Traitor Rock (Warhammer 40,000)

Good to see what the Cadians were up to. Really enjoyed this part of their saga. Can't wait to read the next one

Arrived fast and in good condition

I'm unsure as to why these books keep being called "A Minka Lesk novel", when they clearly aren't. Minka again appears as one of the protagonists, but the story is very much not about her, it's about Cadians, and Cadia, and how they are coping with the loss of their world. The war is just the backdrop of where it happens.The book is good, fun to read, if you forgive some of the pacing issues and the way that it sometimes cuts away from the action, in an attempt to be cinematic, although it rarely feels that way, instead leaving you wondering if you skipped a page.Despite this, its a heart wrenching book, and does present very well the difficulties the Cadians are going through, from the shell shocked survivors who had their world ripped from their feet, to the grizzled veterans that find themselves displaced without Cadia, to the Whiteshields that had their futures torn from them.One thing that's unique to this book is that it shows how despair can break somebody so utterly, in a different way than falling to Chaos.We've seen that story a million times in Warhammer, but rarely have we seen this one.The clues are subtle at first, but when the time comes the puzzle falls into place and shows us the tragic picture it painted all along.

The Cadia series was never the best thing that BL had to offer, but as basically the only thing Astra Militarum going on in the current fictional arcs, I read it and mostly gave it a shrug and a nod. Until Traitor Rock, the series went beyond the battles to explore what the fall of Cadia meant to the Imperium. Traitor Rock doesn't explore anything. It reads like boilerplate military fiction with barely described characters and lasguns swapped in for the rifles. I only finished it because I was on a plane and had nothing else.

This is the 3rd Minka Lesk novel. First thing I have to say is I really enjoy the main characters from this series, Minka Lesk and General Bendikt. Both characters give a great point of view of Leadership in the Astra Militarum; Minka an Enlisted Member and General Bendikt being an Officer. The Author, Justin D Hill also does a fantastic job of describing how grimdark war really is. He doesn't pull punches on the violence but does not over do it either. The story of the Traitor Rock campaign is gruesome but is a reminder of Cadia's Might.