Suggestions of Novels with Black Male Leads

So let’s try something new here.


One that that has frustrated me over the years is trying to discover interesting (let me emphasize INTERESTING) fiction books with black male leads or at least ones in which black men have a significant presence. Of course obviously there have been certain black writers who have propped up over the decades who became very popular with black readers for a certain time. Those authors have written black male characters who were important to the plot. Unfortunately most of those writers don’t put out the type of novels I’m interested in, not to mention plenty of them have delivered black dudes who are pretty much negative caricatures. I had no patience for that.


So for the longest time, when I joined book clubs or went in search of material in libraries and book clubs that fulfilled the criteria I craved, I ended up wasting a lot of time. I either came away disappointed or was fortunate enough to find one book checked off all or most of my key areas.


I’ll add that an even greater bonus to a black guy being the lead or co-lead was the type of narrative. If the story was I the science fiction vein or mystery or western or historical novel, than all the better. Another bonus was if the black dudes (who pretty much had to be heterosexual) weren’t tied down to the predictable pairing with a black female. That wasn’t a deal-killer if I came across such a setup, but it didn’t excite me as much.

Turns out that my best away of coming across such books were thanks to random book reviews from newspapers or magazines like Entertainment Weekly. But that wasn’t enough because some books would slip through the cracks and never get reviewed in the publications I relied on or I just missed out on reviews altogether.


So with all that established what I want to do with this thread is create a place where those of us who read can pass along info on such books that they’ve come across over the years or more recently. There is no better way of discovering this material than having multiple readers pass along suggestions. That’s what I want done here. If you know of books with:

1-straight black male leads or co-leads

2-that you feel are well written

Then by all means please share. Even if you haven’t read the novel but you either see it is getting good feedback or you think its story description is interesting, come in this thread and let us know, even if you already posted about the book in the Name The Last Three Books You Have Read thread. And again if the books are under certain genres and the black male lead hooks up with a non-black chick, that’s all the better!

One warning though….if you have the misfortune of coming across novels like Dark King has in which there may be a black dude who is one of the main characters but it as dad or brother to a black female lead who is exclusively paired with white male love interests, don’t post that shit here. Okay? Okay.


I will get things rolling with two suggestions:





Richard K Morgan is the author behind the more well known and acclaimed "Altered Carbon" series, which has become a Netflix show. But "Thirteen" (which was unfortunately titled "Black Man" in Morgan's home country of England) is a gritty, futuristic action noir with a black male, Carl Marsalis, as its protagonist. Marsalis is a genetically enhanced former soldier who now has to make a living outside the military and has to face off against a murderous villain who is a threat to society. Its a really good read (or listen if you enjoy it through Audible as I did). Morgan doesn't shy away from race but it doesn't overpower the story. Also his depiction of a fractured USA which is divided into separate territories in on point...and this book was written over a decade ago. Marsalis is a great character and he ends up having a love interest, a complicated police woman who if memory holds is of East Asian descent.






Ben H Winters, another white writer, is the brainchild behind this brilliant , alternate future story in which America never had a Civil War and as a result four states, known as the Hard Four, have kept the institution of slavery around in what is modern times (2016). The lead character is a black male named Victor who is a bounty hunter for the Feds. He is a questionable dude who goes about helping track down escaped slaves if need be or infiltrating abolitionist groups. But don't let the whole slavery thing scare you off. The vast majority of black characters in the novel are not slaves, most of the book takes place in the free states. However the institution of slavery weighs heavily on this version of America and the characters in the novel. Victor is an extremely pragmatic and complicated character who may be getting in over his head in his most recent assignment. This is an amazing novel. Victor doesn't have a love interest but he does end up working at times with a white female supporting character who needs help in getting the father of her black child out of the slave states. The book got some negative pushback from all sorts of people who didn't think a white writer should be telling this tale. Fuck them. I've never come across a genre novel before with such fascinating black male characters. I ended up reaching out to the author to let him know this too. It was announced that this book was going to be turned into a TV series but I haven't heard any followup to that news in over a year. TPTB may have chicken out after the twitter backlash to the planned HBO drama about America in which the North lost the war. I hope that's not the case.

 

Great thread idea I applaud you for starting this. Definitely gonna check out 13.

My contribution is I.Q. by Joe Ide
Its a mystery thriller that takes place in Cali. Main character is a genius dude who lives in the hood (y'all know I hate this narrative but I appreciate the twist) who solves local mysteries until he's offered a lot of money to find out who's trying to kill a rap mogul. The synopsis may sound a little cheesy but its well written and the main character is so fresh and new. A very smart dude who solves crimes in his neighborhood with his wits. I was very pleasantly surprised.

Children of Blood and Bone is another good book. The main character is female but two of the huge supporting characters are black men written with nuance and depth. Its still heavily female driven but major plus is its written through a black gaze that isn't attaching itself to whiteness in some way shape or fashion.

 

I don't know if this would count but I over the summer read Year Of The Five Emperors about the rise of the first Black Emperor Of Rome. It was a great read.

https://books.google.com/books/abou...ver&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false




But The Ballad Of Black Tom is a book I've been looking forward to read for awhile


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26883558-the-ballad-of-black-tom

The story of Tommy Tester, a 20-year-old black man hustling to pay rent and take care of his father in Harlem in 1924. After being hired to deliver an arcane book to a mysterious woman in Queens, Tommy gets entangled in the plans of the wealthy Robert Suydam, who is intent on calling forth ancient gods, and Detective Malone, who investigates him.

 

Thanks, man.

I already read the first of Ide's series this past spring.






I was actually planning on saving it for a recommendation weeks down the line but you beat me to it. His third book of this series just came out and recently got a rave review in the Washington Post. The same review also mentioned how in this third book I.Q. gets a white girlfriend, a woman who walks into life when she hires him to track down her mother. Shame how white and Asian male writers can give their black leads non-black love interests but black male authors are too chickenshit or too caught up with the Cult of Black Womanhood to do the same.

Tell me what you think about Thirteen when you get around to it. The writer has finally returned to ths world with his most recent book but has moved on to another character. Haven't read the book yet but....




by the cover the character does look black. Maybe wishful thinking on my part.

Heard nothing but great things about the book. Will eventually get around to it. The author endeared me to her by he interview in which she kept talking about wanting to work with John Boyega, perhaps in the adaptation of her novel. That makes her more remarkable when you think of all those black female writers you talked about a month back who only envision white men as the love interests of their black female lead characters. But this author and her book is already getting huge support; she doesn't need my money. I don't ted to buy many books written by black women because no other demographic writes as exclusively about their demographic than black women. 99% of the books by them focus on black female protagonists. I tend to support Jesmyn Ward and Esi Edugyan both of them black women who in their short carers already have multiple books with black male leads. Although Edugyan keeps pulling a stunt that drives me nuts that I'll discuss some other time.

 

Cool! Never heard of this one. Already this thread is paying dividends for me. .

Already read this one. Such a great cover, right? Only problem is the story is way too short. Fan of the author (who is black) though. Read one of his early novels "A Devil In Silver" which was really fascinating. I would paste a copy of the cover but the lead of that book is a white dude. : D

I purchased his recent novel "The Changeling" on Audible but haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

I'm gonna get the book about the year of the five emperor's. I'm very curious since blood, violence or marriage was usually the only way to any throne.

Sounds like a must read.

 

I got this book also. I just couldn't get into to it. The premise has been done to death very shallow story telling

 

I read the third one. Solid story telling but the ending felt like it was influenced by a black female audience. Can't wait to hear what you think.

 

One of the best and dramatic stories since the telling of the rise of Caesar. So many layers to this to this story. Septimius Severus & Julia Domna were a absolute power couple and smart. Their rise and reign was legendary. They were an Interracial couple so of course this Roman Emperor and Empress got ignored. That book came out last year.

 

Wow, this is a great thread! Good on you for starting it! Just what I needed.

 

Teju Cole: „Open City“ and „Every Day is for the Thief“

 

Chinua Achebe: Things fall apart

 

Chris Abani: GraceLand

 

Read that in HS still bugs me to this day how it ended

 

Yes, very unsettling.

 

Ken Saro-Wiwa: Sozaboy

Good luck with the Pidgin though.