Review: For the Emperor

For the Emperor by Sandy Mitchell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Caiphas Cain, Commissar and hero of the Imperium, is basically the 40k version of Tanya Degurechaff from The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Vol. 1: Deus lo Vult. if you haven't read that book yet, why haven't you? Go and read that right now. A simple descriptor of that story is a middle-aged man reincarnated as a young girl, becomes a conscripted child soldier in an alternate history pre-WWI era Imperial Prussia, with mages acting like aerial weapons. Where she uses her knowledge of real-world military history, as well as her considerable intellect, to commit war crimes which technically are compliant to the Geneva convention. Intrigued? Go read it.

Caiphas Cain is much like Tanya, in the sense that, the last thing he wants to do, is to be in the frontlines fighting a war. Or facing down heretics, Xenos or chaos. Unfortunately for him, he happened to be form in the world of 40k, where according to its tagline.

In the grim darkness of 41st millennium, there is only war

Growing up in the theocratical dictatorship that is the Imperium, the life of the average person is barely better than a serf or slave. And that's the lucky ones. The unlucky ones end up being literal slaves, lobotomized as man-machine hybrids to perform mundane tasks. Or be part of a servile population, where entire generations give birth and die within the filthy under hives of some hive city, or abroad the slave crew of some Imperial warship, or any other legion death worlds or hellscapes that make up the Imperium of Mankind.

These are the fates which are relatively better compared to others. Who have to face the constant onslaught of chaos incursions, Ork warbands, Tyranid swarms, Necron automatons, or.... the Drukhari, brrr nuff said.

So, contrary of common sense, the best place where a self-proclaimed coward and selfish asshole like Cain can be the safest is in the frontlines. Surrounded by an entire army's worth of well-armed, well armored meat shields to keep him safe.

For you see, everyone's beloved commissar has a secret superpower, a couple in fact. For one, he has, as one lore youtuber put it, the collective common sense of all humanity in the 40k setting. Now, remember how this is a setting where space faring armies, prefer to use pre-world war era surge tactics, and whose literal doctrine boils down to 'if there is a problem, keep throwing bodies at it'. Where warfare is fought and won by emotions, and sheer soviet era human wave attrition, this is saying something.

So, having a good head on your shoulders, and having a healthy amount of common sense, makes you a literal demigod in this setting. Plus, in an effort to maintain the loyalty of his troops, and to make sure they don't shoot him in the back during the thick of battle, Cain inadvertently treats them quite well. Which ironically, causes them to deify him, and be willing to give their very lives to save his.

His second superpower is his ungodly amounts of luck, which gets him out of borderline suicidal situations, due to happy coincidences or regular deus ex machinas. That's right; Our man has weaponized plot armor. And almost everything that he does, ends up making him look like more of a hero, and works ultimately to his benefit.

But an aspect of his personality, which we are privy to, is how, despite calling himself a selfish coward, he regularly treats those troops he's InCharge of with respect and goes to great lengths to protect them. Sure, he says that's to make sure his meat shields are all well and good, but you only need to see the way he interacts with his aide and right-hand man, the taciturn and laconic Jurgen. Somehow who's largely shunned by regular troops for his particular bodily disposition.... he stinks. (Which might be because of his status as a blank, as we later learn).

Cain treats Jurgen well as his right-hand man, and in turn Jurgen is fiercely loyal to the Commissar. This is a running theme.

These character traits, as well as the disparity between how Cain behaves externally versus what his contrary thought processes are what makes the relatively simple narrative a pleasure to read. (At least by 40k standards; I mean, there are no planet ending threats, genetically engineered super soldiers, barely a whiff of chaos).

The story is written in a manner reminiscent to Dune; wherein what we're reading are essentially consolidated journal entries from the Commissar, following his retirement, compiled with his 'special friend', one Inquisitor Amberly Vail. Whose chemistry with the commissar on the pages is quite engaging to read.

I feel this was a good entry point to these series of books. Hoping to get to read more entertaining stories about the good Commissar's happy adventures in the coming time.



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