Review: Emissary

Emissary by Melissa McShane
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was surprised to discover (from the author's husband's review) that this was Melissa McShane's first book. Right out of the gate, she's demonstrating the strengths that make her one of my favourite authors.

In just the first two chapters, we have a motivated protagonist in a dynamic situation, plenty of worldbuilding without infodumping, the protagonist's character and powers shown rather than told, a setting that already feels solid and lived-in rather than a bunch of scenery flats, and two important relationships set up: the solid, capable support of the protagonist's friend/companion/sidekick/bodyguard, and the believable opposition of a minor antagonist. Also, it's not made from box mix; it's a fresh concept in a secondary world, though not so fresh as to be hard to relate to.

We soon get a number of well-motivated political complications; the protagonist, a priest of the god of death, has a mission (to investigate a number of apparitions of dead people, which are not like the ghosts she usually deals with, in an important city), and a number of highly-placed people have various agendas that conflict with that mission or want to use her for their own purposes. I did have slight trouble keeping track of who was who sometimes, but only occasionally, and as soon as I searched their name in my e-reader and saw the context where they'd first appeared, I knew exactly who they were and what their role was. Nobody acted out of character or was just inexplicably evil; they all had good reasons for doing what they did, even the gods, several of whom appear as characters late in the book.

The other thing I like about Melissa McShane books, including this one, is that, apart from the occasional small glitch ("X hill" should probably be "X Hill"; "councilor Y" should definitely be "Councilor Y"; typo "food" for "foot"), it's smoothly edited, so I'm not constantly distracted by basic mechanical errors.

More than solid, this is a fine debut novel, at least as good as most of the author's other excellent books. (My absolute favourite, The Smoke-Scented Girl , is also an early work.) It's a firm recommendation from me, and it makes the Gold tier of my Best of the Year list for 2024.

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