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david_agranoff's review
4.0
This new release from Gene O’Neil had a longer history than I realized. Published twelve years ago as a limited edition hardcover only 100 people got a copy of this novel so this basically a new release. Many books from plenty of authors take that long to go from the first draft to your hands and eyeballs. It is interesting because I just assumed this was a new work. As I read through the pages I that this book was not of this era. More on that later.
Gene O’Neil is a solid writer who is responsible for some of my favorite short stories including the classic “The Burden of Indigo” which I consider a top ten horror short story. I first read Gene O’Neil when I got a review copy of his collection the Taste of Tenderloin, a themed collection about the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco.
California is the foundation of Gene O’Neil’s fiction much in the way East Texas is in Lansdale or Maine in early Stephen King. It is not just the bay area, but the wilds of his post-apocalypse Cal-Wild stories and in this case rural northern California. I do feel this region has been underserved in fiction. Lost Tribe promoted very thinly with two very creepy photorealistic white tribesmen who are cross between Mad Max extras dudes you would see dumpster diving the health food store near a crust punk show.
I think the image is quite striking, and the very short description on the back cover is about a fictional (as best that I can tell) lost tribe of white-skinned native Americans. I think the old saying about not judging a book by the cover has never been more true. It is not that the novel is bad, I have yet to read anything by Gene O’Neil I didn’t enjoy. It is simply not the book I expected.
The description on the Goodreads page is more like the book I read. Let's talk about the book already. The framing device is an interesting and effective one. Many of the chapters start with entries from article entries from a character on the scene to research a book he is writing about the region. It is a great way for the author to provide information about the region and elements that help direct the story. The narrative jumps from various third-person points of view, sometimes with chapters that are not even a full page.
In this sense, the novel moves fast even though horror elements do not come until halfway through the book. The outright supernatural elements don’t appear until the final act. This is fine for two reasons. First, it is a short book and second Gene O’Neil is a talented storyteller who makes the exposition of the early pages not feel like a slog.
Once the action kicks in we get a huge earthquake that sorta reminded me of another novel set in the same region John Shirley’s Everything is Broken. They are very different books, I was just reminded of the Shirley book. The earthquake opens a lost island, a neat idea but I was waiting for a clash between worlds when the lost tribe of dreadlocked archers happens upon the scene of the post-earthquake wreckage.
Lost Tribe is a good novel, and I enjoyed reading it but that was the one big problem I had with it. It is a monster story, and a good one but my mind played with what I saw on the cover every time I looked at it and I felt like I didn’t get that book.
I am not going to grade the actual novel on that curve, but it did affect how this pill went down. The novel Lost Tribe is an effective monster tale that on purpose doesn’t have a ton of the monster. The majority of the book is setting and character. Written with an economy of words Gene O’Neil unfolds a story that mirrors bits and pieces of myth and legend that sound real enough. It is a rare thing when I close a book and feel I could use one hundred more pages of that. I would have been fine with that.
Gene O’Neil is not flashy young talent breaking never before touched grounds in the genre. In fact, this book is kinda lacking anything modern in the narrative. It has a classic feel to it. Much like a classic film that passes up the new stuff with all the bells and whistles Gene O’Neil just tells a powerful story.
Gene O’Neil is a solid writer who is responsible for some of my favorite short stories including the classic “The Burden of Indigo” which I consider a top ten horror short story. I first read Gene O’Neil when I got a review copy of his collection the Taste of Tenderloin, a themed collection about the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco.
California is the foundation of Gene O’Neil’s fiction much in the way East Texas is in Lansdale or Maine in early Stephen King. It is not just the bay area, but the wilds of his post-apocalypse Cal-Wild stories and in this case rural northern California. I do feel this region has been underserved in fiction. Lost Tribe promoted very thinly with two very creepy photorealistic white tribesmen who are cross between Mad Max extras dudes you would see dumpster diving the health food store near a crust punk show.
I think the image is quite striking, and the very short description on the back cover is about a fictional (as best that I can tell) lost tribe of white-skinned native Americans. I think the old saying about not judging a book by the cover has never been more true. It is not that the novel is bad, I have yet to read anything by Gene O’Neil I didn’t enjoy. It is simply not the book I expected.
The description on the Goodreads page is more like the book I read. Let's talk about the book already. The framing device is an interesting and effective one. Many of the chapters start with entries from article entries from a character on the scene to research a book he is writing about the region. It is a great way for the author to provide information about the region and elements that help direct the story. The narrative jumps from various third-person points of view, sometimes with chapters that are not even a full page.
In this sense, the novel moves fast even though horror elements do not come until halfway through the book. The outright supernatural elements don’t appear until the final act. This is fine for two reasons. First, it is a short book and second Gene O’Neil is a talented storyteller who makes the exposition of the early pages not feel like a slog.
Once the action kicks in we get a huge earthquake that sorta reminded me of another novel set in the same region John Shirley’s Everything is Broken. They are very different books, I was just reminded of the Shirley book. The earthquake opens a lost island, a neat idea but I was waiting for a clash between worlds when the lost tribe of dreadlocked archers happens upon the scene of the post-earthquake wreckage.
Lost Tribe is a good novel, and I enjoyed reading it but that was the one big problem I had with it. It is a monster story, and a good one but my mind played with what I saw on the cover every time I looked at it and I felt like I didn’t get that book.
I am not going to grade the actual novel on that curve, but it did affect how this pill went down. The novel Lost Tribe is an effective monster tale that on purpose doesn’t have a ton of the monster. The majority of the book is setting and character. Written with an economy of words Gene O’Neil unfolds a story that mirrors bits and pieces of myth and legend that sound real enough. It is a rare thing when I close a book and feel I could use one hundred more pages of that. I would have been fine with that.
Gene O’Neil is not flashy young talent breaking never before touched grounds in the genre. In fact, this book is kinda lacking anything modern in the narrative. It has a classic feel to it. Much like a classic film that passes up the new stuff with all the bells and whistles Gene O’Neil just tells a powerful story.
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