By no means is this a bad book, but it isn't anything special either. I fell in love with the world & characters of Runeterra after watching Arcane Season 1 and 2. So when the Ambessa novel went up for pre-order I jumped at the chance to dive back into the world.
And it certainly delivers on that front. Throughout the show, Ambessa remains one of the more mysterious characters, tightly controlling what the people of Piltover are allowed to know about her. The book massively expands on her backstory and gives substance to her behavior as a character that previously had to be inferred. Clark does this in a way that feels consistent with what we already know about the character and the world she lives in. Clark genuinely manages to capture the characters essence and there's no jarring difference between the book version of Ambessa and the Show version of Ambessa. This also holds true for the other characters we know from the show like Mel and Rictus.
Unfortunately the rest of the story is just very forgettable. It meanders from one battle to the next travelling all over Noxus, with a little bit of political squabbling in between, all while introducing a myriad of semi-generic characters with no way to know if any of them will even make a second appearance.
I'm not so much complaining about the complexity of the web of characters, but rather that most of them lack any distinguishing details about their motives and principles. For a character that's known for actively controlling the narrative, there's a surprising lack of decision making on Ambessa's part. The few decisions that she does make feel hollow. The story just kind of happens to and around her.
This is unfortunate, considering that Arcane itself is all about the characters and their decisions. The show truly mastered the art of making decisions of all sizes feel complex and highly impactful. It's of course unreasonable to expect a short spin-off novel to retain the same level of story-telling mastery that an award-winning show which took 6 years to produce and cost $250 million dollars does, but I still feel a little underwhelmed.
With that said, I started out with the opinion that it isn't a bad book and I stand by that. It's just not great book either. It's a relatively generic fantasy novel, set in a pre-existing universe, uplifted by a few beloved characters. I enjoyed my time reading it and I would recommend it to anyone who is already invested in the characters and in the mood for an easy story.
If that's not you, skip it.