the sorcerer of the wildeeps by kai ashante wilson

Not so with Wilson’s worlds his characters are so vibrant and electric that the pages seem to pulse with them. The language felt lived-in too often in fantasy, the quasi-Shakespearean lyrical lingo is inaccessible to the reader, and renders its characters about as dynamic as a fishing net – intricately assembled, but not very compelling. It took a little while for my mind to calibrate, but once I got used to the flow and rhythm of the otherworldly prose, the experience became a profoundly magical one.

The writing style, part stream of consciousness, part dialogue-driven character study, was both distinctive and dazzling. It’s utterly innovative, ferocious in style and substance, boldly non-confirming to either literary or societal structures. If they can safely accompany a merchant to the fabled city of Olorum, they will be richly rewarded however, to get there they must journey through the titular Wildeeps, a perilous, monster-infested jungle from whose bounds none have returned alive. In The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, the story follows the eponymous protagonist, Demane, a demigod who accompanies a band of mercenaries in order to be closer to their Captain, Isa, his secret lover. I hadn’t been so affected by a literary work since Charles Williams’ Descent into Hell, and not since a work of fiction in general since Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain.Ī Walk on the Wild Side: The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps

I finished both within twenty-four hours, and was under their spell for days afterwards – the characters wandered in my waking thoughts, the words hung heavy on my heart, and I could focus my mind on very little else. In this post, I’ll be looking at two of Wilson’s published novellas, namely The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps (2015) and A Taste of Honey (2016), both of which are standalone stories set in his epic fantasy world – an ancient, SFF version of the African continent. In this case, however, award-winning author Kai Ashante Wilson has emerged as the embodiment of the phrase at its most pure – his writing is both lyrical and grounded, mischievous and mournful, and there has never been anything like it before.

In the current literary climate, the phrase ‘unique voice’ has become somewhat overused, losing meaning and novelty as it travels from author to author.

The sorcerer of the wildeeps by kai ashante wilson