Marlon James

So, yesterday I was in the Barnes & Noble in Brookfield west of Milwaukee when the following front cover blurb caught my attention:

"A fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made"  -- Neil Gaiman

 This cover blurb on the book MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING by Marlon James turns out to be an excerpt from Gaiman's longer blurb for M.J.'s previous book, BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF :

“Black Leopard, Red Wolf is the kind of novel I never realized I was missing until I read it. A dangerous, hallucinatory, ancient Africa, which becomes a fantasy world as well-realized as anything Tolkien made, with language as powerful as Angela Carter's. It's as deep and crafty as Gene Wolfe, bloodier than Robert E. Howard, and all Marlon James. It's something very new that feels old, in the best way. I cannot wait for the next installment.” —Neil Gaiman 

I haven't read any of James' work, though this has put him on my radar and will have me on the look-out to find a good entry point.

I do have to make two observations,  though:

--this kind of flailing around by critics to find something to compare a book to can indicate that you've struck gold (cf. the odd lot cited for early blurbs of LotR). But it's more likely to indicate a desperate casting about to try to find something to say.  The idea of a book that sounds like Carter, Wolfe, and Howard sounds like a book I'd stay away from. 

--it's fascinating to see that still, after all these years, publishers are using the tag-line 'this is like Tolkien' to sell books.

--John R