Moon Witch, Spider King

Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James, originally published in 2022, is the second book in James’s Dark Star fantasy trilogy. Black Leopard, Red Wolf (2019) is the first, and Moon Witch both serves as a follow-up and as a stand-alone novel, providing both crucial context for the first book as well as the epic backstory of one of its main protagonists. The post-colonial fantasy novel is infused with elements of West African mythology as well as more standard fantasy tropes. James won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for his novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, and Black Leopard, Red Wolf was a finalist for a National Book Award.

Content Warning: Moon Witch, Spider King depicts child sexual abuse, violent sexual assault, and enslavement.

Plot Summary

Sogolon—initially referred to as “No Name Girl” because she never knows her real name—is raised by her abusive brothers, forced to live in a termite pit and plow the fields of the small family farm. When she escapes, she is found by Miss Azora, who runs a brothel in the city of Kongor. She takes Sogolon in, and she becomes a prized asset for men who prefer young girls. There, Sogolon (who identifies herself by her mother’s name) learns to steal from her clients while drugging them to avoid their sexual assaults. Her strategy fails one night, and she is raped. A monster enters the brothel looking for Sogolon because the creature’s master, Mistress Komwono, also the wife of her sexual assailant, suspects she stole an artifact from her husband. She takes Sogolon into her home, where she gets a glimpse into the politics of the royal court; Komwono, once a welcome patron of the king’s court, has been banished and wants to regain her position. When Komwono’s husband tries to rape Sogolon again, a powerful force—Sogolon’s “wind”—flings him against the ceiling, impaling him on a beam. As the master’s death is investigated, she tries to hide her guilt.

Her husband dead, Mistress Komwono sees an opportunity to petition the king to reinstall her at his court. Her request is granted, but she also makes a gift of Sogolon to the king, who, in turn, hands her over to his sister, Emini, the King Sister and traditionally the mother of the next king. Sogolon meets Keme, a royal scout and eventual marshal of the King’s Red Army. Their relationship, both contentious and flirtatious, grows, but their respective duties interfere. She also meets the aging war hero, Olu, whose quarters are covered in writing. With his memory fading, he attempts to record important events before forgetting them. Sogolon deduces from the writing that something suspicious is going on. The memory lapse is infecting the entire kingdom, and the Aesi—the chancellor—is the cause.

Sogolon endures the favor and abuse of Emini as she observes court politics. Emini is gradually marginalized and banished to Mantha, a nunnery, as the king and the Aesi consolidate power and execute hundreds of women accused of witchcraft. On the road to Mantha, the Aesi sends his demon minions, the Sangomin, to assassinate Emini. Sogolon harnesses her power once again in a destructive burst of energy that kills everyone and everything in the vicinity, leaving a massive crater in the ground. Wounded, she makes her way toward Mantha, where she is found by Red Army soldiers led by Keme, who has no memory of her. He takes her home, where she meets his wife, Yétúnde, and his children.

Sogolon lives with Keme for five years. Their relationship is eventually consummated, and she becomes pregnant. When the babies are lion cubs, Sogolon discovers that Keme is a shapeshifter. Yétúnde killed and buried all the cub children she bore, believing them to be abominations. Yétúnde is banished from the house, and Keme and Sogolon begin a period of domestic bliss. Their happiness is interrupted when the Aesi, who has no power over Sogolon’s mind and sees her as a threat, discovers her location and sends soldiers to kill her. When one lion son is killed defending her, Sogolon unleashes her power which kills the soldiers and the Aesi. The loss estranges her and Keme, and she leaves to seek revenge.

After living in a jungle in the South Kingdom for 100 years, Sogolon has forgotten much of her life. As she witnesses the abuse of women, she uses her power to exact revenge, becoming a local legend: the Moon Witch. When she hears of atrocities in the floating city of Go, she follows a lead to a house, but instead of an abusive man, she meets Bunshi, a water sprite, and Nsaka, her great-great-granddaughter. Along with Ikede, a griot, they fill in her memory gaps. Sogolon is recruited to kill the reincarnated Aesi. She travels to Omororo, where the reborn Aesi, still a child, lives with the Asakin tribe in the wild territory between Omororo and the sea. She, Nsaka, and Bunshi track the boy to a remote spot where he prepares for his initiation into manhood. When Sogolon tries to kill him, a Sangomin in the form of a massive spider rises up to defend him and the boy survives.

Sogolon returns to Fasisi, where she is introduced to some of her descendants and learns that her daughter, Matisha (now dead), was also a woman of great power. She also reconnects with Keme’s kin: lions living in a savanna. She journeys to Mantha, where she meets Lissisolo, the current King Sister, banished to prevent any future son from claiming the throne. Eventually, Lissisolo bears a son to a “kingdomless prince,” and they must find a way to keep him safe from the king and the Aesi. Together, they travel to the city of Dolingo, where they hope to ally with the queen. However, Lissisolo wants her son to take the throne, but the Dolingan queen wants to institute matriarchal rule. Sogolon leaves Dolingo, her mission unfulfilled.

Bunshi leaves Lissisolo’s son with Basu Fumanguru, an elder who is sympathetic to their cause, but the Aesi discovers the boy’s location and sends an Ishologu—a vampire bird—to retrieve him. Fumanguru and his family are killed, and for three years, the boy is a captive of the Ishologu. Bunshi assembles a team to go after the boy: Sogolon, Leopard, Tracker, and Mossi. Using a network of portals that only the Sangomin have the power to open, they traverse the North and South kingdoms in search of the boy. Sogolon believes that the boy will lead her to the Aesi, and she will at last have the opportunity to kill him again. Along the way, she is haunted by the spirit of Jakwu, a warrior she killed years ago.

The trail leads them back to Dolingo, the site of another hidden portal where they suspect the Ishologu will eventually bring the boy. While in the queen’s chambers, they discover a dark secret: Necromancers are experimenting with ways to breed humans outside the womb. As they await the arrival of the Ishologu, word comes that the Aesi is on his way; someone, it seems, has alerted him to their movements. A revolt led by enslaved people rocks the city, and amid the chaos, Sogolon discovers the Ishologu and the captive boy. A battle ensues. The Ishologu is badly wounded, but a Sasabonsam—a large, winged ogre—flies off with the boy. Sogolon is injured, and while she is nursed back to health by Dolingan healers, she hears rumors of Mossi and Tracker living with the boy in Mitu. She finds them, but before she can kill Tracker for abandoning her after the battle, he sneaks off with Leopard, and Mossi and his family are attacked by the Sasabonsam. Mossi is killed, the boy is taken, and Sogolon lets Tracker suffer the grief of losing his loved ones.

Sogolon follows Tracker to the Malangika, the witch’s market, where she sees him with the Aesi. She pursues them to the Mweru, where they run into a legion of Lissisolo’s troops en route to Fasisi to challenge the king’s rule. The Aesi sends the troops into chaos, and he and Tracker escape. Sogolon rides ahead, hoping to intercept them. From a hilltop in the Mweru, she spies the Aesi, Tracker, Leopard (holding the boy), and an Ishologu. The boy, under the spell of the vampire bird, jumps from Leopard’s arms and runs into the embrace of the Ishologu. Leopard is killed in pursuit, and Tracker cradles the dying body of his old friend. The Aesi, sensing Sogolon’s presence, appears at her side, and she summons her wind, filling the Aesi’s body and blowing him to pieces.

In the present, Sogolon is now 177, and she has turned herself into an Inquisitor to confess her crimes. Sitting in a prison cell, she waits for the next incarnation of the Aesi, hoping to end his cycle of evil manipulation.