Name: BL402 Games Workshop Black Library Warhammer 40K Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium
Brand: GWS - Games Workshop
SKU: BL402
Price: 18.0 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

About This Book

Commissar Ciaphas Cain is a hero of the Imperium. His men adore him, his superiors decorate him, and the propaganda writes itself. Cain's own account, which is what you are reading, tells it differently: he wanted a quiet posting, a decent meal and no personal risk whatsoever, and every act of heroism on his record is something he was trying to run away from at the time.

The joke holds up across three novels because Cain is a genuinely capable soldier who is also a coward, and because the memoirs are annotated throughout by Inquisitor Amberley Vail, who has known him for decades and is not fooled. Between his self-serving version and her dry corrections, you get a third account that neither of them is quite telling.

Tau, necrons, genestealers and Chaos cultists all turn up. So does Jurgen, his aide, whose personal hygiene is a running plot device rather than a running gag.

What makes this collection unusual in the Warhammer 40,000 range is the tone. The setting is normally relentless. Cain is funny, and the humour comes from a soldier's-eye view of Imperial bureaucracy rather than from sending up the universe.

Who It's For

New readers, and specifically new readers who have bounced off the grimness. This is the standard recommendation for anyone who wants Warhammer 40,000 fiction that is enjoyable rather than punishing, and it needs no prior knowledge at all.

Astra Militarum collectors will find their army at the centre rather than in the background, which is rarer than it should be. And for anyone who already knows the setting, Cain is the counterweight: a look at the Imperium from the level of the people who have to live in it.

Three novels and three stories in one volume is a lot of book for one purchase.

Specs

Setting: Warhammer 40,000

Series: Ciaphas Cain

Position: First omnibus

Author: Sandy Mitchell

Imprint: Black Library

Publisher: Games Workshop

Format: Trade paperback

Language: English

Contents: 3 novels, 3 short stories, author introduction

First published: August 2017

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to have read anything else first?

No. This is the first Ciaphas Cain omnibus and the beginning of the series, and it assumes no knowledge of Warhammer 40,000.

Which novels are in it?

For the Emperor, Caves of Ice and The Traitor's Hand, plus the short stories Fight or Flight, Echoes of the Tomb and The Beguiling, and an introduction by the author.

Is Sandy Mitchell a pen name?

Yes. Sandy Mitchell is the pseudonym of the British author Alex Stewart.

Can I pick this up in the store?

Yes - shop online and ship to your door, or choose in-store pickup at JackWagon R/C & Hobbies in Greeley, CO. Worth asking what else in the Cain series is on the shelf.