Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

Excuse me while I try to make sense of this book and my thoughts around it which not only I, but many others who have read it will remember for a lifetime.

#theguywiththebookreview presents Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

BLRW is an adventure fantasy which keeps moving across its massive size, there are not many pages where you don’t find Marlon James building the world around us. Crazy good part is that the places and characters he has created are not over defined and he leaves a lot to our imagination. The descriptions are part of the story and he doesn’t pause the story line to build the environment.

Second thing or probably the first thing that will come to your mind is the richness of the characters. There are almost no two similar main characters. The ease with which he introduces new types of characters is something I have not seen before.

With BLRW, MJ has blurred the lines between X-Men and Game of Thrones, mashing them together to give an experience unlike any other. The inclusion of Giants, Shape Shifters, Siamese twins, Smoke girl, Witches and many more is done with expert precision.

This has a very interesting effect of the era in which it takes place seeming to stand still, which was mastered by George RR Martin in A Song or Ice and Fire. MJ does the same and you get a sense of stillness in the world he takes you into.

The biggest challenge for me was trying to keep track of the names as well as type of the characters. It gets much easier halfway through once you’re acquainted to most of them. The other thing which might take a little effort is keeping track of the slangs and unique style with which many characters speak.

I think there are a lot of African references and styles used in the book which were lost to me, but I think would be much more appreciated by people having roots there.

Overall, I’m going to be recommending this to everyone. If you’re looking for a book which will take you to places you probably could never imagine yourself, this book is for you. Also, it’s the first in the Dark Star Trilogy, better read it now!

Thank you @PenguinUKbooks for sending me a copy!

Here’s the affiliate link to buy the book!