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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not a flawless work of art like I was hoping for, but still a good addition to the Arcane universe. Would definitely recommend to any fans of the TV show, though I’d hesitate to recommend it to someone who hasn’t watched it- not sure this book stands enough on its own.
adventurous
dark
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
League of Legends is a multi-format media franchise that started out as a online battle arena game and has branched out into comics, animation and novels. This is a sprawling world that has fans across formats and in some ways, across genres. I’ve only watched the animated series Arcane before coming to C.L. Clark’s Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf.
This is the story of Ambessa Merdarda, a significant character in Arcane. However, this novel works best for me if I put aside the stylistic presentation of the animated series alongside some of the thematic and narrative elements. The neon world of Jinx, Vi et al doesn’t feature in Clark’s story, nor does the importance of Hex-tech, while Piltover is not really relevant to this tale.
Instead, while not quite Ambessa’s origin story, this book is how she came to be the character we meet in Arcane. I say it isn’t her origin story, because as we join the plot, she already has a significant and complex history: a husband, a lover, children, including a young Mel (also a significant character in Arcane) and familial rivalries. Her grandfather, Menelik, dies without announcing who will take over as the head of the Merdarda family. Ambessa believes had he lived long enough he would have given the position to her. Her cousin and former friend, Ta’Fik believes he would have been named. And so a battle begins.
Ambessa can be read as a classic fantasy novel outside of the media franchise of League of Legends. The story is a familiar one, but not overly cliched. Ambessa must, for reasons, travel around the territory shown on the sketched map in the book. She picks up allies and fights enemies along the way. Some characters are not all they seem. A young fighter named Rell, for example, becomes a key figure in Ambessa’s quest when she displays magic for the first time. There are incredible beasts and duplicitous sorcerers aplenty. Betrayals, mysterious deaths and flashbacks to explain characters’ motivations and traits are all present and correct.
Some of the mini-adventures along the way don’t seem to have a whole lot relevance to the overall story, with the exception, perhaps, of forcing Ambessa and her allies to take stock, or allowing the story to switch from her point of view to that of her family for example (who have stayed away from the fighting, although that hasn’t prevented them from suffering). And on occasion, due to some of the distances needed to be travelled, it seems like not much is happening for significant time periods to some of the plot-threads. But these are minor criticisms for such a novel.
Clark’s main strength in Ambessa is the characterisation. With media tie-ins, there is always a little hamstringing (is this a word?), which if you have a familiarity with the other formats, can be frustrating. We find out, for example, how and why Mel has her golden tattoos. What Clark has done is written the book in such a way as to not feel like these elements have been overly shoe-horned in. If this novel is your only experience of the League of Legends world, I would hope that you aren’t left perplexed as to why this happens or what is going on over there. The characters’ motivations and back story all feel rounded and as much as can be in a classic fantasy novel, earned. For example, when Ambessa learns the truth about her grandfather from her lover, she becomes even more hard-hearted and more determined to finish her quest. There are some fairly shocking moments that show Ambessa will not be compromised in her beliefs that in lesser hands might have been sanitised. What happens to Tivadar, Ta’Fik’s daughter, is a case in point.
The sub-plot regarding the Black Rose and the exploitation of mages gives the novel a little more depth than just Ambessa racing around between territories having battles, although it does also feel a little like these elements are a lead up to a second volume. In such a franchise as this one, a stand alone novel is never going to happen. But if you’re in the mood for an enjoyable, well-written fantasy romp with some interesting characters and a couple of cool concepts, whether or not you’re familiar with League of Legends, Ambessa is a nice distraction from our real world existence.
Thank you to the Publisher for the gift of the ARC.
There is something so deeply wrong with the Medarda family…I love them so much.
[This contains spoilers for Arcane but only season 1]
I had a lot of apprehension going into this mainly because I already had a pretty strong characterization of Mel and Ambessa and would be devastated if this didn’t align with my read of them. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how good this was. This book goes into how Ambessa became the matriarch of House Medarda. It starts out describing what occurred during the Blood Sweat and Tears music video and the flashback of young Mel we got from s1 of Arcane. Mel is featured throughout the book and it reveals a bunch about her upbringing and the events that led to her exile. This book is full of political intrigue that’ll have you on the edge of your seat, assassination attempts, plotting, betrayal, magical and fantastical elements, and most of all — which I think is the factor that shines through the most — intergenerational trauma. In addition to loving Arcane, if you love Mel and still have questions about her story I encourage you to pick this up.
I love fucked up mother/daughter relationships and CL Clark was able to capture the complexity of Mel and Ambessa’s dynamic and the complicated feelings they have about each other. The amount of inner conflict and turmoil Ambessa experiences throughout this book is extensively and masterfully explored. She is a ruthless warlord, groomed for the battlefield since before she could walk, who lies and schemes and has little room to allow herself to give in to true affection and vulnerability. She is prickly and made of sharp edges, she was taught to associate love with weakness or discipline and prioritize strength overall: a ripple effect that no one around her is spared from. But she is so full of depth, so full of verve, and an incredible amount of repression due to her upbringing that you (I) can’t help but understand where she’s coming from and why she is the way she is and does the things she does.
I also have to give a quick shoutout to my man Rictus, what a guy! I loved his dynamic with Ambessa and you could tell how deep their history went and the mutual respect and genuine love and care they had for each other.
Mel, my sweet princess who recoils at the thought of war and ruthlessness. Seeing Ambessa’s interactions with her family as well as other Noxians, it’s a miracle Mel survived this long in Noxus. She hasn’t changed much aside from gaining some wisdom. Mel is reasonable, caring, willing to see the potential for good in people, and is far more politically savvy than any 15 year old should be. This is exactly what puts her at risk with other Noxians and at odds with her mother who we know has the complete opposite ideology: shoot first, ask questions later. We see this play out on different occasions throughout the novel, it’s one of my favorite dynamics in the book as well as in Arcane because aside from being compelling characters in general, both make good points. Can’t say it was a delight to learn about her origins because her life is so tragic but I loved it. A corruption arc would be cool to see but the fact that Mel could’ve been much worse and is able to retain her convictions and keep herself open to others despite the people she grew up with is so special to me and I love her all the more for it. You don’t see this often, especially not for a dark-skinned black female character. She is flawed but complex and I find that beautiful. I love her in her entirety.
Rell also features quite a bit and her character shines so brilliantly! League players have expressed their disappointment to her retcon which I can understand, but if it helps — if you’re one of those players — the only major difference to her original lore is her age and the timeline of events. I slowly but surely came to love her as a character. Rell is an incredibly skilled 15 year old arena fighter, desperate to prove herself without compromising her dignity. She’s bright-eyed, curious, smart, loyal, and a tad bit shy when it comes to romance :3 she makes an amazing foil to Mel and I can’t wait for the Noxus spin-off to see how their dynamic develops. I enjoyed seeing her interactions with Ambessa, very excited to see what they do with her in the future.
That being said, I was a bit disappointed a certain someone's storyline turned out to be a carbon copy of a MC in Arcane and I also would've liked certain elements explored further (Mel and Elora for one, Mel and Kino for two, and this may be greedy but mentions of Ambessa's queerness for three...the setup was right there bro, throw me a crumb or something).
While this wasn't perfect, I had a lot of fun learning more about Mel's lore through Ambessa and I actually cried several times, especially towards the end.
I definitely recommend picking this up, especially the audiobook as it’s narrated by Ellen Thomas, Ambessa’s VA, which just adds so much more flair to the text. There are still some questions that remained unanswered, but I greatly enjoyed this.
Wow, the Medardas….what a family!
[This contains spoilers for Arcane but only season 1]
I had a lot of apprehension going into this mainly because I already had a pretty strong characterization of Mel and Ambessa and would be devastated if this didn’t align with my read of them. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how good this was. This book goes into how Ambessa became the matriarch of House Medarda. It starts out describing what occurred during the Blood Sweat and Tears music video and the flashback of young Mel we got from s1 of Arcane. Mel is featured throughout the book and it reveals a bunch about her upbringing and the events that led to her exile. This book is full of political intrigue that’ll have you on the edge of your seat, assassination attempts, plotting, betrayal, magical and fantastical elements, and most of all — which I think is the factor that shines through the most — intergenerational trauma. In addition to loving Arcane, if you love Mel and still have questions about her story I encourage you to pick this up.
I love fucked up mother/daughter relationships and CL Clark was able to capture the complexity of Mel and Ambessa’s dynamic and the complicated feelings they have about each other. The amount of inner conflict and turmoil Ambessa experiences throughout this book is extensively and masterfully explored. She is a ruthless warlord, groomed for the battlefield since before she could walk, who lies and schemes and has little room to allow herself to give in to true affection and vulnerability. She is prickly and made of sharp edges, she was taught to associate love with weakness or discipline and prioritize strength overall: a ripple effect that no one around her is spared from. But she is so full of depth, so full of verve, and an incredible amount of repression due to her upbringing that you (I) can’t help but understand where she’s coming from and why she is the way she is and does the things she does.
I also have to give a quick shoutout to my man Rictus, what a guy! I loved his dynamic with Ambessa and you could tell how deep their history went and the mutual respect and genuine love and care they had for each other.
Mel, my sweet princess who recoils at the thought of war and ruthlessness. Seeing Ambessa’s interactions with her family as well as other Noxians, it’s a miracle Mel survived this long in Noxus. She hasn’t changed much aside from gaining some wisdom. Mel is reasonable, caring, willing to see the potential for good in people, and is far more politically savvy than any 15 year old should be. This is exactly what puts her at risk with other Noxians and at odds with her mother who we know has the complete opposite ideology: shoot first, ask questions later. We see this play out on different occasions throughout the novel, it’s one of my favorite dynamics in the book as well as in Arcane because aside from being compelling characters in general, both make good points. Can’t say it was a delight to learn about her origins because her life is so tragic but I loved it. A corruption arc would be cool to see but the fact that Mel could’ve been much worse and is able to retain her convictions and keep herself open to others despite the people she grew up with is so special to me and I love her all the more for it. You don’t see this often, especially not for a dark-skinned black female character. She is flawed but complex and I find that beautiful. I love her in her entirety.
Rell also features quite a bit and her character shines so brilliantly! League players have expressed their disappointment to her retcon which I can understand, but if it helps — if you’re one of those players — the only major difference to her original lore is her age and the timeline of events. I slowly but surely came to love her as a character. Rell is an incredibly skilled 15 year old arena fighter, desperate to prove herself without compromising her dignity. She’s bright-eyed, curious, smart, loyal, and a tad bit shy when it comes to romance :3 she makes an amazing foil to Mel and I can’t wait for the Noxus spin-off to see how their dynamic develops. I enjoyed seeing her interactions with Ambessa, very excited to see what they do with her in the future.
That being said, I was a bit disappointed a certain someone's storyline turned out to be a carbon copy of a MC in Arcane and I also would've liked certain elements explored further (Mel and Elora for one, Mel and Kino for two, and this may be greedy but mentions of Ambessa's queerness for three...the setup was right there bro, throw me a crumb or something).
While this wasn't perfect, I had a lot of fun learning more about Mel's lore through Ambessa and I actually cried several times, especially towards the end.
I definitely recommend picking this up, especially the audiobook as it’s narrated by Ellen Thomas, Ambessa’s VA, which just adds so much more flair to the text. There are still some questions that remained unanswered, but I greatly enjoyed this.
Wow, the Medardas….what a family!
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is my first foray in C.L. Clark and this book guarantees it will not be my last.
For those looking to read this book, I highly recommend the "Blood Sweat and Tears" music video sung by the lovely Sheryl Lee Ralph, as the first chapter of this book fully summarizes the happenings in that video and it's very helpful to have a visual for the chaos.
With that out of the way, this book is MADE for fans of Arcane who first saw a glimpse of Ambessa in S1 and waited with bated breath for her rise as an antagonist in S2 and still wanted so much more. Clark was the perfect author to tell her story, and I apologize in advance for any misspellings of any character names, as I read this book on audiobook.
The world building in this story was absolutely exquisite. It felt like the author knew and fully trusted that readers would have a firm understanding of the world of Piltover and a vague understanding of the greater depths of Noxus, choosing to expand into an exploration of intricate little facets of Noxian power structures. The slow build-up of the Order of the Black Rose, the Medarda family political struggle, the pit fighting rings, the myriad of minute warring factions, each element was woven through so many different twists and reveals of the story, adding layers upon layers of depth into a world that fans of Arcane are so familiar with.
I loved having both Ambessa, Mel, and Relle (spelling?) as perspective characters, each character came from such a vastly different background and possessed widely varying motivations and it was intriguing to see the ways in which their choices and internal dialogue played out throughout the story. With Ambessa and Mel in particular, its sometimes difficult to write on characters that already have such established characterizations in other forms of media, but it felt like Clark had fully dissected both these characters apart and understood the path to direct them upon in this prequel story, in order to seamlessly allow a transition from this story to Arcane.
Arcane created BIG shoes with fill with it's masterful world building, and with "Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf", Clark rises to the bait and sets a new bar for storytelling. I hope we see more of their work set in the League of Legends universe, especially with the alluring and tense cliffhangers this story ended upon! Either way, I fully plan on (finally) picking up The Unbroken this year; I'm highly looking forward to reading the series and any other work of writing Clark has written.
For those looking to read this book, I highly recommend the "Blood Sweat and Tears" music video sung by the lovely Sheryl Lee Ralph, as the first chapter of this book fully summarizes the happenings in that video and it's very helpful to have a visual for the chaos.
With that out of the way, this book is MADE for fans of Arcane who first saw a glimpse of Ambessa in S1 and waited with bated breath for her rise as an antagonist in S2 and still wanted so much more. Clark was the perfect author to tell her story, and I apologize in advance for any misspellings of any character names, as I read this book on audiobook.
The world building in this story was absolutely exquisite. It felt like the author knew and fully trusted that readers would have a firm understanding of the world of Piltover and a vague understanding of the greater depths of Noxus, choosing to expand into an exploration of intricate little facets of Noxian power structures. The slow build-up of the Order of the Black Rose, the Medarda family political struggle, the pit fighting rings, the myriad of minute warring factions, each element was woven through so many different twists and reveals of the story, adding layers upon layers of depth into a world that fans of Arcane are so familiar with.
I loved having both Ambessa, Mel, and Relle (spelling?) as perspective characters, each character came from such a vastly different background and possessed widely varying motivations and it was intriguing to see the ways in which their choices and internal dialogue played out throughout the story. With Ambessa and Mel in particular, its sometimes difficult to write on characters that already have such established characterizations in other forms of media, but it felt like Clark had fully dissected both these characters apart and understood the path to direct them upon in this prequel story, in order to seamlessly allow a transition from this story to Arcane.
Arcane created BIG shoes with fill with it's masterful world building, and with "Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf", Clark rises to the bait and sets a new bar for storytelling. I hope we see more of their work set in the League of Legends universe, especially with the alluring and tense cliffhangers this story ended upon! Either way, I fully plan on (finally) picking up The Unbroken this year; I'm highly looking forward to reading the series and any other work of writing Clark has written.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ambessa…AMBESSA THE WOMAN THAT YOU ARE!!!!!! Drop another body and my life is yours!!! Jk it’s too late for me. This is how you do a prequel! I started this book the same way I ended it; frothing at the mf mouth. I thought I knew what the music video was about. But to get a play by play for the Legend Herself?! I knew she was power hungry and literally losing it—as most of the God’s Touched are. But what can I say? I love to see it. I would follow you anywhere Matriarch Medarda. 🫡❤️
In related news, FUCK ‘EM UP MEL! Bring the Black Rose to their knees. I can’t wait for you to meet your evil twin. Hope you two end up as friends (or lovers??) instead of mortal enemies. Or in addition to. I’m not picky. 😘✨💕
P.s. To Whomever this may concern, (read: the slimy bitch, who played in my face and said that sneaky shit about “a girl kiss”) I want you to know that Ambessa would NEVER adopt you as a Medarda. And she told me to tell you that. 🦊 🐺
In related news, FUCK ‘EM UP MEL! Bring the Black Rose to their knees. I can’t wait for you to meet your evil twin. Hope you two end up as friends (or lovers??) instead of mortal enemies. Or in addition to. I’m not picky. 😘✨💕
P.s. To Whomever this may concern, (read: the slimy bitch, who played in my face and said that sneaky shit about “a girl kiss”) I want you to know that Ambessa would NEVER adopt you as a Medarda. And she told me to tell you that. 🦊 🐺