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It didn’t take long to order another Ciaphas Cain novel after reading Hero of the Imperium. I was impressed with that selection of stories and chose Vainglorious as my next foray into the Cain life story. As before, it didn’t disappoint.
In Vainglorious, Cain is called upon again to deal with a problem. Desperately seeking retirement, Cain is nevertheless pushed into harm’s way, with his ever-faithful and reliable aide Jurgen, complete with odour and melta gun, often unremarked upon or simply ignored, Jurgen too remains a hero.
Rather than a series of stories, Vainglorious focuses on a mission, an important mission to save possibly an entire sector. Cain with his usual knack of seeking to avoid danger yet being thrust into the heart of the problem, nevertheless manages to be a hero once more. Despite his reticence he still plunges in and carries out bold and daring actions that belie his apparent strong desire to avoid life-threatening scenarios. Sure, he still wishes for the easy life, but Cain has that great sense of doing what is right, what works and motivating others. He gets results and in so doing he is able to maintain his hero status, save the sector and his own skin at the same time.
The author has maintained the good humour found in other cain stories, a humour that actually enhances Cain’s reputation. On the surface he seems a coward, yet his actions and his anecdotes suggest otherwise and perhaps there is simply a healthy sense of self-preservation coupled with an uncanny ability to be just where he needs to be and a good sense of duty. I recommend Vainglorious and I’ll let the reader decide. The only thing I didn’t like is the story isn’t longer, but to be fair, the length works for the storyline.
Things I like: Good humour, engaging story, good thematic source material for 40K RPGs.
Things you may not like: Not long enough, but seriously I’ve nothing to complain about.