The Ambassador's Mission: The Traitor Spy Trilogy: Book One: The Traitor Spy Trilogy, Book 1 [Kindle Edition]

I really enjoyed The Ambassador's Mission, in a large part because of what it was not. It wasn't a retread over the same ground that was the major flaw of The Magician's Apprentice prequal. And it doesn't focus exclusively on another young girl coming unexpectedly into magical powers (common to both Apprentice and The Age of Five series). It's well written as is to be expected and has a nice variety of characters with varying personalities and motivations. There's also more world building here, expanding upon what we know and hinting of future revelations in a way that The Magician's Apprentice didn't quite succeed at.

The Ambassador's Mission begins 20 years after the events of The High Lord and follows several view points, Sonea, Ceryn and Dannyl make returns and each hold a branch of the story, Sonea's son Lorkin being the final view point character. Sonea and Ceryn are the focus for the part of the story set in the familiar city of Immaridan, location of the majority of The Black Magician trilogy, while Dannyl and Lorkin take us off to Sachaka. The book starts pulling together the threads left laying around by the other four books set in this world, but it does not require you to remember everything that has come before and would be prefectly readable (if not recommended) on it's own.

For those hoping for familiar faces, both Rothen and Regin from The Black Magician get a look in, while the Traitors, a group hinted at in The High Lord and introduced more fully in The Magician's Apprentice are set to be a major focus of the new collection.

This is the first book in the Traitor Spy trilogy, the follow up to the Black Magician trilogy. I read The Black Magician trilogy under force from two of my best friends, I'm not big on straight fantasy, I much prefer the urban side of things, but they read my recommendations, so I read theirs. And fell in love. It was a fantastic trilogy, with a great ending, but at the same time I am very happy that it continues with this trilogy. Set 20 odd years later, things have changed in Imardin, within the Guild and in the slums. But that doesn't mean everything has changed for the better.

Told in third person but from several different points of view, like the BM trilogy, we catch up with Sonea, Cery and Dannyl from BM, and are introduced to Sonea and Akkarin's son, Lorkin. A few other familiar faces appear, but we don't get their POV. I loved Sonea, Cery and Dannyl in BM, and this book didn't change that. They're all older now and have changed a certain amount in that time, but they're still the characters I loved, and I love seeing what happened to them. Lorkin I grew to love very quickly. He's a fantastic character with as much depth to him as all the others. Didn't really feel like it was the first time I'd met him for long. There were also many new side characters, some of whom I really enjoyed reading about. And throughout the book there was some good character development for all the main players.

Like BM, there are several different plot threads, some over lapping, others not so much, at least, not yet. There were some good twists and turns, although some things I did see coming. But all the varying plots moved at a decent pace, not lingering too long on one over another, and carefully balancing various plots between different POV's. One thing I've liked from the start in The Magicians' Guild (BM #1), seeing the story through different eyes at different stages. We as the readers get a much better view of everything going on for the various characters than any individual one of them. And yet, when one is afraid, even if we know there is little or no reason to be, it can still be felt.

This book gives us a much better look at Sachaka, and how things work differently for people, magicians and non-magicians, there. And hints of how things work in other lands outside the Allied Lands as well. It makes for interesting comparison to Kyralia, in negative and positive ways. It's not something that was really seen in the BM trilogy, not to the extent it was here at any rate. And actually, the great thing about this book is that it's not a repeat of BM, it's it own new stories. Thankfully.

While there is plenty of tension in this book, and some great action filled parts, over all I felt like it had a lighter, slightly more relaxed tone than any of the Black Magician books. Not a bad thing, it worked very well. It was funnier too, there were some actual lol moments. Which I really liked. While I have no problem with dark books (tend to love them actually), the ones with the right touch of humor at the right time, tend to feel more complete, more well rounded. I don't think I have any true complaints about this book, other than wanting more of everyone. There is a side character, Anyi, in particular who I'd love to get to know better. She's a fighter and I think there is, or could be, a lot more to her than what we've seen so far. Even so, I felt that it was a great book, easy to get in to and hard to put down. If you've not yet read The Black Magician Trilogy (The Magicians' Guild, The Novice, The High Lord) I strongly suggest you read them first as I don't think you'd get nearly as much out of this book otherwise. If you liked BM, then this is a must read. This ended on something of a cliff hanger, and I'm very much looking forward to the second book, The Rogue, next year!

I love this book, i enjoyed seeing how the characters had developed and what had become of them in the 20 years since the last book ended. I have read other reviewers complain the book was too slow or boring but to be honest i couldn't put it down and was most disappointe when i got to then end, i wait with anticipation for the next installment. I have recommended these books to so many people i can't count and i will keep doing so.