‘The Ambassador’ – Graham McNeill (Black Library)

Page Count: 245 pages (well, more like 244 and a half)

I have to go looking for them now but there are still a few books, lurking here and there, that I read while I was taking a take from the blog last year. And while I’ve got a few books on the go and haven’t finished any of them, finding a book like ‘The Ambassador’ really gives me a little breathing space ;o) It’s a short read so lets not hang around this paragraph too long. Lets get to it…

In the Icy Northern Wastes, a mighty army of darkness prepares to sweep southward and lay waste to the civilized lands of the Empire. In this dangerous time, retired Imperial general Kaspar von Velten is sent to Kislev as ambassador to the court of Tsarina Katarin. Unused ot the power struggles and politics at court, Kaspar is forced to use all the skills and resources at his command to in order to survive in this cold and hostile land. As winter draws in, can Kaspar re-forge the fragile alliance between the Empire and Kislev and prepare its troops for war before the hordes of Chaos are unleashed on the land?

I know I’ve mentioned this before (probably more than once) but I love the Old World setting and will happily take a trip there whenever I get a chance. Like I said up the page, ‘The Ambassador’ is a short trip but there is plenty to see, and get involved with, while you’re in Kislev.

I won’t lie though. While there’s a lot of intrigue and mystery (and a serial killer, if the intrigue and mystery wasn’t already enough), I found it fairly simple to unravel this and work out who the traitor was. That in itself wasn’t a deal-breaker, I’ll get to ‘why’ in a minute, but it did feel like a bit of an anti-climax to get to the end and not have your expectations turned against you. Having said that though, Kaspar vonVelten is exactly the character we need to take us on this journey. He’s very much a man caught between two worlds, as an ambassador, and trying to reconcile these two worlds adds more urgency to the plot as courtly affairs must be resolved before anyone can tackle the larger threats.

Like I said, a little anti-climax isn’t the end of the world. ‘The Ambassador’ is still a book that’s worth the read; maybe not so much for the payoff, in the plot, but very much so for the setup and how this plays out against a very well drawn backdrop. I love a bit of worldbuilding in my reading and ‘The Ambassador’ is a great example of just what you can do in not may pages, as we watch events play out in court and also the icy streets of Kislev. People are already dying and the siege hasn’t even begun. Yep, I saw the big reveal before it was revealed but a large chunk of the fun lies in the fact that not only has Kaspar not figured it out, his naivety leaves him open to threats that he can’t even see. The only time he feels truly comfortable is with a sword in his hand and as we all know, armed conflict is a staple of all Warhammer books. McNeill doesn’t let the side down, giving us the stirring moments of combat that we were expecting.

‘The Ambassador’ is perhaps not as intriguing as it wants to be but everything else in it is done very well and at the end of the day, I went straight out and bought the sequel which tells you everything you needed to know. I’ll tell you about that another time.