Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James

 Red Wolf, Black Leopard was one of my favorite books of 2019. The favorite book, actually. 

The first book in the proposed Dark Star trilogy was a psychedelic mad fantastical dream set in a pre-colonial Africa, teeming with magic, witches and mad kings, a Marlon James's version of traditional sword-and-sorcery. This was a gore splatter-fest, teeming with lurid sex all in the name of a quest to find a boy, who is central to the overall plot (if there ever was one!). So in Moon Witch, Spider King, the second novel in this trilogy, Marlon James reins himself in, just a touch . This book is more a companion novel rather than a sequel - giving us a roshomonesque view of the same quest, that our beloved Tracker had set out for, with his group of friends. 

Except this time, it's the story of the Moon Witch, also known as Sogolon. Her name, actually doesn't matter as we realize over the course of her story that extends one hundred seventy seven years and counting. It's a heart-wrenching emotionally charged account of her hapless life, as she sets out to find meaning and purpose, disconsolate and raging against life itself.  

A rare sequel that outshines the original in this series, we get to know Sogolon, the girl who grows up to be the feared Moon Witch - a cynic with the passage of time, who has realized never to trust men and to live life on her own terms. At a hundred and seventy-seven years, Sogolon's story is an origin story that captures the emotional stake of Sogolon in this quest for a boy - that was at the heart of book one. But this book goes way behind, taking us to the birth of Sogolon, a girl who was shunned and caged away by her own brothers in an ant-hill, as she was believed to have brought bad-luck to their family. Having grown up in such dire humiliating and extreme circumstances, it is no wonder that Sogolon starts to mistrust the world around her. Her next set of experiences with a Mistress who takes her into their family household is also wrought with tragedy and harsh truths about life. That is where Sogolon discovers her ally, the wind (Not wind!) whom she commands at will most times, to help her during any times of duress. An accident later, the Mistress dumps her in the royal court of Fasisi. And that is when her life takes on a serious U-turn, plunged not of her own accord, into the dangerous politics of the North, where madness and whims ruled and reason or empathy was considered treason. From here on, Sogolon's life trajectory is completely derailed. She gets into a relationship, with a half-lion, a soldier called Keme, hoping to settle down into domestic bliss to raise their cubs and children. But not for long. 

Because of perceived closeness to the Princess, who was abolished to live the life of a nun in a Mountainside Monastery, she catches the eye of the most powerful demi-god, the actual puppet-master behind the strings in the royal courts, a man they call Aesi. Aesi can control minds, wipe out memories and destroy lives in a snap. And thus, Sogolon's life as well, gets set on this path to revenge and destruction of evil on a collision course with this Aesi. 

The heroes of the first book, Wolf, Leopard and their friends, the Ogo and Moshi and others, they make their appearance only in the last quarter of this book. So the story is mostly about how Sogolon becomes the Moon Witch (She insists, she isn't a witch, by the way) and how she gets embroiled into the hunt for this boy, who can potentially be the rightful King of the North. Till things go downhill, all the way to seven Hells and beyond. 

There is a lot going on here in Book-Two till the climactic scene that clashes with our memories of what happened in Book One. The author continues to take the readers on a stamina-testing ride, with his uncompromising prose style and kinetically charged interludes of violence that makes the mind spin. A lot of the story in Book One was through the eyes of the Tracker, whom we realize, hardly knows the magnitude or the depth of the problem-sea he is wading through. Sogolon, or the nameless Moon Witch that she has now grown into, a formidable woman of power, has a much better perspective on this. Like she knows not just the ropes being pulled, but the people who pulled it, the people who installed it and the ones who wove the very damn rope.  That crazy scene of revolution in the aerial city of Dolingo took on a completely new shine, in this book. 

Marlon James continues to enthrall us with this psychedelic dream fantasy version of Africa - the world building is just as impressive as it was in the first book, introducing us to the length and breadth of the warring kingdoms and empires. But what impressed me much in Book Two, is the structure. Written as a memoir or a confession by an inconsolable woman, on the futility of life, one who is weary of the unfair share of power in this world, accorded to men. Of how she goes onto subvert this structure of power - against every single man in her life. Including the one man with whom she's had the only meaningful relationship in her long, perilous weary life. 

Moon Witch, Spider King may be about the monumental enmity between the Moon Witch and the Aesi. It is also about the quest for a boy who might be the King. But it is ultimately the angry outpouring of vitriolic rage and sadness of a killer, a woman who will cede nothing to the foolish whims of men around her. It's also a book that begs to be read in one sitting - but it's mentally exhausting, a foggy adventure through the mind-depths of a woman who refuses to be tied down, a winding journey that is strobe-lit by flashes of sex and extreme violence. Book Three cannot come faster! It's going to swerve into territories of horror and adventure hitherto unknown.