Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon JamesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
An incredulous and interminable LSD fuelled Tolkienesque sanguineous quest of the olfactory-blessed, seemingly invincible protagonist. He battles monsters like the Zogbanu (trolls), blood-thirsty ogres, zombies, cannibals, witches and antiwitches, the Ipundulu, the Aesi, the Adze, Bad Ibeyi, the ravenous arboreal brothers Bonsam and Sasabonsam, a mind-reading teratoma, the rapacious roof-dwelling Omoluzu, and other voracious nightmarish entities.
The mystical and macabre landscape is ‘peopled’ with alchemists and necromancers as if China Miéville has shifted base from the cold and clammy London to the torrid African savannah.
There are dimension-twisting portals suited for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass on a bad drug-trip.
Te protagonist's allies are an Ogo, an albino swordsman, a shapeshifting leopard with its protector/sex-partner Fumeli. His one weakness is the mingi – a bunch of deformed, yet psychically gifted children protected by yumboes.
Other characters include the shape-shifting mermaid Bunshi/Popele, the mercenary Nsaka Ne Vampi, the lightening-powered Nooya, Ghommids, the riverine Chipfalambula, the vicious cousins Ewele/Egbere, Anjonu, the gremlin Tokoloshe,Eloko and on and on ad nauseum.
The absence of a glossary leaves the meaning of these obscure terms an enigma
tokoloshe, nkisi nkond, obayifo, phuungu, kaphoonda, moondu, matuumba, tarabu; musical instruments called kora, djembe; sukusuku, masubu, abukaThen there is the Umomowomowomowo River.
Awarding it three stars for its inordinate length and never-ending fighting and a surplus of blood and gore. Not looking forward to the sequels.
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