![]() ![]() ![]() I adjusted my expectations and soldiered on. Even consensual sex often had the taint of disgust and cruelty. There was an awful lot of spilled entrails, bodily fluids and, in James’s words, “funk and stink.” More troubling was the sexual violence perpetrated on men, women and children, sometimes described graphically and frequently with disturbing nonchalance. As fishwomen swam past and mutantlike children scuttled across the ceiling, there was no gentle narrator to chime in with the equivalent of “What is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays.” Instead it was as if I had woken up in a stranger’s hallucinogenic nightmare, and as I feebly felt my way around, I began to suspect this wasn’t a place I wanted to spend my time. ![]() The storyteller, Tracker, spoke as if I were already well acquainted not only with the bizarre land he inhabits, but also the inner workings of his mind. That night, I took my first dive into the Dark Star trilogy. I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about a book, and I bought a hardcover copy on the day it was released. Marlon James’s 2019 novel “Black Leopard, Red Wolf” was described as an African “Game of Thrones” - fantasy fiction on adrenaline, written by a Jamaican winner of the Booker Prize. ![]()
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