Cadian Honour (Volume 2) (Warhammer 40,000)

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This offers a ‘boots on the ground/grunt’s eye view’ perspective on the fall of Cadia, told from multiple Imperial Guard viewpoints and reflecting the chaos and confusion as the Cadians reel from Abaddon’s invasion. As the Warp and its foul denizens claimed the remains of the Fortress World, Lord Castellan Ursarkar E. Creed arranged an evacuation of the planet that saved 3 million of its citizens before the planet finally ripped itself apart -- though not before Creed himself mysteriously disappeared. While it would be a spoiler to delve into who the book's antagonists are, you might be able to guess who they will be very early on. The story tries to partially disguise it as a secret, but it doesn't quite work. In fact, the book seems to half reveal and half disguise who they are at the start, while also trying to establish their presence as a surprise. It never fully works because of this muddled state, in spite of a few genuinely good scenes which makes it look as if this will all come together in the final few chapters. However, even with this considered, they never appeared to be all that engaging. There's a definite logic as to why they were chosen, but even in chapters intended to flesh them out, I never regarded them as more than an obstacle. Unless they are a force of nature like the Tyranids or (in some cases) the Necrons, this rarely works. The few times it does offer their primary characters a chance to speak also doesn't do much to raise them beyond being a general archetype. The Chaos Space Marines regrouped and nurtured their hatred of the Imperium, planning for the day when they would wreak a terrible vengeance on those who had defied them and their foul masters. Within the Eye time flows differently than in realspace. Hill does a great job of building on his work in Cadia Stands, continuing to illustrate the character of the Cadians and demonstrating why they deserve their standing within the Imperium’s military, the latter coming across particularly well in the competitive almost-schadenfreude they inspire in other regiments or forces and the way that spurs them onwards. There’s lots to enjoy for Guard fans here, even if those multiple viewpoints mean the expected protagonists aren’t quite as well developed as you’d expect, and the pace occasionally slows down while new characters are introduced into the mix. Overall it’s a valuable, engaging addition to the ever-growing body of Imperial Guard stories, with a tone and feel that’s distinct to Hill’s style and sets it nicely apart from the rest. On the basis of this it should be fascinating to find out whether the Cadians can survive in the long term now that their world is gone and their reputation so badly damaged.

The first book in the brand new Dawn of Fire series, this effectively takes place as the Indomitus Crusade begins. If you haven’t already read Dark Imperium , this is definitely the place to start with the Era Indomitus stories. There’s lots about Guilliman and masses of great new lore, but also all sorts of interesting arcs featuring the Imperial Navy, the Inquisition and the Administratum. Minka has the advantage of spanning both the old and the new. She was a Whiteshield cadet when the invasion of Cadia began, and was one of the last to get off-planet, after fighting a rearguard action through the ruins of her home world. Though their home planet was utterly sundered, the resolve of the Cadians has not been broken. Veteran survivors of the last battle for Cadia, along with regiments of their kin scattered throughout the galaxy, now fight even more doggedly against the Imperium's enemies.No one can break the Astra Militarum when they’re dug in, and the Aegis Defence Line is the perfect redoubt. This set contains two defence lines each consisting of six connected barricades and a central command platform. However, some scenes were enjoyable or entertaining to read (I won't spoil them) but there were too few and far between for me.

The Cadian Pylons created the unusual area of realspace stability known as the Cadian Gate near the Eye of Terror that was unaffected by the constant Warp Storms that surround that Warp rift. Cadia's location directly adjacent to the dangerous Eye of Terror made it necessary for the people of Cadia to fortify the planet to an extent where almost the entire population lived in massive fortress-cities known locally as " kasrs." Cadian Armoured Regiment, "Rolling Thunder" - The 81st Cadian were also known as the "Gunheads". They fought on the Ork World of Golgatha where they were at first lead by Colonel Kochatkis Vinneman, and later by Lieutenant Gossefried van Droi. Yes, The Devastation of Baal is included twice in this list on purpose. See later on in the article for more details of why (TL;DR due to Warp/time shenanigans it spans quite a wide range of time). Cadia itself was a bleak, merciless and wind-blown planet, where only the strongest survived to adulthood and discipline was learned from the moment a babe took his or her first steps. Cold winds howled across wide, sundered plains where armies trained with live ammunition and every solar day not spent training was believed to be a day wasted. Every Cadian fortress-city, or " Kasr," was a massive citadel, with the streets and buildings fashioned with great tactical cunning by the finest military engineers and siege specialists of the Astra Militarum.

Customer reviews

Book 2 in the Dawn of Fire series, this portrays the next steps in the early stages of the Indomitus Crusade. It takes place on/on the way to Gathalamor, as a mixed force of Imperial soldiery – led by Shield-Captain Achallor of the Custodes – races to keep the vital shrine world from Abaddon’s grip. It’s a bit more of an all-out action story than Avenging Son, but it’s a fun read and it expands the scope of the series even if it’s not exactly a sequel to the first book. The whole premise of Cadia’s fall seemed horribly beautiful and appealing to me as a fan of Warhammer 40,000. Unfortunately, I can’t say that my interest was in any way sated after reading Cadian Honour. The book starts relatively well, but then it settles into what I can only describe as mind-numbing tedium for the first 65% or so. That’s not to say that there isn’t some good old-fashioned grim-style violence, but it just felt like it all was more ‘for the sake of putting it in’ rather than for furthering the story. After the full-on chaos of Cadia Stands, the second novel in the series is still very much a war story but it also expands out to encompass a little bit of political and religious intrigue. The plot is based around the 101st defending the world of Potence from Chaos forces, fighting to survive while still adjusting to their new post-Cadia reality. Despite its billing as a Minka Lesk story I’d say it’s still more about the wider 101st than just Minka, but it’s a good continuation of the series. I know we’re not supposed to judge books by their covers, but this one definitely has my favourite cover of any Cadian novel! The jumping around stories I know some didn’t like but I felt that it aided the narrative of soldiers fighting for their lives as the cities crumble, wondering what’s coming next. The prose though is rather brisk and dry though so apart from a few characters you don’t get a lot of depth for the people involved in the battles, just a bunch of battle scenes spliced together, and at times can read like a report.

The vast majority of what I’ve mentioned so far has shown events from an Imperial viewpoint, but there are a few books which take a look from different perspectives as well. These are all set after the Great Rift has taken place. Because of its heavy concentration on military matters, Cadia's global economy is dominated by the manufacture of various weapons systems and exports vast numbers of weapons to its neighbouring Imperial planets, while importing very little other than food. Many other worlds use Cadian equipment to arm their own Imperial Guard regiments, which explains how the Cadian Patterns of personal armour and infantry weapons have become the standard for the entire Astra Militarum. It was the fourth world of the Cadian System, and its surface contained a wide variety of terrain types and ecosystems, including frozen tundras, temperate plains, wind-swept moors and the great native axel-tree forests. In a galaxy replete with mysteries, the Cadian Pylons were amongst the most enduring. There were over five thousand such edifices scattered across the surface of Cadia before the fall, each one standing some five hundred yards above the surface, and reaching two hundred and fifty yards below. Reports differ, but it was understood that there could have been anywhere between two and three thousand more concealed below ground as the result of tectonic movement down the ages. In the wake of its destruction, the remains of Cadia in the Era Indomitus were resettled by the forces of Chaos. It has since become a Chaos stronghold at the heart of a burgeoning new Renegade empire close to the Eye of Terror terminus of the Great Rift.JH: I think this one came out pretty much as planned. It’s the first one I’m thinking at publication: YES! – this is what I wanted to write and I’ve done it. Basically, we jump from one group of characters to the other with no development whatsoever between battles. And there are a lot of battles. Yet among the few survivors of Cadia was a handful of Imperial heroes who had successfully escaped the destruction of the Fortress World with the aid of the newborn Aeldari faction known as the Ynnari. The combined forces fled through a Webway gate found on the ice moon of Klaisus in the Cadian System. Other Astra Militarum regiments model their recruitment and training practices on Cadian doctrine, or seek to equip their forces in the Cadian style. All are eager to emulate a world so heavily militarised that it was said its people were taught how to field-strip and shoot a lasgun before they could even read.