![]() ![]() ![]() Her brothers regard her as mother-killer, and that death drove their father to madness and early death as well. Scorned at birth as a girl in a family of boys, she is especially despised because her mother died in giving birth. Most of Moon Witch Spider King takes place hundreds of years before the action of the first novel and starts with Sogolon’s brutal childhood. I’ll sketch out the bare elements of the story to bring out some of its key themes, so there are spoilers in what follows. ![]() This novel unfolds through the long life story of Sogolon, who ultimately joins the Tracker’s search but with far different motives and little use for Tracker’s antics. For this second novel is rich in characters and ideas I can relate to about power, memory, identity and love while also critiquing the standard form of western fantasy. Reading Moon Witch Spider King makes me want to go back to the first book. Gautam Bhatia’s excellent review of Black Leopard Red Wolf helpfully illuminates the author’s purpose in challenging the fantasy trope of the quest, partly through the use of Brechtian techniques designed to keep the reader away from simple emotional identification with characters in order to focus on larger issues. ![]()
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