The Fall of Cadia

Warhammer 40,000

By: Robert Rath

Narrated by: Mark Elstob

Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

An Astra Militarum Audiobook

Cadia. This proud world stood defiant for centuries – a bulwark against the forces of Chaos residing in the Eye of Terror. All of this would change when it was targeted for destruction by Abaddon the Despoiler as part of his Thirteenth Black Crusade.

LISTEN TO IT BECAUSE

The Fall of Cadia is a touchstone moment of the Warhammer 40,000 timeline. This incredible battle led to the opening of the Great Rift and ushered in a grim new era in which even greater threats assailed the Imperium.

THE STORY

Cadia licks its wounds in the wake of the Thirteenth Black Crusade. The heretic forces retreat on all fronts. The day is won. But Lord Castellan Creed cannot rest easy. Something tells him the assault was a mere prelude to something greater, something more final. He is right. Out of the Eye of Terror comes Abaddon the Despoiler, at the head of a warhost unmatched in scale since the dread days of the Horus Heresy.

In the face of the looming apocalypse, Creed must weld the champions of Cadia into a bulwark capable of withstanding Abaddon’s fury. And in orbit, the Despoiler himself finds his own alliance teetering on a knife edge…

This is a tale told at epic scale, from the tables of high command to the slaughter of the pylon fields, and with a huge cast of characters from self-styled demigods to the rank-and-file foot soldiers of the Imperium.

This is the story of Abaddon’s greatest conquest. This is Cadia’s last stand.

Written by Robert Rath. Narrated by Mark Elstob. Running time 19 hrs and 44 mins approx.

©2023 Games Workshop Limited (P)2023 Games Workshop Limited

Robert rath paints a painfully beautiful end to Cadia

Probably one of the best 40K novels I’ve ever listened to. Robert Paints a realistic portrait of wartime Cadia from a smattering of places rooted in reality, and it shows. This is believable, and while tragic, has some heartfelt moments and more than a little bit of comedy that will make you grin like an idiot. Worth the read, every bit of the way. Cadia stands!

Comprehensive enough…

Good listen for the lore completion-ist. It covers the events most fully from anything outside the game books or video games. Trazyn is fun. Solid B grade.

VERY GOOD fight scenes. Reminds me of actual accounts of warfare.

Recorded fairly quietly. That is my only gripe. Otherwise it is an AMAZING story, very good setup and foreshadowing. I cried when certain characters fell and Creed is the best. CADIA STANDS!!

24 in the War!

what a absolute epic!!! From start to end it was compelling and heart wrenching. I couldn't wait to hear everyone's ending minutes on Cadia.

It was very entertaining

I give this Audio Book all 3 5-Star Rating. It felt like a Terry Pratchet / Neil Gaiman novel ... a Good Omens kind of vibe; despite the 'all is lost' feeling about the event there was humor. The performance was great, the actor Black Library used to read the book gave it so much effort in bring to life the story, Mark used different voices to distinguish each character bring to them their own personality. He interpreted the characters and it was marvelous... Creed was confident and had it all under control and went out in a blaze of glory.

This book also sees the conflict from the "Big Picture' point of view; there is the Imperial Guards Planetarty Comander's point of view, the Necron's, Mechanicus of Mars, Chaos, Eldar, Sister's of Battle, and the Black Templars. Its really cool.. guys!

Listen to it for the skill of the Narrator changing his voices to express an interpretation of the characters, and enjoy the humor, the grim dark 'smilling at death' humor as the apocalypse is happening and the Hords of Chaos is charging in at you. CADIA STANDS!

Also, if you have:

Cadia Stands in your audio book collection, this book will help you understand Creed's strategy and fills in the mystery.

the planet broke before the guard

lovely story with plenty of action. my only complaint is the narrator. I am not a fan of Mark Elstob's work

Wonderful story, pathetic narration.

The novel was great, it has really interesting characters and the additional detail added to the Cadian war is great. The pacing of the story is just right - we get added details little by little with each new switch of POV, the focus on normal humans rather than your stereotypical story about space marines was a really nice change of pace. You build an emotional connection to these regular people just trying to defend their home and all the emotional beats should have hit just right the way they were written… but, unfortunately, this is where I have to discuss the flaw of this audiobook. The absolutely abysmal performance by the narrator. It was pathetic, honestly. Some people have tried to be charitable and say it gets better by about hour 13 of the novel but, I will offer no such economy. Pathetic is the only word I can use, an orangutan could have narrated this better and it would have been much less grating on the ear.

I really enjoyed the authors personal notes at the end of the book, the author discussing his love for 2nd Ed Cadia was great, that’s when I first loved Cadia as well. The planet broke before the Guard did!

Great Writing

Impactful, moving, very well written and a good pacing of tense moments, especially towards the end.

I cried, 13/13 Black Crusades

The characters were fun and individual

Great story and performance. Nothing too earth shattering in terms of plots, character types or pacing HOWEVER wait until the bonus at the end and the author’s journey to create CADIA as it was before it broke is a great ribbon that ties this story and its angles together.

Awful VA for Characters - Order a Hard Copy Instead

The voice acting is distracting and awful. From mouthful of cotton Abbadon, Gru the Space Wolf, seemingly rampant constipation or whispered "shouts", the dialogue is so distracting and difficult to understand as to make the narrative unintelligible. It's a complete shame, as Rob Rath is my current favorite 40k author and he's writing about an absolutely pivotal moment in the lore.

I wish I had ordered a digital copy and had an emotionless computerized screen reader narrate it instead of having Mark Elstob grunt at me for a day.