The Enterprise of Death by Jesse Bullington
Publisher: Orbit, 2010
Genre: Horror
Sub-genre: Historical
Rating: 2 1/2 pints of blood
It's not the best day a young black slave has ever had when Awa is rescued from bandits by a necromancer who intends to force her to be his apprentice. He has a rather devious plan in store for her, which involves setting a curse on her just as she earns her freedom. Awa has ten years, and at the end of that time she will meet a fate more permanent than death, as her spirit will be completely obliterated.
Naturally, Awa intends to spend her time trying to find a way to remove the curse, but the world is not a kind place for a black necromancer woman, especially while the Spanish Inquisition rages through Europe. She can use the undead to help her, but it's possible the living might be even more useful, if she could trust someone long enough to make friends.
So not only is our heroine a competent black woman, she's a competent gay black woman. She's also not the only gay or bisexual character in the book, and "alternate" sexuality is never portrayed as something weird or bad. Monique and Awa are probably the strongest characters in the entire book, and what's better is they don't wind up in a romance with each other. That's right, there are two lesbians in the book, but they're allowed to decide they're not romantically suited to one another and move on. Had the premise not intrigued me in the first place, I'm pretty sure that would have been enough to convince me to pick up the book. (On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure this book passes the Frank Miller test but considering a sizable portion of the story happens in a brothel run by a gay woman who loves whores but is not interested in becoming one herself, your mileage may vary on whether that's valid or not.)
If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be uneven. There were some really strong parts that almost make me want to overlook the weaker parts, but this sadly isn't a case where one can make up for another. I love that while Awa is a gay black woman who deals with racism and the assumption that everyone is straight, neither of those parts of her dictate her character. They're allowed to be facets of her rather than standing in as an excuse for character traits, and I'm positively gleeful about that.
So what were the less than giddy bits? Well, let me pull out a passage for further discussion:
Two individuals of the opposite sex will, if forced to go on a journey together, fall in love. Often begrudgingly, and with a great deal of reluctance by at least one of the parties, to be sure, but love will fall as surely as night after day. In the unlikely event that one of the two is homosexual, asexual, already in a loving relationship, or otherwise disinclined from romancing their traveling companion, love will fall all the harder, like cannon fire upon a charging cavalry: indeed, the less likely the two are to fall in love naturally, the more certain it is that the sojourn will bring them together.
Somehow, preposterous though it may sound, Awa and Manuel did not fall in love on their journey together, in spite of the wife at home who adored Manuel, in spite of Awa's lack of sexual interest in men, in spite of their mismatched personalities, and in spite of their growing and mutual fondness for one another. The best they could muster was a lessening of fear on Manuel's part and the honest --if painfully disinterested-- observation on Awa's part that Manuel was not so bad-looking, and that was only observed as the result of some self-deprecating jibe the artist had made about his own downward-angling nose. Pathetic.
The genre-savvy of this passage entertains me to no end. I'm pretty sure I giggled out loud when I came to it. The sudden jump to omnipotent narration, though, doesn't particularly fit in with the general tone of the book, which tends to third person limited.
That's actually one of my issues with the book. It's all over the place. The only thread drawing everything together is Awa herself, as the story meanders from one setting to another. It tries very hard to make our protagonist a well-rounded character, and therefore wants to show everything in great detail. We get long chapters featuring Awa as a young slave, then the story changes completely to show her under the tutelage of the necromancer, and another shift to her on the road, running from religious folks intent on killing her as a witch. Whether she's searching for a way to break her curse with a pair of ghosts in tow or living in a brothel (as a doctor of sorts, not a whore), it's presented in great detail and while the lengthy passages are interesting on their own, they don't so much feel like they fit in together so well. It felt like reading a series of stories rather than one long narration, and as a result this book took me forever to get through. A few of them could have been trimmed or cut completely and very little would have changed plot-wise. That's right, there are long sections in which nothing happens to move the plot forward.
It's also not the smoothest prose I've ever read. In the two paragraphs above, there are at least two nitpicky things I could get petty over, but since this is a review and not a critique group, suffice it to say the prose manages to get the point across but never approaches anything like beauty.
The Enterprise of Death is available in mass market paperback
. My copy was generously provided by the publisher.
Genre: Horror
Sub-genre: Historical
Rating: 2 1/2 pints of blood
It's not the best day a young black slave has ever had when Awa is rescued from bandits by a necromancer who intends to force her to be his apprentice. He has a rather devious plan in store for her, which involves setting a curse on her just as she earns her freedom. Awa has ten years, and at the end of that time she will meet a fate more permanent than death, as her spirit will be completely obliterated.
Naturally, Awa intends to spend her time trying to find a way to remove the curse, but the world is not a kind place for a black necromancer woman, especially while the Spanish Inquisition rages through Europe. She can use the undead to help her, but it's possible the living might be even more useful, if she could trust someone long enough to make friends.
So not only is our heroine a competent black woman, she's a competent gay black woman. She's also not the only gay or bisexual character in the book, and "alternate" sexuality is never portrayed as something weird or bad. Monique and Awa are probably the strongest characters in the entire book, and what's better is they don't wind up in a romance with each other. That's right, there are two lesbians in the book, but they're allowed to decide they're not romantically suited to one another and move on. Had the premise not intrigued me in the first place, I'm pretty sure that would have been enough to convince me to pick up the book. (On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure this book passes the Frank Miller test but considering a sizable portion of the story happens in a brothel run by a gay woman who loves whores but is not interested in becoming one herself, your mileage may vary on whether that's valid or not.)
If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be uneven. There were some really strong parts that almost make me want to overlook the weaker parts, but this sadly isn't a case where one can make up for another. I love that while Awa is a gay black woman who deals with racism and the assumption that everyone is straight, neither of those parts of her dictate her character. They're allowed to be facets of her rather than standing in as an excuse for character traits, and I'm positively gleeful about that.
So what were the less than giddy bits? Well, let me pull out a passage for further discussion:
Two individuals of the opposite sex will, if forced to go on a journey together, fall in love. Often begrudgingly, and with a great deal of reluctance by at least one of the parties, to be sure, but love will fall as surely as night after day. In the unlikely event that one of the two is homosexual, asexual, already in a loving relationship, or otherwise disinclined from romancing their traveling companion, love will fall all the harder, like cannon fire upon a charging cavalry: indeed, the less likely the two are to fall in love naturally, the more certain it is that the sojourn will bring them together.
Somehow, preposterous though it may sound, Awa and Manuel did not fall in love on their journey together, in spite of the wife at home who adored Manuel, in spite of Awa's lack of sexual interest in men, in spite of their mismatched personalities, and in spite of their growing and mutual fondness for one another. The best they could muster was a lessening of fear on Manuel's part and the honest --if painfully disinterested-- observation on Awa's part that Manuel was not so bad-looking, and that was only observed as the result of some self-deprecating jibe the artist had made about his own downward-angling nose. Pathetic.
The genre-savvy of this passage entertains me to no end. I'm pretty sure I giggled out loud when I came to it. The sudden jump to omnipotent narration, though, doesn't particularly fit in with the general tone of the book, which tends to third person limited.
That's actually one of my issues with the book. It's all over the place. The only thread drawing everything together is Awa herself, as the story meanders from one setting to another. It tries very hard to make our protagonist a well-rounded character, and therefore wants to show everything in great detail. We get long chapters featuring Awa as a young slave, then the story changes completely to show her under the tutelage of the necromancer, and another shift to her on the road, running from religious folks intent on killing her as a witch. Whether she's searching for a way to break her curse with a pair of ghosts in tow or living in a brothel (as a doctor of sorts, not a whore), it's presented in great detail and while the lengthy passages are interesting on their own, they don't so much feel like they fit in together so well. It felt like reading a series of stories rather than one long narration, and as a result this book took me forever to get through. A few of them could have been trimmed or cut completely and very little would have changed plot-wise. That's right, there are long sections in which nothing happens to move the plot forward.
It's also not the smoothest prose I've ever read. In the two paragraphs above, there are at least two nitpicky things I could get petty over, but since this is a review and not a critique group, suffice it to say the prose manages to get the point across but never approaches anything like beauty.
The Enterprise of Death is available in mass market paperback
. My copy was generously provided by the publisher.