The Last Chancers: Armageddon Saint by Gav Thorpe

[Red_Shift]

I'll give you Cain but I'm never sure if he is canon or if he exists in the same kind of universe as the emperor's pointy sticks. Yarrick was old 150 years ago if he's still around now it must be with a Zimmer frame!

[DarkChaplain]

We haven't heard of Yarrick's demise, even with Ghazghkull returning. Truth be told, I'm confused why they made it about Ghaz vs Ragnar, when Helbrecht and Yarrick were hunting for him since Armageddon 3. The Old Man can't be dead yet, and I'll be disappointed if he doesn't get a new model, now with slightly more juvenat treatments.

 

Cain meanwhile definitely was still around after the 13th Black Crusade, and seeing that Sandy Mitchell was supposedly returning to the series for good, I'd wager he is still alive.

[Dumah]

So, about those Last Chancers...

[Brother Lunkhead]

Back on topic please.

[cheywood]

I’m on record as not always being Gav Thorpe’s biggest fan, but I saw a few positive things about this and decided to give it a shot since I remember enjoying The Last Chancers years ago. Absolutely thrilled I decided to read it and I’d say this is my favorite of Thorpe’s works by far, though I don’t think I’ve read anywhere close to the entirety of his oeuvre. Armageddon Saint takes the reader to unseen corners of Imperial society and does an excellent job of exploring the nature of belief in the world of 40k, if a man such as Kage can change, and the reality of Armageddon post rift. Nazrek is one of my favorite BL characters in recent memory and the rest of the cast is equally unique if sometimes a little underdeveloped. The plot moves from tension-filled misery to fun moments with alacrity while exploring the man Kage is better than I recall the first three books doing. It’s arguably paced a little abruptly and there’s A LOT of combat, but it all works in the context of the story and, like you hope from good Mil-SF, helps reinforce the themes and concepts of the overarching plot. You take a journey with Kage and it feels weighty both for him and the reader.

 

On the other side Gav hasn’t completely reinvented his writing style, it’s still a little loose and there are some typical errors that seem to come from a lack of editing: he calls Ork blood green a few times and he has a battle scene where a lethal threat to Kage never gets resolved. At one point Kage has a laspistol, takes a lasgun from someone, tosses the lasgun to the Colonel, and then has a laspistol tossed to him by the Colonel in a later scene. If you’re keeping track Kage should have two laspistols, but he’s only ever described with one. However the story stands as brilliant for the reasons above regardless of Gav’s occasional lack of concern for the details.

 

I’d recommend reading the first three Last Chancers books to really enjoy this one. It’s readable enough on its own if you want to skip them I guess, but you’ll lose a lot of what makes it great.

Edited April 10, 2020 by cheywood