Ciaphas Cain (Novel Series)
From Lexicanum
The Ciaphas Cain series are Dark Comedy/Action-Adventure novels written by Sandy Mitchell that follow the life of Imperial Commissar Ciaphas Cain. The first novel, For the Emperor, was first published in 2003 with Caves of Ice coming out in 2004, The Traitor's Hand in 2005, Death or Glory in 2006 and Duty Calls in 2007. A sixth, Cain's Last Stand, will come out in November 2008 in the UK. They are all published by BL Publishing. The first three novels, as well as the short stories Fight or Flight, Echoes of the Tomb and The Beguiling, were collected into a single omnibus entitled Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium in 2007.
 Cover illustration by Clint Langley. ISBN 1-84416-050-5 |
 Cover illustration by Clint Langley. ISBN 1-84416-070-X |
 Cover illustration by Clint Langley. ISBN 1-84416-187-0 |
 Cover illustration by Clint Langley. ISBN 1-84416-287-7 |
 Cover illustration by Clint Langley. ISBN 1-84416-465-9 |
 Cover illustration by Clint Langley. ISBN 1-84416-555-1 |
 Cover illustration by Clint Langley. ISBN 1-84416-466-0 |
Contents |
Overview
The Ciaphas Cain series is written by Sandy Mitchell and follows the career of Commissar Ciaphas Cain. The commissar is considered a great hero of the Imperium and always praised for his courage and resourcefulness. He himself has another opinion: he wants only a safe little spot with a small workload. However despite his efforts (or perhaps because of these efforts) to be in the safest place possible, Ciaphas somehow always manages to get himself in the most dangerous situations and is forced to save his hide, which tends to inflate his status even further!
Plot Summaries
For the Emperor is Commissar Ciaphas Cain’s debut into novels, having only appeared in the short story Fight or Flight before this point. The commissar, after being plucked from his somewhat cushy attachment to the 12th Valhallan field artillery, is attached directly to Brigade Headquarters for what he thinks will be an easy job of data file shuffling and organizing the occasional firing squad. This seems not to be the case as he is constantly being attached to outfits that are placed upon missions that could be lightly referred to as suicidal. Wishing to save himself from the people who think him a hero, Cain places a transfer request. He then finds himself, along with his faithful aide Jurgen, to be attached to the Valhallan 296th/301st, actually two under strength regiments with radically different backgrounds, not including the fact that the 296th is an all-women regiment. Cain has to survive the growing pains of this newly reconsolidated and violate fighting force and their christening by fire on Gravalax, a backwater planet that has come under the sway of the radical Tau race. After the mysterious assassination of a Tau leader in the middle of a party being hosted by the planetary governor, Cain is embroiled into a conspiracy that brings him face to face with a beautiful Inquisitor name Amberley Vail of the Ordo Xenos.
In Caves of Ice, the second novel, Commissar Ciaphas Cain and his regiment of Valhallan guardsmen are deployed to the Ice World of Simia Orichalcae to combat an Ork Invasion. There are rumours of evil in this insignificant backwater mining colony and Cain is nominated to investigate mysterious events down in the mines. Unbeknownst to him an ancient evil begins to stir deep in the ice caves. Having to deal with Orks on the surface, unseen horrors in the dark depths of the planet and the freezing temperature of the planet itself that seem to try to strangle the life out of the commissar while only boosting the morale of his Valhallans, Cain must once again make his way through another adventure of bowl-clenching terror.
In The Traitor's Hand, the third novel in the series, we rejoin Cain on his adventures across the galaxy. After completing a relatively uneventful campaign on the world of Kastafore against the Orks, astropathic reports of Chaos raiders calling themselves the Ravagers come in from the Holy Navy saying that the raiders are heading for the Adumbria system. Cain and the Valhallan 597th, alongside several other regiments including the Tallarn 229th whose attached regimental commissar turns out to be an old acquaintance of Cain’s named Tomas Beije, set out to defend the unremarkable backwater. As they make planetfall and set up the defenses of the world against the incoming chaos raiders, heretical Slaaneshi cultists reveal themselves and an insidious plot to bring forth an unspeakable evil slowly unfolds as Cain and the Imperial forces fight for their very souls.
In Death or Glory, we find Cain once again in the mix of things. A prequel to the first two novels in the series, Cain is still attached to the Valhallan 12th field artillery when the story begins. After being forced to board an escape shuttle to survive a disastrous space battle with ambushing Orkish invaders that damages the troopship he is in, Cain is reported dead in the gunfire and confusion. Landing behind enemy lines after three weeks, and after the fleet he was with makes planetfall on Perlia themselves, Cain and his aide Jurgen must make their way through an entire continent of greenskins with nothing but the supplies aboard the shuttle, what they can scrap from the Orks, and what remnants of the Perlian PDF that they can round up as they make their way back to Imperial lines.
In Duty Calls, Cain arrives on the planet of Periremunda, a bizarre world of plateaux rising above deserts and lava flows, alongside the Valhallan 597th to stem its rioting populace and prevent a full-on rebellion. After arriving on the planet and surviving an attempt on his life by Genestealer hybrids alongside a few of their purestrain brethren in the city streets, things on Periremunda get more and more interesting as the Inquisitor Amberley Vail shows up and whisks Cain into a tumult of conspiracies, encroaching Hive Fleets and mysterious Chaos cults. Before the war is over Cain will have to survive many more attempts on his life, as it would seem that Vail, in an attempt to draw attention away from herself and her investigations, has made out the commissar to be the figurehead of the entire campaign and personal witch hunter!
In Cain's Last Stand - which is due for release in November 2008 - Cain is retired and living on Perlia, the planet he defended in Death or Glory, where he teaches at a Schola Progenium. But the 13th Black Crusade of Abaddon the Despoiler has broken out, and Cain and his cadets are called into service. As the forces of Chaos overwhelm Perlia, Cain is forced to command the defense of the planet and hope that his luck doesn't run out...
Covers
There is a little confusion over the covers of the novels and their representations of Cain. The artwork by Clint Langley, on all six covers, show Cain with a bolter or bolters, while in the stories themselves show that Cain never uses those weapons, especially dual wielding them as seen on the cover of Death or Glory, and prefers to use his standard issue laspistol as a sidearm in conjunction with his chainsword. This is generally accepted by most readers to be Imperial propaganda showing Cain as a heroic individual as he is supposed to be in the eyes of the everyday Imperial citizen.
