Moon Witch, Spider King is a 2022 fantasy novel by Jamaican writer Marlon James.

The rights to produce a film adaptation were purchased by Michael B. Jordan in February 2019 before the release of the first book.

Sogolon survives by drugging the men that come to have sex with her and stealing from them, plotting to leave the pleasure house.

Mistress Komwono, the wife of one of the brothel's patrons, tracks her husband and uses a talisman to kill Miss Azora and several other workers.

An unknown force, later revealed to be Sogolon's own innate magical ability, impales Master Komwono on the ceiling.

An investigation follows, and Mistress Komwono leads the household back to the capital city of Fasisi, attempting to rejoin the royal court after an exile.

In Fasisi, Sogolon meets Keme, a royal guard who is attracted to her; and the Aesi, an advisor to the king.

Princess Emini rules the kingdom in all but name; as the royal daughter, it will be her duty to birth and raise the future King.

Sogolon uncovers clues to a mystery surrounding Commander Olu and a woman named Jeleza.

En route to Mantha, Emini reveals her plans for a great city hidden in the trees.

At night, Sogolon sneaks out to battle in gladiator fights as No Name Boy, binding her breasts to appear as a young man.

Sogolon meets Bunshi, a minor water spirit, and Nsaka Ne Vampi, her own great-great-granddaughter.

Sogolon learned he was about to come of age in Omororo and hoped to stop him by murdering the child before he became the Aesi.

Bunshi and Nsaka convince Sogolon to join them to restore the true line of Northern kings.

After entering the Doors, Sogolon is beset by the vengeful ghosts of men she had killed as the Moon Witch.

Dolingo is ruled by the Queen and managed and run by the White Scientists, necromancers who have perfected the art of human cloning.

Sogolon attempts to convince the Queen of Dolingo to join their cause to stop the Aesi and find the boy.

"[4] James conceived the idea for the book long before his reception of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings;[5] he has repeatedly expressed his desire to build a "vast playground of [African] myth and history and legend that other people can draw from,"[2] analogously to J. R. R. Tolkien's similar efforts for Britain.

[2][5][6] His research, which began "in August 2015," two months before he won the Booker,[7][4] took two years and was largely focused on the condition of "the pre-Christian, pre-Islam, original African religious Africa.

"[4][1] The cultures which James principally drew on were "central and west African with a bit from the east"; the cultures of the Omo valley informed the Ku and Gangatom villages, and West African empires (Mali, Songhai, and Ghana) were the inspiration for the book's depiction of cities.

[9] He began writing after a conversation with Melina Matsoukas, who mentioned the television series The Affair, in which both halves of a troubled couple remember their affair in subtly different ways;[1][2][4] James intends the Dark Star trilogy to comprise three characters' conflicting accounts of the same events;[2][6] the sequel, Moon Witch, Spider King, will be the witch Sogolon's account.

He later said that the description was a joke,[11][12] although he does not regret the comparison, commenting that both series retain supernatural elements while telling "decidedly adult" stories.

[15] NPR described the novel as "Sogolon's tale makes this a rare sequel that is better than the first," and "a novel that begs to be read in one sitting — though it is nearly impossible to do so without coming out the other end feeling overwhelmed and exhausted.

[16] Dzifa Benson, in a review published by the Financial Times wrote, "As gripping as the novel is, it’s a long and tough read ... James’s story is a dense, sprawling phantasmagoria made even more labyrinthine by his stream-of-consciousness idiosyncrasies and sudden time leaps.

But Moon Witch rewards a reader’s perseverance and makes you wonder exactly who’ll play fast and loose with the truth in the final instalment, if you have the stomach and staying power to seek it out".