Another escape, this time into the arms of a shapeshifting lover and a gaggle of children. There she becomes "the girl," still abused but able to taste just enough power to know she likes it, needs it. A bloody escape delivers her to a brothel and then into the clutches of scheming nobles. She begins life as a nameless child imprisoned and tortured by her brothers. Add to that her "wind (not wind)" - a force she never fully controls but one that is there when she needs it the most - and you have a very formidable woman. She trains as a fighter and is smart and observant enough to outwit her enemies. James sections Sogolon's journey into five parts, throughout which we witness the growth of her power, both physical and magical. Some of her story retells Tracker's, Rashomon-style, but much of it is her own life, one that begins with oppression and ends with a hard-won semi-freedom. The novel follows the travels and travails of Sogolon, the aforementioned Moon Witch that Tracker frequently conflicted with in his novel. As awed as I was by Tracker's story in the first book, Sogolon's tale makes this a rare sequel that is better than the first. With the sequel, Moon Witch, Spider King, James once again shattered my expectations. Unwieldy and unrelenting, it systematically dismantled everything I thought I knew about epic fantasy. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the first book in Marlon James' Dark Star Trilogy, was one of those novels that broke my brain in the best possible way.
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