The Garden Embassy is one of the stories that sheds some light on the Surface, and where history has diverted since the fall of London. In particular, the story follows you attending the opening of an embassy from a collection of the Britain's colonies from the surface.
From a perspective of alternate history and discussion of surface politics, you might find the story a little light. Most of that discussion comes in the final act, with the lead up having as much to do with scheming London factions (and clothes, lots of clothes). If you're interested in the topic, I would recommend the story, but I'd recommend you play the more recent Dernier Cri first. It feels like that gives you a little more grounding in material realities, and helps flesh out context for what gets discussed here.
Honestly, most of the story is spent preparing for the party and then navigating the different social circles there. And both those parts are pretty fun. Things can feel a little bit obtuse, but it lead to something closer to actual puzzle solving, which I found engaging. One suggestion: when getting clothes from Mrs Gladrags, don't pay. I don't actually know what happens, and it's probably bad (though not that bad), but it'd definitely be interesting.
You don't get a lot of development for any of the characters, some new, some returning, but the author works well with they time they're each given. The three standout characters for me are the Dark-Spectacled Admiral, the Decorated Ambassador, and the Gregarious Engineer. The Admiral admittedly mostly stood out because he's a character (likely well remembered by the player because of how helpful he is) from Sunless Sea. He represents London's interests at the party, and there's comedy derived from just how out-of-place he feels in even a formal social gathering.
The Ambassador is the main representative of the Surface. I am not clever enough to have worked out which colony he would have grown up in, but in many ways, once you can finally actually talk to her, the story is more about her learning of London through you than the other way around. She feels like a character who has put her own life on hold to pursue the interests of her government, and is to some extent scheming as actively as the various Londoners, but I'd argue this is all well justified by the colonies being so routinely shafted by the empires that establish them.
The Engineer is a very straight-laced, very masculine non-binary individual, and they feel like they help fill out a broader spectrum of representation, leapfrogging out of some of the ruts Failbetter had dug with it's recurring characters. This is probably the work of Ash McAllan, the lead writer (one of her two offering guesting for Exceptional Stories), and it feels like it's echoed forward with a broader range of queer characters afterwards.
The resolution of The Garden Embassy feels somewhat off-kilter, one of the places where the ambiguity of your actions doesn't quite pay off. When you're able to show the Ambassador some of London, what you see, and the actions you take there shape her takeaways about the city. Then back at the Embassy you can recommend a policy for her to set, but the options available are based on her earlier impressions. I tried to have her interact with all the people and get to know the common folk, but she just ended up despising the city, my only option was to recommend she write the whole thing off. It didn't feel like it fit with what I'd been trying for (I would have been satisfied with a mechanically identical option where you can't change her mind, but do disagree with her), but it also didn't exactly seem to fit with how she'd reacted. A little more time might have helped with this, but I think I also got a bit unlucky. Another player was trying to convince her of London's might, and while that also failed, the speech promising to unite the colonies against imperialism felt a lot more in line with what she'd seen and her responses.
So it's a story in two very different parts. Both are interesting, but flawed, and then there are some additional really odd bits there that don't necessarily seem to fit with the larger whole, but are interesting enough on their own to fully justify their presence. An odd experience, but a fun one.
From a perspective of alternate history and discussion of surface politics, you might find the story a little light. Most of that discussion comes in the final act, with the lead up having as much to do with scheming London factions (and clothes, lots of clothes). If you're interested in the topic, I would recommend the story, but I'd recommend you play the more recent Dernier Cri first. It feels like that gives you a little more grounding in material realities, and helps flesh out context for what gets discussed here.
Honestly, most of the story is spent preparing for the party and then navigating the different social circles there. And both those parts are pretty fun. Things can feel a little bit obtuse, but it lead to something closer to actual puzzle solving, which I found engaging. One suggestion: when getting clothes from Mrs Gladrags, don't pay. I don't actually know what happens, and it's probably bad (though not that bad), but it'd definitely be interesting.
You don't get a lot of development for any of the characters, some new, some returning, but the author works well with they time they're each given. The three standout characters for me are the Dark-Spectacled Admiral, the Decorated Ambassador, and the Gregarious Engineer. The Admiral admittedly mostly stood out because he's a character (likely well remembered by the player because of how helpful he is) from Sunless Sea. He represents London's interests at the party, and there's comedy derived from just how out-of-place he feels in even a formal social gathering.
The Ambassador is the main representative of the Surface. I am not clever enough to have worked out which colony he would have grown up in, but in many ways, once you can finally actually talk to her, the story is more about her learning of London through you than the other way around. She feels like a character who has put her own life on hold to pursue the interests of her government, and is to some extent scheming as actively as the various Londoners, but I'd argue this is all well justified by the colonies being so routinely shafted by the empires that establish them.
The Engineer is a very straight-laced, very masculine non-binary individual, and they feel like they help fill out a broader spectrum of representation, leapfrogging out of some of the ruts Failbetter had dug with it's recurring characters. This is probably the work of Ash McAllan, the lead writer (one of her two offering guesting for Exceptional Stories), and it feels like it's echoed forward with a broader range of queer characters afterwards.
The resolution of The Garden Embassy feels somewhat off-kilter, one of the places where the ambiguity of your actions doesn't quite pay off. When you're able to show the Ambassador some of London, what you see, and the actions you take there shape her takeaways about the city. Then back at the Embassy you can recommend a policy for her to set, but the options available are based on her earlier impressions. I tried to have her interact with all the people and get to know the common folk, but she just ended up despising the city, my only option was to recommend she write the whole thing off. It didn't feel like it fit with what I'd been trying for (I would have been satisfied with a mechanically identical option where you can't change her mind, but do disagree with her), but it also didn't exactly seem to fit with how she'd reacted. A little more time might have helped with this, but I think I also got a bit unlucky. Another player was trying to convince her of London's might, and while that also failed, the speech promising to unite the colonies against imperialism felt a lot more in line with what she'd seen and her responses.
So it's a story in two very different parts. Both are interesting, but flawed, and then there are some additional really odd bits there that don't necessarily seem to fit with the larger whole, but are interesting enough on their own to fully justify their presence. An odd experience, but a fun one.