Black Leopard, Red Wolf (Dark Star Trilogy, #1)

by Marlon James

One of TIME’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time

Winner of the L.A. Times Ray Bradbury Prize 

Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award

The New York Times Bestseller

Named a Best Book of 2019 by The Wall Street Journal, TIME, NPR, GQ, Vogue, and The Washington Post

"A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made." --Neil Gaiman

"Gripping, action-packed....The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

The epic novel, an African Game of Thrones, from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

In the stunning first novel in Marlon James's Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child. 

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

As Tracker follows the boy's scent--from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers--he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything that's come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that's also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both.

• ISBN10: 1984882902
• ISBN13: 9781984882905
• Publish Date: 5 February 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Diversified Publishing
• Imprint: Random House Large Print
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 928
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781984882905

Reviews

[Ben Pick]

This book is not for me. The first time it became a story within a story within a story, I wanted to put the book down. The plot felt meandering and uneven, sprinting past major events only to double back and tell us what happened. The narrator spends the entire book not wanting to be there or caring about why they are doing anything. Even his stance of "in it for the money" felt shallow and unearned. I don't see how this story could be so critically acclaimed. It painted a vast world, but never dove deep enough into it as we followed a character between set pieces where he actively pisses off everyone around him.

All of my complaints pale in comparison to the number of times the narrator refers to his own dick for no other reason than to ensure it is still attached.

I was interested in the book's telling of African folklore and mythology and came away with a kaleidoscope of monsters built to pad the story's length.

[moraa]

“He is my friend.”
“Nobody ever gets betrayed by their enemy.”

ALL THE FREAKING STARS TO THIS because y’all could never. whew, child! I might need a drink for this one!

*rolls up sleeves*
*takes a sip of strong tea*

If you’ve not read this book, you need to read it and I’m going to attempt to tell you why (using many, many – but somehow not enough – words). So strap in and get comfortable!

also, this will be a spoiler-free review so proceed with wild abandon

CHARACTERS
-there were so many to choose from but I decided to limit myself to these five:

1. Tracker
-he’s funny, no really. He has a talent for banter that had me curled up in a ball saying “no more please!” as my family considered taking me to see one of the Sangomas and have bad spirits cast out.
(no they didn’t but it would been quite the conversation)
-his character arc is more than entertaining to watch play out, it’s believable – enough to make me forget he’s only a bunch of words on a page. I enjoyed watching him struggle not just with himself and his past but his place in the grander scheme of things.
-and though he’s by no means ‘lively’ in the strict sense, I swear to you he’s brimming with life.

2. Leopard
-everything you’d want in a ‘wild and free’ character
-you can always count on him to lighten the mood (and stir up trouble every now and then)
-his friendship with Tracker is one of the greatest things about this book (full circle baby!)

3. Sogolon
-I was so-so about her until I discovered her true motives
-a certified bad-ass (debate your mother please)
-also, she tolerates zero bullshit at all from men and her ability to constantly put most of them in their place is nothing short of admirable (and entertaining).

4. Mingi
-this is not one person but a category of people (won’t say anything else because: spoilers)
-these are like my little babies
-I love you all more than I can ever say
-I need to see more Mingi in books 2 and 3
(actually, I just need to see books 2 and 3 period).

5. Sadogo
-Sadogo is everything that is sorrowful and mournful in this book (not quite but bear with my melodrama a little more)
-I enjoyed learning about him from the get-go and wading into his backstory didn’t change that at all
-don’t listen to them, Sadogo, you’re the shit!

WORLD-BUILDING
-it goes without saying this is African-inspired fantasy and the senses were tingling (in a good way) the deeper I got sucked into this world. Marlon James is not the first to write African fantasy and he is not the only to be doing it as we speak but as I read this I felt something profound, a sense of belonging and I said to myself “these are my people in a genre I love so much”
-places I’d love to visit:

1. Gangatom
-I think these are a people (a river tribe) and not a place but I’d like to visit their forest nonetheless. I want to sing and dance when night falls, and fight and sing and dance again. I want to put on Hemba masks and lose myself to the sound of drums in the cold night wind.

2. Malakal
-ahh, this land, home of the mad King of the North, that no one conquered because they dared not try. A land where most men and women are warriors, in a city built by thieves, that scrapes the skies.

3. Mitu
-who wouldn’t want to visit the city where men have put down arms to ponder questions of earth and sky? Here are your fertile grasslands and that baobab tree (that tree of sorrows). Here you live in proximity to the Darklands, here you live with demons on your doorstep.

4. Dolingo
-the land where their skin is dark enough to be blue, where trees are as tall as the world itself and pillars are covered in gold. The queen sits in the citadel at the very top surrounded by courtiers who bow to her every whim without question.

WRITING STYLE
-Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a frame-story which basically means we have a story within a story. Both narratives lead to finding out the main question which is: what happened to the boy?
-there’s not much else to say about Marlon James’ writing except that coupled with the characters he created, it only draws you in even more.
-have I mentioned the banter?

PLOT & THEME
-The story is more character driven (as I mentioned above) but the plot serves the story well and I have no complaints here.
-just a few themes I enjoyed watching come to fruition:
1. Friendship
-Tracker and Leopard carried this one (and I loved it)
2. Survival
3. Suffering and isolation
4. Deception
5. Revenge
6. Self-acceptance

MAGIC SYSTEM
-not exactly hard-core (in terms of actual 'practice' of magic) but please meet all these wonderful (and some slightly horrifying) magical characters/creatures
1. The Sangoma
2. Witches
3. Mingi
4. Shape shifters
5. Asanbosam
6. The Ogos
7. White Scientists
8. Shadowings
9. The Godbutcher

(and these are just the ones I marked down!)

Not everything the eye sees should be spoken by the mouth.