around for long. The bad stuff - the looting and violence – is here, in the background, and is referenced from time to time but it doesn’t take centre-stage.
- It sometimes felt a little bit like The Waltons, in the way the survivors adopted a homely ‘night John-Boy’ approach to their relationships. It was, perhaps, a little too twee in this regard.
But these minor aspects aside I did find it a gripping story of survival against the odds and it certainly held my attention for the full twenty hours it took to listen to the audio version. The book was read by the excellent Scott Brick and I’d happily recommend this as a way of absorbing this addictive adventure.
As the reader picks up events, the deadly disease is already rife in one small city in America. A few people are dying and it’s beginning to get a grip on the population. It’s soon evident that it’s a fast killer: some symptoms similar to a dose of the flu, a quick few days where the patient seems almost deliriously happy (hence the name widely applied to this plague of ‘the rapture’) and it’s all over. It spreads rapidly too and it’s not long before the city is in lock-down in a vain attempt to stop it spreading. It fails, of course, and soon the disease has spread everywhere – it’s all across America and all around the globe.
We meet a family – a couple and their boys – and one of the children has symptoms which might be onset of the dreaded lurgy. The father is convinced it’s just a normal case of the flu and he decides to stay in their home and avoid the government people who are knocking on doors, asking questions and carting away the bodies. He’s suspicious of them and doesn’t trust their motives. But there’s a problem, one of the sons is away at a camp and can’t be reunited with them. A series of phone conversations is hastily arranged with the son and other family members and a plan is hatched for any survivors to meet up at their old family home in New England, in the spring, some months hence.
This scene setting is well very executed and it certainly sets things up nicely for what is to follow. Though as the story develops I had a few minor gripes:
- The whole book is very good on practical advice, should this unhappy event ever visit. The steps taken by survivors seem rational and well thought out. But perhaps it’s too organised. It just so happens that most of the group we follow are well balanced, logical thinkers with just the right mix of skills.
- There is little conflict here. People accept what’s happened and get on with it; they agree on most things with little argument. This did feel a little too easy for my tastes. Yes, there are a couple of ‘difficult’ people, but they don’t stay around for long. The bad stuff - the looting and violence – is here, in the background, and is referenced from time to time but it doesn’t take centre-stage.
- It sometimes felt a little bit like The Waltons, in the way the survivors adopted a homely ‘night John-Boy’ approach to their relationships. It was, perhaps, a little too twee in this regard.
But these minor aspects aside I did find it a gripping story of survival against the odds and it certainly held my attention for the full twenty hours it took to listen to the audio version. The book was read by the excellent Scott Brick and I’d happily recommend this as a way of absorbing this addictive adventure.
July 15, 2018
The Last Tribe is a post-apocalyptic novel about meeting up, cooking and eating, cooking and eating, cooking and eating, and flying off into the sunset. This is a fabulously vapid adversity-free narrative about menial logistics and food. Avoid it like the plague!
The Last Tribe is a miniature Americanized version of Terry Nation's Survivors in which nothing happens. Like the survivors, it is a Nerf apocalypse--no guns and sharp objects or people willing to use them. What you get in The Last Tribe is one step worse: the Mayberry apocalypse, where everyone is so good natured that rudeness is very, very much frowned upon. Beware, extreme cases may call for the application of stern innuendo or even reprovement. Mind you, literally no one gets killed or even hurt in the narrative itself. A murder and a suicide are recounted after the fact, but face slapping is the most extreme thing that happens in the narrative itself. In Mayberry everything is peaceful and everyone nice--except for two characters who briefly appear and leave. A couple of egos get ruffled. A moose gets shot. [Sorry, I guess on this billiard table landscape, that's most definitely a spoiler.] A slutty exchange student seduces an older authority figure. [This bland little sexcapade spoils the otherwise G-rating.]
Instead of a plot you get an endless string of details about people moving around, meeting up, and ceaseless, utterly demented descriptions of cooking and eating. I can't recommend the book in good faith because the return on investment is beyond pitiful. If it were a thin novella, it would deserve a serious look on novelty grounds alone, but the fortune cookie content in a 55-gallon drum filled with lots of trite culinary padding is difficult to take agreeably. A proper edit would have cut half of this book out at a minimum. As you might expect, the characters are mostly flat like the plot they glide painlessly through, few are interesting or likable. Though you may find yourself loathing them by the end for their insipid tedium.
This is the whole book in 169 words:
SPOILERS (like there's much real plot to spoil).
A global pandemic afflicts everyone but one family and a few random people. The dying government tries to coerce immune people to help find a cure, they refuse. Off screen, there is an bloody revolt and a museum is destroyed. All the non-immune people die off. The immune Dixon family members travel to meet up. They meet other people who tag along. A 13yo genius girl is found by a lonely Dixon boy. Chickens are kept. A gangbanger is instantly transformed into a good person by a slap from a strong woman. An addict falls asleep and gets left behind. A moose is sighted! The moose is shot! The moose is tenderized, cooked, and eaten. Off screen, a newly met crazy woman kills herself and a mean guy drives off in a car. Fish are caught. Cows are kept. Some people pair off and get intimate. Then, spreading leaflets as they go, they all take a 777 and fly 5,000 miles to a tropical island just for the good climate. They lived happily ever after. The end.
END SPOILERS
That is the whole book.
"Come on! Isn't there anything else in the book?" Oh yes! Yes there is! COOKING AND EATING! That is what fills this book up. Endless pitifully meaningless accounts of the most tedious details of food preparation and consumption. No meal or snack goes by without its procedure being articulated and its menu being recounted, expounded, and opined upon. (You will not be able to believe the endless and utterly empty droning on about food! On and on and on and on! I cannot explain to you how completely INSANE it is. Again. The food! It's crazy! No words.) This bloats the book into a cripplingly long tome (720page/22hours) and makes the book's total lack of adversity and tension all the more painful and arduous.
I deeply regret finishing this book. Honestly, I scoured the 5 star reviews looking for patterns suggesting fake reviews. [I couldn't identify any.] Steer clear of The Last Tribe. I read the bad reviews and I read the good ones and I chose poorly. I can't go back. YOU still have your time. I recommend you expend it elsewhere.
If you want a post-apocalyptic narrative with more humane-ness than usual, there are better options than this vapid volume. I'll recommend "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel, who brings a lot of heart into her PA world in an exceptionally well-written, unhurried book.
Some spoiler notes on specifics issues:
SPOILERS
The only part of the book that could be described as interesting is the early subplot about a boy, Greg, stranded at boarding school (a la Peter Grant from "Survivors") and the girl genius Rebecca he picks up. It is a bit sanguine, but it's something at least. The challenges faced by a solitary youth alone in an apocalyptic landscape have a special poignancy potential. That's about it for the good parts but it could easily be reclaimed and reworked as a fine short story. Usually the die off is the one reliably interesting part of any novel of this type, but here it receives a kind of perfunctory execution that renders even mass death impressively bland.
Despite the traveling ice cream social overtone that rules the book, there are bizarre anomalies in the plot that stand out from the tepidness:
Off screen, Solange, the slutty Ecuadorian exchange student, strangles to death the supposed last man on Earth because he is a mere "beta male" pretending to be an "alpha male" who tried to coerce her into sex with food bribes rather than properly raping her, the way a real proper alpha male would have. (Uhhh, to each their own?) Solange, remained capable of all kinds of physicality and, in an act of truly extraordinary violence, slaps an obnoxious young gangbanger, who is thereby immediately (and I mean instantaneously) transformed into a courteous, responsible young man.
There is a sort of obligatory anti-government subplot that is a bit off the rails: As the whole world and literally billions die of a deadly disease, the government (which, for once, did not create the disease) is seeking and detaining, by force if necessary, anyone with apparent immunity in hopes of deriving a cure to save the world before everyone is dead. The book treats this policy as the supreme act of tyranny by a dying institution. Any thought of a philosophical position behind this view is completely neglected. Its characters simply take the individualist approach, "I won't take a chance on saving billions, as long as I can assure my own immediate freedom and safety, by golly." This indifference to human life collides with the sappy and naive summer camp approach the characters take after the great kill off. What is the difference? The absence of government? There is a subtext that Providence is killing everyone off and it is just best for the Elect to get out of the way and ignore the dying, who will be gone in a blink or two so the (non)plot can proceed.
Also in contrast to the passive mood of the book, there is the odd recapitulation of a supposed bloody anti-government uprising at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We are made to understand that the government seizure of the handful of uncooperative immunes sparked a placard protest (while 99.9% of all humans are dying off) and when the government does not yield, a popular uprising of people armed with only household tools swarms a machinegun-fortified army post in at the MMOA and everyone dies and most of the art is destroyed. This is the most violent event in the book, and while it is only included by reference, it stands out, presumably as a symbol of the unraveling of civil society. I think it is a symbol of the odd perception of humanity in this book. Would such an extreme uprising against any effort to find a cure be likely? Given that this is the only visible chance for an ordinary person to survive, it would be much more realistic if the government were to enlist the help of the masses in seizing and turning in the defiant, unpatriotic immunes. Is it credible?: People who know that they and everyone they care about will soon die from a global plague stage a murderous assault on an army encampment to free a handful of selfish immunes from doctors who are literally the only hope for the survival of the assailants themselves and 99% of all humanity. It is hard to imagine anything so extreme happening in a time of normality, but when everyone's lives are on the line, is that the time when the masses are going to rise up over the issue of such detentions? Or would they decide that the temporary kidnapping of a very few immunes in hopes of saving billions of lives warrants bending habeas corpus a little? Obviously any non-cockeyed view of humans can see that the latter is what would happen, but not in the universe of The Last Tribe.
A slightly subversive but rather honest way to look at the book is that the characters are good natured fools, not long for this world by any proper measure, but who are just comically lucky, walking through a minefield with an ignorant glee that drops the jaw. Surviving immaculate and naive, they somehow escape reality long enough to flee to Hawaii, the one move by which they could continue to dodge the annihilation or enslavement that should, in all fairness, have been theirs. Why do they go to Hawaii? To avoid being eaten alive by people who are competitive and aggressive? No. They go there for the good growing climate! Of course! (The fact that they choose to put nearly every last known living human on an airliner that has sat unmaintained on the tarmac for more than a year and just take off for a 5000 mile flight is . . . I don't know what to say about that.)
END SPOILERS
The Last Tribe is a miniature Americanized version of Terry Nation's Survivors in which nothing happens. Like the survivors, it is a Nerf apocalypse--no guns and sharp objects or people willing to use them. What you get in The Last Tribe is one step worse: the Mayberry apocalypse, where everyone is so good natured that rudeness is very, very much frowned upon. Beware, extreme cases may call for the application of stern innuendo or even reprovement. Mind you, literally no one gets killed or even hurt in the narrative itself. A murder and a suicide are recounted after the fact, but face slapping is the most extreme thing that happens in the narrative itself. In Mayberry everything is peaceful and everyone nice--except for two characters who briefly appear and leave. A couple of egos get ruffled. A moose gets shot. [Sorry, I guess on this billiard table landscape, that's most definitely a spoiler.] A slutty exchange student seduces an older authority figure. [This bland little sexcapade spoils the otherwise G-rating.]
Instead of a plot you get an endless string of details about people moving around, meeting up, and ceaseless, utterly demented descriptions of cooking and eating. I can't recommend the book in good faith because the return on investment is beyond pitiful. If it were a thin novella, it would deserve a serious look on novelty grounds alone, but the fortune cookie content in a 55-gallon drum filled with lots of trite culinary padding is difficult to take agreeably. A proper edit would have cut half of this book out at a minimum. As you might expect, the characters are mostly flat like the plot they glide painlessly through, few are interesting or likable. Though you may find yourself loathing them by the end for their insipid tedium.
This is the whole book in 169 words:
SPOILERS (like there's much real plot to spoil).
A global pandemic afflicts everyone but one family and a few random people. The dying government tries to coerce immune people to help find a cure, they refuse. Off screen, there is an bloody revolt and a museum is destroyed. All the non-immune people die off. The immune Dixon family members travel to meet up. They meet other people who tag along. A 13yo genius girl is found by a lonely Dixon boy. Chickens are kept. A gangbanger is instantly transformed into a good person by a slap from a strong woman. An addict falls asleep and gets left behind. A moose is sighted! The moose is shot! The moose is tenderized, cooked, and eaten. Off screen, a newly met crazy woman kills herself and a mean guy drives off in a car. Fish are caught. Cows are kept. Some people pair off and get intimate. Then, spreading leaflets as they go, they all take a 777 and fly 5,000 miles to a tropical island just for the good climate. They lived happily ever after. The end.
END SPOILERS
That is the whole book.
"Come on! Isn't there anything else in the book?" Oh yes! Yes there is! COOKING AND EATING! That is what fills this book up. Endless pitifully meaningless accounts of the most tedious details of food preparation and consumption. No meal or snack goes by without its procedure being articulated and its menu being recounted, expounded, and opined upon. (You will not be able to believe the endless and utterly empty droning on about food! On and on and on and on! I cannot explain to you how completely INSANE it is. Again. The food! It's crazy! No words.) This bloats the book into a cripplingly long tome (720page/22hours) and makes the book's total lack of adversity and tension all the more painful and arduous.
I deeply regret finishing this book. Honestly, I scoured the 5 star reviews looking for patterns suggesting fake reviews. [I couldn't identify any.] Steer clear of The Last Tribe. I read the bad reviews and I read the good ones and I chose poorly. I can't go back. YOU still have your time. I recommend you expend it elsewhere.
If you want a post-apocalyptic narrative with more humane-ness than usual, there are better options than this vapid volume. I'll recommend "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel, who brings a lot of heart into her PA world in an exceptionally well-written, unhurried book.
Some spoiler notes on specifics issues:
SPOILERS
The only part of the book that could be described as interesting is the early subplot about a boy, Greg, stranded at boarding school (a la Peter Grant from "Survivors") and the girl genius Rebecca he picks up. It is a bit sanguine, but it's something at least. The challenges faced by a solitary youth alone in an apocalyptic landscape have a special poignancy potential. That's about it for the good parts but it could easily be reclaimed and reworked as a fine short story. Usually the die off is the one reliably interesting part of any novel of this type, but here it receives a kind of perfunctory execution that renders even mass death impressively bland.
Despite the traveling ice cream social overtone that rules the book, there are bizarre anomalies in the plot that stand out from the tepidness:
Off screen, Solange, the slutty Ecuadorian exchange student, strangles to death the supposed last man on Earth because he is a mere "beta male" pretending to be an "alpha male" who tried to coerce her into sex with food bribes rather than properly raping her, the way a real proper alpha male would have. (Uhhh, to each their own?) Solange, remained capable of all kinds of physicality and, in an act of truly extraordinary violence, slaps an obnoxious young gangbanger, who is thereby immediately (and I mean instantaneously) transformed into a courteous, responsible young man.
There is a sort of obligatory anti-government subplot that is a bit off the rails: As the whole world and literally billions die of a deadly disease, the government (which, for once, did not create the disease) is seeking and detaining, by force if necessary, anyone with apparent immunity in hopes of deriving a cure to save the world before everyone is dead. The book treats this policy as the supreme act of tyranny by a dying institution. Any thought of a philosophical position behind this view is completely neglected. Its characters simply take the individualist approach, "I won't take a chance on saving billions, as long as I can assure my own immediate freedom and safety, by golly." This indifference to human life collides with the sappy and naive summer camp approach the characters take after the great kill off. What is the difference? The absence of government? There is a subtext that Providence is killing everyone off and it is just best for the Elect to get out of the way and ignore the dying, who will be gone in a blink or two so the (non)plot can proceed.
Also in contrast to the passive mood of the book, there is the odd recapitulation of a supposed bloody anti-government uprising at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We are made to understand that the government seizure of the handful of uncooperative immunes sparked a placard protest (while 99.9% of all humans are dying off) and when the government does not yield, a popular uprising of people armed with only household tools swarms a machinegun-fortified army post in at the MMOA and everyone dies and most of the art is destroyed. This is the most violent event in the book, and while it is only included by reference, it stands out, presumably as a symbol of the unraveling of civil society. I think it is a symbol of the odd perception of humanity in this book. Would such an extreme uprising against any effort to find a cure be likely? Given that this is the only visible chance for an ordinary person to survive, it would be much more realistic if the government were to enlist the help of the masses in seizing and turning in the defiant, unpatriotic immunes. Is it credible?: People who know that they and everyone they care about will soon die from a global plague stage a murderous assault on an army encampment to free a handful of selfish immunes from doctors who are literally the only hope for the survival of the assailants themselves and 99% of all humanity. It is hard to imagine anything so extreme happening in a time of normality, but when everyone's lives are on the line, is that the time when the masses are going to rise up over the issue of such detentions? Or would they decide that the temporary kidnapping of a very few immunes in hopes of saving billions of lives warrants bending habeas corpus a little? Obviously any non-cockeyed view of humans can see that the latter is what would happen, but not in the universe of The Last Tribe.
A slightly subversive but rather honest way to look at the book is that the characters are good natured fools, not long for this world by any proper measure, but who are just comically lucky, walking through a minefield with an ignorant glee that drops the jaw. Surviving immaculate and naive, they somehow escape reality long enough to flee to Hawaii, the one move by which they could continue to dodge the annihilation or enslavement that should, in all fairness, have been theirs. Why do they go to Hawaii? To avoid being eaten alive by people who are competitive and aggressive? No. They go there for the good growing climate! Of course! (The fact that they choose to put nearly every last known living human on an airliner that has sat unmaintained on the tarmac for more than a year and just take off for a 5000 mile flight is . . . I don't know what to say about that.)
END SPOILERS
September 22, 2024
The one thing I enjoyed was the excellent narration by Scott Brick.
Unfortunately, the storyline was unable to fully hold my attention. For all 16+hours of this audiobook I held out hope for something to grab me and turn it around. Who knows, maybe at a future date my opinion will be completely changed with whole new frame of mind.
Unfortunately, the storyline was unable to fully hold my attention. For all 16+hours of this audiobook I held out hope for something to grab me and turn it around. Who knows, maybe at a future date my opinion will be completely changed with whole new frame of mind.
July 12, 2015
Very good read
I really enjoyed this book. I've read a lot of post apocalyptic fiction and much of it is full of violence and emphasizes the worst parts of human nature. This book did the opposite. The best of human kindness and cooperation was emphasized. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and their stories. I hope that if there ever is an apocalyptic plague that the survivors behave as these survivors did.
I really enjoyed this book. I've read a lot of post apocalyptic fiction and much of it is full of violence and emphasizes the worst parts of human nature. This book did the opposite. The best of human kindness and cooperation was emphasized. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and their stories. I hope that if there ever is an apocalyptic plague that the survivors behave as these survivors did.
June 30, 2016
While this isn't the worst book I've ever read/heard, it was nowhere near the best. I had issues with the story itself, so much so that I stopped listening and returned it unfinished.
My biggest issue with this book: NO CONFLICT! The surviving Dixon family and the rest of the survivors, find (tons) of food easily, there's no one around to pose a threat, and they are able to do things like stay in suburban areas with no problems and no government agencies to hide from. (All the government people tuck tail and run pretty early on.) Even amongst themselves, there's no major fighting (maybe I just hadn't read that far). The characters are cliched, cardboard cutouts of the all-American family. Boring!
The other issue I had was the presence of the Omniscient Narrator. There is no faster way to pull a reader out of the story than by inserting a narrator's voice.
There is also the issue of telling vs. showing. Every single time a character spoke, the author felt like he had to explain everything. He made sure to tell us what the characters were going to do and why and then spell it all out through dialogue. I don't need to be told three times what the character is doing and why. It should be shown through actions and dialogue. I promise I'll catch on.
OK, last thing. This book was so sexist! It's obvious Brad Manuel doesn't think too highly of women. All but one female in the Dixon family died, leaving four brothers and all their sons. That's not where I had the problem, though. The one female left in the family, Emily, looked to her husband to solve all her problems and make sure she and the kids were safe. She didn't even have the smarts to have a weapon out and ready to use when going into an empty house. Alone. The only reason she went into the house was because she was bored and wanted to go on a house tour. 'Cuz that's a thing we crazy women do in an apocalypse. Go on house tours. Alone. With our weapons all tucked away and our big strong man somewhere else. (Do you see my eyes rolling from there?)
There were a few times where Emily's husband, Todd, actually worried because she was going a bit stir crazy and he wasn't going to be able to contain her much longer. (Umm.... apparently woman = dog in this world.) She's not smart enough to figure out how to keep herself occupied during the apocalypse. Thank goodness her big strong man was there to figure it out for her!
There is a super-genius girl who shows up, Rebecca, but really, she was a pretty bland character. (She actually opened the door when Greg Dixon finds her and says something about a "...super cute boy here to save me!" My eye-rolling is getting scary in its frequency. I think my eyes may get stuck this way.)
The excuse of her just pretending to act like a flake is just, well flaky. It almost seems like her genius was a ploy in order to explain her over-stocked pantries (again, no conflict). It's not authentic.
These issues by themselves could have been overlooked (and easily fixed), but added together they made for a pretty terrible story.
(NOTE: I'm sure Brad Manuel is a fan of women, but the fact that someone can walk away from your book with that impression is a big problem.)
My biggest issue with this book: NO CONFLICT! The surviving Dixon family and the rest of the survivors, find (tons) of food easily, there's no one around to pose a threat, and they are able to do things like stay in suburban areas with no problems and no government agencies to hide from. (All the government people tuck tail and run pretty early on.) Even amongst themselves, there's no major fighting (maybe I just hadn't read that far). The characters are cliched, cardboard cutouts of the all-American family. Boring!
The other issue I had was the presence of the Omniscient Narrator. There is no faster way to pull a reader out of the story than by inserting a narrator's voice.
There is also the issue of telling vs. showing. Every single time a character spoke, the author felt like he had to explain everything. He made sure to tell us what the characters were going to do and why and then spell it all out through dialogue. I don't need to be told three times what the character is doing and why. It should be shown through actions and dialogue. I promise I'll catch on.
OK, last thing. This book was so sexist! It's obvious Brad Manuel doesn't think too highly of women. All but one female in the Dixon family died, leaving four brothers and all their sons. That's not where I had the problem, though. The one female left in the family, Emily, looked to her husband to solve all her problems and make sure she and the kids were safe. She didn't even have the smarts to have a weapon out and ready to use when going into an empty house. Alone. The only reason she went into the house was because she was bored and wanted to go on a house tour. 'Cuz that's a thing we crazy women do in an apocalypse. Go on house tours. Alone. With our weapons all tucked away and our big strong man somewhere else. (Do you see my eyes rolling from there?)
There were a few times where Emily's husband, Todd, actually worried because she was going a bit stir crazy and he wasn't going to be able to contain her much longer. (Umm.... apparently woman = dog in this world.) She's not smart enough to figure out how to keep herself occupied during the apocalypse. Thank goodness her big strong man was there to figure it out for her!
There is a super-genius girl who shows up, Rebecca, but really, she was a pretty bland character. (She actually opened the door when Greg Dixon finds her and says something about a "...super cute boy here to save me!" My eye-rolling is getting scary in its frequency. I think my eyes may get stuck this way.)
The excuse of her just pretending to act like a flake is just, well flaky. It almost seems like her genius was a ploy in order to explain her over-stocked pantries (again, no conflict). It's not authentic.
These issues by themselves could have been overlooked (and easily fixed), but added together they made for a pretty terrible story.
(NOTE: I'm sure Brad Manuel is a fan of women, but the fact that someone can walk away from your book with that impression is a big problem.)
January 31, 2019
This may sound corny but I think I'll miss my new pals on this long and rewarding journey.
"The Last Tribe does not have zombies. It does not really have many “bad guys.” There are no evil forces at work. What it has is perhaps unique to the whole genre. Humanity. The book tells the story of a group of survivors, several of whom, quite miraculously, are from the same family. It tells how they come together, and ultimately create “the last tribe.” The book has incredibly strong character development. It has several protagonists, and over 700 pages, you come to cheer for all of them.
Brad Manuel has created a world that you do not want to leave. He has created a world in which humanity triumphs. A world in which people use knowledge, determination, and sheer will-power to not only survive, but to thrive. It is a good guys survival story.
I don’t want to spoil the story. I just strongly recommend the audiobook (Scott Brick, one of the great audio performers of the day narrates it, over 22 hours!). And then set some time aside, as once you start, you won’t want to put it down."
"The Last Tribe does not have zombies. It does not really have many “bad guys.” There are no evil forces at work. What it has is perhaps unique to the whole genre. Humanity. The book tells the story of a group of survivors, several of whom, quite miraculously, are from the same family. It tells how they come together, and ultimately create “the last tribe.” The book has incredibly strong character development. It has several protagonists, and over 700 pages, you come to cheer for all of them.
Brad Manuel has created a world that you do not want to leave. He has created a world in which humanity triumphs. A world in which people use knowledge, determination, and sheer will-power to not only survive, but to thrive. It is a good guys survival story.
I don’t want to spoil the story. I just strongly recommend the audiobook (Scott Brick, one of the great audio performers of the day narrates it, over 22 hours!). And then set some time aside, as once you start, you won’t want to put it down."
July 2, 2018
Audiobook
I sometimes like my apocalyptic books to be a little less murder, rape and pillage and this book was exactly that. I'm hoping the author will write a follow-up book just to see if they were able to rescue more people and because I enjoyed this book a lot. There are some unbelievable parts like what the former jobs were for key people. What a wonderful coincidence! But even with that, I loved the book.
I sometimes like my apocalyptic books to be a little less murder, rape and pillage and this book was exactly that. I'm hoping the author will write a follow-up book just to see if they were able to rescue more people and because I enjoyed this book a lot. There are some unbelievable parts like what the former jobs were for key people. What a wonderful coincidence! But even with that, I loved the book.
October 22, 2016
This book is a shitty piece of shit. I have never regretted waisting an audible credit more than with this book. It is so very uncreative and poorly written. I find myself filled with rage everything I listen to this story and this is a smattering if scathing thoughts on this craptastic book:
NOTHING HAPPENS! THERE IS NO SUSPENSE. NOTHING THRILLING.
DO NOT WASTE ANY OF YOUR LIFE ON THIS WHITE BREAD BASIC CRAP! There are so many better post apocalyptic books out there. Do not give brad manuel any more rewards for writing such a piece of trash. I had to google "is the last tribe a YA book" because of the amount of times the word "poop" was used.
I dont think it's possible to spoil a book where nothing happens and the plot summary is more exciting than the book, but just incase:
NOTHING HAPPENS! THERE IS NO SUSPENSE. NOTHING THRILLING.
DO NOT WASTE ANY OF YOUR LIFE ON THIS WHITE BREAD BASIC CRAP! There are so many better post apocalyptic books out there. Do not give brad manuel any more rewards for writing such a piece of trash. I had to google "is the last tribe a YA book" because of the amount of times the word "poop" was used.
I dont think it's possible to spoil a book where nothing happens and the plot summary is more exciting than the book, but just incase:
June 27, 2015
Immensely readable! The description of the book seemed somewhat interesting, but I was really sold by the rave reviews...and they were right. The first number of pages were eh, but all of a sudden, the story just pulled me in and I couldn't stop reading. Post apocalpyse, but a different take...no zombies, no religious undertones, no death dealing gangs. It's just pure awesome & I could see myself there with the characters as they figure out how to survive and even thrive. It definitely has some detail, but I think you need that detail to make it plausible and it certainly answered a number of questions that began coming up for me as I thought about what I'd do in the situation. Get the book, but make sure you have the time to spare as it's really easy to get so sucked in that all of a sudden you'll realize that you stayed up all night to read just a "little" more.
July 8, 2017
Jesus Christ, this has got to be the most extraordinarily terrible post-apocalyptic book I have ever read. I listened to the audio version so I could just tune out when it got too boring; if I hadn't I doubt I'd ever manage to finish it.
This book quickly sets itself up as the author's prepper fantasy within the first chapter. Immediately, the self-insert I mean protagonist immediately catches on to the fact that the government isn't to be trusted and comes up with a plan to avoid being recognized as healthy. Granted the way this part is handled is a little flimsy, but still has the potential to be interesting. However, what annoyed me is that his wife is immediately set up as a foil to his brilliant, nitty-gritty edgy self-insert by being dumb as rocks. This guy has the plan to steal food from his neighbors, who have conveniently all died, and the wife has to give him an argument about how not to steal from people that are already dead, so he can win the argument and show how edgy he is by having this extremely fucking obvious solution to a problem.
This sets a precedent for a recurring theme in this book: female characters being dumb as rocks to show how smart the male characters are in contrast. At one point, a seventeen-year-old girl whose group had apparently only been eating ten times a month over a period of several months, actually complains that a peanut-butter-and-marshmallow sandwich is "calorific." Yes, a girl who is LITERALLY STARVING and described as looking skeletal is worried about calories. Because teenage girls are just like that, am I right? The entire point of having her say this is because it gives the author's self insert give her a lecture on the incredibly obvious fact that calories are going to be hard to come by so you shouldn't avoid them.
The only female character who really contributes anything to their survival plan is Rebecca, who knows her shit because she is a supergenius. Except, even this character is an insult to women everywhere, because the other characters continuously marvel about not only her genius, but also her ability to do things like, say, keeping her house clean. It's like the author had to make her a supergenius in order to justify her ability to be even marginally competent. Oh, and she's also, in spite of being a supergenius, dumb as rocks. How so? Her main background story is that because she's so smart she doesn't know many people her own age, which bothers her because she has started to like boys. before the apocalypse, this was apparently the main dilemma in her life. Except for the fact that she goes to high school as a senior at age 13.. If she wants to talk to a cute boy her own age, she literally just had to go talk to a freshman. If she was awkward or shy or bad at relating to others or just found boys her own age boring because they're so developmentally behind her, it would make sense, and might be an interesting factor in her relationship with Greg. But no, that would require the author to actually try to empathize with someone who thinks differently than he does.
Oh, and speaking of people who think differently than him? None of these characters seem to have poor coping mechanisms for the trauma they've been through, no one has any irrational hang-ups that aren't solved by chiding from other characters. Except Lucinda, who is generically "crazy", but now that the author has acknowledged the existence of neuroatypical people he spares the other characters from dealing with her (and himself from writing her) by having her conveniently commit suicide. No one really cares because "she wouldn't have lasted anyway." Which makes no sense because the world he's created is actually a world a mentally I'll person would do fairly well in for the first few years at least. They would be valuable to the group by virtue of being a human who can work and they would be given tasks to do that would keep them grounded. That's a good situation for someone with severe depression and anxiety (which Lucinda appeared to have, along with the generic craziness.) so fuck off with that ableist shit, author.
All of that nonsense would be tolerable if there was anything else interesting about the book. But there wasn't. This was even worse than the first chapter made it seem because this book was not just a prepper' sides book, it was pure fantasy. After the first few chapters, it basically started to read like a conversation you have when you're bored: "if a plague wiped out everyone but you and your family, how would you live?" "We'd wait for the evil government to collapse and then we'd gather at our childhood home." "Where would you go from there?" "Hawai'i, maybe there are other survivors and we could find a pilot." Etc. every detail was set up so that the group could find what they needed. Once they start traveling the book becomes an endless rinse-wash-repeat cycle of this
Survivor: OH MY GOD! I SAW SMOKE SIGNALS!
Group: hi, we're the Dickson family, we live with a group of (number) survivors and we're traveling to (next destination.) we have kids and a dog. Want to join us?
Survivor: oh my god! You're real! You're really here! I'm not dreaming!
(Detailed introductions in which everything everyone says to everyone is written in too much detail.)
Group: Want to join us for dinner? We have (bread/meat/cheese/milk.)
Survivor: OH MY GOD. You actually have (food product)? I forgot how delicious this was!
Everything of interest that could possibly happen is explained through dialogue. Since this book is so damn long anyway it would have been better to show these things happening from minor characters' POVs. But no, everything interesting is ALWAYS told through dialogue. The most egregious example of this is when Dan meets the group. We get Dan's POV to see him say he likes Karen, hates Ryan, and thinks Lucinda is crazy - all facts that are repeated later through dialogue anyway. Then it switches back to the main group's POV and we see them catch lobsters. Then, Dan comes back later and explains what happened when they were gone: Ryan kicked Karen, then Lucinda committed suicide, Dan ran out to stop him, Ryan locked Dan out and started beating Karen again. Karen eventually let Dan in and Dan yelled at Ryan to go away forever.
There are more things I could complain about, but my last complaint will be that it never even occurs to these people that there might be survivors in Kauai. Like sure it's unlikely but there could always be a situation like the Dicksons where a whole extended family has the gene. These characters never bother to ask themselves if there MIGHT be people there and if those people might not want a bunch of haoles invading their island again. It just seemed extraordinarily entitled.
The one good thing I will say is that the villains felt realistic. Also the audiobook narrator did a good job.
This book quickly sets itself up as the author's prepper fantasy within the first chapter. Immediately, the self-insert I mean protagonist immediately catches on to the fact that the government isn't to be trusted and comes up with a plan to avoid being recognized as healthy. Granted the way this part is handled is a little flimsy, but still has the potential to be interesting. However, what annoyed me is that his wife is immediately set up as a foil to his brilliant, nitty-gritty edgy self-insert by being dumb as rocks. This guy has the plan to steal food from his neighbors, who have conveniently all died, and the wife has to give him an argument about how not to steal from people that are already dead, so he can win the argument and show how edgy he is by having this extremely fucking obvious solution to a problem.
This sets a precedent for a recurring theme in this book: female characters being dumb as rocks to show how smart the male characters are in contrast. At one point, a seventeen-year-old girl whose group had apparently only been eating ten times a month over a period of several months, actually complains that a peanut-butter-and-marshmallow sandwich is "calorific." Yes, a girl who is LITERALLY STARVING and described as looking skeletal is worried about calories. Because teenage girls are just like that, am I right? The entire point of having her say this is because it gives the author's self insert give her a lecture on the incredibly obvious fact that calories are going to be hard to come by so you shouldn't avoid them.
The only female character who really contributes anything to their survival plan is Rebecca, who knows her shit because she is a supergenius. Except, even this character is an insult to women everywhere, because the other characters continuously marvel about not only her genius, but also her ability to do things like, say, keeping her house clean. It's like the author had to make her a supergenius in order to justify her ability to be even marginally competent. Oh, and she's also, in spite of being a supergenius, dumb as rocks. How so? Her main background story is that because she's so smart she doesn't know many people her own age, which bothers her because she has started to like boys. before the apocalypse, this was apparently the main dilemma in her life. Except for the fact that she goes to high school as a senior at age 13.. If she wants to talk to a cute boy her own age, she literally just had to go talk to a freshman. If she was awkward or shy or bad at relating to others or just found boys her own age boring because they're so developmentally behind her, it would make sense, and might be an interesting factor in her relationship with Greg. But no, that would require the author to actually try to empathize with someone who thinks differently than he does.
Oh, and speaking of people who think differently than him? None of these characters seem to have poor coping mechanisms for the trauma they've been through, no one has any irrational hang-ups that aren't solved by chiding from other characters. Except Lucinda, who is generically "crazy", but now that the author has acknowledged the existence of neuroatypical people he spares the other characters from dealing with her (and himself from writing her) by having her conveniently commit suicide. No one really cares because "she wouldn't have lasted anyway." Which makes no sense because the world he's created is actually a world a mentally I'll person would do fairly well in for the first few years at least. They would be valuable to the group by virtue of being a human who can work and they would be given tasks to do that would keep them grounded. That's a good situation for someone with severe depression and anxiety (which Lucinda appeared to have, along with the generic craziness.) so fuck off with that ableist shit, author.
All of that nonsense would be tolerable if there was anything else interesting about the book. But there wasn't. This was even worse than the first chapter made it seem because this book was not just a prepper' sides book, it was pure fantasy. After the first few chapters, it basically started to read like a conversation you have when you're bored: "if a plague wiped out everyone but you and your family, how would you live?" "We'd wait for the evil government to collapse and then we'd gather at our childhood home." "Where would you go from there?" "Hawai'i, maybe there are other survivors and we could find a pilot." Etc. every detail was set up so that the group could find what they needed. Once they start traveling the book becomes an endless rinse-wash-repeat cycle of this
Survivor: OH MY GOD! I SAW SMOKE SIGNALS!
Group: hi, we're the Dickson family, we live with a group of (number) survivors and we're traveling to (next destination.) we have kids and a dog. Want to join us?
Survivor: oh my god! You're real! You're really here! I'm not dreaming!
(Detailed introductions in which everything everyone says to everyone is written in too much detail.)
Group: Want to join us for dinner? We have (bread/meat/cheese/milk.)
Survivor: OH MY GOD. You actually have (food product)? I forgot how delicious this was!
Everything of interest that could possibly happen is explained through dialogue. Since this book is so damn long anyway it would have been better to show these things happening from minor characters' POVs. But no, everything interesting is ALWAYS told through dialogue. The most egregious example of this is when Dan meets the group. We get Dan's POV to see him say he likes Karen, hates Ryan, and thinks Lucinda is crazy - all facts that are repeated later through dialogue anyway. Then it switches back to the main group's POV and we see them catch lobsters. Then, Dan comes back later and explains what happened when they were gone: Ryan kicked Karen, then Lucinda committed suicide, Dan ran out to stop him, Ryan locked Dan out and started beating Karen again. Karen eventually let Dan in and Dan yelled at Ryan to go away forever.
There are more things I could complain about, but my last complaint will be that it never even occurs to these people that there might be survivors in Kauai. Like sure it's unlikely but there could always be a situation like the Dicksons where a whole extended family has the gene. These characters never bother to ask themselves if there MIGHT be people there and if those people might not want a bunch of haoles invading their island again. It just seemed extraordinarily entitled.
The one good thing I will say is that the villains felt realistic. Also the audiobook narrator did a good job.
January 23, 2025
4.25 stars
June 6, 2025
I can’t believe how much I enjoyed this book! My favorite genre is apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic and it was so refreshing to find a story that wasn’t full of horror or monsters or pure evil.
This story was all about family and surviving the worst flu pandemic ever. 4 brothers living in different areas of the United States decide to try to meet up following a flu pandemic which wipes out 99.9999999% of the human and dog population. This equates to a little more than 200 people left alive in the US. But for unknown reasons, the Dixon brothers and most of their own children are all immune.
They each spend months braving the winter elements to meet up and along the way, each finds a few other survivors. They all come together and become a tribe of 20 plus with at least 10 children.
The only bad seeds, 2 people, never make it to become a part of the tribe, but through their own choices, not because the tribe wouldn’t have helped. The people who end up as part of the family are all good human beings and together they become a big family.
This was a joy to listen to, well... aside from the parts where 99.99999% of the population dies, and I couldn’t get back to my audiobook fast enough each day. This is what my idea of an apocalypse would look like if there ever is one. If I’m one of the very few to survive, I hope I find these kind of people.
Scott Brick, one of my favorite performers, narrates this book and he was brilliant!
This story was all about family and surviving the worst flu pandemic ever. 4 brothers living in different areas of the United States decide to try to meet up following a flu pandemic which wipes out 99.9999999% of the human and dog population. This equates to a little more than 200 people left alive in the US. But for unknown reasons, the Dixon brothers and most of their own children are all immune.
They each spend months braving the winter elements to meet up and along the way, each finds a few other survivors. They all come together and become a tribe of 20 plus with at least 10 children.
The only bad seeds, 2 people, never make it to become a part of the tribe, but through their own choices, not because the tribe wouldn’t have helped. The people who end up as part of the family are all good human beings and together they become a big family.
This was a joy to listen to, well... aside from the parts where 99.99999% of the population dies, and I couldn’t get back to my audiobook fast enough each day. This is what my idea of an apocalypse would look like if there ever is one. If I’m one of the very few to survive, I hope I find these kind of people.
Scott Brick, one of my favorite performers, narrates this book and he was brilliant!
May 7, 2017
Interestingly, many reviewers did not like the fact that there was no more conflict than merely trying to be among the few survivors of a global pandemic. I have read quite a few post-apocalyptic books, and this did not bother me. Perhaps because I just finished reading the very hefty Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin, in which I became exhausted by the constant conflicts and inability of the people to free themselves of the vampire-like creatures that helped bring about the destruction of the world. It was a good trilogy . . . but tiring. So perhaps it was just good timing that I picked this one up next and it was like seeing a study of a decent group of people and how they survive in a world decimated by a virus. Interesting, but not overly tense.
What kept it from being five stars for me was the end. Which was pretty good, but I was left wondering about a few things that I think could have been answered, which I won't mention here so I don't have spoilers. But overall, I enjoyed the book. I kind of hope there will be a sequel, with a female dog and a few cats. I have a few other hopes, but I will leave it at that. Other reviewers felt the survivorship of the Dixons and one Dixon spouse should have been explained. Perhaps. But that didn't bother me. Still, if there were a sequel, this could be explored a little more. Hint, hint, Mr. Manuel.
What kept it from being five stars for me was the end. Which was pretty good, but I was left wondering about a few things that I think could have been answered, which I won't mention here so I don't have spoilers. But overall, I enjoyed the book. I kind of hope there will be a sequel, with a female dog and a few cats. I have a few other hopes, but I will leave it at that. Other reviewers felt the survivorship of the Dixons and one Dixon spouse should have been explained. Perhaps. But that didn't bother me. Still, if there were a sequel, this could be explored a little more. Hint, hint, Mr. Manuel.
March 24, 2017
Probably what most people think when (if?) they finish this ponderous tome is . . .
*Whew! FINALLY DONE. I cannot believe I made it through.
*Sons named Greg and Craig in one family? Makes for confusion while listening with the speed turned up on audio.
*I've never heard so many detailed descriptions of meals in my life. Nor so many (MANY) meals mentioned in a book.
*Why would you not mention the effect on the animals until hours and hours in, when they finally find a dog? And then, leave it still confusing as to which animals survive (chickens, moose, fish, goats, and cows seem to have inexplicable luck) and which perish. AND WHY. Though no one seems to care.
*I would've thought the end of mankind would bring more introspection, more conflict, more trials, more discussion or situations that require complicated and nuanced solutions, and less food.
*Why did they not seem concerned with health concerns? Why weren't they more interested in why their bloodline seemed to survive, and why on earth Emily survived as well? Why are there no discussions about birth control, etc.?
*Why would you dump a body in a fresh water source?
*Why are people wearing cashmere sweaters? I understand it's like a free-for-all shopping spree when you have entire department stores to raid, but wouldn't you want to choose items that are easy to launder?
*If you're planning on moving to where they did, you'd better bet that the entire cargo capacity should be well stocked with practical items such as medicines, tools, clothes for the future, water purifiers, outdoor/survival gear, rope, cloth, etc. Not--hey, we're way under the max carrying capacity. Score!
*What teenage couple (even in a post-apocalyptic world) would act like the middle-aged married couple Greg and Rebecca emulate? Her initial pretense at been a ditzy teenybopper was very painfully done. I guess it's comforting that such a poor portrayal of a 13-year-old girl was done on purpose, and not done thinking that's who the character was . . . ? However, her personality took a wild swing after that to a staid, I've-found-my-domestic-partner-and-time-warped-to-where-we-are-25 years-into-a-rather-boring-relationship blah blandness.
*The Dixon brothers were extremely hard to keep separated in my mind for much of the book. Also, two of them are twins, but you don't discover that until hours and hours into the book? Why would you even bother to add such details that seem to mean nothing to their relationship with each other, or with their brothers?
*The three brothers that lost their wives and/or kids don't seem that torn up about it. And John's kids are bizarrely blase about him dating again. I think it's completely healthy (and necessary) that the remaining people start new relationships, but come on--there's going to be at least a little blow-back/acting out from the kids.
*The people they ran into? Some kind of luck, there, certainly. A kid genius (who can even predict the weather), a veterinarian, a surgeon, a pilot, a punk gang member who turns into Mr. Pleasant after being slapped once, etc.
Despite being waaaaaaaay too long, having no realistic conflict, entirely forgettable characters, and not having much to say about remaking civilization, I enjoyed some parts of the book. When Greg and Rebecca raid the L.L. Bean and REI-like stores, I fantasized about what I would be filling up my own shopping cart with. My frustration with the book led me to think a lot about the aspects they didn't explore or have troubles with, how I would deal with those issues, and what, ultimately, this would mean for any plausible future of mankind. And that's not nothing! Good times, pondering the end of the world.
The cover and the acclaimed-by-many-but-not-by-me-so-much audiobook narrator fooled me into thinking that this would be a well-edited, riveting novel. This book is really more of a recitation of the minutiae of what one rather bland group of individuals did after the world was wiped out rather than a novel with an intriguing plot or thoughtful ideas to consider, but even more than that--it's about what they ate.
*Whew! FINALLY DONE. I cannot believe I made it through.
*Sons named Greg and Craig in one family? Makes for confusion while listening with the speed turned up on audio.
*I've never heard so many detailed descriptions of meals in my life. Nor so many (MANY) meals mentioned in a book.
*Why would you not mention the effect on the animals until hours and hours in, when they finally find a dog? And then, leave it still confusing as to which animals survive (chickens, moose, fish, goats, and cows seem to have inexplicable luck) and which perish. AND WHY. Though no one seems to care.
*I would've thought the end of mankind would bring more introspection, more conflict, more trials, more discussion or situations that require complicated and nuanced solutions, and less food.
*Why did they not seem concerned with health concerns? Why weren't they more interested in why their bloodline seemed to survive, and why on earth Emily survived as well? Why are there no discussions about birth control, etc.?
*Why would you dump a body in a fresh water source?
*Why are people wearing cashmere sweaters? I understand it's like a free-for-all shopping spree when you have entire department stores to raid, but wouldn't you want to choose items that are easy to launder?
*If you're planning on moving to where they did, you'd better bet that the entire cargo capacity should be well stocked with practical items such as medicines, tools, clothes for the future, water purifiers, outdoor/survival gear, rope, cloth, etc. Not--hey, we're way under the max carrying capacity. Score!
*What teenage couple (even in a post-apocalyptic world) would act like the middle-aged married couple Greg and Rebecca emulate? Her initial pretense at been a ditzy teenybopper was very painfully done. I guess it's comforting that such a poor portrayal of a 13-year-old girl was done on purpose, and not done thinking that's who the character was . . . ? However, her personality took a wild swing after that to a staid, I've-found-my-domestic-partner-and-time-warped-to-where-we-are-25 years-into-a-rather-boring-relationship blah blandness.
*The Dixon brothers were extremely hard to keep separated in my mind for much of the book. Also, two of them are twins, but you don't discover that until hours and hours into the book? Why would you even bother to add such details that seem to mean nothing to their relationship with each other, or with their brothers?
*The three brothers that lost their wives and/or kids don't seem that torn up about it. And John's kids are bizarrely blase about him dating again. I think it's completely healthy (and necessary) that the remaining people start new relationships, but come on--there's going to be at least a little blow-back/acting out from the kids.
*The people they ran into? Some kind of luck, there, certainly. A kid genius (who can even predict the weather), a veterinarian, a surgeon, a pilot, a punk gang member who turns into Mr. Pleasant after being slapped once, etc.
Despite being waaaaaaaay too long, having no realistic conflict, entirely forgettable characters, and not having much to say about remaking civilization, I enjoyed some parts of the book. When Greg and Rebecca raid the L.L. Bean and REI-like stores, I fantasized about what I would be filling up my own shopping cart with. My frustration with the book led me to think a lot about the aspects they didn't explore or have troubles with, how I would deal with those issues, and what, ultimately, this would mean for any plausible future of mankind. And that's not nothing! Good times, pondering the end of the world.
The cover and the acclaimed-by-many-but-not-by-me-so-much audiobook narrator fooled me into thinking that this would be a well-edited, riveting novel. This book is really more of a recitation of the minutiae of what one rather bland group of individuals did after the world was wiped out rather than a novel with an intriguing plot or thoughtful ideas to consider, but even more than that--it's about what they ate.
December 8, 2017
This is one of the best post-apocalypse books I've ever read... This genre is saturated with so many stories, many of which are all the same. This book was hard to put down. This story is about survival, beating the odds, and the beauty of family. It is thought provoking and intelligent.
Most post-apocalypse books are about fighting for limited resources, group vs. group, kill or be killed... This one is different. Imagine waking up in your city and being the only one alive.... You are alone, separated from your family, and willing to do whatever it takes to get to each other.
Read this, and you will thank me. I honestly didn't want it to end...
Most post-apocalypse books are about fighting for limited resources, group vs. group, kill or be killed... This one is different. Imagine waking up in your city and being the only one alive.... You are alone, separated from your family, and willing to do whatever it takes to get to each other.
Read this, and you will thank me. I honestly didn't want it to end...
October 6, 2016
I am quitting this book with 20 minutes to go on the audio version because now I know how it ends and I am eager to be done with this cast of one-dimensional characters. THIS BOOK IS WHAT GIVES SELF-PUBLISHING A BAD NAME. It was clearly not edited or proofread. It read like a verbatim transcript of EVERY SINGLE CONVERSATION between EVERY SINGLE possible combination of characters.
Two stars ONLY because the premise was interesting enough to make me (barely) tolerate the abysmal writing in short stretches. That said, there was absolutely NO plot tension. Every single plot point turns out exactly the way the characters want. Everything works the way it needs to work. None of the characters ring true. There was a complete lack of strong female characters. There was NO clear science behind any of the events.
Most unforgivable of all: The words "steer" and "bull" were used interchangeably.
WALK AWAY NOW BEFORE YOU GET SUCKED IN.
Two stars ONLY because the premise was interesting enough to make me (barely) tolerate the abysmal writing in short stretches. That said, there was absolutely NO plot tension. Every single plot point turns out exactly the way the characters want. Everything works the way it needs to work. None of the characters ring true. There was a complete lack of strong female characters. There was NO clear science behind any of the events.
Most unforgivable of all: The words "steer" and "bull" were used interchangeably.
WALK AWAY NOW BEFORE YOU GET SUCKED IN.
March 10, 2017
I'm giving this one 5 stars for the sheer enjoyment factor. I just had so much fun reading it. I thought it was well researched and ambitious. I liked that the author let you get to know the characters without forcing ACTION on the reader constantly, which I've often found to be a problematic theme in these post-apocalyptic stories. The pace was just right. I do hope Brad Manuel will continue the story with a second book. This one gets all 5 from me.
March 17, 2017
If you want a post apocalyptic book with no originality, no conflict, and zero action this might be for you. I don't know how there are so many positive reviews as after 720 pages nothing happened. Go read The Road instead, it's a much more realistic book and far more interesting.
October 16, 2016
I really liked this book. Sometimes, I find long books hard to stay focused on. Many of them move slowly. This was an exception! It was somewhat similar in plot, at least in the beginning, to "The Stand" by Stephen King, but I liked it much better. I never finished "The Stand." It really showed how people could come together in a crisis. It also gave you an idea of the impact such a crisis would have were it to happen. I have never read this author before, but I was very impressed with this offering!
April 20, 2017
Great read! But what happened next?
February 18, 2017
It's only February and I hope I have already read the worst book I will read this year. So, why am I so down on The Last Tribe. Is it the plot that bothered me? No. Is it the character development that I didn't enjoy? No. It was more a case of neither of these things existing in any form that had me wishing for this thing to be over. To be honest, I'm not actually sure why I saw it through to conclusion other than I really don't like leaving a book unfinished. That's right, the best thing this book had going fo it was my own OCD.
I went into this book not expecting The Stand or The Passage, but a slightly different take on the post-apocalyptic tale where there was no monster/sci-fi element. I expected the plague wiping out mankind to be a backdrop for a nuanced study of human nature. I expected to see humankind grapple with reestablishing a needed order while not reestablishing so many of the things that challenge the society we live in today. What I got was cardboard cutout characters, seriously I couldn't tell one character from the other by the end of this overlong tale they were so similar, that spent most of their time cooking the overwhelming volumes of gourmet food that dropped into their laps. And what about the big social issues to consider, that would be the in-depth discussion about whether we should exclude someone from the tribe because, wait for it, they swore..twice. Yep, the whole world has been wiped out by a virus and the big issues we are hung up on is that bad man who uses the naughty adjectives. If you are looking for that missing, Leave it to Beaver post-apocalyptic episode, you've found it here.
I could keep going on, but I'd only continue to pick at a book that has already taken too much of my time. I notice the audiobook runs for some 22 hours which, for a book that has no plot and nothing to say, is frankly a little offensive. I also notice it's narrated by the excellent Scott Brick who also read The Passage on Audible. Do yourself a favour and skip this for The Passage.
I went into this book not expecting The Stand or The Passage, but a slightly different take on the post-apocalyptic tale where there was no monster/sci-fi element. I expected the plague wiping out mankind to be a backdrop for a nuanced study of human nature. I expected to see humankind grapple with reestablishing a needed order while not reestablishing so many of the things that challenge the society we live in today. What I got was cardboard cutout characters, seriously I couldn't tell one character from the other by the end of this overlong tale they were so similar, that spent most of their time cooking the overwhelming volumes of gourmet food that dropped into their laps. And what about the big social issues to consider, that would be the in-depth discussion about whether we should exclude someone from the tribe because, wait for it, they swore..twice. Yep, the whole world has been wiped out by a virus and the big issues we are hung up on is that bad man who uses the naughty adjectives. If you are looking for that missing, Leave it to Beaver post-apocalyptic episode, you've found it here.
I could keep going on, but I'd only continue to pick at a book that has already taken too much of my time. I notice the audiobook runs for some 22 hours which, for a book that has no plot and nothing to say, is frankly a little offensive. I also notice it's narrated by the excellent Scott Brick who also read The Passage on Audible. Do yourself a favour and skip this for The Passage.
March 4, 2017
This was a very refreshing post apocalyptic book, gone are the crazy people roaming around in hordes trying to take your last can of Alphagetti. If you liked The Stand or Swan Song you will probably most likely maybe kinda sorta like this book. I can see how this book would appeal to some people and not others. Reminds me of Justin Cronins The Twelve, I did not like that book and some people liked it. Then again some people stick their heads in alligators mouths and I am not a fan of doing that. What I'm trying to say is some people see a blue dress and others a gold.
July 8, 2016
I enjoyed this story so much...So much that I read a 700-page, poorly written book with absolutely no editing and ended up giving it 4 stars. Compelling story, but seriously couldn't a 10-year old have read through it for grammar and spelling errors? More than that, someone needed to cut entire, repetitive paragraphs and chapters out.
Great book.
Great book.
January 25, 2019
Seriously, the apocalypse couldn’t have happened to a nicer, more boring group of people. Little to no conflict, easy resolutions, barely any swearing, and no sexual tension. To top it off, it was unbearably long. I found myself thinking if this happened to me, I hope I die ASAP to never be stuck with these people.
Or maybe I am just a bad person....
I can live with that.
Or maybe I am just a bad person....
I can live with that.
August 23, 2015
A great story!
Well developed, written, and believable. This story differs from most in this genre, with characters who keep their humanity when almost all of humanity has been wiped out.
Well developed, written, and believable. This story differs from most in this genre, with characters who keep their humanity when almost all of humanity has been wiped out.
March 26, 2020
I read The Tribe because of and during my COVID-19 quarantine- why not scare myself further, right? A global pandemic book where everyone dies seemed perfect.
I probably wouldn’t have finished this book if it weren’t for my own quarantine. Real life events made the book more interesting than it really deserved to be. There’s a ton of potential here, but it was all left on the table!
There are a lot of issues I have with the book - and I’m not going to get too lengthy on these because as much as I’m about to list, I did, overall like the story.
- There was little to no character or world building. No depth what so ever. As I finished the book, I cared nothing for the characters, not did I really have much of an impression of the world.
- A major over abundance of main characters. It was a lot to keep up with. Family details, survivor details etc, yet, none of there 20+ people has any depth.
- The book seemed to revolve around eating - prepping, cooking, gathering food — and when not doing that, they’re talking about food. Constantly, the author is going over what they were eating and how to prepare it and how delish it was. We get it, they’re eating - again.
- This is a big one - other than the pandemic (which was a past event in this book) there was literally NO adversity. It was largely boring. There was one or two bad egg characters, but any conflict was easily resolved and over. I kept waiting for something to happen!
- Kind of piggy backing off the last point - there was little plot really. And it was slow moving. And I mean slooooow.
- This was a long book. It could have been cut in half to tell the story, and still have a ton to edit out and make better.
- Overall the writing was okay, but felt very amateur. Bravo, if this is a debut from a self published author, but, really, I expect more.
I wouldn’t really recommend, unless you, like me, are looking to read about a pandemic. But really consider the options because this one was in the slow, drawn out, too many meals side. I’m kind of teetering back and forth on a rating - I’m thinking 2.5, and being generous and rounding up.
I probably wouldn’t have finished this book if it weren’t for my own quarantine. Real life events made the book more interesting than it really deserved to be. There’s a ton of potential here, but it was all left on the table!
There are a lot of issues I have with the book - and I’m not going to get too lengthy on these because as much as I’m about to list, I did, overall like the story.
- There was little to no character or world building. No depth what so ever. As I finished the book, I cared nothing for the characters, not did I really have much of an impression of the world.
- A major over abundance of main characters. It was a lot to keep up with. Family details, survivor details etc, yet, none of there 20+ people has any depth.
- The book seemed to revolve around eating - prepping, cooking, gathering food — and when not doing that, they’re talking about food. Constantly, the author is going over what they were eating and how to prepare it and how delish it was. We get it, they’re eating - again.
- This is a big one - other than the pandemic (which was a past event in this book) there was literally NO adversity. It was largely boring. There was one or two bad egg characters, but any conflict was easily resolved and over. I kept waiting for something to happen!
- Kind of piggy backing off the last point - there was little plot really. And it was slow moving. And I mean slooooow.
- This was a long book. It could have been cut in half to tell the story, and still have a ton to edit out and make better.
- Overall the writing was okay, but felt very amateur. Bravo, if this is a debut from a self published author, but, really, I expect more.
I wouldn’t really recommend, unless you, like me, are looking to read about a pandemic. But really consider the options because this one was in the slow, drawn out, too many meals side. I’m kind of teetering back and forth on a rating - I’m thinking 2.5, and being generous and rounding up.
April 1, 2020
Notes:
Scott Brick was great!
It was definitely a different take on a pandemic and I agree that it was refreshing to read a "happy" story about the end of the world as you know it. It wasn't exciting but it was a nice little journey into the aftermath of a disease that wipes out most of the people on Earth.
Scott Brick was great!
It was definitely a different take on a pandemic and I agree that it was refreshing to read a "happy" story about the end of the world as you know it. It wasn't exciting but it was a nice little journey into the aftermath of a disease that wipes out most of the people on Earth.
August 25, 2015
Ode to a Sh*tty Book
Oh! Happy day that thus concluded our relationship!
I am amazed by the secrets enfolded in your virtual pages:
The flat blankness of your characters most akin to a parsnip;
The teenagers who the dead moose upstages.
Of all offenses worth memorializing
I am awed most by thy blatant dearth of editing
And praying to the blessed gods that you are not serializing
This, thy contribution most worthy of promptest gibbeting.
Do persevere with thy attempts at appeasing me, your humble critic.
I promise to be fair though will not withhold
Electronic beatings with a broomstick
Should thou stay thy hand from editing as I have extolled.
Oh! Happy day that thus concluded our relationship!
I am amazed by the secrets enfolded in your virtual pages:
The flat blankness of your characters most akin to a parsnip;
The teenagers who the dead moose upstages.
Of all offenses worth memorializing
I am awed most by thy blatant dearth of editing
And praying to the blessed gods that you are not serializing
This, thy contribution most worthy of promptest gibbeting.
Do persevere with thy attempts at appeasing me, your humble critic.
I promise to be fair though will not withhold
Electronic beatings with a broomstick
Should thou stay thy hand from editing as I have extolled.
February 8, 2024
I can’t really decide what to rate this book. I’m giving it 4 stars because it was a ‘nice’ apocalypse/end of the world story, where most survivors were kind and worked together, and I learnt a fair bit about parts of North America. Wasn’t a great deal of depth to the characters but I ended up being invested in where they finally all ended up. Actually as I write this I’m leaning more towards 3 stars…
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