Marlon James Details New Fantasy Epic, Black Leopard, Red Wolf
The novel is the first in James' Dark Star Trilogy
Cover illustrated by Pablo Gerardo Camacho
Marlon James has announced the release date of his next novel, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, coming next February via Riverhead Books. It’s the first book in James’ Dark Star Trilogy.
James is best known for his 2015 novel A Brief History of Seven Killings, which examined Jamaica’s political and social climate over the last century. The novel won the Man Booker Prize, making James the first Jamaican author to ever earn the award. Amazon Studios is adapting the novel, with Insecure director Melina Matsoukas set to helm the project.
In January of last year, James announced his next project, the epic fantasy Dark Star Trilogy. James has dubbed the trilogy the “African Game of Thrones,” as the novels exist in a space between African myth and history. The project emerged from an argument that James had about ethnic and cultural diversity in fantasy literature, only for James to realize the untapped potential of African folklore as source material. Given the massive success of the pan-African-themed Black Panther, James certainly has good timing.