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.

A very good book. Surprisingly for a story which effortlessly includes necromancy, cannibalism, necrophilia and the horrors of war it's characters have a basic decency, yes, and kindness. There is a lot of plot and my only complaint is that I would have liked a bit more.

"The Enterprise of Death" is a fantasy book written by Jesse Bullington, the second by this north american author. Even if he isn't widely known, his writing style has made quite a splash with his first book, "The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart". Having a lot more cursing, characters with far more laxed moral values (at least, from my experience with "The Enterprise of Death") and lots of sexual scenes, Jesse Bullington's books attracted a wide sample of the general public.

In "The Enterprise of Death", Awa, the main character, is an African slave who was captured and forced by an ancient necromancer to learn a very specific type of magic, which is necromancy, the ability to raise and command dead. Through a devious plot he links himself to her. That link will ultimately kill her and Awa only has a few years before he comes for what he wants, but before that happens Awa, a misunderstood artist, a woman handy with guns and a quack (even if he doesn't know) will try to find a way to stop the necromancer.

According to a few opinions this novel is filled with gratuitous sex and has way to much cursing. In "The Enterprise of Death" there's quite a lot scenes of sexual tension and some of them evolve to literary pornography, but come on, I paid for the book, so there's nothing free about this. Regarding the cursing matter, there's lots of it, however once you engage fully with the text it comes naturally, at least it did for me.

Sure it has stereotypical characters, but it's still fun. In fact, at times Awa, a thick legged lesbian, acts like a man, but in such book who would want a pretty and polite lady? Others characters, like Monique (the woman handy with guns) or Manuel (the artist) aren't the creation of the year, but they're entertaining. On the other hand, the story isn't the typical fantasy box set, it isn't highly idealized, in fact it can quite unusual and hopeless sometimes.

In no way I can claim this novel to be better or worse than Bullington's previous book, because I haven't found my path to it yet. "The Enterprise of Death" clearly entertained me for a while, which is saying a lot, at least for lots of books. It's not the best book ever written, it won't be considered a classic and in a few years it will be forgotten by most people, but until that happens why don't you read the book and be impressed by the liberties Bullington takes?

Recommend to 18+ year olds.

Till next time,
M.I.T.H. (ManInsideTheHelm)