Man, I can't tell you how much I love me a good Commissar Cain story! It is good to know that in the grim darkness of the far future, there is a dude like Cain around to make sure that the Emperor's will be done.Just kidding, he's still looking out for number 1.
In this story, Cain finds himself assigned to a backwater river world (see what I did there?) with a low-level, technologically backwards insurgency against the imperium, but due to the logistical nightmare that is the planet, it's possible that the conflict could simmer for decades. Which sounds just right to Cain.
But of course, to anyone that has read the Cain stories knows, this never works out for the good commissar. A platoon of guardsmen has disappeared which really isn't that remarkable but now someone is attacking the rebels and guardsmen both, and they appear to be using guard-issued lasguns.
In a story that is very similar very similar to Apocalypse Now, Cain, joins a riverboat patrol to look into these attacks. And as you might expect, hijinks ensue.
Unfortunately, this book really isn't one of the best Cain stories. Everything felt a bit compressed and I blame the length of the story. At just under an hour, it felt way too rushed. We had the usual jokes about how Jurgan smells (with his noes, duh), and how things kept going ploin-shaped, but it felt like every two minutes there was a reference to this. It was just too much.
Add to this a story that was very predictable very predictable and you had something that struggles to be "OK."
I give this story, two stinky guardsmen out of five.
I haven't heard this one yet. I will say that I love the novels but it is despite the fact that the 'Jurgen stinks' subject comes up way too often. It is annoying in print, it would have to be nearly unbearable when voiced.
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