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I have some travel coming up and I'm looking to restock my pulp fiction collection.

Also how are the later Gaunts Ghosts books I gave up around 2003, when he killed Brag and had the aweful deus ex machina, chaos fleet destroying, shrine gun thing.

I haven't managed to finish a whole one myself, but from what I hear (and what little I've read they're pretty good)
I think it's that he's more sane than pretty much everyone around him (a.k.a coward/ish) but he has the most amazing luck in surviving.


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Guant killed Brag?
After Sabbat Matyr series the only real goodish one was Traitor General. After (and including) that they just got REAL depressing.

No after Abnett killed Bragg of not Gaunt.

I like all of then new Gaunt books they are pretty good.

The Shrine gun thing, I thought it did something in the warp? I don't remember all i know is I liked that one the least.

Wait there were good parts to it like the tank battle that wasn't too bad.

I don't remember the shrine gun thingy, but i have a poor memory when it comes to these things. I like most of the gaunt series with armour of contempt begin my least favorite. Just remember what your reading. I have gone on a omnibus reading bender lately. Wife'sbeen in the hospital. With the expection of the c.s goto one the all were entertaining and you can't beat the price.

Wasn't the shrine thing about them discovering a living saint? Saint Sabbat? And for some reason the pipe-boy Milo (or something) ditches them.

Anyway, after that it gets pretty grim. I heard that Cain is always a laugh becuase it is from a sane person's view. Not a suicidaly brave Guant or Sphaz Marin

Honestly I'm tired of commissars after Gaunt's Ghosts (which is an awesome series).
I also enjoyed the Space Wolf series, but are the new ones (not written by King) any good?

Cain looks good... (look hurt)

If you like George MacDonald Fraser, You'll like the Cain books.
They are identical in style, and the characters are clearly lifted from his work.
Cain=Flashman

The cain books are a great read; quite sarcastic sometimes and always funny. They feature a variety of races and, what I think is very cool, show more of the civil life in the Imperium. For example, Cain mentiones a holo-series ( aka TV ) about a squadron of imperial starfighters doing heroic deeds in the gothic war called " Interceptor Squadron". Also, there is a scene where a council of politicians is attacked by a chaos-cultist-terrorist. Cain kills him; all the other people in the room flee for the evelators and leave the building some levels deeper. Cain decides to throw the cadaver of the cultist out of the window. Then he remembers the group being downstairs, runs to the window and says the great sentence.: " I was lucky; the cultist had been quashed on another roof; not causing much damage."

Cain is pretty good, mixes a good amount of grimdark with sarcasm. Running away from tyranids on a chimera only to run into the main force, and then run away firing the gun to make it look like it was on purpose? Perfect equation for war hero.

Comrade Amadayeus wrote:Cain is pretty good, mixes a good amount of grimdark with sarcasm. Running away from tyranids on a chimera only to run into the main force, and then run away firing the gun to make it look like it was on purpose? Perfect equation for war hero.

Hell yeah. Cain is a great Character because he is not some Superimmortal Badass Commissar, he's just some poor shmuch who gets lucky way too much.

Having read the Cain books I Heartily recommend them.

They're the humorous antidote to the "grim darkness of the far future." I read 'em and enjoyed 'em.

I read the last one of the series (its a reading thing i do, know how the series ends, read the rest to make an understanding of it) And i absolutly loved it start to finish

The humour and character of cain and ofcourse his mate, ill say no more, are just really nice additions to the story

Assuming its going to be my first time reading a 40k book, what series should I go for?

Ultramarines
Gaunt Ghosts
Cain

Dakkadood wrote:Assuming its going to be my first time reading a 40k book, what series should I go for?

Ultramarines
Gaunt Ghosts
Cain

Cain by far

Is this the series written by the guy who thinks lasguns are the most powerful handheld weapons in the universe and they can blow off a marine's head or make a dreadnought explode?

Also check out the ravenor series

Cheese Elemental wrote:Is this the series written by the guy who thinks lasguns are the most powerful handheld weapons in the universe and they can blow off a marine's head or make a dreadnought explode?

Not really, the few times tht cain has to deal with chaos space marines, he usually finds the best weapon for the job is a meltagun. This meltagun gets used a lot.

the cain books are the most enjoyable 40k books i ever read. they lack most of the rambo nature of the gaunt books (a series i also read and enjoy, just markedly less) and have a sense of humor unsurpassed in the 40k universe (outside of TSOALR). at one point, cain makes fun of gaunt when a valhallan screams "Who wants to live forever!!" while charging a tank. he says, "who says that kind of crap! that sounds like a cheap adventure holonovel!" or something to that jist.

lol!!!!!!
I have been converted! Ave Cain Imperator!

I liked all of the Cain books except for the last one. You pretty much can't go wrong with most of the books based on the I.G. or the Inquisition. With the exception of the Space Wolves, I find most of the Space Marine novels dreadfully dull.

The Cain books are pure awesome. They even manage to reference Dad's Army as a PDF unit

Also he just seems to wander about the galaxy, avoiding trouble to the best of his ability and getting laid. As mentioned above they are a 40k version of the Flashman novels, with the misogyny toned down rather a lot.

Get the omnibus if it's still around. It collects the first 3 books, which are the best in my opinion. After reading those I started to get a little tired of the series, since the books generally follow a formula.

Definitely some of the better 40k books I've read. I also have one of the comic book collections; "Only War". None of the stories make a whole hell of a lot of sense, but the art is really pretty.