Death or Glory

This fourth book in the Ciaphas Cain series by M. Mitchell follows the infamous Imperial Commissar and his aid Jurgen, turning back the clock to an adventure early in his career, so technically it's a prequel to the others. It's set in Games Workshop's dark gothic Warhammer 40K universe. As I have mentioned in reviews of the previous works in the series, M. Mitchell's protagonist pays homage to George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman. The writing style is playful, humorous, and peppered with the editorial comments by Cain's Inquisitorial associate, Amberley Vail of the Ordo Xenos. At its heart, it is the story of a journey. In their flight from an unplanned crash-landing, Cain and Jurgen collect a supporting cast of capable misfits: Sergeant Tayber, Lieutenant Piers, and one of the more interesting, Fleicia the dedrite-tailed and somewhat irreverent Mechanicus Adept. They go on through a comedy of errors and competence to fulfill the story of "Cain the Liberator," the escapade that first brought him to the attention of important Imperial authorities. The characters are well written, and have a depth roughly equal to their total screen time. The setting feels realistic and true to the atmosphere of the 40K universe. M. Mitchell writes excellent action scenes, specializing in close, hand-to-hand combat and the not inconsiderable chainsword skills of Commissaar Cain. However, as much as he attempts to make Cain the self-serving coward, the Commissar tends to do the right thing regardless. His style of leadership and his dealings with others may stem from a desire to further his "undeserved and inflated" reputation - or fear - but regardless of the motivation, it still tends to be spot on. As bravery can be defined as doing the right thing in the face of fear, the charge of cowardice seems a bit far-fetched at times. In short: this is a fun, light-spirited read that will resonate especially well with 40K fans. I was entertained throughout, and M. Mitchell's writing skills continue to improve. However, if you like this, I highly recommend reading its "progenitor," the Flashman series.

Commissar Ciaphas Cain and his malodorous gunner Jurgen escape from a disastrous space battle when they jettison in a life pod. However, they end up crash landing on the planet Perlia, behind enemy lines. While fighting off orks, they must try to join up with their military comrades. Problem is that there is A LOT of desert to travel through, not to mention hundreds of thousands of barbaric orks in their way. They stumble across some scattered troops as they pass devastated towns. Cain's happy since it should put more bodies between himself and the orks. But quite a few civilians tag along as well, which means Cain and Jurgen find themselves within the heaviest fire of the conflicts. **** The latest Cain adventure is compiled by Vail once again. This episode is during Cain's early years and he is still a bit wet behind the ears. There are no hilarious, but serious, quotes at the beginning of each chapter (I missed them very much.) and there are a few too many pointless footnotes. Yet I still found the tale to be humorous and well written as always. Author Sandy Mitchell has a winner with this series and I hope he releases another Cain novel soon! **** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Sandy's writing is probably of the same caliber as most popular sci-fi writer's today, but let's face it, if you're reading this kind of material it's not because you want to delve into the inner working of the human mind or plumb the depths of life's inherent bias, it's because you want to be entertained. All of the Caiphas Cain novels to date have done that and this one is no different. Other reviews have done a fair job of describing the style and even plot of the book, so I'll focus on how it extends the series. If you've been paying careful attention while reading the previous 3 novels, you'll have realized that Sandy has been building up to some tremendous event far off in Cain's future. The back story in this novel really serves to tease and tantalize (sp?) us as to that event (already revealed to be related to the 13th Black Crusade). Whether we'll actually ever get to experience that event is clearly in doubt (since the premise of the series is that it is based on some memoires written several years before that ultimate adventure), but the tidbits Sandy drops in this installment only make you want the next novel all the more.

I enjoy all of Sandy Mitchel's Ciaphas tales. They add something human to the often inhuman 40k Universe. This book was not quite five stars, because somehow Cain is a little less self serving than in the previous books, but it is a terrific story with a lot of fun. I have to say that Jurgen rocks the house. If you like any of the Ciaphas Cain novels, you'll definately like this one. I just hope that the author keeps up the series, because I love reading about Commissar Cain.

This book was worth waiting on. The Ciaphas Cain novels are the only books in the Black Library that have any real humor built into them. It was a pleasent suprise to read a Cain novel that had nothing to do with the 597th, because by the time he is attatched to the 597th, he is already a living legend. This book is the story about the campaign that cemented Cain's status as a hero of the Imperium, so those of us who have read the other three novels will not be all that suprised by the ending, but Death or Glory is a great book to read. As always, i really enjoyed seeing how Cain's atempts to look out for #1 end up making him a legend. Another big plus is the length of the novel; i thought that the 2 books before Death or Glory were just too short. I also liked the twist of Cain being forced to cooperate with the PDF forces for him to survive, since he seems to hate every PDF member he has ever come across. Like the first reviewer stated, I do really enjoy the quotes at the beginning of each chapter, so it was a little bit of a letdown that they were not included in this book. I would give this novel a 5 star rating, but because there are no quotes, and there was no way for the ending to hold any suprises, I am going to give Death or Glory 4.5 stars.