I finished reading The Last Chancers a day or two ago. I felt that the last book in the collection was the weakest. It's probably just personal preference, as the last book took some turns that I didn't care for. I don't want to post any spoilers, but the story included more Chaos than the others. The various Chaos armies are probably my least favorite parts of the Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k universes. They just don't do anything for me the way that much of the other background does. As with anything, your experience and preference may vary. I will still be building a portion of my army to reflect the Last Chancers and even have one or two characters from the last book modelled in the army, but overall I was disappointed with the way the series ended.
I think the ending was a matter of 'How can I give him a stylish send-off?' I mean, after all the stuff Kage survives, getting gunned down seems like throwing Boba Fett into the Sarlacc like a punk.
ReplyDeleteI think it was also spurred by "Ok, he always gets those warp nightmares...maybe I can use that." I was glad to at least get some info on Schaeffer, but I think Schaeffer worked best as he was presented. The less we know about him, the more we know of him as a force of nature.
On the other hand, for Kage's ending...we've got the theme of redemption running through the whole series; how else could you have ended it if at the end of book one Kage promptly blows his pardon? He DOES need some kind of reason to sacrifice himself, but he's just such a hardcore survivor that you've got to aim big.
I agree that he needed a heroic sendoff and the reasons you cited for making Chaos such a big part of the ending are valid, I just didn't really like the last hundred pages or so.
ReplyDeleteIt probably has more to do with my aversion to Chaos than any actual problems with the story itself. Once Kage started switching back and forth between his personality and the personality of the Daemon I just lost interest in the character. In my mind he had jumped the shark at that point and I finished the book more to gain a sense of completion than because I cared about where it was going.