Blood of Ambrose by James Enge – review

Much of the problem with epic or high fantasy for many readers is how long-winded some of those works can be.  While the total immersion experience that can be created with so much description can be well worth the time involved to read it, it can often be difficult to find the time to actually sit down and read one of those  enormous tomes.  It’s easy to get frustrated with a book that requires so much effort and dedication to get through, even though shorter, simpler reads can be just as frustrating because of a lack in richness.  There are a few happy mediums out there in the realm of fantasy literature, and Blood of Ambrose fits the bill nicely.

Including appendices, Blood of Ambrose clocks in at 400 pages of very reasonably sized type (which can also be a determining factor for many readers when choosing a book), which makes it the kind of book that can still be easily carted around in a backpack for those spare moments in a day where one might be presented with the opportunity to read.  The real question, though, is would Blood of Ambrose be worth carrying?  The answer is, most definitely, yes.

This book has everything fans of high fantasy could ask for in a novel:  there are evil necromancers, enigmatic wizards, dwarven smiths, a ruling dynasty at stake, and horrifically disgusting zombies.  Yes, you read that list correctly.  There are zombies in this one.  The kingdom of Ontil is ruled by a boy king, Lathmar, who is controlled by a ruling council of advisors.  One of those advisors, Lord Urdhven, turns against him and attempts to take over the kingdom.  What Urdhven fails to realize is that Lathmar’s family, including his centuries-old many-times great-grandmother and his great-uncle, are willing to help Lathmar retain his kingdom and become the king he was meant to be.

This book is full of action, and readers will not be disappointed in the way the plot unfolds.  The events of the story make sense, even if the reader isn’t necessarily expecting everything that happens to occur the way that it does.  Despite some sort of stock characters (or at least the kinds of characters readers have come to expect in high fantasy), the book remains very engaging and entertaining.  The large majority of the characters are well-developed and given quirks that make them slightly more vulnerable and much less predictable than one might expect.  Even more enthralling are the things Enge includes that readers certainly wouldn’t expect to find in high fantasy, such as Velox, the old, battered warhorse who finds a new will to live when his master teaches him a few new tricks.  All the while, Velox remains a horse.  He doesn’t speak.  He doesn’t gain any more intelligence than any reader would expect of the average horse, and yet Velox is most certainly an important character and one that readers are going to find memorable.  And then, there’s Morlock, who is, most certainly, the enigmatic wizard that many readers consider vital to a good high fantasy, but Morlock is also an alcoholic, bad-tempered mess who tends to avoid explainations mostly because he simply doesn’t feel like explaining much of anything to anyone.  Characters like these add both a sense of humor and excellent motivation for the events in the book, and make it a joy to read. 

Blood of Ambrose ends conclusively, making it a fine stand-alone novel for someone who wishes to dabble in high fantasy without having to commit to a many-volumes-long series.  There are a few words of caution, though.  This book has zombies.  That was mentioned before, but certainly, I feel that I need to make a point of that in this review.  There are parts of this book that get pretty disgusting.  Enge has a gift for description that required me to choose between reading and eating lunch during several scenes in this book.  If you are at all squeamish, this is probably not a book for you.  There are graphic torture scenes as well as necromancers plying their trade, so if scenes of this sort bother you, you may want to look elsewhere for your next read.