AncalagonTheBlack Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Marlon James’s Next Book Will Be an ‘African Game of Thrones’ How do you follow up a novel like A Brief History of Seven Killings, the Booker Prize–winning exploration of political and criminal violence in the Jamaican diaspora? If you're Marlon James, you head straight to the fantasy aisle: The author tells Man of the World magazine he's going to "geek the fuck out" and create his own fantasy series, kicking off with a book called Black Leopard, Red Wolf, which he describes as "an African Game of Thrones." As James puts it, "I realized how sick and tired I was of arguing about whether there should be a black hobbit in Lord of the Rings. African folklore is just as rich, and just as perverse as that shit. We have witches, we have demons, we have goblins, and mad kings. We have stories of royal succession that would put Wolf Hall to shame. We beat the Tudors two times over."But be warned, James is not using the word geek lightly; this thing is going to be seriously nerdy. "One hundred pages describing a village? Hell yeah," he promises. "A big appendix on magic techniques? Of course I’m gonna do it. Two hundred pages on a mysterious dwarf race that lives underground? Fuck yes." Get your d20 ready — this world is going to inspire one hell of a role-playing game someday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astromech Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 I'm not too familiar with James, but he's saying all the right things. I'm intrigued. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Sounds like it could be interesting. If done well it could make a refreshing change from standard fantasy fare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheep the Evicted Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Excellent. I tend to like eastern fantasies like The Witcher and The Nights Watch series for the exoticness of their settings. If its well done, and more importantly, if there is a compelling story under all that world building then i'm sure it will be right up my street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 I only just started reading Brief History, but his writing skill is clear enough very quickly that I'm hyped for this.I hope it's only 'African GoT' in only the most general sense, though, and he's not really trying to write precisely that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 I wonder why he didn't say 'Speculative Fiction'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Time for Wolves Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 I wonder why he didn't say 'Speculative Fiction'? +1000 THANK YOUI'm sorry but this made me really roll me eyes. After decades of sneering at "genre fiction", even when some "genre" writers throw out better prose than some "literary" authors, now it's acceptable for a Booker-winning novelist to make a reference to a mainstream-hit fantasy series?There's a culture that A Song of Ice and Fire (not "Game of Thrones") came from and it includes Mervyn Peake, R. Scott Bakker, Gaiman, Pratchett...a lot of authors who should have won prizes like the Booker, but didn't get the recognition they deserve.This actually really irritated me and guarantees that I'm not going to pick up anything this author writes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 +1000 THANK YOUI'm sorry but this made me really roll me eyes. After decades of sneering at "genre fiction", even when some "genre" writers throw out better prose than some "literary" authors, now it's acceptable for a Booker-winning novelist to make a reference to a mainstream-hit fantasy series?There's a culture that A Song of Ice and Fire (not "Game of Thrones") came from and it includes Mervyn Peake, R. Scott Bakker, Gaiman, Pratchett...a lot of authors who should have won prizes like the Booker, but didn't get the recognition they deserve.This actually really irritated me and guarantees that I'm not going to pick up anything this author writes.uh, why? Because he was given an award? Just because fantasy authors have been snubbed by said award doesn't mean anything about the authors who do win it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiDisaster Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Seven Killings was phenomenal and I am so beyond excited for whatever he writes next. Fantasy? Yes. Non-Eurocentric fantasy for bloody once? Double yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 bought the audiobook in a deal today and looking forward to checking it out. If it's good then I'm all for a fantasy novel in an African setting - especially by someone who appears really skilled. Justin Cronin's "the passage" worked for me as someone with literary cred doing genre well so I'd liked to see more. Although "the road" is the same for me too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Wait, we're mad that he DIDNT say speculative fiction? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Writhen Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 I'm totally gonna geek the f**k out next time I write, hells yeah.:ack: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Wait, we're mad that he DIDNT say speculative fiction? Sarcasm DR, sarcasm. A BIG NAME AUTHOR said he was going to write a 'Fantasy' novel, rather than using the super pretension term of SpecFic. I dig it. That's what /I/ meant. Not sure where it went from there. I actually forgot I even made that post. I must have been tired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Yeah, I'm really not sure where Time of Wolves is coming from here.I mean, I'm not too sure where pb is coming from either - I don't call it spec fic but I don't really care if someone does- but that rant not only misses the original point but seems to make some completely baseless assumptions about Marlon James. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Seven Killings was phenomenal and I am so beyond excited for whatever he writes next. Fantasy? Yes. Non-Eurocentric fantasy for bloody once? Double yes. I would say there has been a bit of growth in Asian inspired fantasy settings lately too but yeah, I too would be happy to read a non-Eurocentric fantasy Wait, we're mad that he DIDNT say speculative fiction? Lose-lose situation it seems Hmm, this didn't post earlier, whoops. Anyway, I understood what peterbound meant, based on his posts in the other thread about speculative fiction. It's Time of Wolves that I disagree with Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Probably gonna be finished before George too. While the Luminaries isn't exactly fantasy it's got fantasy elements to it, it's also long enough to be a fantasy novel. And Life of Pi is also somewhat of a fantasy. It certainly leaves you having to decide whether Pi actually experienced these things or they were a delusion. so I would say that Booker has of recent times recognised works that have genre-fiction elements to it. So, sure elves, goblins and dwarves don't win Booker, but novels containing fantasy elements do. And apparently Salmun Rushdie's winning book is called classed as magic realism, so it's got to be on that spectrum too right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 I would say there has been a bit of growth in Asian inspired fantasy settings lately too but yeah, I too would be happy to read a non-Eurocentric fantasy There's been others, not just Asian. Nnedi Okorafor perhaps most notably, also does African fantasy (that is utterly superb). NK Jemisin- Dreamblood is Egyptian-based, her other two series nowhere specific. Karen Lord - A Redemption in Indigo is based on African folk tales, while The Best of All Possible Worlds is an SF, but inspired by the Caribbean apparently.I'm sure there's more that others can recommend, but those are the ones that spring to mind for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Oh, I know what PB was getting at, its the post that came after that confuses me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Sarcasm DR, sarcasm. A BIG NAME AUTHOR said he was going to write a 'Fantasy' novel, rather than using the super pretension term of SpecFic. I dig it. That's what /I/ meant. Not sure where it went from there. I actually forgot I even made that post. I must have been tired. For all your crazy fist shaking at the term I think you have taken your crusade and lost track of it, fighting invisible battles. I don't know if I have ever heard anyone, even those who like the phrase, use Speculative fiction to describe a single work. It is almost always used as a group qualifier, usually when both sci-fi and fantasy are present. Much as it has become more permitted to use 'their' as a singular pronoun in place of the clunkier 'his/hers.'So I would be shocked if you see any author describe their (see what I did there?) work as a speculative fiction book. It would be more likely a prolific author/publisher that crosses genres may use it describe their whole body of work. Like say Cat Rambo or Tor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 For all your crazy fist shaking at the term I think you have taken your crusade and lost track of it, fighting invisible battles. I don't know if I have ever heard anyone, even those who like the phrase, use Speculative fiction to describe a single work. It is almost always used as a group qualifier, usually when both sci-fi and fantasy are present. Much as it has become more permitted to use 'their' as a singular pronoun in place of the clunkier 'his/hers.'So I would be shocked if you see any author describe their (see what I did there?) work as a speculative fiction book. It would be more likely a prolific author/publisher that crosses genres may use it describe their whole body of work. Like say Cat Rambo or Tor. See, all i've ever heard is people use it for a single work. Usually related to science fiction.... as the person that came up the term intended. But you know, you can come up with your own definition if you want. Seems to be par for the course when it comes to that phrase. Or even worse, someone's silly attempt to make SciFi/Fantasy sound more legit. But back to the OP. I'm kinda stoked about this. I do love me an appendices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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