The Ambassador Chronicles (The Ambassador and Ursun’s Teeth) by Graham McNeill
Reviewed by RGB
In the Year that No One Forgets, The Emperor sends retired general Kaspar von Velten to Kislev as ambassador to the court of Tzarina Katarin. Unused to the power struggles and politics at court, Kaspar is forced to use all the skills and resources at his command in order to survive and get his work done. As winter draws in, can Kaspar re-forge the fragile alliance between the Empire and Kislev?
First of all, let me say this one thing: it's bad.
The biggest problem with it is that it makes “Alexander” the movie look focussed. It tackles madness, despair, betrayal, more betrayal, Chaos worship, intrigue at court, random death-defying adventuring, a big pitched battle, scaven, marauders, mafia, and a serial killer, all in a hefty 540 pages. Yes, ALL of that.
Set in the same time period as "Riders of the Dead" it actually is fairly consistent with a lot of Abnett’s ideas, but since Abnett never ventures into the cities of Kislev, there's a marked difference to the overall feel. Where Abnett is interesting in his vision of the place, McNeill’s Kislev and its people are just Russians from a black comedy. The author did say that he was trying for a “darker” theme, but what followed is just amusing, in an unpleasant sort of way.
There’s a fat mafia boss who runs a brothel, called Chekatillo (but he’s not the serial killer in the novel. May this be an attempt at originality?). There are implications of children-touching; there are characters who are drunk from the earliest hours of every morning. To top it all off there’s a serial killer with a mother complex, who is not Jame Gumb only in that he can’t sew and is rather better with a sword. The secret police are named the Chekist, since it’s obviously the most in-period, as well as the least-offensive choice. The decrepit hospital is called the Lubianka (i.e. the KGB headquarters). Most of the time the author spends in the city, it feels like one is reading something along the lines of “James Bond goes to Ruskieland and meets Hannibal Lecter”. Did I mention there’s drunks everywhere?
The writing is pedestrian. Clichè speeches and situations abound and are very annoying. Imperial footmen are treated like GIs in Starship Troopers; the author is a Space Marine writer originally, and it shows. The lone battle sequence at the end is passable at least, and the duels are more believable than Abnett’s (armour actually matters!). Some characters are quite well-done, not least the Ambassador himself; others, however, are dreadful caricatures, and the latter, unfortunately, are more common. The italicised foreign vocabulary is as bad as in “The Riders of the Dead”; but a full treatment of that will have to wait for the review of Abnett's book.
So should you go and spend money on the Abasssador Chronicles?
No; I did it so you don't have to. In fact, don't even get it from your local library. Get the Riders of the Dead instead. Or the Silence of the Lambs.