Book Review // The Unforgiven by Gav Thorpe (Legacy of Caliban Part Three)
Welcome to the final part of the Legacy of Caliban series. If you haven't read the earlier reviews, please do! It continues the trilogy of Legacy of Caliban by Gav Thorpe and follows a group of Dark Angels through three novels and a few short stories. For this review, we will be going over All Must End, Accept No Failure, and The Unforgiven, so let's jump in:
All Must End
Page Count: 26
Overview: This tale follows the Master of Sanctity and delves deeper into a scene from the tale. For this short story, we follow the events of Dark Angels Librarian Harahel as he attempts to take a spirit walk through the warp that will endanger his soul. Though he is protected by wards and sigils, Harahel risks everything to discover the fallen. But can he come back from this in one piece?
It is a tremendously quick tale that shows how much the Dark Angels are willing to risk to protect their shame.
Accept No Failure
Page Count: 20
Overview: For this tale, we head back to Piscina IV as the bulk of the Dark Angel forces wage war. We follow Deathwing Captain Belial as he relives his failures the first time the Dark Angels and Greenskins clashed in this world. This short story links the actions of the Purging of Kadillus and the unfolding of the Master of Sanctity. The re-enactment of the duel between Belial and Ghazghkull is the highlight of this story and is worth reading for.
The Unforgiven
Page Count: 235
Overview: The final tale of the trilogy. With the thrice-cursed Cypher in the Cells, it is up to the inner circle to decide the next course of action. Will they listen to the traitor and risk it all, or should they ignore the warnings and hope it is all lies? Though filled with twists and a good plot, it felt rushed and could have been filled out more satisfactorily.
Highlights from The Unforgiven for me include:
Ending of the Annael and Telemenus storylines- Telemenus' was a great ending.
Though rushed, Typhus finally appeared, which was still exciting.
Cypher- how does he always escape?
The Watchers in the Dark, what are these creepy little monsters?
Luther in a Cell- What the hell dudes! You are keeping him in stasis, which seems like a bad idea.
The actual ending of the tale. What the heck happened? Feel free to email me about this topic; I don't want to post spoilers.
Low points:
Rushed. Every scene seemed rushed. It felt like two books crushed into one.
Merir Astelan. Where the hell did he go? He escapes at the end of book two and is never spoken of again. It seems like a poor way to forget him.
There was too much jumping back and forth between characters, and it lost too much focus.
It's great to have completed the trilogy, but I was left a little disappointed by this last tale. I truly hope Gav Thorpe revisits these characters and fleshes out this tale more. Have you read the series? What are your thoughts on it? Drop me a comment below.
Now, just to resist the urge of an all-Ravenwing army....must resist....must resist....must not join The Unforgiven...
