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Hi, guys !
So, having finished reading this fantastic books,
I must confess that I am very disappointed with the ending.
The whole trilogy has been such a welcomed change from my ongoing Horus Heresy reading spree. The characters are particularly well written, and feel real.
But let's focus and what bothers me, because I think I might have missed something.
So the Last Chancers are sent to retrieve or kill
Spoiler:
Von Strabb
. However, it appears that
Spoiler:
they have an informant and that he is VS'own bodyguard. He could have killed him at any moment.
Well, retrieving him makes sense, as is said by The Colonel Himself, in order to get informations, popular support, etc. Killing him being the last solution, if he can't be retrieved or if he doesn't want to be.
Ok, then it makes sense to send a small group of elite troopers to get contact and extract or assassinate without bombing the whole area, especially because 1/ nobody knows if he is really there as 2/ there are tons of innocents in the area, that might maybe be brought back into the Imperium.
But then, why is that
1/
That several others extraction-assassinate teams have already failed
2/ they don't know if he truly is there ?
Seeing that THERE IS an informant
And then, the ending :
Spoiler:
Kage sacrificing himself to kill VS, while VS himself wanted to get extracted to escape the Orks, and thus accomplishing nothing that couldn't be done by Von Speck alone, and what, letting the others Last Chancers alone to deal with the consequences ?
I'm truly happy that Kage died, in a sacrifice at that, it'd the logical end for him.
But he could have died pushing the Ork for example, while Von Speck captured VS / freed the Last chancers, something like that.
At the end of the book, nothing has been accomplished that couldn't be done or already be done by page 1.
And let's talk about
Spoiler:
Kage being possessed ?! Like, they didn't know ? They even auscultated and operated him, and they are the Imperium, the INQUISITION. Ok, Oriel brought a blank with them. Wow incredible, and that's all ? The whole Imperium being (according to Schaeffer) in the balance, and they go on this crucial mission with a possessed, corrupted, man, their sole protection being another vulnerable man, as likely to die than any other ?
And the Colonel send him and record duty WITHOUT the blank every single time...
Fun fact: There's a fourth novel to this series, "Armageddon Saint".
That one does answer some questions, but if you try to apply logic to it probably opens just as many new ones.
Don't get me wrong, they are fantastic books. But the end of the last one is a bit of a meh
It is not bad per see, speaking of sacrifice and a broken man finally finding his place in the universe, but it doesn't bring anything to the story itself. Nothing that couldn't be done day 1 or even day -1
But I'll get and read Armageddon Saint and let you know!
