And, oh, the sprints.īut again, this adventure belongs to Sogolon. Dense passages grow heavy, and the story can stall too long in a single moment, making the reader want to skim - less out of boredom than the kind of excitement that might lead one to ignore the assembly instructions for a glorious new gadget. Occasionally, as with any good food, the story’s richness can rankle in such great portions. Does she smell of men? Of tall grasses? Poo? Then we know who the character is and where she’s likely been. James allows us to sense as keenly as Tracker, to smell a person coming. If he wanted, James could take a reader on a tender search for a four-leaf clover in a hobbit’s meadow and we would not only see it but catch feelings about the stroll. In a world as thoroughly imagined as J.R.R. James once called his trilogy an “African ‘Game of Thrones,’” and while he later regretted the comparison, scenes involving the collision of his kingdoms, families and power seekers could easily rival that series’ unforgettable Red Wedding.
“ Moon Witch, Spider King” requires a trigger warning for those accustomed to G-rated fantasy. In time she will be called Moon Witch, but isn’t “witch” what some call women who survive prolonged abuse and still pray?Īnd truth hurts. She has yet to claw her way from a termite hill to a ditch, to Kongor and onward toward the throne room - a journey made of men and magic that marks her body until she chooses her own path. In Part 2 of his Rashomon-structured epic, it’s her version and her time. We first met Sogolon in Book 1 of the trilogy “ Black Leopard, Red Wolf,” in which she was the antagonist - the obstacle faced by the preternaturally gifted shape-shifter Tracker as he courses a fantastical kingdom in medieval Africa in James’ pointed revision of the Eurocentric fantasies that dominated this genre over the last century.īut this, James immediately signals, is Sogolon’s story. Sloshed by his robust language, readers are plunged into a shocking cold bath of violence perpetrated against a girl. In the second book of his Dark Star trilogy, James coaxes beauty from dark thoughts, leaving readers with a concaved, mystical and African-inspired world that begins in free-fall. With “Moon Witch, Spider King,” Marlon James is that writer. Writers of elevated and candescent fantasy hold a mirror to the worlds they live in and are master architects of the worlds they create, slanting reflections like a carnival fun house.
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