The Greater Good by Sandy Mitchell: Book Review

With this post we welcome our volunteer David onto our blogging team. He's also working on another book review for us, so you'll be hearing more from him soon.

 

Darren





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The Greater Good - A Ciaphas Cain Novel

Sandy Mitchell’s “Cain” series is a much more tongue in cheek example of life in the Warhammer 40K universes Imperium of man. Where many books try to show the horror and futility of life in those dark times, the Cain novels have humour reminiscent of Blackadder.
Indeed the nature of the relationship of Cain and his aide is like that of Blackadder and Baldrick. (The books are also very reminiscent of the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser - Darren)

This particular book is, in my opinion, a lesser example of his work. The book is a typical example of the Cain series, in that it is written in the form of the commissar’s unofficial memoir edited by an Inquisitor for distribution among a select few.
This style of writing is undeniably fast paced and humorous, the Commissars own take on events as well as the commentary from the Inquisitor makes for an entertaining read.

In the earlier examples of the Cain novels this style of writing is used to mention the future of past exploits of Cain as tangents. The details mentioned are self-contained and add to the overall narrative. Unfortunately this book relies heavily on the reader having read the previous book “The Last Ditch” and if you haven’t you miss out on a significant amount of the story of the book.
The title of the book as well as the cover art would suggest that the story would focus on diplomatic relations between the Imperium and the Tau, however those hoping for such will be disappointed.

However when all is said and done, it is still an enjoyable book and is recommended.
I would however urge future readers to read “The Last Ditch” first so that you can fully enjoy the story. Readers new to Cain would be advised to start with any other book from the series. They are all excellent ‘slice of life’ style books that can be enjoyed in any order.

David