Morality

The novel’s ever-dueling good versus evil conflict comments on the state of modern racism. A core good versus evil struggle typifies texts in the fantasy canon, often resolving in one final battle with a big boss or villain. The novel follows this path all the way to the final battle, and makes that trajectory clear through its allusions to other fantasy stories and prescription to tropes; however, its satirical tone and deviations from genre markers expose the lack of black representation in the genre and in positions of power.

White characters, especially those involved in law enforcement, play the parts of small bosses or villains. The penultimate villains are two white, upper middle-class men, one of whom verbally pours scorn on racial “fairness” and “balance” (370). The most consistent antagonists in the novel are police officers who are presumably white. Even in their absence, they are...