The Ambassador's Mission

A decade ago, when I read “The Magician’s Guild”, the first of the “Black Magician Trilogy”, I was filled with excitement. Young Sonea’s struggle with her new found powers, her attempts to understand and survive the upper-class world she was pushed into and the complex loyalties she had to navigate had immediate appeal and, although it was a long book, kept me eagerly turning the pages to find out what happened next.

For me, “The Ambassador’s Mission”, the first volume in the “Traitor Spy” trilogy, has none of the magic I found in the “Magician’s Guild”.

It is well written. The ideas are thought through. The characters are as well drawn as in the previous books. Yet the book seems slow. It feels as if Trudi show more Canavan is thinking: “I have three thick volumes to tell this story, there’s no need to hurry.” Unfortunately, I was left thinking that, if they all go at this pace, I might never make it to the end of book two.

Perhaps it is that the Sonea is now older and more reflective, she has become part of the establishment, while Cery has become an old thief and the head of a family. Perhaps it is just the need to connect this book to the “Black Magician Trilogy” and its prequel, “The Magician’s Apprentice” but I found that I did not have the same passion for these characters and the challenges that they face.

In “The Magician’s Apprentice”, it mattered to me whether it would be Lord Rothen or the treacherous Lord Fergun who had power over Sonea. In “The Ambassador’s Mission” the death of the whole family of one of the characters barely created an emotional ripple.

As a generation-spanning, fantasy-saga, dealing with a complex world, this is still a book worth reading but set against the last trilogy, I found it disappointing. show less

Trudi Canavan's name is synonomous with quality, and with this book she doesn't fail to meet the high expectations that her previous novels have set. It would seem that she has a way with sequels that few authors possess, and makes this book at least as readable as her first. In addition to the original Black Magician Trilogy, Canavan's latest book also draws quite a lot from the Magicians Apprentice (The one-novel prequel to the BM Trilogy). This exquisite entwining of plotlines across novels is something that only a master writer acheives regularly, and Trudi Canavan is one of them.

The book itself starts rather slowly, but in a way that builds tension rather than bores the reader. After that things begin to heat up. Ceryni is a much show more bigger player in this book than previously, where he appeared it seemed only where needed. In this he takes one of the major viewpoints, along with returning characters Sonea and Dannyl, as well as new character Lorkin. Each of them is quite different in their own way, although Sonea/Ceryni and Lorkin/Dannyl are closer to each other than the rest. But Each of the viewpoints explores a different relationship.

Without giving too much away there is Romance; beginning and ending, Family; Lost and Found, and Alliances with old and new enemies. The way that Canavan expresses these different relatinships from different viewpoints not only brings the characters vividly off the page, but also stirs the emotions and feelings of the reader. They yearn for love. They miss their children (Even if they have none). They are confused by their old enemy. Because Sonea's relationships become the readers. Lorkin's relationships, Dannyl's and Ceryni's too.

That just the way Canavan does things. She draws the reader in until they are not just in the story, they almost live it. They are the character, whichever one it may be, They are in Imardin, or Sachaka, or wherever the narrative takes them. There is nothing lacking in this book that I can think of.

In fact, there is only one thing I can think of that is even slightly off in this latest book, which is Sonea's age. The book is set twenty years after the BM Trilogy, yet whenever I read Sonea's sections, I imagine her as the same age. That's not true of Ceryni though. But I think Sonea could do with older descriptive language ascribed to her.

I always find it difficult to write much for excellent books, and this is no different. Normally I give a "how long would I stay up reading for?" rating, since I know I personally use that as a measure of a book's worth. Now here I was going to put "dawn" as the answer. However, Since the sun isrising behind me as I write this, It is well past dawn that I would stay up reading. I hate to sound cliché, but if there is one book you read this year, make it this one. show less

Twenty years have passed since the Ichani Invasion when large parts of Imardin were destroyed and Akkarin, the High Lord, sacrificed himself to save Kyralia. Since then, a progress for a more equal society has started. The Guild no longer limits itself to magicians from the upperclasses – instead everyone with magical talents are welcome at the Academy. But it doesn't come without its struggles. There's occasional tension between the kids of the various social ranks, in a lot of ways due to the different treatment by teachers and staff.

But as Sonea tries to fight against the unequal treatment; her childhood friend Cery arrives with bad news. Someone is killing off Thieves around the city, and the newest murder included Cery's wife show more and their two young sons. What's even worse is that the murderer seems to be capable of magic. Once more, they seem to be faced with a rogue magician on the streets of Imardin.

At the same time, Dannyl decides to become the new Guild's Ambassador in Sachaka. He wants to be able to fill in the empty spaces in Kyralian history, as well as Sachakan history. Especially as it seems the history records in Imardin aren't speaking the whole truth – and he suspects the only way to find out what truly happened all those years ago with the Sachakan War is to travel to go back to where it all started. But Sonea's young son Lorkin convinces Dannyl to make him his assistant, something that troubles his mother. Sonea is convinced he will be in danger – something that turns out to be quite true when he finds himself in the middle of a failed murder attempt on his own life.

I quite liked the first series, so I was excited for this one. To be honest, I had missed this world and as I realised this series takes place twenty years later, I was hoping for the world maybe had gotten a little bit better considering how frustrated I was with Kyralian society during the first series.

In a lot of ways, it wasn't as good a first bok as the first series' first book was. There was a lot of explaining in that one, but this book was both explanations and way too many recaps on what happened during the last series. I understand that reminders are very important but I very much felt like Canavan reminded the reader all too much of what had happened previously; most of the major things aren't in need of such long, descriptive reminders. It slows the book down in quite a few ways, and I'm saying that even though I'm quite a fan of details and descriptions. But first time descriptions and reminders are quite different; and this book spent half its pages on reminding the reader of what had already happened.

But the second half was really good, I felt the same kind of excitement as I did during the first series. Although, I do have a feeling I will like the second and third books more. But nonetheless, it felt so good to be back with Sonea and Dannyl – and get to know Lorkin. I was kind of hoping he'd be gay, but he turned out to be quite interesting either way, so I'm not too disappointed. I do have a feeling he will grow a lot more later on in the series, however. I'm also hoping Cery's daughter will be around more. A lot more. She's great. I honestly would rather have her be a main character than Lorkin as her character is much more alive, and interesting. show less

New trilogy, same characters, and unfortunately very much the same plot - someone is sneaking about the city using magic where they shouldn't be. Meanwhile an Ambassador out in foreign lands discovers some new types of magic. The primary thrust comes through a very minor part of the previous trilogy that at the time felt very out of place.

We do pick up some new characters, but also many familiar faces. It is now some 20 years after the conclusion of the War, Sonea's son is grown up, the Thief is getting older and only a touch slower, Regin has mellowed, and a few older hands have been killed off. There replacements mostly seem indistinguishable. The city is now united with less overt hostility between rich and poor, but the King's show more unification efforts have disrupted the Thieves guild, and allowed an interloper to start selling more potent drugs. Sonea is not amused. She becomes positively annoyed when her son accompanies the Ambassador into Sachea (where she is forbidden to go), and starts finding troubles all of his own.

I like Trudi's world building and characters. she isn't the most inventive of authors, or even the most realistic of character developers, but there's a gentle enjoyment and spark that permeates all of her writing. This is no exception. There is nothing brilliant here, but also little to complain about. The annoying habit of re-naming similar creatures has been carefully stepped around, and doesn't really intrude. The politics of the Guild and the lives in the various countries all work well, without being too confusing. The style remains much the same as previous books.

If you've enjoyed Trudi's other works, this is a reasonable success in wringing more flesh from that world, but if you're looking for deep and meaningful epic fantasy, you'd best read elsewhere.

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After re-read, there is a bit of cultural comment, that neatly slips under the radar, setting up a few characters for a look at romance and gender, but other than that, as above, entertaining reading for a few hours. show less

Better towards the end but this series is much better so far than the original. Still somewhat predictable in some counts but more rounded characters, interesting storyline, and I like seeing how some old faces show back up!

I read the original trilogy several years ago and enjoyed them but had never gotten around to reading the follow up. But feeling in the need for a light fantasy read, I picked this up. Except for the main character Sonea, I had forgotten most of the rest of the characters. Canavan can be erratic - I enjoyed the Black Magician trilogy but found the Priestess of the White trilogy a major disappointment. This was as I expected light and enjoyable although there were times when I felt it was slow and incidents could have occurred faster. I also struggled at times with remembering who was who.

4/5 estrellas.
Tenía muchas ganas de empezar esta trilogía y no me ha defraudado . Aunque hubo algunas partes que se me hicieron algo pesadas por lo general me mantuvo enganchada y cada vez que empezaba a leer me costaba dejar la lectura. De momento la trilogía empieza bien y me hace tener más ganas de leer el segundo.