I love the Ciaphas Cain series and I enjoyed this novel. But it felt like a bait and switch. It’s called “The Greater Good.” The cover features Cain and a Fire Warrior fighting Tyranids together. The story itself sets up a grand alliance of Imperium and Tau pausing their conflict to fend off a hive fleet. …and then they go their separate ways to see to their own worlds and we end up hanging out with Tech-Priests and some Space Marines. I think this is the first time this series has disappointed me. It still has all the other elements of his stories that I love, so I still enjoyed it. But it could’ve been better.

A fun Ciaphas Cain adventure with Tyranids and the Tau, it was good but not one of my favourites in the series - there wasn't anything that makes it stand out from the others, but I think if anyone enjoyed his other books they'd also like this one too.

Now into its ninth novel, Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain series is one of Black Library's longest running and most well loved ranges. Since the publication in 2003 of his first adventure, Cain's memoirs have seen him fighting all sorts of menaces across the galaxy, from orks to tyranids, necrons and the forces of Chaos. In the latest novel, The Greater Good, we see him facing an old foe in the shape of the tau, as he bravely (sort of) defends the world of Quadravidia from the upstart aliens. The situation soon changes however, as the threat of a new tyranid hive fleet forces the Imperium and the tau into an uneasy alliance. Caught in the middle of this, Cain's reputation as a Hero of the Imperium sees him called to act as intermediary between the Imperium, the Adeptus Mechanicus and the tau.

Read the rest of the review at http://trackofwords.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/the-greater-good-sandy-mitchell/

I liked this book. There was a lot of action and I liked the inclusion of footnotes. There was not as much Imperium/Tau cooperation as I thought there was going to be. Instead, the story is mainly Imperium vs. Tyranids. The constant laser fire kept me entertained.