paperback, 640 pages
Published Feb. 4, 2020 by Riverhead Books.
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 …
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.
I think it took me about 350 pages before finally getting sucked into the story. But when I finally got into to it, I finally found all the details fascinating. The story gets moving, full of action, stories, unique fiction, persona and lore. This is definitely something that should be read by all that love fantasy.
I usually drop fiction that hits me with too much magic up front, but this was so foreign, irreverent, and unpredictable that it kept me curious. Having finished it I really feel like I've spent time in an alien world. I'm not sure I like or understand all of it, but the exposure forced my mind to broaden somehow.
I’m uncomfortable with the sheer number of descriptions of things that somehow involve people’s bodies in a sexual manner even when nothing sexual is even happening. It felt like everything was couched in terms of a male/female binary. The thing that made me stop was one character’s casual description of circumcision and female genital mutilation as equivalent and positive things to do to children’s bodies. It’s possible that the overall stance of the book doesn’t condone this (authors are not their characters, after all), but I’m too distressed to read more and find out.
I honestly don't know what to think about this book. At first, I found it confusing. Then a while in I got into its groove and enjoyed it. Then found it a confusing again. The language can be hard to follow sometimes, which can be disjointing given that it seems to want to sort of be an adventure/action type thing and does at times flow in such a way, but then it constantly morphs and plays in other more complicated ways. Definitely worth reading and grappling with but I'm not sure it lived up to the critical praise for me. But maybe I missed something and need to reread it to really get it? Not sure.
DNF. Wasn't for me, at least not in my current state of mind-- extremely graphic and surprisingly difficult to follow, despite being intriguing. May revisit later.
Maybe someday when I have more time to concentrate on one book at a time I'll pick this back up.
Wonderful worldbuilding and non-quest structure. The bodily excesses become too much for me.
