Reviews for Hero of the Imperium (Ciaphas Cain Series)

The average rating for Hero of the Imperium (Ciaphas Cain Series) based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-01-08 00:00:00 William Ferguson Ii This is a Warhammer 40K tie-in novel, presenting the life and works of Comissar Ciaphas Cain, the most heroic man in the human Empire. It contains 3 novels, For The Emperor, Caves of Ice and The Traitor's Hand and the short stories The Beguiling, Fight or Flight and Echoes of the Tomb. The plot they follow is basically the same every time: Caine and his regiment, the 597th Valhallan, are sent to some Emperorforsaken planet to fight against the scum of the universe, and it generally develops into action-loaded military campaigns, and some politics, and things tend to go extremely ploin-shaped. (I don't know what a ploin is or what shape it is, but ploins and squinches are the funniest-sounding vegetables I've ever encountered in fiction) But the main reason to read these books is not the terribly original plot, but that they're really entertaining. Caine and his extremely malodorous aide Jurgen are basically Blackadder and Baldrick transposed into the far future (although Jurgen is actually very efficient in his work, if not the brightest bulb in the chandelier). The books are narrated by Caine as first-person narrator, and deliciously sarcastic. In addition to that, there is an editor, who is revealed as Amberley Vail, an Inquisitor who shares Caine's sense for sarcasm (as well as...other things), and who peppers the text with her footnotes. At regular intervals, she adds excerpts from other sources to complement Caine's rather self-centered narration. These are generally written in a prose so purple that it verges on ultra-violet, and Amberley repeatedly apologises for inflicting this on her readers. Caine keeps insisting that his reputation as Hero of the Imperium is wholly undeserved, and that what he really wants is peace and quiet and a nice glass of amasec. Although he does things which appear nice on the outside, like treating his soldiers with respect and sympathy, and in turn earning their respect and almost friendship, he insists that he does this for the sole reason that they'll like him enough to defend him in combat. Also, he goes on the first shuttle to embark, because that way, he'll get the nicest quarters...Somehow, this image gets him stuck into the worst crisis situations against the worst monsters, and through some cosmic irony (and Jurgen's melta), he always manages to vanquish them, which adds to his image and gets him sent off to the next tricky place... It is questionable though how much of this hard shell is genuine, as often he goes quite a bit beyond what would count as sheer egoism, and he has a really good working relationship with both the simple troopers and the officers of the regiment. So, in general, I really enjoyed this collection, it was a nice, entertaining and funny read. One little thing though: it kinda presupposes that you have a bit of background knowledge about Warhammer 40K, which I don't really have...I just painted a hippie jeans dealer Genestealer squad for somebody at BWRPS once :) So I sometimes couldn't really follow everything going on, or imagine what stuff looks like...but it is definetely possible to enjoy these books without having any 40K experience. All in all 8/10, although I don't think I'll get the other books from the series.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-08-08 00:00:00 Matthew Harrington If epic science fiction stories aren't your thing, don't be thrown off by the total. The tag line of the 40K Universe setting may be "In the grim future of the 40th millennium, there is only war" but in the 41st millenium Commissar Ciaphas Cain is nothing so much as Flashman reborn. The collection consists of three novels and three short stories starring Cain, and all take the form of the man's memoirs, arranged and annotated by the mysterious yet charming Inquisitor he frequently worked beside. In them the self-proclaimed coward trips, is thrust, or is promoted into one dangerous situation after another only to survive through a combination of luck, the loyalty of his taciturn aide, a powerful ability to bullshit, and some skill with the weapons of the day. Overall I'd rate the book rather highly, finding it to be an easy and enjoyable read with multiple stopping points for those intimidated by its sheer size.