Moon Witch, Spider King
Ratings21
Average rating4.3
“Masterfully flips the first installment on its head... James makes the mythic tantalizingly real.’” —Esquire "Even more brilliant than the first.” —Buzzfeed An Instant New York Times Bestseller From Marlon James, author of the bestselling National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the second book in the Dark Star trilogy. In Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Sogolon the Moon Witch proved a worthy adversary to Tracker as they clashed across a mythical African landscape in search of a mysterious boy who disappeared. In Moon Witch, Spider King, Sogolon takes center stage and gives her own account of what happened to the boy, and how she plotted and fought, triumphed and failed as she looked for him. It’s also the story of a century-long feud—seen through the eyes of a 177-year-old witch—that Sogolon had with the Aesi, chancellor to the king. It is said that Aesi works so closely with the king that together they are like the eight limbs of one spider. Aesi’s power is considerable—and deadly. It takes brains and courage to challenge him, which Sogolon does for reasons of her own. Both a brilliant narrative device—seeing the story told in Black Leopard, Red Wolf from the perspective of an adversary and a woman—as well as a fascinating battle between different versions of empire, Moon Witch, Spider King delves into Sogolon’s world as she fights to tell her own story. Part adventure tale, part chronicle of an indomitable woman who bows to no man, it is a fascinating novel that explores power, personality, and the places where they overlap.
Series
Featured Series
2 primary books#2 in The Dark Star Trilogy
The Dark Star Trilogy is a 2-book series with 2 released primary works first released in 2019 with contributions by Marlon James.
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Another powerful and visceral depiction of African fantasy from Marlon James. I listened to the audio book with a very strong performance by Bahni Turpin who does a stupendous job of bringing Sogolon to life. In this story we follow the life story of Sogolon (the Moon Witch in [b:Black Leopard, Red Wolf 50608676 Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy #1) Marlon James https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1579618622l/50608676.SX50.jpg 48215793]) and here ongoing struggle with the Aesi (one half of the Spider King). While technically a sequel to [b:Black Leopard, Red Wolf 50608676 Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy #1) Marlon James https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1579618622l/50608676.SX50.jpg 48215793] the book goes back further in time and neatly swallows it whole. The change in point of view from a gay man to a woman dramatically changes the context of the book and the themes the book explores . Moon Witch's story is the struggle for self determination and the freedom to make her own decisions and the slow realisation of her power and agency. She is a power and often unlikeable character. I enjoyed the book in spite of its profanity and challenging scenes. There are a lot of situations that are hard to read (sexual and non-sexual violence and coercion, slavery). The story does a good job of dealing with difficult topics without being exploitative (in my opinion).
Complicated and dense, more so than BLRW. I get why it was written in a dialect (of sorts?), but it was distracting. But, I couldn't put it down.
The story seems very interesting, but the writing style, with the different gammer and sentence structure, made it difficult for me to focus on the book and really enjoy it. Perhaps I'll pick it up at a later date, but not sure
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