First of all, a little about me. I am a big fan of Black Library fiction, having ready many different series, from the fantastic Eisenhorn and Ravenor sets, through the Grey Knights, Blood Angels, Eldar Prophecy etc. etc.

I am also a fan of quality literature in general, enjoying classics such as Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, a lot of the older Discworld novels, and some great philosophy works.

Now, how this relates to this Ultramarines Omnibus is this: The Ultramarines Omnibus fails both as a piece of Warhammer 40,000 fiction, and as a piece of literature at all.

Firstly, a lot of the "fluff" of the fictional Warhammer universe is ignored. The protagonist, Uriel Ventris, we are told, is an Ultramarines Veteran Captain. He is war hardened after centuries of warfare against the horrors of the universe. Yet, time and time again, we see him showing irrational fear, explicit sensitivity, and a distinct lack of comprehension. Considering this man is a veteran captain, he rarely understands what is going on around him, being constantly "confused", "bewildered" or "paralysed with fear".

Now don't get me wrong, fear, confusion and the like are all fine sensations for a protagonist to feel... that is if they a) don't contradict with the core design of the character they represent [ie. space marines] and b) aren't contradicted by an adjective in the following line. Let me give you an example of this book, condensed into a few sentences:

"Uriel, a hardened veteran of many centuries of warfare, genetically enhanced to fight, fearless, peerless, invincible, strode forward over the trench. His second captain leaped over behind him and followed him in the charge. Suddenly an enemy jumped up in front of him, and both space marines felt paralysing bolts of fear nail them to the spot. They then proceeded to dramatically destroy the enemy. Uriel looked his Captain in the eye, leaned in close, and whispered softly.. 'I love you'".

This may look as though I am overacting, or just taking the mick, but I really can't stress enough how ridiculous this book is. The author, who I have to say has produced much finer pieces of work than this, constantly reuses the same adjective numerous times in one paragraph, the same phrase numerous times in one chapter, and the same, recycled series of events numerous times throughout the book.

So to summarise: this book is badly written, creates a "non-fluff", contradictory account of the protagonist who is whiny, thick and annoying, and yet manages to fill out a thousand pages. I honestly found myself that Uriel Ventris would just shut up and die, yet his "honourable sensitivity" prevailed time and time again, and I just got sick of it.

If you bought this book, you would probably enjoy it. You would get your kick of Ultramarines glorification, gore, and the heroes triumphing. What you will not get is an in depth exploration of characters of emotions, a rewarding and intelligent piece of literature, or an original and satisfying excursion into a fantastic fictional universe.

Buy at your own peril, but I would really recommend spending your money on the Eisenstein omnibus, and leaving this one for dead.

I kinda liked the Ultramarines...,
I did, I really did. I never quite understood what people had against them. So they were a bit inflexible and annoyingly self-righteous at times, but what of it? They're Space Marines! The God-Emperor's ultimate warriors. Not really designed to be all fluffy and cudly.
Now, however, I'm beginning to see what people have against them. If Graham McNeill's novels are really the best that can be made from all that rich background and fluff about the Ultramarines that GW has thrown at us over the years, I can see why Ultras aren't cool.... Well, no, that just can't be right.
And it isn't. The fault isn't in the material. It's in the writing. There's so much wrong with these stories that I actually don't know where to begin. The story line is full of holes, the main characters are underdeveloped and at times - most of the time really - just plain annoying, and the settings are, though often well-developed, not acceptable. Spacemarines DON'T go sightseeing in the Eye of Terror. They just DON'T.
A book entitled 'The Ultramarines' should probably be about, well, the Ultramarines and not about a couple of generic spacemarines on a chaotic romp through the space-time continuum.
Mr. McNeill, I know you can write good novels. The Ambassador Chronicles prove that. The question is: Why the "#¤%& didn't you???
A story that has so much going against it, and I still give it two stars rather than just one. Why? Because in spite of everything, McNeill does at times show us that he CAN write. Some of the nasties, especially the Iron Warriors, in these books are just plain great. Often, I found myself wishing the bad guys would win. Sadly, I didn't even get that much satisfaction.

Ok, Nightbringer (the first full length story) was Graham McNeil's first novel, so you have to extend him some leeway I guess, but this is dross. The dialogue is appalingly clunky and so unbearably cheesy in places in actually makes you wince, plot hooks are painfully obvious, characters one-dimensional and the author also happily plagiarises album titles and scenes from movies throughout - in fact the entire plot of Nightbringer is basically a rip-off of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Its REALLY bad. Ok, it is well paced, some of the more original set-pieces are exciting, but they cannot begin to save this massively disappointing book. Reading this made me want to write a book about the Ultramarines, simply to try and salvage some of their already ravaged dignity. Things do not improve into the second and third books at all...