The Tribe: A New World
by A.J. Penn, copyright 2011
For every Tribe fan who was there at the end of the televised Season-5 and cursed for years because there was no more, this is the book you've been waiting for.
They're all there - Amber & Jay, with Bray and baby Bray. Trudy & Brady. Jack & Ellie. May, Salene, Gel, Lottie. Ruby & Slade. Ram & Ebony. Lex. Sammy. And A.J. Penn's new novel picks up right where the show left off.
It's a good-sized novel, 392 pages filled with references to Tribe history & tv-canon to satisfy the most hard-core fan.
It's also an ambitious novel. Twists & turns, the introduction of new back-story & how that affects the Mall Rats' present & future... if anything, the novel is too ambitious. There is just so much introduced for the first time. The author's use of extensive narrative--filling in with exposition rather than letting the characters tell the story--ultimately detracts from the action & interrupts the flow of the story. The author's intentions were good. There's a lot of information he's trying to give you, to align what's happening with the characters to his new history, so he takes shortcuts. Otherwise, this novel could have gone on for 800-1,000 pages.
Would that've been a bad thing? Maybe not. Then again, I'm partial to long novels full of intriguing dialogue & well-written action scenes. This novel is mostly full of narration.
What Penn does give us is dialogue & action true to character. He knows his Tribe characters, for sure, and puts them out there just as we remember them. But in the novel's "new world," readers are dumped in it head first & left to wade through tons of descriptive paragraphs that ultimately give short shrift to what it could have been. That world doesn't come alive as the City & Phoenix Mall were alive in our minds. True, tv helped; Penn had to use words to try to evoke the visuals. Didn't quite hit the mark, but it wasn't for lack of trying.
As I said, an ambitious novel that doesn't exactly live up to its premise... but hey! It's The Tribe! And we haven't had anything to take us back to the places & people we're fascinated with in a very long time!
If you're a Tribe fan, then you pretty much have to get this novel. And I understand another installment is coming soon, so you have to keep up!
Thanks, A.J. At least you tried. We can't wait to see what happens next!
-Chyna
novel cover courtesy of www.tribeworld.com
