Caves of Ice - Sandy Mitchell

Continuing our journey through franchises, this week we're in the universe of Warhammer: 40,000. And what a universe it is. a grimdark-before-we-had-the-word galaxy largely composed of different species of alien and humanity, all focused on trying to kill each other. Back in the eighties and early 90's, the lore largely served as an excuse to sell different model armies and rulesets, so that you could blow up your friends Space Marine (giant genetically and surgically altered human warriors) with your Orks (green, hordes, argumentative, cockney accents). Somewhere in the intervening decades, however, the lore has become rather popular in itself, with near-numberless video game adaptions, book series, and even the occasional TV episode. The sheer volume of stories now available for 40K, as it's known, mean that they can be of..variable..quality, and that there's plenty of sub-genres available, from political thrillers, through war stories, to comedy. Because if there's one thing 40K is known for, it's not taking itself too seriously, especially when it's taking itself too seriously. That whimsy and sense of humour can sometimes be hard to find in a world of stoic warrior-monks, demon-possessed monstrosities, and elegant robotic killers, but it is, I think, what makes that world so successful. After all, you have to laugh, don't you. 

Which brings us, by a rather roundabout route, to Caves of Ice. This is the second novel in a looooong sequence of stories starring Commissar Ciaphas Cain. A Comissar has the job of maintaining the morale of the hordes of humanity impressed or indentured into the Imperial Guard, whose role is usually to serve as a bit of light cannon fodder for the enemy before the more expensive models show up. Commissar's usually maintain morale by shooting anyone who tries to run away. Cain is a bit different in this regard, intuiting that if he keeps morale high by less lethal, more collaborative means, his troops are less likely to leave him to get eaten by the next alien monstrosity that they come across. Cain is also, since we're treated to his internal monologue, a pragmatic, self-serving individual, one who only goes into a fight if he thinks it's necessary for his survival, or that he can win, or ideally both.He's possibly the only sane man in a legion of religious fanatics, hardened killers, fanatics keen to die for their Emperor and other such reprobates. He wants to win, and he also wants to live, and his efforts to do the latter often seem to end up with him performing bouts of accidental heroism, ensuring he'll be the first choice of the top brass next time they need someone to throw at a problem. 

In a world that seems to be completely off the scale ridiculous with its conflicts, with po-faced space-elves declaiming their tragic destiny and murderous space swarms obliterating entire planets, looking over the shoulder of someone who would be quite happy to be left alone so they could go for a quick pint down the pub is, frankly, refreshing. And Caves of Ice does lean into that, letting us see Cain fail upward into more and more dangerous situations. I mean, I say fail, he succeeds in surviving, but never at actually getting out of the way. He does, however, get to fight all kinds of aliens, while trying to keep all of his limbs attached. And he does this with a self-awareness to his internal monologue which is searing and clever. Cain, as a character, is one we can empathise with and sympathise with, because who among us wouldn't want to run all the way away from some sort of teleporting murderous robot or giant with an axe which is also a chainsaw? And yet, he still manages to stand up when it matters, and be a hero. And he's human enough to build friendships with those he works with, and to tweak the noses of authority when that authority doesn't have their (or his) best interests at heart. Cain is funny, thoughtful, sometimes kind, and occasionally ruthless, and in a universe determined to take itself seriously, he's the one on the outside pointing out how ridiculous it all is, before barging in the doors and getting a round in. 

 This is a fun book, entertaining, silly, sometimes a little emotional, and enough of an adventure to keep you turning the pages to see what happens next. As for Cain...well, I'm sure we'll see more of him, and I'll certainly be reading more of his stories in the near future. 

Back next week!

 Everyone is sick again - back next week!

Star Trek: Red Shirts - Cantwell/Levens

I'm not too much of a comics person, but I do have a love of Star Trek. I'm also a sucker for anything that looks at the established forms of a genre or universe and flips them around a bit. And oh, does Star Trek: Red Shirts do that. It focuses on a team of Starfleet Security officers (the eponymous Red Shirts, because their shirts, ha, are red), who are sent on a covert mission to a planet in the middle of nowhere. As one might expect, things do not go well. 

This is a slightly different brand of Trek, though. Set around the Original Series time periods, sharing space with Kirk, Spock, Uhura and the rest of the gang. But where their heroics were appropriate for prime time TV, where the heroes fought injustice and suffered only as much as audience share would allow, the cast of Red Shirts live differently. They're here to fight, and to win. No less heroes than the command staff that we've seen on TV, but down in the mud. Conscious that their lives may be seen as more disposable. Very conscious that their lives are on the line on every away mission. Keen to survive. But for all that, still human. Still willing to be brave, to stand up and be counted, to live and fight and die for their friends, their comrades, or the ideals of the Federation. Not that they want to, of course. But they know the score. This is a more lethal, bloodier version of the world we tohught we knew. 

Levens does a great job in the illustration department. The colours are rich and vibrant, and you can immediately identify each of the hapless Red Shirts as they come across the page. There's eleven of them(!) and if their numbers do reduce rather rapidly, still you know who's who and what their deal is without having to squint. The environments are rendered in lush, loving detail, from the glossy white of Federation starships to the purple dark of an alien jungle, where one small step can leave things splashed carmine with the insides of the unlucky. You can feel the world breathing in and out around you, and if it has more splashes of weapons fire and blood than usual, that just makes it more vital. There's an intentional claustrophobia in the environments, everyone in slightly too close proximity, everyone one short step from disaster. 

The cast...well, you're spread across a lot of different faces, very quickly. But they all have moments to shine, things which make them feel real, make them feel like people, and make you feel for them, as their mission moves from "adventure" to "out of control trashfire". There are definitely a few that seem more like a quick collection of traits than a full characterisation, but the comic is clearly giving it all it has to build them a backstory, to make you see each of these poor folks as people.  Because, make no mistake, and as the monstrous creature that used to be a person on the cover makes clear, this is Star-Trek-As-Horror, and survival is by no means guaranteed. 

There's a story here, about a monitoring station that's keeping an eye on stellar winds.  And about spies, trying to figure out what's being received - or transmitted - from that station. About old officers left out in the middle of nowhere with an eye to conspiracy, and the occasional actual conspiracy. This is a harsher, colder Trek, where nobody has their phasers set to stun, where life is cheap, and where nobody's hands are clean. But it's still Trek, for all that - a story of humanity out among the stars, being our best and worst selves. It's fun, playing on expectation, subverting it, enabling it, and unflinchingly looking at what life is like for these poor expendable folks at the sharp end of Starfleet's exploration of new worlds. It wants to shwow you what kind of people they are, what dreams they have, what drives them, and what they're willing to do to survive - and it doesn't look away form the answers, foul and fair. 

Is Star Trek: Red Shirts a typical Star Trek story? No. But it's an entertaining one, an important one, and one that might leave you asking questions, might leave you examining how you feel, in the wreckage of what expendables will do in the face of the inevitable. It's a good read, and if you're looking for something a little different, then it's well worth a look.