The Enterprise of Death
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Review
'Lurid, gruesome and larded with the blackest humour, this is grimly fascinating' --Telegraph
Product Description
As the witch-pyres of the Spanish Inquisition blanket Renaissance Europe in a moral haze, a young African slave is unwillingly apprenticed to an ancient necromancer. Her tormentor has bound her with a curse forged from blood and spirit. But salvation could lie in arcane writings her tutor has hidden on the war-torn continent ...Jesse Bullington casts his own macabre spell over the late middle ages in a work that becomes compulsive, amusing and horrifying in quick succession. Praise for Jesse Bullington's previous work includes: * 'Darkly funny, profane, erudite, bawdy, and wickedly original' Jeff VanderMeer * 'As the antithesis of conventional fantasy, this is a tour de force' Telegraph * 'A quite extraordinary piece ...one of the books of the year' SFRevu.com * 'Raucous, lewd, and grisly' Esquire
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gruesome enough to shock a Grossbart!,
By
This review is from: The Enterprise of Death (Paperback)
After reading Bullington's retelling of the morally defunct Brothers Grossbart, I pre-ordered this without hesitation & counted the weeks until its arrival. Despite a level of excitement which reality often finds difficult to satisfy, The Enterprise Of Death effortlessly surpassed my eager expectations.
Take heed, oh reader, of the the quote on the cover (aptly from The Guardian), which warns us that this is "not for the faint hearted"! Forget blushing heroines & dashing heroes, Bullington's vision of the past is accurately squalid & remorselessly blood-soaked, populated by Machiavellian warlords & amoral opportunists, not to mention supernatural horrors aplenty. The most horrific of these is a deranged Arabian necromancer who kidnaps a Moorish girl & her slaves, dragging them up to be his unwilling apprentices. Here Bullington's dark imagination runs riot as the necromancer devises novel & disturbing ways to torment his young charges with his living-dead servants. Then fiction & reality blur when Renaissance artist Niklaus Manuel (whose work adorns the front cover) is hired to deliver one of the unruly apprentices to the Spanish Inquisition. Along the way, they encounter other historical characters, such as the occultist Doctor Paracelsus. Those familiar with Bullington's prodigious debut will not be surprised by the dark tone of this novel. Nevertheless, I was still astonished by its extent, as shocking acts aplenty were performed - including some horrific enough to make even a Grossbart shudder at such mecky business! But this isn't merely a gore-fest by any means - Bullington emphasises the psychological torment that results from vile deads & fleshes out his characters nicely; even ones which don't have any flesh to speak of. The strength of this book lies in the authors' ability to breathe life into the past & make the incredible utterly convincing. Despite grisly descriptions of the undead, little is more horrific than the madness & cruelty possessed by human characters. Further, the human world is shown to be virtually devoid of any righteousness; powerful institutions being morally defunct & settling matters by force of arms alone. Tapping into a very modern zeitgeist, a few characters have a personal sense of morality & even they are capable of thrusting it aside to pursue their own self-interests. One marked difference between this book & the Grossbarts is that here, the language used is more contemporary, with characters using many a modern turn of phrase. This perhaps conveys the story more smoothly but possibly at the cost of some authenticity. But as sacrifice is a running theme in these pages, it seems only fair for the author to make just one when his characters are forced to make so many... The Enterprise Of Death was singularly difficult to put down. It felt a little soap-operatic in places but nevertheless still intrigued. Bullington wove a Bardic spell on me more powerful than any of the magics unleashed by the witches in his book. For those not easily shocked, it is hugely recommended. For those easily shocked, it is hugely recommended, as it will confirm their opinion that modern literature is brutal, uncompromising & unafraid to lay bare a world that is morally defunct.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An author to watch,
By Gareth Wilson - Falcata Times Blog "Falcata T... - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (TOP 500 REVIEWER)
This review is from: The Enterprise of Death (Paperback)
Jesse Bullington is one of those authors that's like Forest Gump's Box of Chocs. You're never quite sure what you're going to get but the odds are it'll be something gooey, delicious and with the authors sense of humour probably with a wicked twist of something like Chilli. Presenting you with something that's so good but just so mind-blowing at the same time. What unfurls in this his latest title is a story that the reader will love, he knows how to twist your point of view and he also knows how to do it so well that it's a revelation each time he changes direction. Add to this a great understanding of pace, a masterful building of characters and a whole host of the weird and wonderful makes you wonder if he's not Terry Gilliam's Love Child.
All in I loved this book and when you add to it that this is only the authors second title its probably going to surprise a few readers that he's not been around for years. Definitely an author to watch as this Monty Pythonesque author flattens you with his writerly giant foot.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Joyful,
By B "billy says" (kent., england) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Enterprise of Death (Paperback)
Joyfully filthy and lurid. Joyfully dirty, fetid, sweaty and sweary.This is a captivating adventure story in the style of a sort of grubby, supernatural 'Candide'. You can positively taste the pleasure of the writer rolling the words around in his head before spreading them across the page. Delightful.
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