Ciaphas Cain: The Anthology

Ciaphas Cain #Anthology

by Sandy Mitchell

A Ciaphas Cain Anthology

This book brings together 13 uproarious short stories and one novella, focused on Ciaphas Cain, Hero of the Imperium. His stories are celebrated as heroic propaganda pieces, but he’s simply trying to stay alive in a hostile galaxy.

READ IT BECAUSE
Ciaphas Cain doesn’t mean to be a hero – he just can’t seem to help it. While trying to escape certain death, he somehow achieves unlikely victory after victory in the wildest and most dangerous warzones of the galaxy, to hilarious effect.

THE STORY
Ciaphas Cain is a true hero. Brave, stalwart, uncompromising, a cool head under fire… or is he? His legend has spread far and wide, but only Cain himself knows the truth behind his long and storied career.

Until now.

Inquisitor Amberley Vail once more delves into the Cain archive to present a selection of the man’s greatest and strangest exploits. From Cain and the Valhallan 597th hunting down the source of a warp-tainted infection that threatens to overwhelm the world of Lentonia with a starving horde of undead, to his early years with the Valhallan 12th Field Artillery fending off a tyranid invasion on a barren mining world, to the mysterious death of a fellow commissar that sees Cain’s life at risk (once again) as the killer’s attention turns to him…

CONTENTS
This anthology contains the novella Old Soldiers Never Die and the following short stories:

- Fight or Flight
- The Beguiling
- Echoes of the Tomb
- Sector Thirteen
- Traitor's Gambit
- A Mug of Recaff
- The Smallest Detail
- The Little Things
- Last Night at the Resplendent
- The Bigger They Are
- The Only Good Ork
- Three Questions
- Rotten to the Core

Genres: Science Fiction, 40k, Audiobook, Fiction, Fantasy, Anthologies

390 pages, ebook

First published August 12, 2023

About the author

Sandy Mitchell is a pseudonym of Alex Stewart, who has been a full-time writer since the mid nineteen eighties. The majority of his work as Sandy has been tie-in fiction for Games Workshop's Warhammer fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 science fiction lines. The exceptions have been a novelisation of episodes from the high tech thriller series Bugs, for which he also worked as a scriptwriter under his own name, some Warhammer roleplaying game material, and a scattering of short stories and magazine articles.

His hobbies include the martial arts of Aikido and Iaido, miniature wargaming, role-playing games, and pottering about on the family allotment.

He lives in the North Essex village of Earls Colne, with his wife Judith and daughter Hester.

Reviews

[Andrés G. saravia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mi libro favorito de 40k hasta el momento. Lleno de sátira y humor en el "grim dark future".

[Levy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun sci-fi adventures, following the antics of the legendary Commissar Cain.

[Bookish Barbarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium – An Anthology

This collection is a blast from start to finish. Each story—some short, some longer—adds another fun chapter to the ever-growing legend of Commissar Ciaphas Cain. From chaotic battles to his trademark mix of luck, quick thinking, and reluctant heroism, every tale captures what makes Cain such a great character. The mix of action, humor, and self-aware storytelling keeps things fresh, and even the shorter pieces manage to pack in plenty of excitement. If you’re a fan of Cain’s misadventures (or just like a good laugh mixed with grimdark 40k), this anthology is definitely worth picking up.

[Luke Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious and entertaining collection of short stories that further flesh out the story of Ciaphas Cain as he balances preserving his reputation as the Hero of the Imperium and keeping his hide in one piece, always a difficult prospect when his superiors keep throwing him into the path of the most dangerous horrors the 41st millennium can conjure...

[Set Sytes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I'm utterly alone in this, because others seem to love them, but my personal take is that every Ciaphas Cain story would be improved if there were no footnotes. Nine out of ten times they are pointless, adding nothing of value - but more than that, I feel they actively detract from the story. They don't just interrupt the flow; they frequently draw attention to weak writing, or rather, make the writing seem weaker than it is. Most of the time they do nothing more than clarify things that simply don't need clarifying, or could have been clarified in text. "It's unclear if Cain means X or Y..." - about an utterly unimportant sentence. Just make it clear in the original prose or let the reader wonder! It's even worse when the footnotes are trying to be funny. The more pages go by without a footnote, the better the experience.

Anyway, I prefer when I can read the stories as just decent, entertaining pulp. Honestly, they're better when they're taking themselves seriously. Unfortunately, I don't think the short story format really works too well for them here, because it highlights the repetitiveness (e.g. mention of Jurgen's body odour in every story), and doesn't allow anything to build or grow beyond thin, quick plots which don't really stick in my memory. Admittedly, it's rare I prefer short stories full stop. I only got this collection because no omnibuses after the first are in print and I'd felt that the individual novels had improved after the first.

Despite my criticisms here (which as usual make it sound like I hated it), it's enjoyable, varied and a light, easy read.

3.5.

[Chip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew almost nothing about Warhammer coming into this but it was just like any sci-fi book that doesn't do an exposition dump at the start. You can use the wiki for terms too although things like "Psycher" for psychic, "medi-pack" for first aid kit are obvious enough.

This was sold as being like Blackadder and it is, you have a funny, quick witted main character and a smelly, less intelligent (but not Baldrick level) loyal sidekick. The stories were good too. Sort of like villain of the week stuff in a sitcom but with different monsters or factions in each and plenty of action.

The characters don't really change much but most of the stories are plot driven. It's clearly quite light hearted and while funny it didn't make me laugh. Still good though, I enjoyed reading it and might try more in this series. The narration (including with different readers for footnotes) worked well.

[Vlad G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun and deliciously entertaining collection of short stories. Usually anthologies are not my thing, but I made an exception in this case and I did not regret it for a moment. While the focus is on Cain for the most part, the stories do his relationship with Jurgen justice, giving us a few interesting looks on how each of them rises to the occasion.

[Magnus Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and humorous stories in the Warhammer 40k universe, which is exactly what I was looking for!

Cain and Jurgen are a great duo, and their adventures made me chuckle while reading more than a few times! Reading a story on the more street-level Astra Militarum perspective rather than the usual Space Marine one was pretty interesting too!

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of short stories, with one longer novella. A couple of them were from Jurgen's perspective which was a welcome change of pace; all in all a welcome visit back to Ciapha's corner of the Imperium.

[Justin Zheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

like popcorn! Or candy corn if you get tired of tingly palms. I've been recommended 40k novels before and I've probably enjoyed these most because they spend the least amount of time dwelling on the grim-dankness of the setting and have that current of humor, irony, etc. through the journeys

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, adventurous, action. You will enjoy the main characters as they go through impossible situations and somehow miraculously survive. The main characters lack growth or development, but that doesn't stop us from enjoying their tales through the grim dark galaxy.

[Ben Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ciaphas Cain is one of the best protagonists in Warhammer. His imposter syndrome provides a perfect dichotomy to the praise he receives as a Commisar, and his reputation as a whole. Fun and compelling villain of the week style short stories that keep you wanting more.

[Flávio Sousa · Rating 5 out of 5]

40k in 40 words: My first foray into Warhammer 40K after the Horus Heresy, and boy what a choice it was! A lighter, sardonic tone, yet oddly fitting for the grimdark universe. Cain’s misadventures entertain while deepening 40K’s world through irony and reluctant heroism.

[Miles Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny collection of short stories. Cain is a great character and his adventures are funny yet still pretty dark. Jurgen is also great and I appreciate that a couple of the stories were from his pov.

[Ellen Schoener · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories are great, some of the stories are not so great.
But it is Cain, and I find him and his antics enjoyable, so I give this a generous 4 stars.
Fun and entertaining read.

[Patrick Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed all the stories in this anthology. Most had there Cain spin to them and it was fun hearing some stories from his aids point of view. Two thumbs up.

[Jonathan Lacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of these stories make amazing use of the short format.

[Martyn Cockerill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listed on Audiobook.

Just good old fashioned 40k Sci-Fi, scratches an itch & was darkly comedic as well as being really well voice-acted.

[Bookcat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cool listen 😁

[Ulzeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read.

[Thomas Ricks · Rating 5 out of 5]

It doesn't ever seem like you can get enough of Ciaphas Cain, but the Anthology comes close. A wonderful collection of short stories and an incredible novella featuring the walking dead.

[Alexandre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid anthology

[midnightbookreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone's quantity makes up for quality, and because this is a collection of short stories, they end before ever going stale. A great read for any fan of Commissar Ciaphas Cain.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

undoubtedly the worst 40k book I've ever read. I was bored the entire way through.

[Joseph Michael Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars! Can’t wait to read more about the Commissar!

[Deryk Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved these short stories, more please.

[Bethany Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never get tired of hearing about this man's exploits.

[Scrumdungus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun book of everybody's reluctant commissar hero. This book is a collection of shorts of Cain's exploits, and though the stories get a little similar after a while, their fun, pulp, action-y nature keeps things compelling.