Black Leopard, Red Wolf: Dark Star Trilogy Book 1

This book is incredible. If you are looking for Game of Thrones this is not for you. If you want a very readable adventure through a magical Africa without European influence, an adventure story that will draw you deep into it, then give this a go.It is important that this is a book written by a Black author, with Black characters. It is the anti - Game of Thrones. Here Black characters, and African mythology, are empowered and brought to centre stage. I found this really refreshing. It is not tied to the same conventions of White Euro-American writersIt creates a rich world which is so well realised I can still visualise all the locations. The relationships between the characters are beautifully developed. It is gripping and a real page turner.Best book I have read in years. I literally can't wait for the next 2 instalments

Having really enjoyed A Brief History...I was eagerly anticipating this new novel by Marlon James. Now that I am finished, it might give me cause to re-evaluate A Brief History. Somewhat torn by James as an author, I don’t know whether he is high-brow or low-brow; if his sentences are stunning in execution or infuriatingly opaque; if those ultra violent episodes are justifiable or gratuitous.This had an intriguing and ambitious premise but was an exceptionally tough chew. James himself said we have to work hard in the reading but doing so in the absence of fun becomes a chore to say the least. The early moments of violence were shocking but after 600+ pages, the shock gives way to fatigue. So we are still doing this, after this amount of time?? Give me a break Marlon.In addition, James has made the curious choice to report what each character says and thinks verbatim (“The woman was hanging from the ceiling. No, standing on it. No, attached to it looking down on me...Truth, she stood on the ceiling the way I was right there on the floor. And the children were lying on the ceiling. Standing on the ceiling.”)I mean seriously. This is just one example.I got tired of the graphic sexuality. I got tired of the incessant gore. I got tired of the staccato prose. Tired of the convoluted, flip-flopping narrative. Tired of the ‘look at me’, ‘let me dazzle you’ nauseatingly showboating, navel-gazing, performance by James at the centre of it all.There were things to admire in its scope and arguably there is a good novel there trying to get out. However 600+ of this drivel, I was no closer to finding out who the child was, why everyone wanted him or why Tracker was committed to the mission. Pitching it as an African Game of Thrones hints at the intention James may have set out with. But this overcooked, cliched, monumentally pretentious and insanely verbose novel seemed to me to miss the mark by quite a huge distance. A massive disappointment.It is what it is. I just wish it wasn’t.

I absolutely loved this book. So unique, I didn’t get bored at any point and was able to pick up and put back down often and still stay with the plot. I love the story, the approach and the diversity of the characters. I love how the book considers many oppressions and personal challenges from many different perspectives and bought a modern liberating perspective to some themes whilst set in a time that focused on oppression of those same themes. I get that it may not be for everyone but it’s definitely up in my top 10 and was the perfect escapism from a difficult job and MA. I’m excited for the next two books and know my next book isn’t going to fill the gap this one ending has left.

i thought this book would be akin to George Martins Game of Thrones as this was how it was sold to me , but it is worst kind of weird as if Marlon James was on some sort of pyschotic drug. I read most things but will have to gird my loins to make a further attempt to read this book. weird is an understatement

Despite the adverts this is nothing like GoT in any respect.It’s a confused rambling story that’s difficult to follow, not unlike the previous book, but with the addedIssues of being set in a mystical continent. I normally finish almost every book I start, but not this one, after about one third of the book I have decided to send it to Oxfam!