Customer Reviews

The Ambassador's Mission (Traitor Spy Trilogy)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Magicians' Guild had always feared that one day during their annual sweeps for rogues that a commoner with untrained power would surface. Their worst trepidations occurred when Sonea the commoner displayed talent. She was quickly brought into the Magicians' Guild, but her ancestry made her a pariah until she has become a Black Magician of Kyralia with one foot tentatively inside the ruling Guild establishment and the other deeply embedded in her heritage.

Her son is a chip off the rebellious block, but more volatile than his mother. Lorkin resents the bias towards him and his family. Thus Lorkin joins the support team of powerful Lord Dannyl who is Guild Ambassador to the enemy Sachaka for two reasons. First he wants to get away from the prejudice shown to commoner mages and second he hopes to influence behavior in a place run by abusive black magicians with slaves. No one in Imardin trust the Sachakans whose belief is that the Black Magicians should rule the world and those of Sachaka should rule the Black Magicians. When Sonea learns Lorkin vanished, she fears for her offspring, but knows if she leaves the city she cannot return as that is Guild law. She promised her concerned friend Cery to investigate a recent slew of homicides as a serial killer using magic as a weapon assassinates the leaders of the Thieves Guild though no one knows why or who, but Sonea has some internal fears about what she will learn.

The latest Black Magician fantasy is a super tale filled with several great twists that make the second tale in the prequel saga (see The Magicians Apprentice) a standout. The story line is fast-paced with two well written prime subplots starring mom and son. This is a terrific magical whodunit where mom the Black Magician amateur sleuth investigates the killings and readers are shown a deep look at the culture of magically dominated Sachaka as seen through the lens of the missing son. The audience will relish this strong entry into the world of Trudi Canavan.

Harriet Klausner

I'm very sorry to say that Trudy Canavan's books just seem to get worse and worse. I truly enjoyed the Black Magician trilogy, but ever since then every book has been a huge disappointment. The Ambassador's Mission is so utterly boring I struggled to get through it. The plot is not very interesting, it brings you back to the Kyralia world, but this time the experience feels like no more than a faint shadow of what it once was. The characters are flat and vapid and their development poor, but I think worst of all is that the story is so very predicatble! I think I got surprised like once - in the whole book! Well, now I have learnt, once and for all: No more books by Trudy Canavan for me.

I read the Black Magician Trilogy a few years back, and really enjoyed it. This is more of the same.

It's solid fantasy action, with an interesting world, complicated politics, sympathetic characters, and not so many characters that you get lost. I don't think a new reader would have any problem getting up to speed here, because enough time has passed since the events of the first books. If you read The Ambassador's Mission, and want to know more about Lorkin's parents, I do highly recommend the Black Magician Trilogy, even though you would know from this book at least some of what happens and which characters survive.

My only hesitation with this book is that many of the characters feel somewhat the same. They aren't really, but there isn't a lot of variation in narrative voice. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and it hints at more intriguing explorations of gender politics to come.

This is my first read of a Trudi Canavan novel. Unlike many authors who get into print nowadays, Canavan's writing style is stellar, well crafted, and very readable. As I read I felt very comfortable -- all that was missing for me was the fireplace, the glass of wine, and the faithful dog occasionally wagging his tail. I wanted to read on and on. The main characters were well rounded and developed.

The book has two main story lines -- one which starts and ends between the books pages, and another which is 'series tie-in' -- that is, it's an overplot designed to span several books. More of the book than not concentrates on its long term vision, and as a result both it and the shorter story suffers.

If you are a avid Canavan supporter, you've probably read (or probably should read) the other books she's written before reading this one, because as many folks have stated here, the characters' histories add much to this story. The other books might also explain some of the technical issues that nagged at me a little while I was reading (how tunnels can be made or expanded in the city without people knowing about it, or why high magicians prefer to ride mounts than glide a few inches above the ground). I'm sure all that set up is in the previous books.

In short, as well-crafted writing, the book is a pleasure, but as an epic, there's not enough there to make me investigate further.

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 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.

The Ambassador's Mission is much better than The Magician's Apprentice, but no where near as entertaining as The Black Magician Trilogy. The plot can be summed up as follows: someone is killing thieves, and Lorkin goes for a long walk in Sachaka. The characters are no where near as dynamic and interesting as they were in The Black Magician Trilogy. Cery is old and worn out, Sonea is tepid and uninteresting. Lorkin isn't any more exciting than anyone else. If this book was written by anyone else I don't think I would have finished it, but Trudi Canavan has something that I like. It may be the large amount of dialogue, the magic, or the guild environment that kept me interested in this novel, but I'm not sure if I will be continuing. There isn't much reason to really. There are power gems that may be important, and some foreigners that are dangerous, but it's just not enough. There is no sense of urgency or danger, everything is just blah. If you are a fan of The Black Magician Trilogy give this a try to brush up on your favorite characters and revisit the world, but don't expect it to be as exciting as the original trilogy.

Got excited when I found out Trudi wrote another trilogy on Sonea's magical world. And got more excited because the characters (most of them) are still the same, just older and with additional ones.

I enjoy this book very much, the pace just right, the story is gripping (though in some parts a bit dragging) and the characters are quite developed. Sonea had become a 'scary' woman, as Dorrien and Cery predicted in Black Magician Trilogy. But sometimes I feel that characters from previous trilogy, who suppose to be in middle age, are still acting and thinking like they are in their 20s or 30s. Maybe because Trudi has not in her 40s yet as well. LOL. But from most, I intrigued by Regin's attitude and looking forward in the next books of what becoming of him to Sonea. So, yeah, this is another nice trilogy from Trudi and I cannot wait for next ones.

What happened, Trudi? I remember when I picked up the BMT, the Magicians' Guild, and couldn't put it down. Then came The Novice and the High Lord and I was addicted and re-read them all several times.I read the Age of the Five trilogy also and found them very interesting. The storyline and writing techniques were exciting.

Then I picked up the Magician's Apprentice and the Ambassador's Mission and found myself wondering what exactly I found so darn appealing.

Canavan's latest novels have a tumble-weed feel; they are a tangled web of boring character encounters and self-reflections. I found myself skipping pages and finding that the plot has not advanced nor have the characters' developed along with their experiences.

I have stopped buying her books. It's a sad thing as I once held Canavan in highest regard as my favorite author. She has been replaced by Ann Aguirre, Brandon Sanderson, and Ilona Andrews.

I really enjoyed this book and am currently enjoying the second one in the series "The Rogue". I also recommend the Black Magician Trilogy. I could hardly put the books down and consequently lost a lot of sleep. Very enjoyable.

My introduction to Trudi Canavan's work was with her Black Magician trilogy, so I was pleased to see more books in the same world come out. This book follows after the Black Magician Trilogy, and the stand-alone "Magician's Apprentice" book that was a prequel to the first trilogy.

The story was good--maybe not quite as involved as the BMT, but still made me want to keep reading.

Unfortunately, the Kindle formatting for this book was lacking. There were at least a half-dozen points in the book where Canavan was switching to a different character, and the Kindle format had no delineation. I imagine that the printed book contained at least several blank lines to indicate a different section, but the Kindle format had no space--it just switched characters between paragraphs, and always interrupted the flow of the story for me.

I would have rated the story as 4 stars, but felt the poor formatting by the publisher (or whoever formatted this book) made the overall product lose a star for me.