Moon Witch, Spider King

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

The second novel in Marlon James's revolutionary DARK STAR TRILOGY is here


In this mighty follow-up to his Number 1 bestseller Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Man Booker-winner Marlon James once again draws on a rich tradition of African mythology, fantasy and history to imagine a mythic world, a lost child, a 177-year-old witch, a deadly regal chancellor, and a mystery with many answers...

Part adventure tale, part chronicle of an indomitable woman - the witch Sogolon - who bows to no man, this is an unforgettable exploration of power, personality, and the places where they overlap, set in a world at once ancient and startlingly modern.

In the words of Neil Gaiman, James has created 'a fantasy world as well realized as anything Tolkien made, with language as powerful as Angela Carter's'.

© Marlon James 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Critics Review

  • An epic fable drenched in African mythology. This is work that both meets the immersive worldbuilding standard in books by Tolkien and Martin and brings to the genre a voice unlike anything seen before . . . It sets readers up for what will undoubtedly be a superb finale

    The Boston Globe
  • Booker winner James’s African-inspired imaginary kingdoms mark the series out from the usual run of epic fantasies, but his uniquely supple, powerful style is even more distinctive

    The Guardian
  • Black Leopard, Red Wolf and Moon Witch, Spider King are wildly inventive, genre-defining works of fiction on the level of The Lord Of The Rings and the Broken Earth trilogy that deserve to be studied, dissected, and argued over

    AV Club
  • An exhilarating tour de force . . . [James] establishes a new vision for the trilogy as a whole and confirms Dark Star as a true epic

    John Burnside
  • Moving, vivid, and thought-provoking . . . brilliant

    Buzzfeed
  • James cements his status as a wildly inventive and lyrical storyteller

    Financial Times

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