Tristan Strong Destroys the World

A Tristan Strong Novel, Book 2

By: Kwame Mbalia

Narrated by: Amir Abdullah

Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents the second book in the New York Times best-selling Tristan Strong trilogy by Kwame Mbalia.

Tristan Strong, just back from a victorious but exhausting adventure in Alke, the land of African American folk heroes and African gods, is suffering from PTSD. But there's no rest for the weary when his grandmother is abducted by a mysterious villain out for revenge. Tristan must return to Alke - and reunite with his loud-mouthed sidekick, Gum Baby - in order to rescue Nana and stop the culprit from creating further devastation. Anansi, now a "web developer" in Tristan's phone, is close at hand to offer advice, and several new folk heroes will aid Tristan in his quest, but he will only succeed if he can figure out a way to sew broken souls back together.

©2020 Kwame Mbalia (P)2020 Listening Library

Excellent

Great storytelling - excellent interpretations of diasporic cultural stories and accessible metaphors for social issues that reflect the lives of Black people! I listen to these stories with or without my kids.

Amazed Again

This series has captured me ! I absolutely love love love this series! I cannot get enough! Hilarious, adventurous, loving etc so many words to describe this series. I cannot wait to hear more!

Thank you!!!

amazing

love this story, love the writing but the narration is just SO good, SO amazing, it really pulls it all together.

I love this book it's so much fun don't think it's

This book is fantastic I read the first one and thought I was going to move on to something else and I decided to give the second one a try and I'm just hooked and moving straight to the third one. These books are so much fun for everyone I'm an adult and I love them. I wish I had books like these when I was a child. As a kid growing up the only stories we had with Black people in them were stories of slaves or MLK now these young kids get heroes and gods and adventures all with characters that look and sound like them and it's fantastic. Finally, I hope the author puts out some merch because I can't wait to get my Gum Baby t-shirt that says sap attack.

lol

really good series! u NEED to write more triston strong books for this series PLS!

Mbalia's prose + Abdullah's Gum Baby voice = magic

Tristan Strong is back once again! This time, he is forced to return to Alke to save his grandmother from the clutches of the new villain, The Shamble Man. The time between the ending of the first book and the start of the second book is minimal, but the Alke that Tristan returns to is not the same one he left.

I think Gum Baby is right, she is definitely the hero of this story. I now have mad respect for the narrator Amir Abdullah. I have no idea how he does the high pitched voice for Gum Baby without snickering every other sentence. The intentional mispronunciations that Gum Baby makes (pre-coffin-ary instead of precautionary) are amusing and heart-warming. The banter between Gum Baby and Tristan (a.k.a bumble-tongue) alone makes reading this book worth it.

The idea of diaspora throughout the novel is beautiful. Kwame Mbalia’s wit and creativity shines through in this book, and proves he did not fall victim to the “sophomore slump” in his second novel. The Shamble Man is such an interesting villain for this novel, and I was not expecting the truth of his identity. I loved how Mbalia weaved together a story filled with characters from the traditional West African stories, as well as characters of his own creation. Any doubters about whether the success of the first book was a fluke or not should be silenced after reading this.

2021 can’t come soon enough. I’m eagerly awaiting the third installment of the Tristan Strong series. Can’t wait to see what “bumble tongue” is up to in the future, especially with how this book ended!

Just Wow!!

I can’t wait for the 3rd book! The author does such a great job of pulling you right into the stories. The stories are about stories, I really love that. Some are stories that I’ve heard from the grandparents of friends, some are stories that I’ve read while planning a Tall Tale themed day camp for Girl Scouts, some were entirely new to me. The narrator.....his voice is so smooth and velvety and I could just listen to him for hours. He does a good job of making each character’s voice it’s own. The way he can give Gum Baby such a high voice when he is clearly a bass himself.....just amazing. When I read the books Tristan was probably my favorite character, after listening to the books Gum Baby rose to the top of my list. :)

Keep it up!

I truly enjoyed the first book and the second doesn't fail to keep it going. enjoyed hearing more of the characters and their stories.

amazing

I love this book. I heard beautiful folk tales I didn't know existed. amazing series

Love these books

Sap attack!!
We all have that one loud family members with no filter. Lol
I was raised on anansi stories , mami water aka oshun, the sky king. I love the worlds coming together in one realm.