Black Leopard, Red Wolf

The Dark Star Trilogy, Book 1

By: Marlon James

Narrated by: Dion Graham

One of Time’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time

Winner of the LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize

Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award

The New York Times best seller

Named a Best Book of 2019 by The Wall Street Journal, Time, NPR, GQ, Vogue, and The Washington Post

"A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made." (Neil Gaiman)

"Gripping, action-packed.... The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe." (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

The epic novel, an African Game of Thrones, from the Man Booker Prize-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

In the stunning first novel in Marlon James' Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child.

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

As Tracker follows the boy's scent - from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers - he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything that's come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that's also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both.

©2019 Marlon James (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“The first volume of a promised trilogy, a fabulist reimagining of Africa, with inevitable echoes of Tolkien, George R.R. Martin and Black Panther, but highly original, its language surging with power, its imagination all-encompassing.... Marlon is a writer who must be read.” (Salman Rushdie, Time)

“No novel this year was as intoxicated by the pleasures and possibilities of storytelling as this bloody, bawdy, profane, deliriously overstuffed work of high fantasy. The first part of a planned trilogy, Marlon James’s book already boasts more swagger and invention than most multivolume epics dragging toward their 10th installment.” (The Wall Street Journal, Best Books of 2019)

"Gripping, action-packed.... The literary equivalent of a Marvel Comics universe - filled with dizzying, magpie references to old movies and recent TV, ancient myths and classic comic books, and fused into something new and startling by his gifts for language and sheer inventiveness.” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

“Black Leopard, Red Wolf is the kind of novel I never realized I was missing until I read it. A dangerous, hallucinatory, ancient Africa, which becomes a fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made, with language as powerful as Angela Carter's. It's as deep and crafty as Gene Wolfe, bloodier than Robert E. Howard, and all Marlon James. It's something very new that feels old, in the best way. I cannot wait for the next installment.” (Neil Gaiman)

Incredible story; masterful narrator.

This is destined to be a classic of the fantasy genre. James is an artist.

very good book. better narration!

Loved the character development! very immersive story. Definitely recommend this book for those interested in fantasy genre

incredible read.

Marlon James is an incredible mind, who wrote one of the best novels I have ever read and listened to. Black Leopard Red Wolf is innovative and yet classic, nostalgic and yet astonishingly fresh. This novel changed the way I think; it's emotional, barbaric, philosophical, psychological, and reads like a painting. Furthermore, Dion Graham's narration brings so much emotion to the whispered words between lovers, angry threats between rivals, and betrayed spitting between old friends. This book is one of the best you could read, or will ever read. Truly a spectacular piece.

from the mind off a true GRIOT!

Wow! nuff said! an awesome book read by a master story teller! thank you this! an awesome movie could come out of these pages!

Great read, dark storyline.

Loved it! Extremely descriptive, well read. An acquired taste for sure. I woukd recommend it

Grotesquely Beautiful

I was a bit unsure of where this story was going at first. in the beginning, it was a tad difficult to follow. However as I kept following along it got more and more entranced by the book. It was graphic and extremely grotesque. Some of the situations described were very monstrously gruesome and freakishly hideous! However, the story came together in such a beautiful way! I love it.
I can tell the ending was set up for a sequel or series but I wish it would've left me a bit more. I feel that to say this book is similar to an African "Game of Thrones" is a bit inaccurate. It was nothing of the sort except for the blood and grotesqueries and maybe some flying demons/entities.

links to the gruesome past

very engaging cadence, and primal. The Book's characters were sharp and alive with purpose.

Truly amazing work that will challenge everything you think you know about fantasy

I just can’t say enough about how good this book is. You WILL need someone to discuss it with afterwards, it’s that different. I wish I could give this 10 stars, it’s so good.

If you friend fantasy before, and you’re familiar with Elves, dwarf‘s, dragons, and the like, then this will give you an entire new Pantheon of creatures to experience and enjoy!

There’s 20 of the same old stuff out there, if you want to read something that truly innovates this genre, pick up this book.

Brilliant Performance

A fantastic yet bitter story made even better by the narration. A terrific all around read!

Excellent Performance

It took a few hours to get into the story but the entire time I was impressed with the technical skill of the narrator. The voice acting was crisp and (seemingly) authentic accents.

I’m not sure that I’ll go for the next book in the series, but if I do it’ll be because I want to continue to hear Dion Graham!