The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps

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 n [...]

DSKL@()*$SJDL#NRK#JNFLKNGSN@KMNCJNKS#(*$&FJNSRKJWR ARGH!!Okay. Vexation voided, frustration exfoliated.So I’m gonna lay into this mafa. I gonna take a machete upside this beyotch, gonna show you guts, some shock-of-white-bone, a little bit o critique hoodoo.But before I do, allow me to expound on why I must needs wage this figurative war. I believe in the ‘Challenging’ book [exhibits A, B, & C]. A disparaging of the easy pleasure read being not my intent, I nevertheless offer the f [...]

After seeing literally dozens of reviews for this novella, I had to see for myself what was going on here I'd read only one other story from Wilson previously, and it didn't blow me away - but this - this was great.A few of the reviews I'd seen criticized the style as being opaque and/or confusing. I didn't find it so at all. On the contrary, it was much more straightforward than the other story I'd read ('The Devil in America.') Sure, there's a gradual reveal of information which adds depth to [...]

I wish to preface this review by saying I was entranced by this story and I loved it with all my heart – the same heart that was PULLED FROM MY CHEST AND STOMPED ON by its ending. Oh, look: my heart bleeding at Kai Ashante Wilson’s feet.The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps follows a caravan traversing a dangerous road.It’s a story about brothers in arms, the army of warriors hired to defend the caravan. The bothers all stem from different backgrounds, with different languages and cultures. They ar [...]

Completely and utterly marvellous. Gorgeous language, amazingly vivid characters and landscape, fast moving plot. And to top it off then it goes and plays with that boundary between fantasy and science fiction and challenging notions of technology and magic from a whole different perspective. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Rating: 5* of fiveJustwow. Gorgeous. I'll pull a real review out of the tears and snot as soon as the jukiere's tusks rip themselves out of my flesh.So, because I found a pull-quote from one of my reviews unattributed on , back to posting links to my blog.#ReadingIsResistance to homophobiaTHE SORCERER OF THE WILDEEPS tinyurl/y9mz4kkzFirst of a series of SFnal fantasy works set in a distant future post-apocalyptic Africa. Delightful reading, beautiful prose-mongering, deeply satisfying in its ble [...]

oh, yes. yes, yes, yes, yeson, belovedON.

I was all braced to love this, based on the reviews that I’d read. I wanted to, especially because the world is interesting, the relationships and the fact that it features a gay love story, and because it’s written half in vernacular, half in something more formal, which keeps it very much alive.However, I had two problems. One was with the structure of the story. The last fifty pages were frenetic and packed full, exploding with stuff. The first hundred-fifty, however… barely went anywhe [...]

Demane is a man with a family legacy that marks him as separate from other men, such that his companions refer to him as the Sorcerer. He is deeply loyal to his Captain, a man also marked by power but of a different sort, and their band of mercenary guardsmen. They find themselves at the city Mother of Waters where they hear stories of a malevolence that has made its home directly on the route that their caravan plans to take.Language is the star of this unusual fantasy tale, and you can see how [...]

The first in the Tor Publishing’s line of novellas, The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by the inimitable and powerful Kai Ashante Wilson is the story equivalent of the shot heard around the world. A rich, immersive, heartbreaking study in the character of Demane, one of the last grandchildren of the gods, and the mysterious, beautiful Captain, Wilson’s world is full of characters that honestly reflect the world we live, each with their own language and homeland and life, that they bring with them [...]

Challenging, sometimes brutal, but beyond rewarding. What Kai Ashante Wilson does with language is amazing. The structure could be tighter, but I'm quite impressed.

It was okay The characters reminded me of Joe Abercrombie, so if you're a fan of his, you'll probably enjoy this. Although it did have a few problems.The quest isn't really inspiring, it's just a set of characters looking to get someplace because their caravan master tells them they have to. The book could've been a lot better if it was longer, instead the author tries to cram way too much into a small amount of pages. And lastly on my rant list, is the fact that it suffered from 'reread syndrom [...]

A launch title among Tor Publishing's late-2015 novella (or short novel, depending on how finely you choose to split hairs) line, Kai Ashante Wilson's The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps calls to mind the possibly apocryphal review Dorothy Parker is said to have bestowed upon a book by no less than Benito Mussolini. It is not a story to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.All right, that may be a tad overly dramatic. But the advance hype surrounding Wilson's story is, regretta [...]

*WAVES ARMS* Read this! And if it's anything to go by, go ahead and pre-order all the other Tor novellas as well. BUT THIS REVIEW IS ABOUT THIS GLORIOUS BOOK."Sumptuous" doesn't really do the language here justice. I read a ton of short fiction with language that I truly enjoy, but nothing novella or novel-length in quite some time. This ended that drought. And the plotting sure isn't bad either (IT'S GODDAMN GREAT). The dialogue is fantastic, the world-building is amazing, and the action is vis [...]

Oh my, this book. It took me a while to get into it, even rereading the first chapters because I didn't understand a word, but after that I just fell deeper and deeper in love with it. The characters, especially Demane and Captain, so beautiful. The language, so strange and difficult for me to fully comprehend, painted colorful pictures and once understood gave that overall tingly feeling that just makes you smile.The story, so interwoven and straight forward it felt like a bedtime story.Listen [...]

Looks like sword & sorcery on the surface -- the titular sorcerer is part of a group of mercenaries escorting a caravan through debatable lands, and the caravan is being stalked by a nasty beastie -- but with intimations of much more going on beneath the surface. Skillful and playful use of language, ranging from more elevated descriptive passages to the mercenaries' varied sorts of vernacular, sort of a recasting of American inner city dialogue into a sword & sorcery setting.Occasionall [...]

Alas, the sometimes pseudo-intellectual, over the top, terrible (nearly incomprehensible for me at times) writing and completely unfitting slang, as well as the confusing setting of the novella made enjoying it impossible for me. I found myself perpetually frowning or going back every few pages around the middle of the novella unsuccessfully trying to comprehend what had happend and even more importantly - why. Unfortunately, not my cup of tea at all.

READ THIS READ THIS READ THIS!!!This thing blew my socks off. It is short, evocative, and beautiful. I just went and bought everything else Wilson has published. This isn't a real review. Just go read this fucking book.

I read this during my first of the year break. It should have taken me an afternoon. It took me three days.Part of the reason was that all the peace and quiet I had put aside for myself never actually manifested so I was still only catching moments here and there to curl up with my book.The other reason, though, was that it took me a solid 60 pages (out of 200-ish) to get a grip on the writing. The flow, the meter, the words, the voices, they were all so jangly in my reading mind at first. Nothi [...]

3.5 that I'm rounding up to 4 for originality. I needed just a little more exposition in this novella filled with action and heroes to fully connect and understand the story.

"One of the best reads of the year they said"This is an extremely protentious bromance fantasy about a warrior and a mage going to fight a tiger-thing. It uses the language of the "street" to tell the story. I can't recall ever reading the word "skullf*cked" in a Fantasy before. The author goes for "look at me WRITING" prose that constantly distracts from the meagre plot. I did not like it one bit.My favourite review I have read on is Erik's review of this book. It's why this review is only a f [...]

This was a bit of an odd one for me because on the one hand there were a million really interesting tidbits and glimpses at the magic-science of this world. However, despite my fascination with the ideas of the magic-science combo, I just don't think the story truly got going to the extent I wanted it to and although the ending was touching, I do think there could have been a lot more happening in the story to make it have far more impactThis story follows Demane, a descendant of a God and a man [...]

Probably the language play was above me (and I'm not speaking about the quirky French and Spanish phrases, which were funny). I followed the story all right, but several of the lore references and the oblique meanings evaded me.I liked it? I think so, it was fascinating, this estrangement feeling, in a confusing kind of way; the characters - all of them - were singularly intriguing; the cross-sensorial descriptions, truly delectable. The book is short, slightly over 200 pages and considering the [...]

i cnt talk about ita: ok now i CAN talk about it. sorcerer of the wildeeps is PROOF that you do not need to be in palaces describing opulent wealth to write beautiful, lush fantasy. everything about this from the prose, to the paratext, to (view spoiler)[demane's ascension and then return to fucking godhood (hide spoiler)] was so god damn beautiful. his relationship with isa and the brothers were so moving and the goddamn dialogue. MAN. i dont know enough about wilson, but i imagine he's from s. [...]

Just not for me.

A short take:Wilson plays with language and gender roles while spinning a world that has texture, taste and weight. The narrative is energetic and muscular and humanistic. I have criticism's about some of Wilson's choices, but this story has stuck with me and waxed favorably since I finished it.More thoughts:My main criticism: the caravan spends a heckuva long time in Mother of Waters, while high adventure beckons on the other side. I kept waiting for people and events to move along, and though [...]

Nažalost ova knjiga mi se uopšte nije svidela. Vidi se da onaj koji piše zna svoj posao ali ikreno stil je suviše nabacan, konfuzan. Sve je slabo objašnjeno, od likova i njihovih motivacija, preko priče i uopšte onoga čega se dešava. Ritam je očajan pošto može mirno da se preskoči prvih 100 do 150 strana i ostatak uopšte ne bi patio zbog toga.Po meni zaobići u širokom luku a piscu možda dam još koju šansu pošto se vidi da ima talenta samo šta se ovde desilo ne znam.

It's easy to see why TSotW has been "critically acclaimed": the writing is poetic, individual, and, in places, deeply moving. It's fitting that Kai Ashante Wilson writes in such an unusual (and rewarding) prose style, as the book itself is hard to categorise - there are elements of romance, the supernatural, the fantastic, and strong hints of a more moral framework than is usual in any of those genres. I have, however, come to associate "critically acclaimed" with books where there is more style [...]

This is one of those books that I love intellectually, but it didn't hit me on the emotional level, probably mostly because I sort of didn't really understand the ending!!! I needed about one more line to take it from really obscure to ooh I get it.I love the code-switching, I love the fact that part of the code-switching is urban/black speech, which there is no reason not to have in fantasy except "because," and some is science jargon. I loved that parts were in Spanish and French, without cont [...]

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