With their thrills and spills, and tongue in cheek humour, the Ciaphas Cain novels offer a unique vision of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

of the Imperium (Ciaphas Cain Book 2) Kindle Edition Defender of the Imperium (Ciaphas Cain Book 2) Kindle Edition

The short stories featuring Gunner Jurgen were interesting little insights into Cain's aide as well. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. This omnibus contains no fewer than four novels by Gav Thorpe and Nick Kyme, packed full of grudges, mountain holds in danger and an underground stone-tapping insult contest. In this, the third omnibus collection of Sandy Mitchell's stories about the Flashman and Blackadder-inspired Ciaphas Cain, we are again treated to excerpts from his personal archive covering his extensive service as a Commissar, a political officer for the legions of the Imperial Guard. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising.

Cain arrives on the planet of Periremunda, a bizarre world of plateaux rising above deserts and lava flows, alongside the Valhallan 597th to stem its rioting populace and prevent a full-on rebellion. Awakening the mob of infected, Cain and company retreat to the local enforcers headquarters where they hole up under assault from the horde who manages to break in. Things get bleak, and then Cain pulls off some crazy gambit (likely as not to involve the psychic-blocking ability of his aide Jurgen) and comes off looking like a crazy hero for it.

Saviour of the Imperium (Ciaphas Cain) - Mitchell, Sandy

They all aim at Cain after he destroys an injured one, only for Killian to take the shots, evaporating into nothing. Insert a few recurring remarks about Cain showing modesty to make people think he's even more heroic which often gets him mixed up in even more of a mess than it's worth, mentions of how disgusting any non-Valhallans aside from Cain find his signature tanna tea, mild confusion about ork terminology that gets accompanied by an annotation from Amberley doubling down on the comedic irony to the reader, and jokes about Jurgen's hygiene (the possessive form of his name should indicate that puns are also on the table), and you've got a pretty good idea of what you're getting into.

However, despite his efforts (or perhaps because of them) to always be in the safest place possible, somehow Cain always manages to get himself in the most dangerous situations and is forced to save his hide. Most commissars are stone-faced zealots as likely to shoot their own troops in the head for slighting their honor as they are to do something effective. Unfortunately for Cain, saving his own hide often inadvertently results in him saving the day, which inflates his status even further!

Saviour Of The Imperium Black Library - Ebook: Saviour Of The Imperium

His hobbies include the martial arts of Aikido and Iaido, miniature wargaming, role-playing games, and pottering about on the family allotment. The way that the story's going to go is predictable enough to someone familiar with a certain WH40K board game that was adapted into a video game, but again, as with the Cain stories as a whole, knowing "what" is going to happen doesn't diminish the enjoyment of reading "how" it happens. Gathered later at the camp, the attack comes, Wraiths and Necron Warriors pouring out of the walls and tunnels, whereupon escaping with Killian into the tunnels, Cain evades death.

It introduced a young commissar, the newly commissioned Forres, who pulls double duty as an early foil to Cain who comes around to respecting and even admiring him after seeing his methods in action (without knowing his actual thoughts, of course). All in all, if you've read any of the earlier Cain books, you probably know what to expect from Saviour of the Imperium. The events depicted in the novels and short stories are not strictly chronological according to publication, since the Cain Archive was purportedly written in its entirety during Cain's retirement, and select portions are published according to Inquisitor Vail's whim. A prequel to the first novel in the series, Cain is still attached to the Valhallan 12th field artillery when the story begins.

Saviour of the Imperium (Ciaphas Cain) eBook : Mitchell Saviour of the Imperium (Ciaphas Cain) eBook : Mitchell

Everything I liked about the previous books continues to hold true, so the extra layering of our longest-standing support character is welcome. Cain finds out he's being deployed somewhere, seems eager to go because it doesn't sound too bad, and makes a hindsight comment that "if I'd known what I was in for, I would've just gotten myself arrested for cowardice" or some such. In short, Cain's a coward who's primarily interested in looking after his own skin, but he gained a reputation for being a brave hero after bumbling into killing the leader of an alien invasion while trying to run away in his first bit of active duty, and so he keeps having to find his way out of one insane war zone after another to keep anyone from finding out the truth (since, this being WH40K, logic would dictate that a Hero of the Imperium martyr is more valuable to the imperial war effort than a living hole in the propaganda machine).These outrageous adventures of the Imperium's most heroic Commissar have never been collected in an omnibus before – so it's the perfect time to grab them and reacquaint yourself with Cain. A great read as always, the adventures of Commissar Cain are as always great, especially when combined with the thoughts of Inquisitor Vale. The Last Ditch" does see Cain back with the Valhallan 597th as they're going to do what they do best (kill orks). M41 to brigade headquarters for becoming a Hero of the Imperium and having his talents wasted on a backwater artillery regiment (Valhallan 12th Field Artillery), Cain finds himself thrown into ever more dangerous situations due to the staff officers and his dashing reputation. The books are presented as a series of memoirs written by Cain after a nigh-unprecedented retirement from active duty, delivered to Inquisitor Amberley Vail as a sort of confession, which she's annotated and interspersed with other corroborating or otherwise useful excerpts prior to distribution within the Imperial Inquisition.