The Ambassador's Mission (Traitor Spy Trilogy, #1), Trudi CanavanTwenty years after the Ichani Invasion the Guild has witnessed some major changes. Talented children from all social ranks are now accepted into the Guild even though tensions arise between the various groups. Upon learning the secrets of Black Magic the Rank of Black Magician was created. However, there are some restrictions since the guild is afraid a Black Magician might abuse his or her power. Sonea and the second Black Magicia...

SPOILER FREEIt can happen so often that a writer returns with a sequel book or series to a previously complete fantasy story and then completely ruin it. Even bringing back a few familiar faces can’t fix it.The Ambassador’s Mission didn’t need to fix anything. Even if she didn’t, it feels like Trudi Canavan knew where this story was going right from the beginning of the first trilogy.There were a few unanswered questions at the end of The High Lord, which I had first believed to be for the reade...

Enjoyable but a bit slow to start with the pace picKing up further in. This trilogy is set 20 years after the last and, obviously, there was a lot to fill in, hence the laborious feel. But now the story is really set in motion I think the trilogy will only get stronger and I'm looking forward to carrying on with book 2. Only slight irritation- I was surprised by Sonea's somewhat wishy-washy character until nearly the end; I remember her as a lot stronger and more pro-active in the 1st trilogy.

In reading terms, I think I owe Trudi Canavan quite a lot. I say that because the Black Magician trilogy was the first set of books that I read away from the truly mainstream series such as Harry Potter. From the Black Magician trilogy I went on to Age of Five, and from there my reading really took off. So I very much see Trudi Canavan as the first author that wasn't in some way pushed on to me by public perception (not that I resent Harry Potter for that, but the distinction is important). What...

http://www.rantingdragon.com/the-amba...Trudi Canavan is an Australian author best known for her Black Magician trilogy starring Sonea, a slum child hunted for using magic reserved for the higher classes. The Traitor Spy Trilogy is set 20 years later with Sonea as one of two Black Magicians in the Magicians Guild and is limited to Guild grounds and the Hospices that offer free healing throughout the city. When the Magicians Guild is opens to all magic-users, tensions arise because of old prejudi...

I was really disappointed in this. I've loved Canavan's previous work - she's one of my favorite authors! But something went wrong here. It was just so incredibly boring. There's not enough that's new, but instead a lot of time is spent explaining how things have changed from 20 years ago, or rediscovering the past that has already been explored in the Magician's Apprentice. I think Canavan would have been better off building a whole new world with new conflicts and magic rather than re-hashing

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” trilog...

Ambassador's Mission is the first book in Trudi Canavan's Traitor Spy Trilogy, and it takes place about two decades after her previous trilogy, the Black Magician. A lot of the characters are carried over between the two series, but if you haven't read the first one (or you're just very forgetful, like me), it's fairly easy to establish who's who. The plot quickly splits in two, with Sonea becoming embroiled in uncovering a plot to kill the city's head thieves while her son gets into diplomatic

I hate writing poor reviews, but I was very disappointed by this book. The BMT shares joint first place in my top fantasy series, and I was so looking forward to this. The characters are all flat and insipid - even those who were previously exciting and well fleshed-out; the constant references to the previous trilogy were irritating (I read that trilogy several times already and I read it again before I read this book, I don't need to be told every single thing that happened in it!); the qualit...

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 overall enjoyed this one, but I think I would have prefered for this series to center around new characters (still in the same world) rather than charcaters from the Black Magician Trilogy.We still need to be kind of reintroduced to them since 20 years have passed since the end of the first trilogy. However, I feel like a lot of the first trilogy is refered to and it is assumed everyone has read the first trilogy, which is fine, but that also results in a little bit of a lack in worldbuilding....

I was surprised to find myself struggling though this book. I have read seven other of Trudi Canavan's books and got through most of them within two or three days. This time it took me over a week.I think the two main problems are that I read The Magician's Apprentice before this one and that Canavan placed this story twenty years after the Black Magician Trilogy.Due to the circumstance that I knew a lot of the historical aspects of the story world from TMA it was very unnerving and almost borin...

Going from the "Black Magician's Guild" triology to this book, I was a bit disappointed. I did read it before and actually just had the last part in mind. Which isn't really that surprising, as nothing big happens until about 3/4 through the book. It just goes on and on to explain the history of the Traitors as well as Sachaka. I wonder how book 2 and 3 will turn out and hope they'll be a better read. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but Trudi Canavan can do much better, as she's showed in the previo...

Hmm..what can I say about this read. This book dragged and bored me several times during my read, but i soldier on. Mainly because I wanted to see what had become of some of my fave characters from the previous trilogy. The struggle to stay focus was brutal!! The one upside to my pain was that the last quarter of the book picked up and was well worth all the brain draining I incurred. I'll have to hold up a while before I continue this trilogy. Actual Rating 2.5

You can also read this review at Another World, (The Fantasy & Science Fiction Book Blog). There is an adage which teaches us that, “you should never go back”. This saying is usually used in reference to romantic relationships, but perhaps it should also serve as a warning to authors wanting to revisit past glories. Though the temptation to do so is, of course, perfectly understandable. Returning to the scene of a previous triumph no doubt seems like the safe and easy path to take; but how often...

I enjoyed reading the continuing story of Sonea and company, but this book had major problems. The first and foremost being that it started in the wrong place. The Ambassador's Mission dealt with two plotlines: the tale of the new Ambassador (Dannyl) and his assistant--Sonea's and Akkarin's son, Lorkin--to the neighboring country that caused all the problems in the first trilogy. The second plot is the insidious corruption at home, of an irresistable drug that turns people to mindless addicts in...

That world Building! This book was huge, like nearly 600 pages...and for 600 pages it was non-stop action!I loved this world building, I loved the idea of it too. what I wasn't a ginormous fan of is the large amount of POVs. That may be more of a personal issue but usually when there are more than a three person POV, I just get tired, but I'll go more into that in a moment. LET'S TALK PLOT!In this land is where magicians rule in guilds but those who are practitioners of 'black' magic are feared

I am totaly devistated by the amaturish feel of the book... the characters were boring and not well thought out and Sonea's grudge against Regin after twenty years of probably staring him in the face and only now begins to soothe is just plain unrealistic; Trudi writes it as if they had never seen each other and only now lets their feeling out. There was now gripping plot and I struggled to get through the whole book. I fell in love with writing and reading when I read the Black Magician Trilogy...

Not bad, but the ending could have been more... suspenseful. It was very anticlimactic. But I suppose this is more like an introduction to the trilogy, so I'll be generous for the moment and wait until I finish the other books :)edit: Future me liked the following two books and recommends reading them! It's more like one long story separated into three books, so the first one is indeed rather like an introduction. It get's more suspenseful, I promise! :D

I might be a little to harsh on this book, which is sad for me because I loved The Magician's Apprentice when I read it years ago and I've met Trudi Canavan and she's lovely, but I just felt like nothing interesting happened. At all.I mean, obviously some things happened to the characters but it felt flat with nothing at stake or really exciting. I'm sorry if I'm supposed to like Lorkin but his character felt so flat and his storyline a forced emancipation from his mother and the Guild. And he o...