Customer Reviews

Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Even thought the WH 40k universe can be a dark and trecherous landscape Sandy Mitchell's character has a way of projecting his own sort of humor on every situation. The book takes place over the first three installments in Commissar Ciaphos Cains adventures along with a few short stories.

The best part of Mitchell's books is that they are humorous but not to the point of absurdity. The author does a good job of interjecting humor into most situations will stil being able to maintain a sense of suspense, adventure, or tension. The characters are well thought out and even though a good portion of the book is written from the point of view of Commissar Cain, the natual and self depricating style and angle from which it is written draw you into Cains world and psyche and make you root for him even though you get the sense that like the rest of us he only ends up in the most heroic of situations only be accident and only claims credit when it is advantagous and his original intentions are misconstrued.

Sandy Mitchell is brightest gem in the Black Library treasure trove, and this collection demonstrates why. His Ciaphas Cain series is hilarious, rich with background flavor, and action-packed when it needs to be. More so than any other Black Library author, his books are compulsively re-readable. His characters will stick with you, giving you a few good laughs just by remembering them. What more can you ask for in a book about from a book based on a tabletop strategy game? It's almost too good to be limited by being a part of a tie-in series. Fortunately, Warhammer 40,000 is a very strong background and Mitchell knows how to play to its strengths even while tweaking its faults.

Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium (Ciaphas Cain)

While this is in no way a great piece of literature, it is a departure from the monotonous, grinding, slaughter-fests that are the typical offering from the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Sandy Mitchell does an excellent job of taking the reader to a far different mindset and writes from a first-person perspective (something that is typically hard to pull off correctly) quite well. Ciaphas Cain is more of a narcissistic character study from an off-kilter mind than a blood-and-guts war story, although there is some of that thrown in for good measure as well. An apt subtitle to this compendium could be something like (Self-preservation, or how I learned how to run like hell!)
While there are some noteworthy titles from other authors writing for the Black Library, no other author has actually pulled me into the Warhammer 40K universe as completely as this one. This is a very human perspective thrown against the backdrop of Aliens, Demons, and Genetically modified Super-Humans, and even the dark humor was written surprising well into the story.

This series really pulls you onto the battlefields, and into the intrigues, and the plot and the writing style keep you submerged there.

I've enjoyed most of the offerings from the Black Library, and a friend sent me CC:HOTI! as a gift. I had heard about the books before, and was eager to get into them.

I was not disappointed. While the influences of Flashman and Blackadder are blatantly obvious, it's not belabored in any way. There are also several other nods to British media culture hidden in different places. The books are well written, and doing them as the unorganized memoirs of Cain with the associated footnotes and interjections from other sources was both refreshing and broke up the narrative well.

But the real joy was Cain himself. I was expecting a comic figure, a blunderer who accidentally saves the day over and over. Instead I got a fascinatingly complex and layered man whose own insecurities come out in his writings. As I read, I really found myself searching Cain's words for deeper meanings, trying to see how much of his self-proclaimed cowardice was actually self-rationalization. Ciaphas Cain became a real person to me, and through the excellent writing throughout, his cast of supporting characters became equally real. Even the ever loyal and malodorous Jurgen.

The three novels themselves are fairly standard "GrimDark" material; epic battles against horrific foes. Mitchell overuses the "but wait, there's more!" trope a little bit, but it makes for more interesting stories. Nice to see the Tau, one of the more interesting races in the WH40K universe in my opinion, get decent and well-written exposure.

In short, Ciaphas Cain may well be the most human character I've read this year. Can't wait to pick up the next omnibus.

This is a fantastic warhammer 40k novel. The author Sandy Mitchell creates 2 lovable characters. Ciaphas Cain and his side-kick gunner Jurgen who Cain makes very obvious smells terrible. This book made me laugh countless times with Cains humor and his lovable aid. The characters are well done and interesting. The main character tries so very hard to stay out of fights but seems to always end up in the middle of them and to his annoyance its always him that must turn the tide of battle. You also feel deeply for the charters and there well being. I became quite emotional when it appeared Jurgen was taken out in one chapter to only reappear suddenly in the next saving Cains life. All in all this might just well be the best most gripping science fiction book i have read in a long long time. Equal to "Rama". Fantastic book with great plots. A must read for science fiction fans.

Definitely one of the better items from the black library. The book was very well written and the style of writing was very interesting. The book is written as if an inquisitor is examining the life of the hero Ciaphas Cain by reading his diary and other historical documents. It has humorous footnotes from the inquisitor describing what actually happened over Cain's very narrow range of focus outside himself.

The book has many inside jokes from other Warhammer 40k books. If you want the full experience I'd suggest reading Dan Abnette's books first.

Ciaphas Cain, is one of my favorite characters in all the WH40K that I've read. I think mainly because you can actually get inside his head and really see what he's thinking about. The fact that his luck seems limitless and the fact that no matter how many times he tries to take the safe route away from an otherwise dangerous situation, he gets thrown into something even more perilous. Rather than fighting a bunch of armed rebels on the surface, he ends up going undergroud and fnding a rather large group of Tyranids that have been on the planet for a few generations. Yet everytime this happens he manages to escape with little wear and tear, and the best part is that you can actually see that he's a normal person, he doens't want to die a horible death, he would rather serve somewhere away from the fighting where he can eventually retire with no worse for wear. He also gives a rather interesting side to commissars that is rarely seen, he would prefer to find a solution that doesn't involve shooting his own men and women uner his command rather than go in guns a blaze and shoot anyone who so much as sneezes.

All in all it's great to read about a commissar you actually care about, like Commissar Gaunt, and that actually care about the guardsman who serve under them.

Ciaphas Cain:Hero of the Imperium is a collection of novels and short stories written by Sandy Mitchell (real name: Alex Stewart), and set in the dark science fiction universe of Warhammer 40 000. It contains three novels (For the Emperor, Caves of Ice, and The Traitor's Hand) and three short stories (Fight or Flight, Echoes of the Tomb, and The Beguiling).

The protagonist of these tales is Ciaphas Cain, a cowardly commissar. The novels and stories are presented as excerpts from his secret memoirs, written long after his retirement. Cain explains how his many heroic deeds were either lucky coincidences, products of Imperial propaganda, or were meant to insure his own survival. In truth, all he ever wanted was to lead a peaceful life - as far from the front lines as possible.

This creates a lot of subtle humor, as we watch Cain do all sorts of things that everyone except him thinks are the feats of heroism, while in truth they're motivated by selfishness and cowardice (exactly the opposite of what an Imperial commissar is supposed to be). Sandy Mitchell is an expert when it comes to finding hilarity in the outwardly serious. For example, we get a lot of excerpts from imaginary books, and although all of these are written in humorless tones, they're invariably funny because of their innate irony, purple prose, or the sheer idiocy of the writer.

Despite all this, the stories never degenerate into outright comedy. The atmosphere remains serious and realistic, although the books are still nowhere near as grimdark as Warhammer 40k novels should be (but we can blame that on Cain's own Blackadderesque writing style, which, given his sardonic personality, isn't out of place in the story).

Sadly, Sandy Mitchell's technical skills are far from perfect. His need to repeat what we already know gets annoying very fast. We're told a thousand times how Jurgen smells bad, how Cain was born on a hive world and hence feels at home in enclosed spaces, how he prefers a salamander to a chimera, etc. Even worse are the really long, really convoluted sentences - some of which I had to read four or five times before I understood what the writer was trying to say. There are also some writing conventions that are funny the first couple of times, but get old fast and end up making the story predictable. For example; whenever Cain says something along the lines of "so far so good", it's a sure sign that all hell is going to break lose in the following paragraph.

Despite the subpar writing, Ciaphas Cain:Hero of the Imperium is a very enjoyable collection. If you're a fan of the 41st millennium, then you absolutely mustn't pass on this book. If, on the other hand, you had no prior experience with Warhammer 40 000, I recommend you read other novels (Soul Drinkers or Ultramarines omnibuses, as well as the 5th edition rulebook and army codexes, are great places to get familiar with the universe) before you buy Hero of the Imperium.

The Black Library titles can be pretty hit or miss, but this one was definitely a hit. The writing is great, and it's an uncommon take on the Warhammer Universe. Sandy Mitchell manages to make a goofy comedy novel work in the grim darkness of the future. I recommend it for people who are tired of surly Space Marines, or people trying to get friends into the universe. It's very approachable and an all-around enjoyable read.

Gripping my chair the entire time, Ciaphas Cain is more of a hero than he thinks he is. i used to the the imperial guard were amateurs, but not with Cain around to prove me otherwise,

Great for any Fan of the 40k universe and to anyone who loves good syfy!