Archive for the ‘Kai Ashante Wilson’ Category
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, by Kai Ashante Wilson
published Sept 1st, 2015
where I got it: purchased new
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Demane is a demi-god stuck on earth, and the safest place for him to be is a guard that travels with a caravan. He can disappear if he needs to, he can hide is godly powers as medical field training, and the two teenage boys who follow him around assume his bottomless bag is some kind of magic trick that he will of course explain one day. Or not. He can only hide who he is for so long.
From the blurb on the back, I expected the story to take place more in the Wildeeps, that dangerous swamp that caravans must cross on their way to profit. Not a spoiler, the majority of the book takes place the night before the caravan and assorted guards leave for their trip. The owners of the caravan stock up on what will be needed for the trip, while Demane, the Captain, and all the other road brothers spend the night as they wish, some find solace in drink, others get their frustrations out in the fighting ring, others head for the brothels. It’s an evening of characterization, i guess you could say.
I imagine The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps will be getting a lot of attention because of the language used. Much of that attention will be polarizing, because you are either going to find the dialog and prose innovative and unique, or you are going to bounce off of it, hard. I bounced, and it wasn’t fun. Many of the characters speak in patois and or very contemporary style slang, which feels strange in a fantasy story.Demane struggles with the local language, often reverting to his native tongue when he doesn’t know the local words for things (it’s kind of funny in his case, because he’s using very technical, almost futuristic terms, which none of his caravan brothers would understand anyways). Because he struggles with the language, the owner of the caravan assumes Demane is stupid, which couldn’t be further from the truth. it’s pretty obvious the caravan owner looks down on Demane.
But back to the author’s language choices for dialog, let me give you some examples of the dialog in The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps:
the Little Red Reviewer 
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