Annihilation Squad

Last Chancers #3

by Gav Thorpe

Desperate for a change to redeem themselves in the eyes of the immortal Emperor, the convict soldiers, under the leadership of Lieutenant Kage, risk everything on a final dangerous mission that takes them across the galaxy to the killing fields of Armageddon, in search of a traitor. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction, 40k, Fiction, Military Fiction, Military Science Fiction

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Gav spent 14 years as a developer for Games Workshop, and started writing novels and short stories in the worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 when the Black Library imprint was launched in 1997.

He continues to write for Black Library, and his first 'homegrown' novel series The Crown of the Blood has been released via Angry Robot.

Currently living in Nottingham, Gav shares his home with his loving and very understanding partner - Kez, and their beautiful little boy - Sammy.

Reviews

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here we are... The last of a trilogy (he wrote a fourth novel now 15 years later). Damn it!

In this novel we follow some new people and some old people. The book are called last chancers so, basically don't get attached to them well because...

Last Chancers is the 13th penal legion that goes around doing stuff that nobody wants to do. Or are able to do. When you grab a bunch of people with nothing to lose, and when the vast majority are just psychopaths you get a great combination of crappy situation cleaners. Here they have a new mission. this time they will go to Armageddon, where the third war of Armageddon is taking place and is one of the biggest wars happening in the universe, well that GW wants us to know. You've got on one side Orks led by one of the biggest baddest Waagh ever and the other side the Imperials with million imperial guard Astra Militarum and space marines. In previous wars even Chaos & Grey Knights were there. (nothing about that is told here).

So, as I said the third war is ongoing and the forces of last chancers are tasked to kill Von Staub which was the governor general and the inquisition wanted him eliminated or not. It would depend if he really was in coalition with the ORKS or not. We are told in the perspective of Lt Kage which is also a last chancer (but he enjoys being so) and puts everyone in check on behalf of Colonel Schaeffer.

So what to expect, what's this about and difference between this and previous?
Well, first of all, Kage several times hints of admiring Schaeffer on his unfliching loyalty to the imperium. He even hints that he doesn't fail because in his mind that possibility doesn't even exist. It's like Ronaldo when he was young. Proud, unflinching working method and people follow for it. Here is the same. We've got new fodder to die and some old ones. We've got mayhem on a landscape that does not forgive mistakes. THere are other books set on Armageddon around the same time written by Jonathan Green called Crusade for Armageddon & conquest of Armageddon.
One of t he most enjoyous moment was the travelling in that hellish landscape and the lives within a Hive. He made me imagine how we could create just a vast thing and how people would live within it. The last 100 pages we get a new Kage and it was weird as hell. In the beginning I was confused of what was happening. The book is written in italics that hints Kage is losing his mind - probably possessed by a daemon - who knows. Then the part with Von Straub remind of a twisted carnival and I remembered seeing a movie just like this. This last 50 pages are dark. These are penal legionnaires, damned since t hey entered there. This goes dark a lot. But the ending oh my... I didn't expect that.

A bit of spoilers ++++++++++++++++ so Kage finally understands what means to belong to Last Chancers. and after another daemonic/craziness vibe he finally commits suicide completing the mission... And the story fraking ends. There is nothing more. What? Okay you put GRIM on the grimdark but I didn't felt satisfied by the end...+++++++++++



As I said before this is the third novel in a trilogy tetrology and you should read the previous two ALTHOUGH they are not mandatory. There are plenty of connections to the previous novel(s) but I've read the book several years ago, didn't remember much and nothing was lost. 7/10 due to the ending...

[Iri · Rating 3 out of 5]

No dobře, tak tohle mě teda trochu... naklelo. Co to safra jako mělo být? Dělá si Thorpe srandu?

-.- Ok. Tak tohle by jeden nečekal.

[Mick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third and final book in Gav Thorpe's Last Chancers series takes the 13th Penal legion, which once numbered four thousand soldiers but at the beginning of this book stands at about about thirty men and women, mostly recent recruits, to the meat grinder that is the third war for Armageddon.

As in 13th Legion and Kill Team, the story is told first-person point of view from the perspective of Lieutenant Kage. Kage, whose mental state has always been questionable, is notably even more psychopathic in this story than in previous installments, and his sanity degrades throughout the novel.

The book adheres to the formula already established by Thorpe. Colonel Schaeffer has a mission for the Last Chancers, and it's one that they probably won't return from. The rag-tag team is subjected to a series of trials along the way before finally confronting their main goal. You've seen it a thousand times in books, movies, etc, but it works.

What sets Annihilation Squad aside is that we see the action from Kage's perspective, and Kage - whose mental state in previous novels has been questionable at best - is becoming notably more psychopathic. The trek across the ravaged world of Armageddon doesn't help, nor does the industrial hell of Acheron Hive and the grotesque carnival which lies within.

The greatest strength and weakness of Annihilation Squad stems from these changes. It's fascinating to be able sit inside Kage's head as he descends gradually into insanity, but in order to do so the rest of the team is neglected for much of the last third of the book and are effectively robbed of their agency as Kage becomes the central focus of the story.

It's a disappointment, and I think it robs of the ending of a lot of the weight it could have had. However, I'm glad Thorpe used this opportunity to take the novel into some truly dark territory (if a series about condemned prisoners in the most awful universe imaginable can't "go dark", nothing can). The ending was, if not entirely satisfactory, then definitely fitting.

There's plenty of gritty action sequences to go around, and some terrific views of the planet-wide warzone that is Armageddon. If the third act had been stronger, I would have given this a four. Still, I enjoyed reading it immensely and am glad that the series ended with some kind of closure.

A note on availability: The three Last Chancers novels are all out of print, as is the Last Chancers omnibus, and have been for some time. I've been tracking them down at bookfairs and on eBay. Hopefully, the Black Library can put this series into print again and do a better job of reissuing their older material.

[Steven Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book! Randomly picked it up not realizing it was the third book in a trilogy but you don't need to read the previous 2 (or the short stories) to get the gist of what is going on. I would imagine the previous two books are the same but coincidentally there is a new book, a 4th entry, in the series releasing in the next week or so (the last book was published in 2004).

I enjoyed this book. The Imperial Guard is my favorite faction of 40k and this was no different in delivering the things I want from Guard fiction. The characters felt real and not so much like archetypes needing to be filled. I was genuinely shocked when certain events happened but I'm curious how I would have felt if I had read the previous two books first. The action scenes were well written and the tone of the book was consistent through to the end. One gripe I did have was the last 15% of the book happens at such a breakneck pace it ended up feeling a tad rushed but it didn't tarnish my opinion on the book as a whole.

Since finishing this book I actually bought the omnibus for the trilogy (and short stories) online and also pre-ordered the new book so you can see I enjoyed it. I like Gaunt's Ghosts more but the Last Chancers are pretty cool too.

[Zaphied · Rating 3 out of 5]

That ending. Frustrating. Feels like a rush job anime/manga cancellation where they need to tie things up fast. There were some good lore bits. A thing that frustrated me as well was the lack of any descriptions of the past beyond what was in the previous books. Kage's been fighting for a minimum of 5 years what with warp muckery and such but only ever references the settings of the novels. Never anywhere else that he's surely been to.

[Yurriaan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with the two previous stories of the Last Chancers, the final chapters are the weakest. Up until the hive is reached, there's nothing notably annoying about the storyline, but from there it quickly turns awry. It feels like there was a certain quota as to how many pages the writer was allowed to spend on the story. Not necessarily rushed, but merely bearable as the story's ending climax unfolds.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, this conclusion started going off the rails at the beginning and just kept getting more and more derailed the closer it was to the ending. It just stretched the concept and the setting far past the breaking point, through grim dark horror and into just gore for the sake of gore. Really disappointing - not bad for what it is, but it’s fundamentally so much less than this concept could be and began as.

[Jerry Mindek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great unexpected ending.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very possibly the weakest of the three Last Chancers novels, but still a pretty fun read overall. I've seen a lot of people complain that the ending comes out of nowhere. In the most spoiler-free way possible, I'll explain why I disagree with this.

It's not that the ending is out of nowhere, the problem is that "act two" of the book is totally worthless. This is a book that has a decent first 15 pages, then just ... stuff happens until the actual plot is able to kick in. The ... part that Chaos plays in this book really only begins to mean something in the third act, and really nothing learned in the middle portion of the book has any impact or resonance once the end is hit. I didn't have a problem w/the end, though, it just felt like the book was mostly a red herring - which I guess is OK, but a bit tiresome when the herring was so dull.

[Wolfe]

............... wow

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best end to the WH40k version of the Dirty Dozen.

[Keira F. Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of Gav Thorpes weird "First person, present tense". Fun. Gruesome.