Warhammer 40,000: Black Library Sells Out Of Special Edition Of Ciaphas Cain’s First Novel, Announces Print-On-Demand Hardcover Version

John F. Trent |

Sep 26, 2023

Ciaphas Cain: For the Emperor Special Edition(2023), Black Library

Games Workshop and Black Library have seemingly already sold out of their recently announced special edition of Ciaphas Cain’s first novel, For The Emperor, by Sandy Mitchell.

In a blog post, Warhammer Community announced that this new special edition titled Ciaphas Cain: For the Emperor will be limited to 2,000 copies with each of them being uniquely numbered and signed by Mitchell.

The book will also feature a “soft-touch matt lamination cover with faux distressed design, page fore-edges printed with a skull design, and a black ribbon bookmark.”

The book doesn’t just include the For The Emperor novel, but also includes the short story “Rotten to the Core.”

The official synopsis for the book states, “On an Imperial outpost world at the fringes of tau space, the renowned Commissar Ciaphas Cain and his fractious regiment of Valhallan Imperial Guard, newly created from the remnants of two devastated units, find themselves in the middle of a war.”

It concludes, “As the Astra Militarum struggle to contain worldwide civil insurrection, can the wily Commissar Cain identify the real villain before the planet is lost to the Imperium forever?”

Speaking with Warhammer Community about the new special edition, Mitchell said, “In all honesty, I thought the idea of a self-serving Commissar, playing against the archetype, was a one-joke concept, good for a single short story.”

He added, “Luckily the readers, and the editorial team at Inferno,* thought otherwise, and demanded to see more of him – which just goes to show how much more they knew than I did. If I’d realised just how popular Cain was going to become, I’d probably have been too intimidated to write a single word!”

“I’ve had a tremendous amount of fun writing the Cain stories over the years, getting to know him better, and meeting some of his allies and adversaries along the way, and I hope we’re far from done with each other,” Mitchell concluded. “He still has plenty of anecdotes to tell over a glass of amasec, and some of them might even be true…”

On the book’s pre-order page, Games Workshop notes the $75 special edition is “no longer available online.”

While this special edition has sold out within three days, readers are not bereft of stories about the character. Cain’s adventures have been documented in 11 novels typically from his perspective or that of Inquisitor Amberley Vail.

Not only are there 11 novels including the recently released Ciaphas Cain: Vainglorious, but there are also over half a dozen short stories and novellas featuring Cain. Many of these have been collected into three omnibuses editions. Cain has also featured in the audio dramas Dead in the Water and The Devil You Know.

In fact, Games Workshop has also announced they plan to release special Print on Demand hardback versions for the first three Ciaphas novels which include the aforementioned For the Emperor, Caves of Ice, and The Traitor’s Hand.

One can also read all of Cain’s stories in digital format through the Black Library.