Cadian Honour

By: Justin D Hill

Narrated by: Colleen Prendergast

Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

An Astra Militarum novel 

Sent to the capital world of Potence, Sergeant Minka Lesk and the Cadian 101st discover that though Cadia may have fallen, their duty continues.  

Listen to it because:

It's the follow-up to Cadia Stands and continues the journey of Minka Lesk and her warriors as they seek revenge against the Imperium's enemies for the loss of their world.  

The story:

For 10,000 years, Cadia stood as a bastion against the daemonic tide spewing forth from the Eye of Terror. But now the Fortress World lies in ruins, its armies decimated in the wake of Abaddon the Despoiler and his Thirteenth Black Crusade.

Those who survived, though haunted by the loss of their beloved homeworld, remain bloodied and unbarred, fighting ruthlessly in the Emperor’s name. Amongst them is the indomitable Sergeant Minka Lesk. Sent to the capital world of Potence, Lesk and the Cadian 101st company soon discover that a rot runs through the very heart of the seemingly peaceful world. 

Lesk knows she must excise this taint of Chaos, for it is not only her life and those of her company at stake but also the honour of Cadia itself.   

Written by Justin D Hill. Narrated by Colleen Prendergast.

©2019 Games Workshop Limited (P)2019 Games Workshop Limited

Just alot of bitterness about nothing

I dont know who this was written for. The book seems to really have some kind of issue with men. I honestly couldnt finish it. For some reason all the women just have problems with all the men, and as far as I can tell all the men are just portrayed as cruel, stupid, annoying, or evil for the sake of giving the women someone to complain about. In terms of 40K books, stay away. This one is the worst I've ever heard.

not what I thought it would be

I want my money back. One of the rare Black library books I don't like.

Voice acting was the only good thing

Honestly to take a master piece like Cadia Stands and follow it up with this severely disappointed me. This story follows a normal guardsmen that has nothing special about her. She's so unspecial I had to stop the book and listen to a Dan Abnett book just to have the will power to make it through. If you like Feminism and strong women you'll love this book. if you like a compelling story free of gender politics you'll hate it.

CADIA ... meanders blandly and poorly written

seriously. i like the idea of a guard focused book, especially one dealing with the cadians after The Fall, but the is just poorly done. i thought gone were the days of jerking off cadians as the be all end all guard unit, but even here the tradition continues.

the writing is boring. the characters are flat and banal, from troops, to officers, to commissars, to heretics. they re also stupid.

important military outpost in middle of nowhere, group of people claiming to be fratris miltarium show up lead by guy with his eyes sewn open, pouring blood, soaked in blood, nd looking like a undersized goliath (which still puts him as oversized and muscled for a human) claims they are there to releive the guard, all veterans. and they just buy it. just blindly accept it and only want to make fast check with hq, only to be slaughtered without a fight by guys who only a week before were dying of starvation.

this book is trash. i got a couple hours left to unlock a 20 dollar credit, and tempt to return it still and get something new because its just Crap.

Awesome read.

Honestly, I have no idea where the negativity for this book comes from. The first half of the book was pretty slow but it added so much context and lore to the world of 40k that I didn't know before. The latter half of it reminded me a lot of covert ops during war. It was incredibly exciting. Nothing like Cadia Stands, but it was still awesome.

worst narration ever

I know I'm going to take a lashing for this but I personally cannot get into the story with this woman's voice it doesn't match what I'm used to with Warhammer stories. I'm not saying that women can't narrate Warhammer books I'm just saying this woman's thick accent makes it too difficult to get into the story

Good story, bad reader

The story is fair and good but the overall enthusiasm and lack of verbosity lets it down, to the point in some situations it was difficult to get the true feel of the events happening

pass

justin hill is not a good writer for 40k. he barely understands the lore and mythos behind it. instead he just writes "bolter porn". a lot of violence, torture, and unsettling imagry, but not a whit of good story telling. also, huge logic breaks. the story is a convoluted mess and has no coherent plot line. just a bad book. go read one of the cain novella. much better.

Not bad, but not as good as Cadia Stands.

It's a decent story, but nothing like Cadia Stands. on it's own itd be fine, but seems a let down after the amazingness of its predecessor.

Its alright.

This books follows multiple characters and strives to present a very realistic take on 40k morality. Adleast thats how I see it.

Following the young man, you see his fall into brutality as he "does what he needs to survive". Which honestly, in his situation it seems like its kill or be killed. Finally you see him rise, but as a fearful bully. He embraces the fear and does whatever his new mentor says.. which is bloody. His actions go from grey zone to guilty as hell.

Following the cadian trooper Mensk. Shes interesting, I liked her as a character. She is honorable and full of pride and duty and honor for her fallen homeworld. She strives to bring cadias excillance to this new world. She also presents the sorta brainwashed person The Imperium wants you to be.

Ths first mentioned characters brainwashing is more obvious because it is written to be what people usually see as a cult. Mensk is just part of a larger cult. The Imperium, is a giant oppressive fascist theocracy. There more ways to classify it than that, but generally its very authoritarian.

I really enjoyed watching the journey for both characters. Both fought for the Emperor, in their own way.

There are other characters obviously, I will simply say I found most of them adleast interesting. Though I find it hard to remember their names as Im writing this. So maybe they are not all that memorable.

not a bad novel

I enjoyed the action and also the description of moral citizens and how they fall to heresy.

my biggest negative... If i have to hear lemun russ tank pronounced lemon russ one more time il be begging for the emperors peace. the narrator did a good job but clearly was unaware of some parts of the lingo. stassssis field was another one..

Where are all the women in 40k?

The answer is apparently here. If you ever wondered where all the fragile, doubting and addicted men are, then you can find them here aswell. I get that we need women in the univers, but this is really not the way to bring them forward. Bad writing, bad plot, and terrible dialog. Honestly not impressed.

Standard Black Library Affair

Overall, this is your standard black library affair, high quality production values, vague and heroic combat, a strange lack of helmets and a implausible plot.

The Good
As I would expect from Black Library it has high quality production values
Once you got use to her accent the narrator was clear
The story keeps up a good pace

The Bad
I was looking forward to seeing how the best of the Imperial Guard operate but all you get is very amateurish unit full of stereotypical archetypes playing at war. I'm assuming the folk involved in the production of this novel either have minimal or no military experience. Simple things such as when you patrol you have overlapping support from other patrols, no contact reports and many more but lets not go on.
Combat feels like its from the older eras of military history as the descriptions are more suited to ancient/medieval battles and firearms are generally useless unless a certain character needs killing. Human wave attacks feel far too effective and common in setting with such massive firepower available.
Please issue helmets to everyone, the head is one of the most vulnerable places to be hit.

The So So
The narrators accent was jarring at first but I got use to it and by the end it sort of grew on me. I wasn't keen on the way she portrayed shouting as a gruff whisper but its probably better than a high pitched howl.
Story was fairly predictable.

If you like the usual run of black library novels and care little for the details, I think you will like this, if you were looking for a bit more depth to the guard and more realistic look at combat in 40k I'd not bother and move along.

Derivative story of military incompetence

The descriptions in this story are well written, but the author has ni idea how to write a convincing military tale. It starts with an irrelivant scene, revolving around a duel that seemed to be lifted from a Sharpe novel.
It then moves to a story of betrayal and rebellion, in which the incompetent military fail to notice an army of 100,000 slaughtering everyone in a vast refugee camp on their doorstep.
The reading works well for describing Minka, an inept, childish soldier promoted beyond her ability, but fails to convey any authority to other characters.
The characters are too inept to engage interest and the only sympathetic character is an artist's apprentice who will do anything to survive, including becoming a murderer and crazed cultist.
The resolution is too simple and it all leaves a fairly empty feel.
The writer clearly knows the 40K universe and the story seemed to improve as it went along. It is not altogether terrible, but it is a far cry from Dan Abnett.

Good story disappointing narration

Great story that was let down by the narrators regional accent with many names butchered such as Lemon russ tanks.

Really good!

Colleen does a fanatic reading of this book. Great story, you get a really good feel for what it must be like as a Cadian guardman!

Mediocre, uninspired characters and development.

A few minor things annoyed me about this book. Firstly the characters were uninteresting and at times clichéd their arc felt unfinished. A certain plot line involved a dysfunctional command relationship that never really went anywhere. The other characters bar the lead characters were boring. Also minor details annoyed me like the pronunciation of Leman Russ or militaristic inaccuracies such has holding down the trigger on "semi-auto"... So em one shot then? As opposed to a fusilade. But on the positive side it was interesting to see the development of a cult unravelling. Overall, not a terrible book but feels like it could have been either a short story that was over developed or a long story underdeveloped.

Uninteresting

Story fails to hold attention and narration is equally dull. Not exactly terrible but doesn't hold a candle to audiobooks by other black library authors.

Brilliant

An exciting continuation from Cadia Stands. Not as strong as the first book and I personally preferred the original narrator. But Colleen Prendergast still makes an EXCELLENT performance so don’t let that put you off.

I really hope there’s going to be another book, and I hope whoever gets to narrate it keeps up the Geordie/Mackem accent for the Cadians. It just added a nice touch to the performance.

loved it

The narrator is simply amazing. It's so refreshing hearing a mix of British accent. The story really shows the guardsmen are really people