Sometimes silly, sometimes confused, but always a hero. These aliens want to talk to him, and of course, Cain is Cain. First, he has to deal with the unstable political situation on Gravalax where he meets the tau aliens. For the Emperorįor the Emperor follows Cain at the command (spiritual command) of a fragmented Valhallan regiment, where he has to unite the regiment before coming face to face with the enemy. And then if you want more, well, there’s always more Cain. If you have to read one thing, read this short story. Compared to the rest of the novels, the humor here comes forth because of the personality of the main character, Cain himself. It must be one of the most fun SF fantasy stories I’ve ever read. No wonder fans wanted more Cain after that story and no wonder Games Workshop gave this character a full series. Hero of the Imperium – the good and the badįirst, I need to mention the short story Fight or Flight, which is delicious. Which is not bad per se, but we can tell. The humor in the Cain Ciaphas series is, well, forced. To be honest, I found Fifteen Hours by Mitchel Scanlon to be more humorous, because the humor there naturally arose from the absurdity of the situation. Having read it, I can tell you it has more fun and soul than many Warhammer 40k books, but I wouldn’t call it excessively humorous. People say it resembles Blackadder in space (Warhammer 40K Universe, more specifically), but as I never watched that series, I don’t know what to tell you.

Cain, while still heroic by any standard, is very concerned about one thing: how to stay alive and look good doing it. It is often said that this is the most humorous series of the Warhammer 40K Universe, and if you’ve only read Space Marines stories, you already know almost anything is more cheery than those guys. Released for the first time in 2007, it contains the novels For the Emperor (published: 2003), Caves of Ice (2004), and The Traitor’s Hand (2005), as well as the short stories Fight or Flight, Echoes of the Tomb, and The Beguiling. Hero of the Imperium omnibus, written by Sandy Mitchell, collects the first three novels in the Cain Ciaphas series, and a few short stories. The adventures of Ciaphas Cain, imperial commissar and unlikely hero, start in the Hero of the Imperium omnibus, where only the finest heroic tales are collected by your favorite inquisitor, someone you’ll soon meet in the first book.

And that’s how a hero of the imperium is made. And if not, at least you get to live another day.

That is because you can still keep your heroic appearance if your soldiers won the battle. The best time to run is just before you see the enemy.

Hero of the Imperium by Sandy Mitchell