Publisher – Abaddon

Published – Out Now

Price - £8.99 paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook

THE APOCALYPSE IS OLD NEWS.

Tanis Barlas, snake-woman assassin. Cason Cole, the killer of gods. Louie Fitzsimmons, the last known Prophet. And Rupert Wong, a chef who just wants to eat his instant noodles and stay home.

The Greek Pantheon has been obliterated, and gods and monsters across the globe are looking to fill the vacuum. But Rupert, Case, Fitz, and Tanis have bigger problems to deal with. 

It’s time to answer the biggest question of all: Where did the father gods go?

As the world has got more connected, we have become more and more familiar with the various pantheons of gods around the world. Their strange connections and differences with one another; matched with their decline and fall over the millennia have made them an interesting place for fantasy to explore. From Gaiman’s road trips in American Gods to Discworld’s surprisingly flawed gods they’re given the genre a lot of food for though because the gods reflect humanity most of all. In this Blurred Boundary nominee, The Last Supper Before Ragnarok by Cassandra Khaw once again puts us in the less than safe hands of Rupert Wong Cannibal Chef and a host of god-adjacent entities find themselves on a mission to save the world whatever the cost.

Rupert has been recruited by a woman named Amanda (the living godlike representation of the new gods – the internet) to meet up with a number of supernatural deities to prevent a threat to the world. Amanda is aware of other technology-based gods created by our darker impulses - imagine 4Chan with god like powers! Their ascension is imminent so Amanda wants to try and stop this through a final conflict that may involve some of the oldest gods in existence who are being subsumed by something very malevolent.

I think I found this a bit of a confusing read. Although I’ve really enjoyed the other Rupert Wong novellas but this tale is the final part of a wider multi-author series (Gods and Monsters) with some books which I’ve not yet read. So there are references to tales and characters I’ve not seen so makes the final volume perhaps for me lack impact; I’m not familiar with all of the gang that is being assembled for a final outing.

Khaw is a great writer and there are some great slice of life scenes where these mismatched magical characters get to share space, insult each other and perhaps see their own weaknesses. A lot of these appropriately with Rupert are food based and magical beings acting so human and discussing what makes them human over delicious sounding food were probably the most interesting parts of the story. I liked that it was people’s focus on their loved ones that gave them impetus to do the right thing.

Less interesting surprisingly was the approaching Ragnarök. I didn’t really get invested into this final battle to end all battles. It felt more like a coda to a series than a huge finale conclusion and beyond some nice trickster style shenanigans I didn’t feel the pay-off matched the premise. Despite that though Rupert’s voice is wonderfully sarcastic and dry-humoured taking the world cynically and yet not a character you want to stop talking.

I enjoyed this story, but it didn’t quite grab me as the earlier novellas did – a lot of this I’m putting down to the lack of other books in the series. Here it’s blurring a road-trip across America with the end times, but I ended up vastly preferring one side of the story to the other. Khaw’s work is always worth a look so I shall continue to look out for new stories from a very talented author.