Metamorphosis — of the sort made famous by both Ovid and Stan Lee — is one of the novel’s central themes. There’s Tracker’s passage into manhood through a series of harrowing adventures; and his love-hate relationship with the Leopard, a charismatic being who can incarnate himself as both an animal and a man. Tracker also has a series of alarming encounters with shape-shifting creatures who may be adversaries or allies or both — including Sasabonsam, a menacing batlike creature who may have kidnapped the missing boy; and Nyka, a mercenary and former friend who once committed a terrible act of betrayal.

[ Marlon James lists his 10 desert-island books. ]

How did these characters reach these particular crossroads? Whom can Tracker trust, and can the reader trust Tracker — or is he as unreliable a narrator as the rivals and relatives who offer conflicting story lines, suggesting that truth is “a shifting, slithering thing”? Is his father really his grandfather, as his uncle asserts? Will he avenge himself on the men who killed his brother and father? Will his love for a group of orphaned, misfit children replace the anger in his heart and give him a sense of purpose? Why does Tracker hide his real feelings about the Leopard? And why does the Leopard tell him to “learn not to need people”? Such questions are not entirely answered in this volume — which is only the first installment of what James is calling his “Dark Star” trilogy.

In keeping with familiar fantasy and sci-fi templates (from Harry Potter to “The Matrix” to “The Lion King”), the plot of “Black Leopard, Red Wolf” retraces many of the steps that the scholar Joseph Campbell described as stages in the archetypal hero’s journey. Like Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars” and Frodo in “The Lord of the Rings,” Tracker sets off on a journey that will take him away from home — to distant lands and kingdoms, where he faces a series of dangerous tests. And like many a comic-book superhero and antihero before him, Tracker grapples painfully with his own identity, even as he fights off a succession of opponents who threaten to thwart his mission. Along the way, as his path converges with that of others looking for the missing boy, Tracker becomes part of a motley group of mercenaries and misfits who squabble noisily and violently among themselves — and who bear more than a passing resemblance to the sorts of ragtag teams of rivals assembled in movies like “The Dirty Dozen,” “The Avengers” and “Guardians of the Galaxy.”