Grailkeeper
12-14-2010, 05:51 PM
"The bulk of what follows, however, is pure unadulterated Cain, and as idiosyncratic as ever"
So ends Inquisitor Vails introduction to the latest Cain novel. Its a high enough standard that Sandy Mitchell has set himself, during this review I'll let you decide if he has reached it.
Without giving away any specific spoilers this novel follows the usual black library format. 1 big battle at the start, a smaller one in the middle and another at the end. What makes this different is that Sandy Mitchell gives us a healthy dose of humour throughout that's absent from most of the other 40k novels.
Sandy Mitchell is particularly good at fleshing out characters and parts of the imperium we are used to and making them more human and every day and maybe little less grim dark. His take on things is alwasy interesting. I was therefore a little disappointed at his take on Marines. This book makes no secret of the fact that its Cain + Marines in detail for the first time. Unfortunately we only really get to know maybe 2 of the marines only one of whom is interesting. He doesn't flesh them out in my opinion as well as he normally does, sticking instead to the image of marines we are used to - superhuman and remote and obsessed with their own traditions. We do learn one or two interesting factoids on what its like to be around space marines but not that many.
The book also suffers a little as its set before some of the other novels, so we know no matter how dangerous things get he'll always end up ok, we also know some of the things he has yet to learn
On the other hand we get to see Cain acting more like the Flashman he was inspired by and learn a bit more about how much of a Lady-Killer he is. The jokes are as strong as ever and the non Marine characters are well fleshed out. Some of the jokes are particularly subtle so the book is definitely worth re-reading.
I'd say this book is as good as any of his other novels, but it could have been better- If only we'd gotten to know more about the space marines and their individual personalities. Altough I suppose it is a bit much complaining when an author sticks to the established fluff- unhuman heroic killing machines drawn by tradition
If you like Cain- read this book, If you've never read cain then I'd advise you to start. If you're a die hard fan buy the expensive hardback otherwise wait till it comes out in paperback
7/10
P.S. The books should be read in the order they were written, not the order in which the events take place
P.P.S. My first time reviewing something be gentle, I didn't want to give any spoilers
So ends Inquisitor Vails introduction to the latest Cain novel. Its a high enough standard that Sandy Mitchell has set himself, during this review I'll let you decide if he has reached it.
Without giving away any specific spoilers this novel follows the usual black library format. 1 big battle at the start, a smaller one in the middle and another at the end. What makes this different is that Sandy Mitchell gives us a healthy dose of humour throughout that's absent from most of the other 40k novels.
Sandy Mitchell is particularly good at fleshing out characters and parts of the imperium we are used to and making them more human and every day and maybe little less grim dark. His take on things is alwasy interesting. I was therefore a little disappointed at his take on Marines. This book makes no secret of the fact that its Cain + Marines in detail for the first time. Unfortunately we only really get to know maybe 2 of the marines only one of whom is interesting. He doesn't flesh them out in my opinion as well as he normally does, sticking instead to the image of marines we are used to - superhuman and remote and obsessed with their own traditions. We do learn one or two interesting factoids on what its like to be around space marines but not that many.
The book also suffers a little as its set before some of the other novels, so we know no matter how dangerous things get he'll always end up ok, we also know some of the things he has yet to learn
On the other hand we get to see Cain acting more like the Flashman he was inspired by and learn a bit more about how much of a Lady-Killer he is. The jokes are as strong as ever and the non Marine characters are well fleshed out. Some of the jokes are particularly subtle so the book is definitely worth re-reading.
I'd say this book is as good as any of his other novels, but it could have been better- If only we'd gotten to know more about the space marines and their individual personalities. Altough I suppose it is a bit much complaining when an author sticks to the established fluff- unhuman heroic killing machines drawn by tradition
If you like Cain- read this book, If you've never read cain then I'd advise you to start. If you're a die hard fan buy the expensive hardback otherwise wait till it comes out in paperback
7/10
P.S. The books should be read in the order they were written, not the order in which the events take place
P.P.S. My first time reviewing something be gentle, I didn't want to give any spoilers