Moon Witch, Spider King | 
pickThis took me forever to get through, but in a good way. Reading it felt like living in the jungle—disorienting, beautiful, rich, uncomfortable… Its been days since I finished but my mind is still in the world of MWSK. I‘ll never forget Sogolon, the heroine of this book. She‘s so ruthless and resilient, full of kindness and grief. It‘s like she‘s lived so many lives in one. It‘s like I‘ve read so many books in just this one.
so-soI‘m sad that I don‘t like this because I really want to like it and there are so many cool possibilities with the world building, but overall it was just too long and boring and it needed to be deeper in more dimensions.
Sometimes the book brushes against an epic feel, but it‘s never long before it falls back into a more micro-focused character narrative—something that gets too tiresome over the course of so many hundreds of pages.
And even revenge is not about revenge, not really. The planning too long and the execution too quick. What really fire up revenge is desire.
You never cared about anybody but yourself then, so why would you care about anybody else now? All this long life for no purpose other than living it?
Bear? You don‘t have no grief to bear. You never show it. All you do is hurt your children and yourself, because you don‘t want it.
pick5☆A fantastic follow up to Black Leopard, Red Wolf!James is such an incredibly creative writer, building these facinating characters and storylines blows my mind. If you struggled with the first book this one is more accessible, honestly I enjoyed this one more! So give it a try. Again it's violent, dark, deep themes at work here. Completely brilliant! Can't wait for the third book! #bookreview #bookreviewer
pickThe second book in the Dark Star Trilogy.
In this we follow Sogolon and I loved reading about her childhood and her early adulthood and how she became the Moon Witch.
At some point we enter the storyline from the first book of finding a young boy. And at this point in the story, James lost me a little bit, but he pulled me in towards the end.
I can‘t wait to read the third volume and find out whose point of view we will follow then.
She shocked but only for a blink before the thought rush in that whatever come by surprise is, when you look hard enough, a long time coming.
This one is hard to get into, being honest, but I remember the first one was for me as well.
This one feels different though. It‘s a bit more political, and I don‘t think there‘s as much action. It vacillates—sometimes I‘ll get to enjoying it a lot, then it‘ll tire me out. The book is dense. Hopefully I start to vibe with it more….
Built by the gods, which is what priests say when they mean by the death of tens of hundreds of thousands of slaves.
One night I was in the dream jungle.
#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl
Wrote a little author spot on Marlon James for a display at work and our newsletter because I can‘t stop talking about how brilliant the Dark Star Trilogy. Ask anyone who knows me. They‘re all tired of hearing about it. 😂
so-soBy the gods, that was brutal! So violent, but that was to be expected. Didn‘t feel quite as invested in this as Black Leopard, Red Wolf, but I‘ll still finish the trilogy whenever the next one is released. Did a mix of print and audio with very impressive narration by Bahni Turpin. I‘m not a big fantasy reader, but am a fan of all things Marlon James. The Book of Night Women is my favorite of his novels.
Cashed in my Penguin Random House Reader Rewards on this beauty, because I am bound and determined to get the best deal possible (will likely be a second before I can dive in because I 100% have to reread Black Leopard, Red Wolf).
#bookmail The cover art for this Dark Star trilogy is just so cool! Ready to get Sogolon‘s story.
pickBeen a while since I‘ve posted. But I had to review this one. Black Leopard Red Wolf is one of my all time favorite books and this one (sort of sequel) puts it at a solid second place. Marlon James, you are a god. You don‘t have to read Black Leopard to love this book, but it makes the experience much richer.
