The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson
My rating: 4/5 cats
i liked the style and the energy of this book very much. it’s an appealing mash-up of traditional fantasy adventure tropes peppered with harlem renaissance/jazz age cadence:
The horseman pulled up short. (Breeze blowing northwesterly still: Fat-Man’s bowels let go)
and others more modern and hip-hop-rambunctious:
”You almost got him! That was gold, my nigga! Not fake, not fool’s, not dross: GOLD. Nigga, it was some official shit you just did, almost beating the captain like that! That, my nigga, was straight up gold-plated LIKE SHIT.”
there’s also some nice work with different accents, written phonetically, and multi-lingual utterances, usually untranslated, which along with those instances of playful cadence, gives the prose a musicality that is very pleasing to read.
i’d heard great things about this one (and even better things about its sequel A Taste of Honey) and since i’d really liked both of the free tor shorts i’d read by this author (The Devil in America and Super Bass), i decided it was time to pay for my play and give a little $$ to tor to show my appreciation for all the freebies they’ve given us all over the years on their site.
i’m glad i read this one, and i’m excited to read the follow-up, although i did get a bit confused in places. all the TSIM/TSOA stuff went right over my head, and i wasn’t always clear who knew what about whom, in terms of powers and romantic relationships. this is most likely my own failing – i get lost a lot whenever i attempt to read fantasy, and i freely admit that i rushed the ending a bit, desperate to dive into the unexpected pre-release gift of Down Among the Sticks and Bones, which is also a tor title, so i feel less guilty than i would otherwise.
the adventure parts were great, and i loved the ending (despite my less-than-ruminative attention to it), and any stuff i didn’t understand was just detail-stuff that didn’t affect my overall positive feelings about the story and the characters.
i already bought A Taste of Honey (more $$$ to YOU, tor!!), and i’m looking forward to reading it, and i promise i will give it all the attention it deserves, because even if i’m dumb at fantasy, i love the way this man writes.
