Meh. I'm really sad because Sandy Mitchell's awesome Ciaphas Cain series has devolved into a repetitive, dull plod through the 40K universe rather than the fresh, exciting, FUNNY material it started out as. My problem isn't that Cain keeps getting stuck in situations where he picks what seems like the least dangerous path & of course winds up winning the glory; I bought into that. What frustrates me is that every interaction gets raked through four times. A non-real-but-illustrative example:----'I will lead the charge,' I said, presenting the front that I assumed someone with my reputation would present. Of course, in reality, I knew that the charge would never get off the ground, and would remain in cover and safe hiding throughout this entire campaign. (1) Had I known what would really happen, I might have instead just put a bolter pistol against my head and pulled the trigger.(1) I am a footnote where Amberley, the editor of this document, explains why this is, and all the minutiae surrounding this piece of Imperial Guard rules, even though we don't need any of it.----UGGGGH. JUST STOP. STOP, PLEASE. Amberley's notes used to be flirtatious, useful, and amusing. Now I just wish she'd shut up. Even the snippets from other sources she includes (yes, I know she's fictional, too, but I don't know how else to talk about this) have become less amusingly bombastic and ... actually BETTER than Cain's account of events. Was the mere idea of Cain so good that it colored that first story & novel w/rosy-tinted glasses? I'm not sure, but after skimming through most of this & still getting the main gist of the story, I'm not sure if I'll give the next book more than a chapter or two to actually hook me before giving up on the series altogether.