Ursun's Teeth

The Ambassador Chronicles #2

by Graham McNeill

Retired General Kaspar von Velten returns to the frozen city of Kislev to continue his duties as the Emperor's ambassador to the court of Tsarina Katarin. With the massed hordes of Chaos marching towards the strategic rock formation known as Ursun's Teeth, the combined armies of the Empire and Kislev must ride out to meet them in battle.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Hailing from Scotland, Graham McNeill narrowly escaped a career in surveying to work for Games Workshop as a games designer. He has a strong following with his novels Nightbringer, Warriors of Ultramar, Dead Sky, Black Sun and Storm of Iron.

Reviews

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambassador Kaspar’s problems continue to grow as war ravages Kislev. A new murderer (or more probably an assassin) is ravaging Kislevite society and Kaspar’s friends and many around them are dying. To make matters worse, an underworld figure is trying to strongarm the ambassador and failing that to put pressure on his friends. And a ratman is causing even more trouble. Unfortunately, it’s the betrayals that will hurt Kaspar most in this book as the army gets ready to move to war.

Ursun’s Teeth is not as strong as the first novel in this series, but it’s a must read for anyone who enjoyed The Ambassador.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading the first novel in 2016 I still remember some stuff but not that much in regard of characters besides the main one. This one is set immediately after the first one as Kislev is going to be besiege by Lord Archaon armies. It was a very interesting set since it set more on the aftermath of a war then the war itself but don't be scared it has action scenes in almost every chapter. The main antagonists are not chaos itself (don't worry they appear) but the main focus is Skaven - it's not a spoiler since right from the first chapter you know they are there...

The most interesting and cool stuff was seeing the Tsarina Ice Queen. It's a shame it took me this much time to read, probably would have been better if read right after the first one.

My main issue was the story, characters etc could not connect to it. It's truly a shame.
39/100

[Jesss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Qué historia tan bonita la de esta saga del Embajador que nos regala Graham McNeill. Y aunque durante la lectura de este último libro he pasado por varias opiniones, con sus respectivas notas, finalmente le doy 4 estrellas por un buen cierre lleno de emociones.

Comentaros mi única molestia ya desde el principio de este último tomo, y es que, lo que podríamos llamar el giro argumental principal, aunque al final no lo categorizaría como tal, se ve venir de manera literal incluso desde que se comienza a desarrollar en el primer tomo, si no recuerdo mal. Este motivo influyó bastante en mi opinión durante gran parte de la lectura.

Ahora bien, la historia se siguió desarrollando como ella misma necesitaba en su naturaleza, y la gran atención, como ya sentía en el primer libro, se la lleva sin duda el precioso arco de redención de un magnífico personaje. Lloré con mucho gusto leyéndolo y sabiendo que era lo que el personaje pedía. El escritor lo trató con mucho cariño.

Para cuando se disponía a comenzar el gran desenlace, ya me había olvidado de la molestia de haber acertado aquella sorpresa del principio y, como os comentaba, disfruté muchísimo del último tramo del libro y eso fue lo que acabó por cambiar mi opinión.

Las escenas de batalla tienen un ritmo muy ligero y su escritura no peca de descriptiva en esta parte, por lo que logra unas últimas escenas llenas de emoción. Los enemigos que presenta son increíbles y logra describir muy bien el temor que producen. Durante esta última gran escena se cierran muchos arcos de personajes, unos emocionantes, casi todos muy tristes. Pero eso no es malo, al contrario.

No sé cómo podría hablaros de la fiesta final que Graham orquesta sin entrar en spoilers pero me pareció una manera fantástica, nunca mejor dicho, de acabar el caos que se presentaba. Se llevó otra lagrimilla de mi parte en el culmen de tanta epicidad. Este recurso final no me lo esperaba y me encantó ver cómo acaba dando una enorme presencia al papel tan meditado y celestial que representa al principio la Reina, viendo cómo de capacitada está realmente y lo bien que tenía todo bajo control. También logra al mismo tiempo ensalzar la cultura de los Kislevitas, su fraternidad y lealtad hacia ella. Muy bien trasmitida su fuerza y pasión como pueblo.

El personaje del Embajador también ha tenido un precioso arco y se cierra su propósito de una forma muy honorable, como no podría ser de otra manera. Del mismo modo, siento que no destaca apartado de los demás como un personaje principal, sino que está junto a todos, mezclados, como el ejército que son. Y eso tampoco es malo. Es lo que Kaspar siempre fue, un heroico General.

Lo dicho; un final fantástico, unos personajes entrañables para recordar, una bonita historia con un final triste y emotivo... Pues claro, así es la guerra.

Sabía que iba a ser así y me ha encantado el cierre de saga. Muy feliz de haber leído esta gran historia que recordaré con cariño. - 4 grandes estrellas <3

[Luke Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like its precursor, The Ambassador, I first read this back in 2002/2003 when @black_library_official were giving away a sample of books tying in with the Warhammer Fantasy 'Storm of Chaos' global gaming campaign: the snippet it included from the final battle of this book had me hooked, and it continues to inspire my own dark fantasy writings...

'War has come to Kislev. Aelfric Cyenwulf, High Zar of the Iron Wolves, leads an army hellbent on conquest. If Cyenwulf's army captures & desecrates the valley of Urzebya, or "Ursun's Teeth", a holy site sacred to Kislev's bear god Ursun, it will decimate Kislevite morale and leave a clear path for Cyenwulf to strike at the Empire. That, Imperial Ambassador Kaspar von Velten vows, cannot happen.

As an allied army of Kislevite & Imperial troops muster to confront Cyenwulf's horde, Kaspar faces new dark forces arrayed against him and his allies. Cyenwulf's army outnumbers its foes two to one & have awoken a monster of the ancient world that renders his horde invincible. Even more concerning, Kaspar finds growing evidence Chaos cultists in league with the High Zar are trying to sabotage the allied army before it reaches the battlefield, & he must root out the traitors within before they hand victory to the barbarians at the gates...'

With just as much treachery & subterfuge as the first book, a betrayal that strikes at Kaspar's heart, one of my favourite heroic sacrifices in literature and one of my favourite final battles in fiction (even if the way the heroes claim victory feels like a bit of a cop-out) with a bittersweet ending like only dark fantasy can deliver, this is still an old favourite of mine, partly because it got me reading dark fantasy in the first place... Now I need to find my copy of Guardians of the Forest, another Warhammer Fantasy novel from Graham McNeill that was another formative text for getting me into fantasy, & review that...

[Lanfear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es una verdadera pena que cuando me di cuenta de que estaba leyendo el segundo libro de una duologia ya estaba avanzado en la historia, simplemente me pareció que toda la historia del carnicero y Sofía y todo lo demás era parte del pasado de Kaspar. Ahora ya da lo mismo...
Los dientes de Ursun es toda una sorpresa, no tengo una gran opinión de novelas de fantasy exceptuando Reiksguard que es una joya de libro. Pero no me esperaba que Kaspar molase tanto, pero es que esta metido en todo, el el centro de una epidemia, una invasión, las relaciones entre el imperio y Kislev, la conspiración de la mafia local, los hombres rata, el caos y los intentos de asesinato de la zarina. Y Kaspar se desenvuelve bastante bien con todo. Una narración rica en atmósfera y detalles de la cultura Kislevita, están bien hechas las conversaciones, los diálogos, las escenas de lucha, de tensión y da buenos detalles militares, describiendo todo con exactitud. El resume es que empecé sin ganas y me acabó atrapando.
Lo que me sacó de quicio fue el típico momento del héroe Kaspar de mantener el malo con vida todo el rato para que acabase escapando y masacrando gente. En cuanto lo capturas lo matas sin que diga nada y haga nada, lo matas y lo quemas. Kaspar querido...

[Katherine Franklin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was interested enough in the story of the first book that I wanted to carry on reading, despite the editing issues I mentioned in my previous review. While I expected those editing issues to continue in this book, unfortunately they had far more impact given there was more action to ruin. I found myself skimming through the big battle sequence because the writing just couldn't hold my attention (or rather, it could, but only on account of my pausing to gripe about it).

Again, the story itself is quite interesting. Given much heavier editing, it would have been good. If anything, Kajetan's arc was the most satisfying. I got frankly fed up with Kaspar making obviously stupid mistakes.

The biggest pitfall, in terms of story, is that these chronicles are two books that were almost treated like they were one. The first chapter in book one is a snippet of a battle in book two, which leaves you grumbling when you get to the end of book one and realise it isn't there. One of the characters is very obviously set up to be a bad person in book one, but when nothing comes of it they just seem like an annoying red herring.

[Jim Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I bought the first book in the series ("The Ambassador") at a used book store long ago and finally got around to reading it recently. I didn't realize it was the first in a series and was quite distressed when I got to the end. Find the second volume was not easy, ended up having to order it from eBay.

This was fun. Very light, "pulp" fantasy but enjoyable. And for the most part pretty well written. As I said when commenting on the first book, the author takes the time to paint a picture of Kislev, which is this fantasy world's version of old Russia, and he does it in a way that makes me think he's at least familiar with writers like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and Gogol. I mean, he's not writing at that level, it's not that kind of a book, but the little touches make it so much better.

A few plot inconsistencies that I won't get into, but not enough to harm the story really. Overall just a nice fun read over a staying-in-the-house-with-a-nasty-cold weekend.

[Maetco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as interesting as the first book. The one great twist wasn't enough to compensate otherwise simple and straight forward moving story. The mysteries of the first book were simplified to the more traditional Warhammer story of "We are volier than thou, so let's have a war!"

[Matthew Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as strong a work as the first book in this series, but a still very worthy and interesting Warhammer novel concerning a characterful part of the human world.

[Elijah Allensworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good! The cultist leader was super obvious, but there were some surprising elements and a good battle at the end.