Black Leopard, Red Wolf: A Masterwork of Literary Fantasy

Admittedly, I've picked a difficult book to tackle for the first review published by The Arcanist. At the same time, I've never encountered a fantasy that rocked me so thoroughly. Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James is one of the most brutal, succinct, upsetting, and poignant additions to the LitFan niche.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf is narrated in the first person perspective of Tracker--a man exiled form his tribe with a supernatural sense of smell, which he uses to track down missing persons for coin. The setting is heavily inspired by African mythology, colonization, and the era immediately following and preceding the Atlantic slave trade. Tracker tells his tale retroactively to an interrogator, so the perspective often shifts to flow with the style of oral story-telling.

Despite the craft behind it, I am reluctant to recommend it. This has nothing to do with the quality or my enjoyment of the book, those aspects far exceed my expectations. The problem is that a numbered rating system is reductive in the context of literature. The point of good literature is to challenge the reader. They should come away from their encounter with the literature altered in some way. This book simultaneously opened my eyes and traumatized me--and that's the selling point.

This book is absolutely not for those who wish to avoid triggers. James depicts, sometimes in horrific detail, abuse of all kinds (particularly sexual abuse). At the same time, this is what makes the book stand out. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, took me to dark place and shined a spotlight on my own trauma. I can hear Tracker in my head yelling, "Look at this! Attack this! Defeat this!"

James has no issue treading tumultuous waters, covering issues of race, sexuality, gender, sexism, classism, among others. Books like this are so important. He addresses issues, then depicts their solutions and answers. Even if those are flawed, themselves. This delivers catharsis in spades, but it does not come easily. There's a reason this book isn't much a commercial hit.

The various characters are psychological playgrounds, and it's clear James put substantial thought into the social and emotional consequences the world has on its population. Tracker jumps through various points in his life, telling sometimes seemingly unconnected stories that later join together for a cohesive and unique narrative structure.

His unreliability creates ample opportunity for analysis and speculation. Given how certain events are told again in the following entry, the motivation to return for a reread is strong (I am nearly finished with the sequel, Moon Witch, Spider King, which so far is a vast improvement upon Black Leopard, Red Wolf).

James takes into account the difference in expectations his historically inspired cultures would exhibit in comparison to real, modern society. All too often, Fantasy is strung up by the philosophy of modernity, yet James presents an excellent secondary world that is believable as an archaic, historical society.

If you listen to the audiobook version, Dion Graham delivers a fantastic performance. He gives each of the local dialects a distinct and authentic accent, breaks out into song often, and generally comes off as entirely in-love with the material he's reading.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf is absolutely not for everyone. Yet, it provides an entirely unique and grounded approach to Literary Fantasy that will send ripples through the genre for years to come. It has easily become one of my favorite examples of excellence within LitFan, right up there with the likes of Erikson. That's probably the highest praise I could give in a review.