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Pretty good, I have to say. The last book started way too slow, but it turned out to be the best one yet.

Something I noticed though....Graham McNeill really makes up a lot of stuff that contradicts previous stuff. For instance:



There's way too many things like this. I can't really concentrate when I'm trying to justify some random thing that happened a couple pages back

I've just started reading the fourth book too; "The killing ground". I like it pretty much, except I hate reading the 'human parts'. I know graham will just kill all of them at some point anyway, so they really aren't worth reading . That's something else I've noticed. He likes to introduce characters that inevitably will die, after giving you every detail of their life and making you actually care about them. Some people might enjoy that...But I don't. It's too predictable, and I often find myself forcing to read through those parts. Bleck.

I consider McNeil their second best author (behind Abnett). Fulgrim and A Thousand Sons are two of the stronger Heresy novels thus far if you haven't had a chance to read them yet. I haven't read any of his Ultra Marine war porn yet....just due to the yawntastic chapter .

Yeah. I know. Alot of writers don't remember. Like Ice Angel he needs people to help him sometimes.

I think he still has parts of his armour left as it mentions him shedding the final few parts in killing ground.
And i really liked killing ground though i'm not actually sure why.
Chapters due is pretty good as well though Sicarius is such a massive douche(am i allowed to say that?) it's unreal.

purplefood wrote:I think he still has parts of his armour left as it mentions him shedding the final few parts in killing ground.
And i really liked killing ground though i'm not actually sure why.
Chapters due is pretty good as well though Sicarius is such a massive douche(am i allowed to say that?) it's unreal.

Ah, I'll have to read that then. I'm probably only a couple pages from that now.

I'll be buying a chapter's due before I finish the killing ground. I didn't know sick-hairiest was in that one. He seems like a big douche

I've also read The thousand sons. Same problems, but the content was much better. Same old McNeill!


I really like Anthony Reynolds more than the other guys. The word bearers novels were really good. Like; "I just read three hundred pages in one night"-Good

They include bits frrom several captains and Sicarius is like he is in the Assualt on Black Reach book a complete d**k personally i think the Thunderbolts rock.

Is the killing ground a hardback, or is that the 6th book? I like hardbacks much more

Cool. I'll buy it with your good word

You can get in in hardback or softback now (i think)
Both Graham McNeil and Dan Abnett get to have their books releasedin hardbac a few weeks before the softback ones come out since BL values them so much.

They should. Hardbacks are much more professional looking. It makes them look better as a publishing company.

The Ultramarine books will always be some of my Favorites, just because they were the first (other then rulebooks or Codex) 40k books I'd ever read. I need to read the two after Killing Ground and with the BL selling E/Audio books on the site now will give me a chance to get ahold of them.

ok...so


Chapter's Due query..


MOD edit : tags added !

Goldenfistcrusader wrote:ok...so Chapter's Due query

Chapters due i think has something like that but The Killing Ground has... i really don't want to give anything away.

Yeah, please use spoiler tags.

sorry :(

Goldenfistcrusader wrote:sorry :(

For what?

Asherian Command wrote:

Goldenfistcrusader wrote:sorry :(

For what?

I assume he is sorry for not using spoiler tags.

Samus_aran115 wrote:Pretty good, I have to say. The last book started way too slow, but it turned out to be the best one yet.

Something I noticed though....Graham McNeill really makes up a lot of stuff that contradicts previous stuff. For instance:

Spoiler:

Uriel loses his armour when he's put into the daemonculaba....But then later, it talks about 'ceramite' hitting the side of the gorge when he almost falls into it. wtf? I thought he was basically naked at this point? Why would they be stupid enough to leave his armour on in a daemonculaba's womb?

There's way too many things like this. I can't really concentrate when I'm trying to justify some random thing that happened a couple pages back

I've just started reading the fourth book too; "The killing ground". I like it pretty much, except I hate reading the 'human parts'. I know graham will just kill all of them at some point anyway, so they really aren't worth reading . That's something else I've noticed. He likes to introduce characters that inevitably will die, after giving you every detail of their life and making you actually care about them. Some people might enjoy that...But I don't. It's too predictable, and I often find myself forcing to read through those parts. Bleck.

the armor part is a little confusing, but if you read the part where they cut his armor off you will notice they leave some of his leg armor on. this is then confirmed in Killing Ground.


i don't remember any "Specteral Warriors" in killing ground

The mysterious warriors in question -- now with added spoiler tags ! -- are from "Chapter's due".

The thread has been edited, slightly, to add a few spoiler tags, one or two posts have been removed/edited for clarity.

I liked the Ultamarines books a lot more after I had a break from them. I read the Omnibus and thought it was ok, read Storm of Iron about a year later and then enjoyed the last book in the omnibus a lot more. Subsequently I read the next three books and really enjoyed them.

Never had the urge to read an Ultramarines book before but Nightbringer is free for download on the Black Library site as an ebook.

I am interested in reading about the encounter between Uriel and Honsou in Dead Sky, Black Sun as Storm of Iron is on of my favorite 40k book.

The Ultramrine books are much better than the Ultramarine background mainly due t thefact it focus' on a lesser known company. Although there is a massive fail at one point during the series.

OK, just a question...

Why is Sicarius a d***? I know that he did not trust Uriel after he came back from the Eye of Terror, but I wouldn't either!!!

But, another poster stated that he was a d*** in the Blackreach book as well.

Can anyone give details?

CaptainLoken wrote:OK, just a question...

Why is Sicarius a d***? I know that he did not trust Uriel after he came back from the Eye of Terror, but I wouldn't either!!!

But, another poster stated that he was a d*** in the Blackreach book as well.

Can anyone give details?

Well first off

Second in assault on Black Reach Sicarius take the glory path and then has a go at Sergeant scipio (my second favorite in that book btw) for doubting him even though he lost a man where it could have been preventable.
And thirdly

I agree with purplefood, Sicarius is a dick and hopefully Agemman will take over as Chapter Master when Calgar actually meets a real Avatar and gets his ass handed to him.

Ed_Bodger wrote:I agree with purplefood, Sicarius is a dick and hopefully Agemman will take over as Chapter Master when Calgar actually meets a real Avatar and gets his ass handed to him.

Impossible. His magic AP 2 bolters will just kill the avatar anyway.

Samus_aran115 wrote:

Ed_Bodger wrote:I agree with purplefood, Sicarius is a dick and hopefully Agemman will take over as Chapter Master when Calgar actually meets a real Avatar and gets his ass handed to him.

Impossible. His magic AP 2 bolters will just kill the avatar anyway.

Can't wait until you read Chaptes Due
For those that can't wait

Just when i thought calgar couldn't possibly get more mary sue..
Calgar = primarch apparently, according to the list of pwnage

Samus_aran115 wrote:
I've just started reading the fourth book too; "The killing ground". I like it pretty much, except I hate reading the 'human parts'. I know graham will just kill all of them at some point anyway, so they really aren't worth reading . That's something else I've noticed. He likes to introduce characters that inevitably will die, after giving you every detail of their life and making you actually care about them. Some people might enjoy that...But I don't. It's too predictable, and I often find myself forcing to read through those parts. Bleck.

I think that McNeill does this deliberately for a good reason (though, of course, not everyone has to like it):

Warhammer 40,000 is supposed to be dark and grim. Typically, there just isn't going to be a "happy ending" to the story. You can have the protagonist die, or lose, or turn to evil. His victory can turn to ashes. However, this is a series, so the protagonist isn't going to die, or lose in any permanent way, or join the bad guys. Knowing that, it creates the risk that the reader will either not feel much suspense in the story, or that the reader will feel like the universe is much too safe to be properly 'grimdark'.

Abnett can get around this in the Ghosts by having a large cast of Ghosts. They have new recruits (on occasion), and it is possible to slowly, painfully kill off beloved Ghosts, while the series as a whole still continues. However, by using the Ultramarines, this becomes more difficult. Recruits are very long in the making in a Space Marine Chapter, and you're not going to be taking in veterans from other Chapters, either.

Thus, I think that by introducing and developing 'normal' human characters, it lets the series have those moments of loss and grief and 'grimdark' that are a bit easier to come by in a storyline populated by less super-human entities. If he didn't spend time developing them, they would be nameless 'Red Shirts' and their deaths wouldn't matter as much.

However, that doesn't mean you gotta like it, either.