The return of Ciaphas Cain has been something many fans have been clamouring for ever since his last appearance. It's not hard to see why - Cain is Blackadder meets Flashman, with all the snark and intelligent humour involved applied to M41. Despite this, Mitchell is a talented enough author to avoid most of the truly dark elements within Warhammer 40,000 and still make it extremely loyal to the overall universe. He's a unique entity in this regard, and Mitchell's ability to add nuance to every joke (until returning to it can often allow you to find a good two or three you missed in every previous reading) and some fairly good action, and it's a good overall balance for the series.
With all that said, however, there was no denying that the Ciaphas Cain saga had become somewhat repetative. Following the first trilogy, it seemed that every attempt to take a step forward resulted in at least one step back. The stories themselves were far from bad - and many of Cain's most famous moments come from the second omnibus - but the magic seemed to be wearing a bit thin. This is worth mentioning as, comparing Choose Your Enemies to The Greater Good highlights a sense of renewed energy behind the writing. It's not relying on the older tricks, so much as using them as a basis for new gags.
The Synopsis
Following multiple engagements against the Eldar, the Valhallan 597th are dispatched to Ironfound amid a Chaos uprising. While their initial battles prove to be a string of easy victories, Cain's troops soon find that corruption might be far more widespread than they first expected. Then things start to go very wrong as a few familiar faces show up, with danger close behind them.
The Good
The immediate bonus to this book's overall score comes from its choice of extra characters. As the synopsis implied, there are a lot of returning faces here, but the fact the Valhallan 597th themselves are present is a definite boon. The ensemble of secondary characters and mixed regimental figures always helped to bolster the stories. The a mix of familiar faces offered more opportunities for jokes, stories and material for Cain's narration to work with. While this might sound like hyperbole, if you compare the first three books with Death or Glory, you might notice that one is more engaging than the other. They're both well written, excellently paced and brilliantly described, but the supporting cast elevates the tale to a new level.
Additionally, the story utilises familiar elements without making them feel derivative. The old chapter outro style of "If I had known X I would have Y" is present, but the creativity behind it helps it to feel engaging. There are far more descriptions and humourous takes used to make it feel fresh in this regard, and equally the way in which Cain stumbles into the narrative works well. It doesn't feel as if the world is bending over backward to have him find a role within the larger story. The unintentional nature of their meetings and Cain's own dialogue helps to smooth this over, as always, but the greater scope at work really plays to the story's strengths. The ability for the narrative to interject accounts from other sources was always a major plus within prior tales, but here it is used to far more effectively flesh out the world. Part of that is down to the choice of placement within the narrative, but the details themselves have also become much more substantial.
The commentary delivered by Vail i as welcome as always, albeit with something of a change. There are remarkably few short versions here, the sort of interjections of one or two words. This allows her to have a greater voice in certain events and more substantial pieces to compliment where Cain glosses over key details. This is something of a running joke within the series, but this is a novel which has better utilised this than all others to really flesh out the setting. Given that, behind Eisenhorn, the Ciaphas Cain books are among the few which delve deeper into the inner workings of the Imperium's daily life, this is a very welcome addition. The fact it is set on such an unusual world gives the book more material to offer than were it another hive world or backwater planet, leading to some very interesting culture clashes.
Yet atop of everything else, Choose Your Enemies manages to sidestep a fair few of the pacing issues and structural problems inherent in the overall series. While hardly the worst example put onto paper, the efforts to reflect Cain's less formulaic style often interferes with the finer parts of pacing a book. When an event occurs, how it occurs, what drives the protagonist onward, how important something is to the overarching plot; that sort of thing. While it disguised this well for some time, toward start of the third trilogy these problems became much more obvious. A few of the more typically overused narrative devices were so often employed that it was clear how they were trying to distract the reader from problems.
The way the story manages to execute a better pace is by working around a lot of the flab present in past stories. While Cain is allowed plenty of time to ramble, discuss and comment upon ongoing events, it's more tightly executed and paced against said events. There is a more consistent effort to balance this against the major narrative, while the time-skips needed to work around story moments are far better placed. As a result, while it still offers commentary on a broader event, the story feels far more complete and better executed.
The Bad
So, what might be wrong with Choose Your Enemies? Oddly enough, a big one lies in something just praised: Vail's commentary. On the one hand, as mentioned above, the expanded sections help both her and the capacity to offer a greater voice within the story. On the other, there are far fewer brief laugh-out-loud moments from these. While one or two excellent ones - especially just as Cain discovers just what the enemy's plan is - which work in its favour, there are far fewer here to compliment the overall humour. While the reason behind this might become clear due to Vail relationship with the overall story, it makes the book feel lacking in an area which is typically a major strength.
Even without the commentary angle, however, the actual fight scenes are geared far more toward spectacle or large scale events over all else. In fact, it's often at the expense of everything else here. While fighting as a whole has typically been good within the series, it tends to be at its best when Cain is dueling someone or engaged in a very up-close-and-personal matter. His famous fight with a Khorne Berserker alone proves this. However, when it gets away from that area it tends to lack the innate descriptive strengths or narrative of more conventional stories. Here, however, the story seems to largely avoid these. Those present are typically quickly interrupted or favour action sequences instead, and it lacks some of the satisfaction needed in terms of violence. Yes, this might not be a bolter porn novel, but when it's based around war, the effectiveness of storytelling in war needs to be commented upon.
Yet perhaps most of all, the story is wrapped up extremely quickly within the final few pages. It goes from having an intense and well executed final act, to abruptly racing through to the ending, and resolving things far too cleanly. Part of this might be down to some surprisingly odd actions by the races involved in the story, but also how everything is instantly resolved. In most prior stories, the rapid wrap-up was far better justified, either by diverting one enemy into fighting another, or intervention by another force. With this one, that just isn't the case. It's irritating as it seems as if the story was written with a larger page count in mind, and was then forced to wrap things up all too quickly.
The Verdict
I could really just end this by saying "You enjoyed the past ones, so you'll love this one". It would be accurate and the truth is that, whatever its inherent problems, Choose Your Enemies still stands out thanks to its sharp writing and angles most stories avoid. It's one of the strongest stories of late, and a major improvement over the last two books in the series. If you can get your hands on a copy, definitely set cash aside for a hardcover copy of this one.
Verdict: 8.4 out of 10
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