The Way of Caine

The Warcaster Chronicles, Vol. One

By: Miles Holmes

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

Allister Caine has always been an enigma and an outsider among the warcasters of Cygnar, but few are privy to his true motivations or his complicated past.…

Born into poverty, Allister Caine did what he must to survive, and the choices he made have followed him like a vengeful specter throughout his life. Now, just months after the Lion’s Coup and his full commission as a warcaster, he has been secretly assigned by Scout General Rebald to investigate plots against King Leto in lands just north of the Bloodsmeath Marsh. The game changes, however, when mercenaries camped inside Cygnar’s borders threaten hostility against the country’s divided nobility. In a test of grit and arcane power, Caine alone must make choices that will affect all the nations of the Iron Kingdoms.

Follow Cygnar’s most unpredictable warcaster from his early days on the streets and roofs of Bainsmarket to his first covert mission in the shadowy Cygnaran Reconnaissance Service as you uncover The Way of Caine.

©2013 Privateer Press (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Deeper than I thought it might be

What made the experience of listening to The Way of Caine the most enjoyable?

Both the story and audio performance were excellent. It was easy to keep track of what the main character was saying. In some ways the story felt like an action movie with character development. The characters were believable.

What did you like best about this story?

The main character has a rough exterior but there is more going on than might be apparent at first. One of the minor characters plays a critical and believable roll that act as book ends to the over all story and explain more about the main character Caine.

Have you listened to any of Marc Vietor’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not but I definitely would listen to a performance by him again as it added to the story for me.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It was and I pretty much did ... While doing chores.

Any additional comments?

I will likely listen to this again after listening to other books in this series first, I'm sure I missed some details the first time but I can't wait to hear more about this setting,

Good story

A good story about one of the most doubtfull people im cygnar. Cain delivers what is expected.

Great book

This book was much deeper then I thought it would be. The book and the Narration were both really well done and easy to imagine when listening to it. Even if you know nothing about the Iron Kingdoms you can easily follow along and understand what is going on.

Quick and Entertaining

This story did exactly what I hoped it would do. It delivered an easy and entertaining foray into the Iron Kingdoms. Caine is slick and tough, as Warcasters should be.

Reminder why

Not to continue this branch. Illogical decisions, inconsistent behavior, to much outside happening to infuriating degrees.

Sadly not one of the good ones

This story makes the character of Alister Caine worse than just reading his book profiles and the snippets from game books. It gets details flatout wrong on lore (Caine is referred to as "now a warcaster, promoted to lieutenant and leading some blabla", when a significant trait of his character is that he is one of the very few Cygnaran warcasters to have his rank of captain revoked; tremendous leniency is afforded tye rare warcasters, and Caine is a character forced to murder and assasinate people (enemy and "ally") often enough that he earns a spot on that dishonor roll, in spite of his qualified immunity as a warcaster. He is an anomaly, a trouble-maker, and a disgraced character, fallen from grace.
That's one of the most fundamental character details and the author got it wrong.
He was also trained under series anti-villain Magnus (foreshadowing his clouded outlook and history), but the author apprentices him under someone else for some reason. While skipping the entire process.

More damningly, the story is just boring and mediocre to hear. New people may not know that info or care, but there isn't much to recommend to a setting neophyte. Caine is portrayed as largely a dope who is easily manipulated by anybody willing to mention his father, which throws Caine off enough emotionally to become clay in their hands.

This is a character who lives a double-life as a duelist-provocateur/gunslinger assassin/wizard/troop commander/vagabond, fighting interesting foes in interesting warzones, and he somehow ends up an easily manipulated slack-jawed bland guy.
Additionally, there are a lot of arbitrary time skips and an attempt to start us off with an "in medias res" assassination of some random dude, making the whole thing kind of leading up to a pointless "and then Caine shot the guy".

I wish I had nicer stuff to say here. There are fortunately much better books in this series to read. Please read Blood of Kings instead. it didn't set out to be about Caine, but it's still a better Caine book than this one is.