Marlon James
When the Jamaican writer Marlon James announced his intention to follow his Man Booker Prize-winning novel A Brief History of Seven Killings with — in his words — an “African Game of Thrones” the excitement in the book world was nothing short of electric. Now the first volume in a planned series has arrived, and what James has produced is nothing short of a brave new world of fantasy. Black Leopard, Red Wolf is an exuberantly original recasting of African myth and magic in which a band of questionable characters are brought together on a mission that will take them across a landscape littered with foes, monsters, seduction and shattering discovery. It's an adventure that's magical not just in the details of sorcery and shapeshifting, but in the wildly original world, both timeless and particular, in which Marlon James sets his characters loose. He joined Bill Tipper in the studio to talk about daylight vampires, ancient sexuality, and what he had to learn to create a fantasy world with African roots.