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Ultramarines #1-3 + short stories
The Uriel Ventris Chronicles: Volume One
The Ultramarines are a byword for loyalty and courage. Their martial prowess is legendary and is second only to the God-Emperor. Graham McNeill's epic trilogy of Ultramarines novels is a masterpiece of non-stop action! Containing the novels Nightbringer, Warriors of Ultramar and Dead Sky, Black Sun, plus connecting short stories, this omnibus follows the adventures of Space Marine Captain Uriel Ventris and the Ultramarines as they battle against the enemies of mankind. From their home world of Macragge, into the dreaded Eye of Terror and beyond, Graham McNeill's prose rattles like gunfire and brings the Space Marines to life like never before.
Written by Graham McNeill
CONTENTS
Chains of Command
Nightbringer
Leviathan
Warriors of Ultramar
Consequences
Dead Sky, Black Sun
Written by Graham McNeill
CONTENTS
Chains of Command
Nightbringer
Leviathan
Warriors of Ultramar
Consequences
Dead Sky, Black Sun
960 pages, Paperback
Published January 8, 2019
About the author
Graham McNeill
324 books803 followersHailing from Scotland, Graham McNeill narrowly escaped a career in surveying to work for Games Workshop as a games designer. He has a strong following with his novels Nightbringer, Warriors of Ultramar, Dead Sky, Black Sun and Storm of Iron.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 25, 2020
In the Empire of Man in the WH40K universe, there’s two tiers of soldiers: the elite Space Marines - and everyone else.
Space Marines are genetically-modified, trained-from-birth super soldiers encased in power-armor and loaded to the gills with cybernetics. Their weapon of choice is the bolter, essentially an automatic grenade launcher. And they sometimes wield a sword because why not?! Swords are cool.
Despite the similarities of their creation, Space Marines are not one monolithic force, oh no. They’re organized into Chapters (a good analogy would be a Roman Legion), whose battle tactics and overall philosophy can vary wildly. Seriously, there are hundreds if not thousands of different Chapters.
The most righteous, jingoistic Chapter of them all are the Ultramarines. Praise the Emperor this, praise the Emperor that, and, oh, beware the Corruption of Chaos! Catechisms for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Well, these books follow Uriel Ventris, a Captain of the Ultramarines.
This hefty tome, in fact, comprises three different books, each featuring a different setting and different foe.
The first book, Nightbringer, follows Uriel Ventris in his first major campaign as Captain and features Dark Eldar - basically sci-fi dark elves with a splash of Giger - as well as the Nightbringer (whoever that may be…) and your usual coterie of corrupt humans. It’s that last inclusion that elevates this first book above the others.
I’m sure I’m not revealing anything you don’t already know when I say that human beings practice extreme levels of species prejudice. Only humans have souls, not animals. Only humans have free will, not animals. The vast majority of human beings will only start caring about the mass extinction event we’re currently causing when human beings start to suffer. Obviously there are exceptions but point is, human beings find human affairs most interesting and worthy of attention. That’s why in The Walking Dead, the actual walking dead merely serve as a backdrop for human conflict.
Same here in Nightbringer. Yeah there’s aliens, there’s Old Gods… but the human politics and human conflicts serve as the core of the story. And the story is better for it.
By contrast, the second book Warriors of Ultramar features Uriel Ventris leading a solar system defense against an invasion of Tyranids who are, basically, the Zerg (or vice versa): a Hive Mind species who use rapid and extreme genetic modification to creature ORGANIC weapons and soldiers. Here, though, human politics and conflicts do NOT serve as the core of the story. Not to say there isn’t some. It’s just not the main conflict. And the story is less compelling as a result.
The last book, Dead Sky, Black Sun, involves the exodus of Uriel Ventris (and his best friend Pasanius) to a Chaos-infested HELLPLANET. Its endless descriptions of torture and body horror and such reminded me of that movie Event Horizon, as well as the original Quake games. Dead Sky, Black Sun was, by far, my least favorite book and, for the foreseeable future (indeed, perhaps forever) the last WH40K book that I’ll read.
All of these books are action-packed with dialogue won’t win any awards but feels natural to the characters and description that helps expand the impressive WH40K milieu. It’s just… for this type of story, writing is not the best medium. I loathe the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words” but it’s the perfect critique of these books.
Dead Sky, Black Sun, for example, contains A LOT of description… and yet I could tell you vastly more about the environs of Quake 2, a game I haven’t played in decades. Video games, film, animation - these are all much better media for telling these types of stories, in which objective description takes precedence over subjective description.
In fact, that’s something a lot of authors don’t seem to grasp: good description should always be a form of characterization. An author is never going to out-describe a video game or a film. Ever. But what a novel can do that a film or video game can’t is customize the perception on the basis of the character. In a film or a video game, a tree is a tree. But in a novel, a druid or an industrialist or a peasant will look at a tree and describe it in vastly different terms. That’s huge. That’s what makes novels so great at exploring diverse mindsets and building empathy. The Chronicles of Uriel Ventris is not going to be strengthening your empathy muscles.
So, yeah, it’s not capital-L Literature, but then OBVIOUSLY it isn’t. So it might seem churlish of me to make this criticism of the book. And I might agree - except I’ve also read the Eisenhorn trilogy from WH40K. Which also isn’t capital-L Literature but is nevertheless vastly superior to these because they remain FIRMLY centered on human conflict and FIRMLY anchored within the perspective of Eisenhorn himself. Every description is flavored by his own unique personality. So those books have all the action, all that fun WH40K lore and flavor… but they never lose sight of the human element either.
Space Marines are genetically-modified, trained-from-birth super soldiers encased in power-armor and loaded to the gills with cybernetics. Their weapon of choice is the bolter, essentially an automatic grenade launcher. And they sometimes wield a sword because why not?! Swords are cool.
Despite the similarities of their creation, Space Marines are not one monolithic force, oh no. They’re organized into Chapters (a good analogy would be a Roman Legion), whose battle tactics and overall philosophy can vary wildly. Seriously, there are hundreds if not thousands of different Chapters.
The most righteous, jingoistic Chapter of them all are the Ultramarines. Praise the Emperor this, praise the Emperor that, and, oh, beware the Corruption of Chaos! Catechisms for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Well, these books follow Uriel Ventris, a Captain of the Ultramarines.
This hefty tome, in fact, comprises three different books, each featuring a different setting and different foe.
The first book, Nightbringer, follows Uriel Ventris in his first major campaign as Captain and features Dark Eldar - basically sci-fi dark elves with a splash of Giger - as well as the Nightbringer (whoever that may be…) and your usual coterie of corrupt humans. It’s that last inclusion that elevates this first book above the others.
I’m sure I’m not revealing anything you don’t already know when I say that human beings practice extreme levels of species prejudice. Only humans have souls, not animals. Only humans have free will, not animals. The vast majority of human beings will only start caring about the mass extinction event we’re currently causing when human beings start to suffer. Obviously there are exceptions but point is, human beings find human affairs most interesting and worthy of attention. That’s why in The Walking Dead, the actual walking dead merely serve as a backdrop for human conflict.
Same here in Nightbringer. Yeah there’s aliens, there’s Old Gods… but the human politics and human conflicts serve as the core of the story. And the story is better for it.
By contrast, the second book Warriors of Ultramar features Uriel Ventris leading a solar system defense against an invasion of Tyranids who are, basically, the Zerg (or vice versa): a Hive Mind species who use rapid and extreme genetic modification to creature ORGANIC weapons and soldiers. Here, though, human politics and conflicts do NOT serve as the core of the story. Not to say there isn’t some. It’s just not the main conflict. And the story is less compelling as a result.
The last book, Dead Sky, Black Sun, involves the exodus of Uriel Ventris (and his best friend Pasanius) to a Chaos-infested HELLPLANET. Its endless descriptions of torture and body horror and such reminded me of that movie Event Horizon, as well as the original Quake games. Dead Sky, Black Sun was, by far, my least favorite book and, for the foreseeable future (indeed, perhaps forever) the last WH40K book that I’ll read.
All of these books are action-packed with dialogue won’t win any awards but feels natural to the characters and description that helps expand the impressive WH40K milieu. It’s just… for this type of story, writing is not the best medium. I loathe the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words” but it’s the perfect critique of these books.
Dead Sky, Black Sun, for example, contains A LOT of description… and yet I could tell you vastly more about the environs of Quake 2, a game I haven’t played in decades. Video games, film, animation - these are all much better media for telling these types of stories, in which objective description takes precedence over subjective description.
In fact, that’s something a lot of authors don’t seem to grasp: good description should always be a form of characterization. An author is never going to out-describe a video game or a film. Ever. But what a novel can do that a film or video game can’t is customize the perception on the basis of the character. In a film or a video game, a tree is a tree. But in a novel, a druid or an industrialist or a peasant will look at a tree and describe it in vastly different terms. That’s huge. That’s what makes novels so great at exploring diverse mindsets and building empathy. The Chronicles of Uriel Ventris is not going to be strengthening your empathy muscles.
So, yeah, it’s not capital-L Literature, but then OBVIOUSLY it isn’t. So it might seem churlish of me to make this criticism of the book. And I might agree - except I’ve also read the Eisenhorn trilogy from WH40K. Which also isn’t capital-L Literature but is nevertheless vastly superior to these because they remain FIRMLY centered on human conflict and FIRMLY anchored within the perspective of Eisenhorn himself. Every description is flavored by his own unique personality. So those books have all the action, all that fun WH40K lore and flavor… but they never lose sight of the human element either.
July 21, 2021
Trois romans et une nouvelle composent ce volume qui raconte les aventures d’Uriel Ventris.
Hiérarchie : Uriel Ventris devient le Capitaine de la 4ème Compagnie de Combat du Chapitre des Ultramarines à la mort du Capitaine Idaeus.
Nightbringer : il est envoyé sur Pavonis pour protéger le gouvernement en place et stopper la rébellion des Maisons Marchandes et la prise de pouvoir par l’une d’elle qui désire ranimer Le Nightbringer qui est un dieu sadique capable de pulvériser les étoiles !
Les Guerriers d'Ultramar : Uriel Ventris rejoint le Chapitre des space marines Mortifactors afin de les convaincre à se joindre à lui et la Garde Impériale pour contrer l’invasion de Tarsis Ultra par les créatures Tyranides issues des Flottes-Ruches qui ont déjà dévoré et atomisé plusieurs mondes.
Ciel mort, soleil Noir : pour n’avoir pas respecté le Codex Astartes qui régit vies et combats des Space Marines loyalistes il est déshonoré et envoyé en exil sur la planète Medrengard, tuer le Maitre de la Forge Honsou et libérer le Démon Coeur de Sang.
Vous n’avez rien compris ? C’est normal !! Warhammer 40.000 est un monde à part avec son vocabulaire, règles, son culte à l’empereur et les événements se déroulent sur des milliers d’années ! C’est un univers tellement complexe que je suis dans l’incapacité totale de résumer clairement quoique ce soit ! Mais l’aventure est au rendez-vous à chaque moment, les Space Marines sont les redresseurs de torts de ces galaxies et croisent des créatures plus immondes les unes que les autres !
Je reconnais à Graham McNeill qu’il a une imagination débridée pour créer des horreurs à tour de bras et les décrire par le menu ! J’ai partagé une citation de chaque roman, histoire de ne pas être seule à avoir parfois la nausée !
J’ai clairement préféré la nouvelle et les deux premiers romans auxquels je mets 5* mais le dernier m’a plutôt ennuyé, bien que les horreurs soient présentes, j’ai trouvé qu’Uriel Ventris était limite niais par instant et c’était assez déroutant pour être déplaisant et casser le rythme de lecture. Ceci ne m’empêchera pas de lire le volume suivant, j’adore cet univers quel qu'en soit la période.
#LesChroniquesdUrielVentris1èrePartie #NetGalleyFrance
Hiérarchie : Uriel Ventris devient le Capitaine de la 4ème Compagnie de Combat du Chapitre des Ultramarines à la mort du Capitaine Idaeus.
Nightbringer : il est envoyé sur Pavonis pour protéger le gouvernement en place et stopper la rébellion des Maisons Marchandes et la prise de pouvoir par l’une d’elle qui désire ranimer Le Nightbringer qui est un dieu sadique capable de pulvériser les étoiles !
Les Guerriers d'Ultramar : Uriel Ventris rejoint le Chapitre des space marines Mortifactors afin de les convaincre à se joindre à lui et la Garde Impériale pour contrer l’invasion de Tarsis Ultra par les créatures Tyranides issues des Flottes-Ruches qui ont déjà dévoré et atomisé plusieurs mondes.
Ciel mort, soleil Noir : pour n’avoir pas respecté le Codex Astartes qui régit vies et combats des Space Marines loyalistes il est déshonoré et envoyé en exil sur la planète Medrengard, tuer le Maitre de la Forge Honsou et libérer le Démon Coeur de Sang.
Vous n’avez rien compris ? C’est normal !! Warhammer 40.000 est un monde à part avec son vocabulaire, règles, son culte à l’empereur et les événements se déroulent sur des milliers d’années ! C’est un univers tellement complexe que je suis dans l’incapacité totale de résumer clairement quoique ce soit ! Mais l’aventure est au rendez-vous à chaque moment, les Space Marines sont les redresseurs de torts de ces galaxies et croisent des créatures plus immondes les unes que les autres !
Je reconnais à Graham McNeill qu’il a une imagination débridée pour créer des horreurs à tour de bras et les décrire par le menu ! J’ai partagé une citation de chaque roman, histoire de ne pas être seule à avoir parfois la nausée !
J’ai clairement préféré la nouvelle et les deux premiers romans auxquels je mets 5* mais le dernier m’a plutôt ennuyé, bien que les horreurs soient présentes, j’ai trouvé qu’Uriel Ventris était limite niais par instant et c’était assez déroutant pour être déplaisant et casser le rythme de lecture. Ceci ne m’empêchera pas de lire le volume suivant, j’adore cet univers quel qu'en soit la période.
#LesChroniquesdUrielVentris1èrePartie #NetGalleyFrance
April 12, 2023
“The Ultramarines are the epitome of a Space Marine chapter. Warriors without peer, their name is a byword for discipline and honour, and their heroic deeds are legendary…”
Whatta a goddamn ride these were. And entirely worth the insane amount of time it took me to read this entirely.
Basically, three novels in one, supplemented by some connecting short stories set before and between these three novels. All centered around The Captain America of The Imperium, Uriel Ventris and his merrily insane band of Ultramarine compatriots. Each with their own themed weapon to boot.
But even better, it’s a rollicking, constantly entertaining crash course in just how straight up bonkers 40k can be while also proficient in just solidly entertaining “military thriller” storytelling. Each novel has a pretty clear set up, and themed antagonists (all too a who’s who of the Warp’s Worst like the Tyranids and Chaos Marines and even more, which is also very cool and fun to see), but the real power is just making you actually care about those slabs of walking, talking meat and hoping like all hell that they will actually make it through the considerably horrifying bullshit they get thrown through for almost 1000 pages.
I think the second installment, Warriors of Ultramar, is the one that lags the most, but truly all three of these (and the shorts) just flat rule most of the time. While also providing you clear and present examples of how and why people are completely obsessed with this whole thing. (Also that final final beat of Book 3 is just TOO GOOD. It made me want the second omni of these right fucking now, which should be a pretty ringing endorsement in itself, but I’ve also been reading this for three years so take it or leave it).
Whatta a goddamn ride these were. And entirely worth the insane amount of time it took me to read this entirely.
Basically, three novels in one, supplemented by some connecting short stories set before and between these three novels. All centered around The Captain America of The Imperium, Uriel Ventris and his merrily insane band of Ultramarine compatriots. Each with their own themed weapon to boot.
But even better, it’s a rollicking, constantly entertaining crash course in just how straight up bonkers 40k can be while also proficient in just solidly entertaining “military thriller” storytelling. Each novel has a pretty clear set up, and themed antagonists (all too a who’s who of the Warp’s Worst like the Tyranids and Chaos Marines and even more, which is also very cool and fun to see), but the real power is just making you actually care about those slabs of walking, talking meat and hoping like all hell that they will actually make it through the considerably horrifying bullshit they get thrown through for almost 1000 pages.
I think the second installment, Warriors of Ultramar, is the one that lags the most, but truly all three of these (and the shorts) just flat rule most of the time. While also providing you clear and present examples of how and why people are completely obsessed with this whole thing. (Also that final final beat of Book 3 is just TOO GOOD. It made me want the second omni of these right fucking now, which should be a pretty ringing endorsement in itself, but I’ve also been reading this for three years so take it or leave it).
August 27, 2020
At the time of this review, I have finished the first story, "Nightbringer" .
I enter novels that belong to a well established franchise with some skepticism. More times than not, I am left disappointed, with the author running amok, essentially using the existing characters to piggy back their plot. Karen Traviss, I am looking at you.
McNeill is nowhere near those authors. So far, this omnibus delivers on every note that I wanted in 40K novel. McNeill maintains a concrete writing style, a solid plot (with decent twists) all while maintaining the ultra violent nature of the bleak 40K universe.
I enter novels that belong to a well established franchise with some skepticism. More times than not, I am left disappointed, with the author running amok, essentially using the existing characters to piggy back their plot. Karen Traviss, I am looking at you.
McNeill is nowhere near those authors. So far, this omnibus delivers on every note that I wanted in 40K novel. McNeill maintains a concrete writing style, a solid plot (with decent twists) all while maintaining the ultra violent nature of the bleak 40K universe.
July 31, 2023
Such a weird book to review.
Completely new to the Warhammer Universe and only read this as the computer game Rogue Trader is slated for release and wanted some context.
I would have so loved this as a 14 year old and even in my dotage I absolutely loved the world building and craziness of the gothic descriptions and overall ridiculousness of well, everything. Liked the main characters although by book three the pattern was obvious..in who you like, hate, will be sacrificed and so on.
The problem is for every 100 pages, 67 are combat descriptions and it wears you out..the politics and religious connotations especially the Lovecraftian corruptions are extremely fun and interesting.
Completely new to the Warhammer Universe and only read this as the computer game Rogue Trader is slated for release and wanted some context.
I would have so loved this as a 14 year old and even in my dotage I absolutely loved the world building and craziness of the gothic descriptions and overall ridiculousness of well, everything. Liked the main characters although by book three the pattern was obvious..in who you like, hate, will be sacrificed and so on.
The problem is for every 100 pages, 67 are combat descriptions and it wears you out..the politics and religious connotations especially the Lovecraftian corruptions are extremely fun and interesting.
May 23, 2022
A great start if you are looking at getting into Space Marines in general. It really lays out how a Space Marine is created and traditionally chosen and what they can do. The action scenes are solid and well described for the most part. The characters have personality and the villains are well written. It doesn't reference many events outside of those relevant to the story and when it does they are given context. It is both a good read with a self contained story and an easy way to get into the lore.
November 3, 2023
The sheer ammount of content and information you get from this omnibus leaves you breathless and wanting for me.From the C'tan,to fighting along side the deth korps of krieg shoulder to shoulder against the Tyranids to ending up on traitor warlord -world with a unlikely band of renegade space marines who consider themselves loyalist.This book has it all.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 19, 2021
Now I see why Uriel Ventris is so revered within the realm of Ultramarines - McNeill's omnibus presents three great stories to highlight this champion of the Ultramarines in both his glory and his (non)humanity. Definitely a must-read for any WH40k fan.
May 23, 2023
It is what it is, nothing more or less: a collection of epic space marine battles, loosely held together by an overall, yet somewhat interesting, story.
Did I like it? Yes! Would I recommend it? It is niche. If you are interested in Warhammer lore, go for it. For others, steer away.
Did I like it? Yes! Would I recommend it? It is niche. If you are interested in Warhammer lore, go for it. For others, steer away.
June 21, 2024
I’ll be interested to get my hands on the next volumes to see how the narrative grows over time. This all seemed like disparate sandbox adventures with different aspects of the 40K setting. A lot of fun, but not much overall substance.
February 17, 2019
An Epic Tale
An Epic tale creating a legendary warrior! The omnibus version is a fairly weighty book, but worth the read! Bravo!
An Epic tale creating a legendary warrior! The omnibus version is a fairly weighty book, but worth the read! Bravo!
September 28, 2020
Solid warhammer book. Nothing fancy but a well told story and fun read.
October 25, 2020
My review for this volume/books can be found here, under a different a version of the trilogy.
January 24, 2023
Pretty standard Space Marine stories but has *that* Iron Warriors creation in it.
January 7, 2024
fantastic
This was my first experience with reading a warhammer 40K book and it was amazing. It’s action heavy, gory and maybe a bit over the top, but I loved it.
This was my first experience with reading a warhammer 40K book and it was amazing. It’s action heavy, gory and maybe a bit over the top, but I loved it.
August 22, 2024
The third part is not as good as the middle part I admit, but all in all the book is worthy of every moment spent reading
January 16, 2021
Graham McNeil could write about an aviary that's run out of birdseed and I'd buy it. Another gripping trilogy, McNeil doesn't shirk on the human side of the Warhammer universe as well as meditating on the Space Marines lack of humanity. Great stuff.
January 12, 2022
Every book was good and really enjoyed the look into a space marines life.
November 17, 2020
2.5* military scifi. Heavy action, average dialgoue and confusing world buidling. I felt like i needed a massive reference book to understand certain concepts. P.s im quite new to this world
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews