Black Leopard, Red Wolf (2019)

Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a 2019 fantasy novel by Jamaican writer Marlon James. It is the first book of the Dark Star Trilogy. The novel draws on African history and mythology, blended into the landscape of the North Kingdom and the South Kingdom, and the political tensions between these two warring states, as well as various city-states and tribes in the surrounding landscape. The rights to produce a film adaptation were purchased by Michael B. Jordan in February 2019 prior to release of the book.

Plot

The plot is narrated in flashbacks with non-chronological episodes. In a frame story, a man named Tracker recounts his tale to prison interrogators from the South Kingdom. Once Tracker has identified someone’s scent, he can follow them anywhere. As a young adult, he abandons his abusive grandfather, whom he believes is his father, and returns to the Ku tribe, home of his uncle and his extended family, where he learns of his deceased father and of his brother, also now dead. He meets a shapeshifter known as Leopard and a young Ku man named Kava, with whom Tracker begins a sexual relationship. They rescue mingi children, who are born with birth defects and/or strange powers. These children are cared for by the Sangoma, an anti-witch.

On one mission to rescue children, Tracker is caught by a flesh-eating monster named Asanbosam. He and Leopard kill the creature and escape. Kava betrays the Sangoma. She and most of the children are killed, but she is able to place a protective enchantment on Tracker before she dies. Tracker leaves the surviving mingi children with the Gangatom tribe and sets out on his own.

Years later, in the city of Malakal, Tracker is hired to find a mysterious boy. The boy was abducted from the home of Basu Fumanguru, an elder in the city of Kongor. Basu and his family were all killed, and the boy is the sole survivor. He is now being held captive by a group of monsters. His captors include an Ipundulu, a vampire who drains his victims and replaces their blood with lightning, as well as Sasabonsam, brother of Asambosam. In addition to Tracker, members of this expedition include Leopard; Leopard’s bowman and lover Fumeli; Nyka, a man who previously betrayed Tracker by selling him into slavery; Nsaka, a mercenary and Nyka’s lover; Sadogo, a giant; Bunshi, a river spirit; and Sogolon, the Moon Witch, a sorceress who is hunted by the spirits of those she has killed.

The expedition falls apart almost immediately. Nsaka and Nyka leave the group early. The remaining group members survive a trip through the Darklands, a forest where time flows abnormally. They reunite in the city of Kongor. Tracker and a city prefect named Mossi learn that the boy is the son of Lissisolo, King Kwash Dara’s sister, and thus the true heir to the throne. The boy’s captors are using the nineteen doors, magical portals, to traverse the North Kingdom. Kwash Dara and his necromancer the Aesi want to kill the child to protect their claim to the throne.

Tracker, Mossi, Sogolon, Sadogo, and Venin (a young girl rescued by Sogolon) travel to the city of Dolingo to intercept the boy and his captors. Sogolon betrays the three men by selling them into slavery. Amidst a slave rebellion, the group loses track of the boy. The boy reaches one of the nineteen doors and returns to Kongor. Venin, possessed by one of the spirits hunting Sogolon, drags her through the portal and seemingly kills her. The group returns to Kongor. Along the way, Tracker and Mossi begin a sexual relationship. They reunite with Leopard and Fumeli. Nsaka and Nyka are also in the city; Nyka has been drained by the Ipundulu. The group rescues the boy and kills the Ipundulu, but Sasabonsam escapes. Lissisolo is taken hostage by the Aesi. Bunshi, Sadogo, and the Aesi are killed. Lissisolo takes her son to the Mweru wilderness. Mossi and Tracker return for the mingi children; they raise them together in the city of Mitu.

Five years later, Sasabonsam has again captured the boy, although Tracker suspects that the boy went with the monster willingly. Sasabonsam and the boy attack the home in Mitu while Tracker is away, killing Mossi and the mingi children. Tracker finds Nyka, who has killed Nsaka and become an Ipundulu himself. The boy is now addicted to vampire blood, so Tracker plans to use Nyka to draw him out of hiding. They work with the Aesi, who has somehow survived the previous fight. Eventually, they kill Sasabonsam. They find the boy waiting with Leopard and Sogolon. Leopard tries to kill the boy, but Sogolon kills Leopard first. Nyka kills both himself and the boy with lightning. Tracker wanders to the Southern Kingdom, where he is arrested. He ends his tale by asking if his testimony matches Sogolon’s.

Themes

Themes that the novel explores include the fundamentals of truths, the limits of power, the excesses of ambition, desire, Machiavellianism, duty and honor. James offers a clue to his underlying theme early on in the saga: "Truth eats lies just as the crocodile eats the moon."

Meaning

The novel's extensive exploration of meaning informs its linguistic and narrative structure and has led it to be generally considered a difficult text; Jia Tolentino noted that "nearly every bit of dialogue is immediately challenged by another character." Tracker frequently challenges the authority of the inquisitor and deliberately misleads him; his account begins with a story for which he provides two possible endings.

James sets the conventions of the secondary-world novel, in which the "real world" is escaped and hence in which stories are vitally important, against the Tracker's nihilist philosophy, which governs the novel and which ultimately rejects stories as fundamentally flawed ways of apprehending the world. Gautam Bhatia argues that the extent to which the novel "denies us refuge in meaning" makes it unprecedented in epic fantasy.