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I read a few novels by acclaimed African-American YA writer Walter Dean Myers when I was a teenager, but except for The Young Landlords, in which a bunch of kids acquire a building and its uncooperative tenants, he was too much on the gritty realism side for my taste.
I was boggled when, a while back in a used bookshop in Pasadena, I discovered that he had written a YA fantasy novel! I snapped it up, but took a while to get around to reading it. I was afraid it would be yet another subpar work by an author writing outside of his comfort zone.
It turned out to be surprisingly good. Written in a simple yet elevated style, like a fluid translation of an ancient myth, it tells the story of Tarik, an African boy taken as a slave to medieval fantasy!Spain. After the young men and women are sold off, Tarik's entire family is murdered by the tyrant nicknamed El Muerte, and Tarik is left for dead.
But he's rescued by two old men, one African and one Spanish, who were themselves victims of El Muerte. They train him and give him several quests to find magical items that will help him with his goal of revenge and justice, and then set him to it... accompanied by the Spanish girl they also rescued but who was too angry to accept their emotional control training, a half-mad warrior named Stria.
Though the story is familiar from a thousand quest novels, the mythic style, the fast pace, the roots in African culture and legend, the destabilizing presence of Stria (who is not the hero but provides a bracingly flawed presence to contrast with the rather perfect Tarik, and also saves the conclusion from an overly neat wrap-up), and the fact that I could probably count on my right hand every YA fantasy novel published in America with a black male protagonist, combine to make this an excellent read. I'm only sorry I didn't find it when I was a teenager and the quest narrative was still exciting and new to me. But honestly, this is worth reading even you're thoroughly sick of quests.
I regret to note this, since it should not be unusual, but I was impressed that the cover is not whitewashed.
This novel is out of print. It would make a fantastic reprint for the Firebird line.
Click here to order it from Amazon: THE LEGEND OF TARIK
I was boggled when, a while back in a used bookshop in Pasadena, I discovered that he had written a YA fantasy novel! I snapped it up, but took a while to get around to reading it. I was afraid it would be yet another subpar work by an author writing outside of his comfort zone.
It turned out to be surprisingly good. Written in a simple yet elevated style, like a fluid translation of an ancient myth, it tells the story of Tarik, an African boy taken as a slave to medieval fantasy!Spain. After the young men and women are sold off, Tarik's entire family is murdered by the tyrant nicknamed El Muerte, and Tarik is left for dead.
But he's rescued by two old men, one African and one Spanish, who were themselves victims of El Muerte. They train him and give him several quests to find magical items that will help him with his goal of revenge and justice, and then set him to it... accompanied by the Spanish girl they also rescued but who was too angry to accept their emotional control training, a half-mad warrior named Stria.
Though the story is familiar from a thousand quest novels, the mythic style, the fast pace, the roots in African culture and legend, the destabilizing presence of Stria (who is not the hero but provides a bracingly flawed presence to contrast with the rather perfect Tarik, and also saves the conclusion from an overly neat wrap-up), and the fact that I could probably count on my right hand every YA fantasy novel published in America with a black male protagonist, combine to make this an excellent read. I'm only sorry I didn't find it when I was a teenager and the quest narrative was still exciting and new to me. But honestly, this is worth reading even you're thoroughly sick of quests.
I regret to note this, since it should not be unusual, but I was impressed that the cover is not whitewashed.
This novel is out of print. It would make a fantastic reprint for the Firebird line.
Click here to order it from Amazon: THE LEGEND OF TARIK
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LOL THIRD EDIT: You should read Monster, as I just noted 'when I was a teenager,' and unless I have your age very wrong you wouldn't have read it.
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You know, I did read that one way back when, and I remember liking it a lot. But that's all I recall. I think I'll read it again.
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I saw this at the used bookstore last weekend and grabbed it, remembering your review and knowing I liked the author. (Does your cover have the slightly hilarious comparisons to Luke Skywalker and King Arthur on it, too?) So I've started it, and as I always do, I was dragging the book along with me like a tiny puppy. So it's on the kitchen table from my breakfast, and my husband says, "Hey! I loved that book!" It is, as the saying goes, a very him book.