His Last Command

This book has everything you expect from war: politics, morale problems, relentless and unpredictable foe. Dan Abnett really gets under your skin and puts you right in the midst of the action. I especially appreciate how he gets into the role of the Commissariat. This is something that has been missing from his previous offerings, with Gaunt being really more of a commander than a morale officer. But this aspect of the character really shines as he goes about his business and also leads the other commissars. The Ghosts get a chance to shine too, never you fear. Enjoy! As an aside, it would help if you read Traitor General first as it leads into the motivations of the different characters. However, you can still start fresh with this book as Mr. Abnett does a good job of setting the stage (without being repetitive for those of us who did read TG).

...one of the best series I've had the pleasure to read. Dan Abnett has done it again with his latest addition to Gaunt's Ghosts. This installment reunites the Gereon suicide-mission survivors with their former regiment, the Tanith First and Only who have been integrated with another crippled regiment, The Belladon Eighty-First. Commissar Ibram Gaunt has been stripped of his Colonel rank and redeployed away from his former regiment, suspected of being tainted by Chaos on Gereon. What follows is a gripping warstory that touches on many facets of a soldier's life. The Gereon survivors are shadows of their former selves. They are truly "The Lost". Coming home from a suicide-mission, they are treated like the enemy simply because it was deemed impossible to return without being corrupted by Chaos. Unable to tell their comrades what happened on Gereon, they are self reliant to the extreme, and trust no one. His Last Command is a brilliant book, with incredible action, brilliant dialogue, and at times touching moments between brothers in arms.

1.Before I get on with the review, I must first give a little bit of background before the review will begin to make sense. (to skip this and go straight to the review, go to the 6th paragraph.) 2.As an avid Star Wars genre fan, I looked forward to each new book that came out, with it, adding to the vast collection of science-fiction works I have accumulated over the years. However, after REVENGE OF THE SITH hit theaters, the quality of the works entered a noticable decline, and so I enter a near withdrawal from the genre, reentering only to reread a book for the n-th time. In addition, I was (and still am) an avid wargaming fan, enjoying the relaxed and comradely atmosphere at the various conventions I have visited in the 10+ years I have done it. 4.One of my close friends noticed this, and so introduced me to the world of the Gaunt's Ghosts. Immediately, I was enraptured by Dan Abnett's Style of writing, with his highly explanatory and detailed way of explaining how the Warhammer 40,000 universe flows and relates to the characters. After the first book, FIRST AND ONLY, I felt compelled to read the second, and then the third, and the fourth... 5.Finally reaching the 10th book, HIS LAST COMMAND, I feared the worst that could happen: the potential ending of the series. However, to the atestment of Abnett's writing abilites, my fears proved unfounded, as he ends it so that, although, yes, this could be the end, enough it let open to continue the series onward. 6.As for the story itself, the tale begins as Gaunt and the rest of the commando team that left to Gereon (in the previous book, TRAITOR GENERAL) begin to be reintroduced into the services of Warmaster Macaroath, and more specifically, Lord General Van Voytz. After a brief struggle to see if the team was 'tainted' on their 16-month long mission, However, because of his 'unusual' rank, that of colonel-commissar. For those not acquainted with the generalities of the Imperial Guard command structure, the commissar is essentially a political officer, (i.e. WWII Russian military) there to both frighten and inspire the common soldier and officer into better preformance, through the use of speeches and on-the-spot executions. Having been force to relinquish his colonel rank, Commissar Ibram Gaunt, was again turned down to return to his unit, as his services and experience were needed on the 'Second Front,' a collection of attacks on Chaos-held worlds by the less-experienced regiments. As for the rest of his team, they were returned to active serivce to their old unit, the Tanith 1st (First-and-Only), only to find it combined with another unit, the 81st Belladon (becoming the 81st/1st), and put under the command of one Colonel Wilder, who actually proves to be a capable and inspiring leader... Nearly on par with Gaunt himself. 7. I won't give away the rest of the story, as I am sure you will enjoy it far better not knowing the ending, but I am happy

Dan Abnett is not only my favorite Warhammer 40,000 writer, he's one of my favorite writers period. His gifts are many-exceptional characterization, incredible dialogue, and the ability to create concepts within the shared universe of Warhammer 40,000 that compare favorably to writers of science fiction period, not just 40K. He can move effortlessly from the 40K-noir style of the Eisenhorn books, to the cyberpunk-action influenced Ravenor series, to the gritty military tales of the Gaunt's Ghosts series, without blinking an eye. HIS LAST COMMAND, the tenth book in the Gaunt's Ghosts series, continues the trend of Abnett, unbelievably, only getting better as a writer. HIS LAST COMMAND is a book that is about subverting the reader's expectations, a thing I suspect one of the reviewers of this book, I must respectfully point out, might have missed. At the end of SABBAT MARTYR, it was easy to expect that the next series of books about the Ghosts would pick up the story of Saint Sabbat, and while I doubt Abnett is done with that, he clearly has other ideas about the storyline for the current sequence, THE LOST. Nearly everything you expect to happen in the book is subverted; even the terrain itself is part of the subversion. Gaunt returns from his mission on Gereon (in TRAITOR GENERAL) to find that the Tanith First and Only has been combined with another unit, under the command of Colonel Wilder, and Abnett instantly subverts your expectations by making Wilder, in many ways, as likable as Gaunt. Characters respond to their circumstances in ways that are wholly unexpected, or off balance, subverting what should be the triumphant return of the Ghosts from Gereon. The nature of the enemy being fought is subverted from being typical "possessed by Chaos" 40K stuff and turned into something far darker, far more gruesome, and even a moment of what should be a typical triumph for the Ghosts against all odds turns into utter disaster. And finally, there are at least three different orders that could be "His Last Command", but the one that turns out to be the source of the title, the finale of the last chapter, is sublimely done; in fact, the end of the last chapter of the novel is simply the best writing Dan Abnett has ever done. HIS LAST COMMAND is a brilliant novel, plain and simple. It doesn't move in the directions that perhaps one expects (based on the announcement that the next Gaunt's Ghost book, THE ARMOUR OF CONTEMPT, is to tell the tale of the liberation of Gereon, setting of TRAITOR GENERAL, it seems apparent that the story is moving in the direction Abnett wishes it to go) but it is well written, filled with the amazing characterization and fantastic dialouge Abnett is well known for, and has me waiting with bated breath for the next novel in the sequence. Brillant.

Dan Abnett has several qualities that many writer's today lack. These qualities include an excellent grasp of character development, an ability to kill off primary and secondary characters without missing a beat, the ability to create a coherent plot, and an editor! The dynamics of this plot are simple- Gaunt has returned, since no one ever manages to escape a Chaos controlled world many believe Gaunt to have turned traitor. Set this against a backdroup of war, it is after all a Warhammer 40K book, and throw in the dynamic of his regiment having been given to a new commander, and you have an excellent recipe for a rollicking good time. Perhaps one reason I enjoyed this work so much is because I was formerly an Army Officer and I know what it's like to turn over command to a new person, go off to a new job, and then wander back into the unit A/O "just to say hello". Abnett has really captured the sort of angst that goes along with this experience and the second guessing that goes on when the new commander finds the old commander has shown up in the general vicinity. I read approximately 400 novels a year and I'm starting to only want to read materiel Dan and his fellow brethren at Black Library Publishing have published. His Last Command is an excellent introduction to both the Warhammer genre and this series. While it can be read as a stand alone, I would strongly encourage this be read after reading Traitor General, which is now in paperback if I'm not mistaken. Thanks Dan for a job well done.