I'll cut to the quick explaining why this will be a brief review: Novels are meant to be read and enjoyed, not hounded down like a game book. Adventure modules are not novels, novels are not gaming material.
Okay, so this "novel" violates that last bit, but I'm trying to make a point: this isn't a roleplaying supplement that you can pick through to get any game worthy "rules" from, it's a story.
And after finally plowing through the book, this is a very tedious beginning to a lengthy series of books. While some have said before that the writing isn't as crisp and clean as it could be, we must realise when each author is alotted a set number of pages "to fill," they'll probably fill it, but not with their best work. Each "novel" of this book (okay, novella, for those keeping score) is roughly 140 pages, with the strongest writing in the last "novel" ("Get of Fenris").
I say strongest, because that section feels more focused than the first ("Shadow Lords"). Fleming introduces us to a new set of characters each of the first three chapters, and than drives us happily away into the overall series' structure. "Shadow Lords" feels very incomplete and slow, each shift to another character seperates the reader (okay, me) from what is going on. At the end of the "novel," I truly felt like the carpet was torn under me as the story focus shifted again to characters outside the introduced narrative.
As a series, I can see moving along to other characters so that the series structure is set up nicely and neatly, however "Shadow Lords" fumbles this, and the narrative gets muddled.
"Get of Fenris" follows "Shadow Lords" in terms of action, character and plot, the reader was introduced quickly to the Fenris moot at the end of Fleming’s section. Griffon does handle narrative flow slightly better than Fleming, though both are lacking "the drive" needed to carry most readers beyond this one book. This "drive" I refer to are a story’s characters, action and intrigue that usually carry a reader through a story. While "Fenris" is quicker in action than "Lords", because of this inertia some fickle readers will pick up the next book to see what happens, the characterization is flat and somewhat boring.
Werewolves (of the game) are brutal, intriguing and quick-paced; the werewolves of these "novels" spend too much time in debate and contemplation. I wanted there to be brutal quick action, much like a fast-paced spy or science fiction novel.
These "novels" show what caern life would be like, and for that, that is good. But showing the garou as dull, flat characters makes the rest of the series have much to stand out against.
The "novels" could have been better if the authors would alloted space to develop them further or if one author could have handled the writing task himself.
We shall see how the rest of the Tribe Novel series fairs against its first outing.
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