James has said that the trilogy is nonlinear, that a reader can start with any of the books, and so once again, I ventured forth. The Moon Witch herself, who in “Black Leopard, Red Wolf” is something of a treacherous adversary.

Now here comes the next book in his Dark Star trilogy: “Moon Witch, Spider King.” It is the same story, or at least aspects of the same story, this time told by Sogolon - motherless bush girl, thief, royal companion, mother, assassin and avenger. When “Black Leopard, Red Wolf” was named a finalist for the National Book Award, I picked it up one last time, admitted defeat and set it aside. But I was searching for the warm pulse of the story and failing to put my finger on it. After 100 pages, I knew I was deep in the imagination of a voracious reader and brilliant inventor. After all, it was being compared not to “The Fellowship of the Ring” or “The Eye of the World,” but to the darker, more lurid “Game of Thrones.” And clearly James was forging something else altogether, with elements of superhero stories, African folk tales and sword-and-sorcery fiction within that kaleidoscope, he was exploring the mutable natures of identity, power and morality. 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.

Marlon james trilogy