Customer Reviews

13th Legion (Warhammer 40000 Last Chancers)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The hook for Warhammer 40,000, "In the grim darkness of the far-future there is only war" says it all. It's the 41st millennia and mankind is besieged on its many galactic fronts by different alien enemies, demons from the nether-region-like Warp, and threatened from within by civil war. As harsh as the Imperiam is, it's the last hope for the survival of the human race.

Thorpe takes the "Dirty Dozen" plot and pumps it chuck-full of super steroids and drops it in this WH40K universe, to create the penal legion, lovingly nick-named the Last Chancers. Lt. Kage and his fellow convicted criminals may have been better-off to serve out their life sentences in various prisons then to have been given a chance for redemption by the heartless Colonel Schaeffer. The pardons they've been promised for their military-service is always one more unknown and miserable battle-field away. Will they all only achieve absolution for their sins post-humanously or are any of them hard enough to survive to the Colonel's ultimate plan?

Bloody carnage? Hopeless battles against impossible odds? Violent psychopaths let loose on the battlefield? Yes, this book has all these things, and manages to weave it all into a pretty fun plot with interesting characters! Our protagonist is Kage, the psychopathic member of the 13th penal legion, a unit led by the mysterious Colonol on an endless succession of suicide missions. Quite the departure from Dan Abnett's more conventional infantry stories, this book is all about the anti-hero.

This was a really good book, my rating should be 4.5 stars, but that is not available. The reason I gave it 4 stars is because it is more or less a bunch of battles that the Last Chancers fight in, with no real purpose other than to show what the 40k universe is like. It all has a purpose at the end, but up until then I was left wondering what the actual story of the book was.

In my opinion, this is the best of the Warhammer 40,000 novels produced by the Black Library thus far. Games Workshop's publishing branch has really outdone itself with the 13th Legion; the novel contains everything that made its predecessors good and takes these qualities a step further. It has the action and atmosphere that one can find in the Gaunt's Ghosts series but this is coupled with the sort of character development that we saw in Eye of Terror. The novel is told from the 1st person point of view and this does a lot to improve the literary quality. Admittedly, the novel is still 'pulp fiction' but it's a definitely more mature incarnation. I doubt anyone is looking for some profound existential comments from a Warhammer novel, but by the same token I think we as readers require the talent of a skilled writer. Gav definitely comes through; he puts to use all the talent that brought us so many other things over the years (Games, supplements, colour text, etc...) and applies it to a novel with spectacular results.

This title is actually the first book in "The Last Chancers" trilogy. This novel was released in January 2001. The Thirteenth Legion is made up by convict soldiers. They are led and controlled by Colonel Schaeffer. There are times I believed the colonel went out of his way to make the men despise him; especially Lieutenant Kage. In this episode, the men must battle a merciless eldar, orks, and other Chaos minions. If they lose, they die. If they win, they go on to the next suicide mission. The men in the legion are all traitors. This is their last chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Emperor. They seldom work together as a real team though. Each man looks out only for himself. And if they ever got the chance, they would kill Colonel Schaeffer in an instant.

***** Author Gav Thorpe did an excellent job in making believable characters, even if they are more than just a bit on the darker side. Each of these titles are good reads; however, if you want all three titles of the trilogy, as well as two short stories that help tie them together, consider purchasing ISBN: 1844163008. If you want to keep it all separate, then purchasing the stand alone novels is the way to go. *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

I really wish there was a sequal to this...

Anyway, this is a great book about a Penal Legion called the Last Chancers. While reading this book I was thinking about giving it 4 stars since the battles didn't seem to have a purpose, but at the end it all comes together and makes sense. It is nice reading a book that doesn't have a good law-abiding hero for the main character, and this guy knocks out people's teeth, isn't afraid of killing people, and as I said, is in a Penal Legion.

My favorite character has to be the Tech-priest, though. Gav does a great job describing the member of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and I am going to "borrow" the description for a Tech-Priest in the Inquisitor game.

If you like the Gaunt's Ghosts series of books, this novel is right up your alley. It seems to have the same spirit and breakneck pacing as the Ghosts series w/ a new set of characters.

At first it was hard to understand mainly because its from a Imperial Guard Penial Leigon. But i then found my self hooked into the book. Battles and Life and Death situations kept me reading and reading. Looking forward to reading Kill Team. This book is a must especailly because of Lorii!! Once you begin reading 'bout her you will never stop reading!