This story tells of the warrior Sundiata. The back cover stated, "...should rank alongside the Iliad and the Odyssey" and I must say I agree. This shows us a part of Africa that we've not seen and also teaches us about the culture of Africa at the time. There's always something new to learn. ( )

Get the second edition! And watch the movie Keita: The Heritage of the Griot along with it. This is from some friend of Marieke's...good enough.

I enjoyed some aspects of the book, such as the magic/folktales. I was most interested in the first half of the book, when Sogolon (Sundiata's mother) is first introduced and the sections that talked about Sundiata's childhood. When Sogolon and her son are exiled, though, I thought the story became kind of complicated and there were too many people being introduced all at once (most of them being rather inconsequential). It was especially difficult keeping up because I was really just skimming through it. It was assigned reading for my Humanities class and we were only given two days to read it. I probably would have enjoyed it a bit better if I could have taken my time, but most likely I wouldn't have rated it higher than a 2.5 anyway. It's just not my type of book.

*I forgot as I was reading Sundiata, that this story was the inspiration for the Disney movie The Lion King. I'm surprised by that now because there are very, very little similarities between the two. The only thing I can think of that the two have in common is that the young prince unwillingly leaves his empire/kingdom and then returns to claim his throne a few years later when the empire is in trouble. It was kind of interesting trying to find other similarities between them that might be less obvious. For instance, I believe Rafiki (the baboon) is supposed to represent the griot (the poet-historian who tells his king's story). Honestly, I prefer the Disney version much better, and I'm sure I'm in the majority on that. ( )

An exceedingly approachable translation of the heroic story of Sundiata, the hero-king of the medieval Malian empire. In its scope, characterizations, and historical importance it easily stands beside [Beowulf], [The Song of Roland] and [The Ramayana] , even perhaps [The Iliad] and [The Aeneid] in world literature. And while it is a celebration of a warrior king -- he is his mother's son! ( )