the Fall of Cadia

This book by Robert Rath is the first Warhammer 40,000 novel I've read in a while. No spoilers except for the title itself - despite the propagandic Cadian refrain "Cadia stands", Cadia does indeed fall. We here witness the epic planet-scale battle between Lord Commander Ursarkar Creed and Warmaster Abbadon the Despoiler - with the raging war told from all manner of angles, from those of command to the slogging foot troops and everything inbetween. Oh, and Belisarius Cawl is here to help eventually (also for personal research) as is everyone's favourite immortal museum curator Trazyn, to watch (and collect exhibits). If you're new to 40k a lot of this might go over your head but you still might appreciate it as a stompingly action-packed sci-fi war novel; if you're anywhere even 10% deep into 40k lore, this is a must-read. Rath is a very skilled writer and despite the preliminary list of main characters spanning five pages in itself this is easy enough to follow. It is a long one, going for 651 pages, but its pace never lets up, nor its tension.