The Last Tribe

By: Brad Manuel

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 22 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

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 but you also deal with the sadness and losing 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 to get away from the city and to meet at his grandparents' town in remote New Hampshire. Knowing the impending New England winter could be the final nail in his coffin, Greg packs what little food he can find and sets off on his 100-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, slowly forming the last tribe of humanity from the few people still alive in the Northeast.

©2015 Brad Manuel (P)2016 Podium Publishing

Critic reviews

• Nominated: 2017 Audie Award for Best Male Narrator

Easiest Apocalypse Ever

Full disclosure: I stopped listening 3/4 of the way in the story.

This is definitely not The Stand or any other doomsday plague story.

If you're looking for a story about the fight for survival or overcoming impossible odds this story doesn't have it.

It does have an incredibly lucky cast of characters who constantly fall ass backwards into amazingly good luck at virtually every turn.

The story has super unlikely situations and outcomes that are predictable and expected half way through.

Situations like running into a starving group of people in New York City. Finding out they're stuck in the city because it's winter and they're snowed in. Then being rescued by the main characters and driven out of the city in RV's and trucks. Really? No other vehicles in the whole city? The RV's and trucks didn't get stuck, slowed down, or even get a flat tire.

Deciding that Hawaii of all places is where they should move to (even though they're on the east coast). Finding an airport with no obstructions and a plane pretty much ready to go.

This is where I punched out. But because I figured a jet airliner that had been sitting idle on the ground for over six months with no upkeep or maintenance would prove to be no trouble for the characters, I listened to 2 minutes of the last chapter. Sure enough they made it.

The main characters were interesting and I felt like I got to know them but in the end I didn't care if they lived or set themselves on fire.

Could not stop listening finished it in 3 days

Amazing, hopefully there will be another chapter to the story. Great narrator and story. loved it

pure escapism. Ignore the bad reviews.

if you want to just take a journey with good people trying two overcome a bad event and you don't spend a lot of time trying to rationalize whether what they do is possible or not then read this book. Character development is excellent. There's enough time spent on each person involved, at least each major player, to come to understand who they are and what they're about. I could not have had a better time listening to this book I listen to it on the way to work and home everyday. So the 20 hours occupies lots of trips. In the long-running read or listen in this case, I get to experience better what the protagonistds became involved with. And I just enjoyed listening to it. I didn't want Terror, I did not want massive problems. I just wanted these good people to survive. And when I was done with the book. I just smiled. Too bad the people who down this book couldn't just relax and enjoy it. They had to intellectualize it to the point of nausea. Please read the book. If you don't like it in the first two chapters, quit . But I suspect, you'll want to read it all the way to the very end.
This audiobook is exceptionally well narrated and very smooth. At no time did I find the narrator offensive or anything more than conveying the story to me in a way that storytellers have been conveying stories around fires or hearths or homes for years. Enjoy

Why did I keep listening?!

All I can say is I think I’d listen to the phone book if Scott Brick read it. And I love disaster/dystopian/pandemic novels. But come on! Multiple members of one family survive - including a spouse - and no one asks why? Every new survivor they meet fulfills a crucial role? Surgeon! Airplane pilot! Genius! Engineering student! Engine mechanic savant! Every meal cobbled together is delicious, and in this woke new world it’s always the men who are the cooks. Early on in the book the surviving wife wants to go on a tour of the governors mansion while the family visits the capital for a foraging and intel expedition. Really??? And hubby gives her a pistol just in case... The dialogue isn’t authentic, nothing really bad happens despite the end of civilization as we know it and there’s a happy ending. I had 13 hours of gardening to do and it wasn’t boring so somehow I stuck with it

A virus wipes out most of the world...

Great read. It really made you think about things if the world went still. How do you survive, where, and to consider expiration of all we use daily.

Page Turner

Would you listen to The Last Tribe again? Why?

This is one book that will hold your interest until the very end, and you not wanting the end to ever come. I wish there was another like this one. The only book that it can be compared to that I have listened to is One Second After. I will be waiting for the next book he writes.

What did you like best about this story?

The unique set of problems that the "Tribe" runs into and the solutions that they come up with.

What does Scott Brick bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He is a long time familiar voice and reliably brings the book to life.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

If I had no other duties and needed no sleep, I could have done it.

Any additional comments?

One of my all time favorites.

Kept me listening

I liked the book. Given the dreary topic of a pandemic the book offers all of what you'd hope out of human nature. It at times can be a little idealistic and has a lot of " Boy Scouts" for main characters, but for someone who always likes a happy ending; the book delivers. Also as someone who likes and appreciates a long well written story, I have to say it's not best but it is definitely worth the listen. Scott Brick is a good narrator and delivers every time. This is definitely poised to have sequels. Enjoy!

Loved it!!

What did you love best about The Last Tribe?

The plot, the storyline, the development of the characters, everything. I adored this book.

Have you listened to any of Scott Brick’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Nope.

Non-stressful "just so" apocalypse survival story

I enjoyed this book. It is a story of practical post apocalyptic survival, but one in which almost everything goes just right.

A new favorite.

I was amazed by this story. The end of the world as we know it does not have to be about all the death and destruction that everyone loves to write about. This is a story about real people living real lives through a real worldwide tragedy. They come together and help each other. There are those who do not want to get along… and they don’t… but for the rest of us normal people surviving is about family. In tragedy we lose loved ones in our lives. But through those losses we often find new friends and new family or grow closer to those we already hold dear.

Since this is a story of real life there is some language used. Because this is a story of family it is used sparingly and dealt with appropriately when it is used.

I have heard Scott Brick before and really enjoy his reading. As usual he does an excellent job on this novel. I think he does an excellent job with certain accents and that is evident in this novel as well.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audio book by the author, narrator, or publisher.