The fall of Cadia represented a once-unimaginable triumph for the servants of the Dark Gods, and the Eye of Terror began to slowly expand without limit, opening Abaddon the Despoiler's coveted Crimson Path to Terra and creating the Great Rift that soon divided the Imperium in half.

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. The reason for this — and the following includes light spoilers from 2017’s Fall of Cadia — is that the author avoids all plotlines of consequence. Saint Celestine rises to defend Cadians, Phalanx warps in from Terra, and Belisarius Cawl shows up with an Ark Mechanicus attempting to stop the Cicatrix Maledictum. This is epic stuff. Yet absolutely none of this shows up in the novel. Cadia Stands is a collection of B-Plots that are, by definition, of no consequence. Guardsmen die in their thousands fighting irrelevant battles while the fate of the galaxy is being decided, and the author chooses the former to follow. While fandoms end up demanding the change of a status quo sooner or later, few tend to be prepared to deal with the consequences. It's usually the demand for some huge change, or shift to keep things interesting, but without a deeper understanding of how this might impact the world at large. This was the case with Warhammer 40,000, where the fandom had long been demanding for the timeline to move forward, but few people seemed to ask "So what now?" The broken hulk of Cadia itself was resettled by the forces of Chaos following its partial destruction. It soon became a Chaos stronghold at the heart of a burgeoning new Renegade empire.Because of its short length, the book also abandons many of the descriptive strengths which can further help work toward the strengths of Warhammer as a setting. There are few descriptions of barren wastes, hives or gothic architecture, or elements which fully convey age. It starts promisingly enough with a moment featuring a star fortress being towed into orbit, but it never manages to successfully repeat that moment. This leaves it very reliant upon its characters to keep the story engaging. While it certainly gets that right, it doesn't get it completely on point. Oh, the core cast is fine, but it drops the ball with the villains. It seemed that although many Chaos fleets had ventured out of the Eye, very few Imperial fleets ventured in. No battle fleet of any size could rely upon other stable passages from the Eye of Terror and they were required to pass through the Cadian Gate. Settled before the onset of the Age of Strife by a branch of Humanity that eventually fell to the worship of the Chaos Gods and played a major role in the ultimate corruption of the Space Marine Legions, Cadia was re-settled sometime in the early 32nd Millennium by Loyalist Humans of the Imperium.

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. 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. Cadia stands upon the only known reliable route out of the Eye of Terror and thus is one of the most strategically vital worlds in the entire Imperium of Man. There are other routes out of the Eye, but none are stable like the Cadian Gate and no military force of any true size can venture forth from the Eye without first passing through it. The exact reasons for the existence of this unusual region of stability is unknown, though many Magi of the Adeptus Mechanicus believe it is due to the presence of the famous Cadian Pylons. Honourbound by Rachel Harrison puts the focus on Severina Raine , a commissar attached to the 11th Antari Rifles as they battle a sinister Chaos cult. This story highlights the dedication of the Commissariat to maintaining discipline and ensuring that every mission is completed, whatever the cost. It also explores what makes a commissar, and how these harsh heroes are forged in blood.

Essential Novels

Cadia had a special and honoured place in the history of Mankind. Cadia stood upon the edge of the Eye of Terror within a narrow corridor of stable space called the Cadian Gate. This formed the one and only predictable passage between the Chaos-infested Daemon Worlds of the Eye of Terror and Terra. The fall of Cadia represented a once-unimaginable triumph for the servants of the Dark Gods, and the Eye of Terror began to slowly expand without limit, opening Abaddon the Despoiler's coveted Crimson Path to Terra and creating the Great Rift that divided the Imperium in half. The reading works well for describing Minka, an inept, childish soldier promoted beyond her ability, but fails to convey any authority to other characters.

There’s a murky selection of maybe/maybe not antagonists across that broad spectrum of characters, and the multiple perspectives really help to widen the scope of the story and demonstrate what’s taking place. Having so many viewpoint characters, however, means that the key Cadians don’t get quite as much time in the spotlight as you might expect, and despite what the cover says it’s not always clear whether Bendikt or Minka is really the main protagonist. When she’s on-screen, however, Minka makes for an enjoyable, relatable character with a satisfying blend of youthful naivety and typical Cadian grit. There’s not much chance to get to know her squadmates beyond the basics, but Hill nevertheless captures a great feeling of the camaraderie and tensions between the Cadians in a way which feels unusual for 40k, but familiar in a real-world sense. JH: I think this is being envisaged as the first Minka Lesk novel so you could go straight in, but if you want to get the full setting then reading Cadia Stands gives you the set up. And if you really like stories of common grunts facing down all the horrors of the 40K universe, then there’s a ream of Ursarkar E. Creed stories ( you can find here) which I think have been hugely well received.

Customer reviews

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. Prose: The book is written in an astonishingly dry fashion. The author really doesn't spend any time being descriptive. He goes briskly about painting the barest hints of scene, then proceeds onto the events, narrating them with equal briskness. For the first half of the book we are mostly treated to disjointed vignettes of characters used to show us the progress of the war, but again, the author goes about this in a way that feels almost perfunctory, not memorable in the least. 2/5 Rumour has it that Justin has been hard at work on the third volume in his Cadian series, which will be coming your way later this year… Tanks With the aid of the Necron Lord Trazyn the Infinite, who had been present when the pylons were first constructed, Cawl proved capable of mastering the enigmatic xenos artefacts' internal systems deep in the catacombs beneath the pylon field. But this came just in time for Abaddon to launch his final ground assault against the Elysion Fields, as the Despoiler was determined to assuage his pride by personally ending the Imperial defence.

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. Justin D. Hill: I’ve always loved the viewpoint of the common grunt in the Warhammer 40k universe. Nothing beats the jeopardy of a lone trooper, armed only with a flashlight, standing firm against the horrors of the Grimdark future. For me*, these are some of the most compelling stories the 40k universe has to offer, so it seemed fated that I would end up writing Cadians.

After its fall to Chaos, the shattered remains of Cadia have become a new stronghold for the forces of Chaos. All Cadians were required to serve at least a four-year-term in the planetary military, and the amount of military presence on the world led the civilian population to become focused on weapons production. 71.75% of the Cadian population was under arms, either in the highly-skilled and very well-equipped Cadian Planetary Defence Force that was known as the "Cadian Interior Guard" or in the numerous Imperial Guard regiments drawn from the planet's people. Characterization: I'd hazard to call what we have in the book more viewpoints than characters. Obviously, they are characters, but none of them are particularly developed, they all have the same basic drive and behave in basically the same fashion, effectively making it very easy for one to blend into the other. 2/5