Dead Sky, Black Sun

Ultramarines #3

by Graham McNeill, Marc Gascoigne (Editor)

Hard-hitting SF action with the superhuman Space Marines and Captain Uriel Ventris. Exiled from his Chapter, Uriel ventures deep into the dreaded Eye of Terror to confront the terrible foes that dwell within these worlds of insanity. Chief amongst them are the ancient Chaos Space Marine legions - twisted warriors who have allied with the Dark Gods and are set on humanity's destruction.

Genres: 40k, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Military Science Fiction, Space, Military Fiction

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

Hailing 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.

Reviews

[Thomas Thornborough · Rating 2 out of 5]

Killed the Ventris storyline a bit for me. Too much implausibility and randomness to really drag me in. I know it's meant to be in the eye of terror so y'know, anything goes, but there are too many plot holes peppering it that I can't get over (Really, you're going to storm a trench line under cover of darkness in a world with no day/night cycles? Really, the Space marines are struggling to keep going and those two guardsmen are still keeping up? Oh, you've finished your final preparations for the siege already, I thought you were meant to have been grossly delayed by the stunt with the Titan etc etc)

The characters are also all strangely flat. I really enjoyed the first two novels and the growing characterisation and history of the main protagonists and honestly after the relentless Tyranid invasion of the previous book I was looking forward to a little more human-centric action but man, I struggled to finish this one in the end. I'm going to leave this series for a bit and pick it up again later.

[Keri Honea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This could be one of the most depressing and nauseating books I've ever read. Last time I physically felt sick from reading a description was Red Dragon. Bravo, Graham McNeill, bravo.

[Todd Lucht · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was a slog to get through. Picked up in the last 100 pages, but wasn't as interested in it as the first couple books of the series.

[Jan Merchant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the others in this series, Dead Sky, Black Sun comes across as early 40K when certain tropes and things are just in their infancy. It was a fun, engaging, frequently disgusting read, but didn’t establish the pathos of some other 40K trilogies I’ve read.

For example, this series takes some limited risks with its characters. Some important characters actually die (unlike in the Salamanders omnibus) - but the development of those characters can be lacking (unlike in the Night Lords omnibus).

Standouts were Honsou, he’s great. It was fun to dig into an Iron Warriors character. Uriel himself is as staunch as ever, but you pull for him. Pasanius is a good companion character as well.

And come on, a giant demon train and a Chaos Space Marine conductor?? That’s so 40K it’s hilarious.

This had some absolutely disgusting body horror and gore. It was over the top in the best ways. Using a Chaos world as a setting… bold choice Mr McNeill. Hell of a cliffhanger too.

[Oksana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Я не читала анотації, коли починала цю книгу, тому немало офігіла, коли на самому початку Уріеля і Пасанія виганяють з Капітули через порушення Кодексу Астартес - завдяки чому вони перемогли рій-вулик в минулій книзі.
Власне.
Вигнані у демонський світ, герої мають виконати смертельне завдання з мінімальними шансами на виживання.
Звісно, виконують, по ходу діла розносячи на шмаття половину демонської планети і укладаючи несподівані союзи. Все це супроводжується горами трупів, ріками крові і іншим вархамером.
Попри кривавість і динамічність, події і характери ну прямо дуже гіперболізовані і дещо плоскуваті, шкода, бо цьому сюжету можна було би накинути значної глибини. Проте, вархамер і не про це.

Воїни Ультрамара сподобались більше, а ця трохи нуднувата, тому тут тільки 4*

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great end to the first chronicle, possibly the best exposition of any of the first books, with a much better writing style, strong characters and a very good hook.

Can still be jumpy in places but as the characters are more noticeable this makes the book an easier read than warriors of ultramar

[Thomas Boudreau · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much body horror for one book. Damn.

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutly brilliant. Our protagonists spend most of the book trapped in the warp on a chaos planet trying to fight there way through the iron warriors who have a stronghold on the chaos planet.

[Joe Weber · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a word: “Gross”

[cola · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a fun book with a lot of problems but an equal amount of good ideas.

Firstly, I was incredibly happy to find Uriel still had something to pursue as a character. Not only that, but so does his sergeant, Pasanius, who becomes way more of a character here as compared with the previous two books. Both characters want to fulfill their blood oath to the Ultramarines, after having been exiled from their chapter, and both want to do this for slightly different reasons. Both reasons have to do with honor and faith, but coming from different places of unrest within themselves. Pasanius is able to have a secret he's kept since Nightbringer brought out into the open and confronted, and Uriel finds he is still an incredibly capable leader, leading the warband of renegades in place of fellow Ultras. Uriel and Pasanius both are, and remain, compelling characters, which is fairly impressive for a 40k novel.

However, unfortunately, I found the reasoning for their exile from the Ultras really lacking. There is just no way, and I know the Ultras love to follow the codex to the very letter but still, that Uriel is getting exiled for leading a Deathwatch strike force at the end of Warriors of Ultramar. Not only did this see a successful defeat of the Hive Queen, but it brought an end to the entire Hive fleet, and on top of both of those things Uriel has apparently served as a Captain in the Deathwatch before? Not only that, but I am pretty sure that the amount of times in 40k that a Tyranid invasion has been successfully stopped can be counted on one hand. Furthermore, there wasn't a better candidate than Uriel to have serve as Captain, because the Captain of that Deathwatch squad, whose name I forget, dies randomly during a smaller operation. And the Deathwatch in general is kind of a melting pot of Space Marines pulled from all over the Imperium, so I just think it was entirely appropriate to have Uriel go? All of that said, the entire character journey Uriel goes on in Warriors of Ultramar is one of overcoming his own self doubt, which he successfully does, and very strongly emerges with the view that he is a good, faithful warrior. So, for him to apparently instantly plead guilty to breaking with the codex felt kind of inappropriate? All of this is made more frustrating when we, or at least me, as readers, don't even know the exact contents of the fictional codex astartes, so I have no idea just how much Uriel really deviated from it, which he did not do to do something which no honorable chapter would do, but to do something which, I found to be, entirely appropriate, and also ultimately win. I'm not saying all of this should have been undone, I just think McNeill could have spent some time coming up with a more convincing reason Uriel and Pasanius were exiled.

Also, on the note of talking about the previous book, nowhere at the end of Warriors of Ultramar, and nowhere in the beginning of this book, did it detail what became of the Mortifactors, which I found incredibly frustrating.

For side characters in this book, almost all of them were relevant to the overall story. Nightbringer was terrible about having pointless side characters, Warriors of Ultramar was a bit better but overall Snowdog had nothing to do with the overarching plot despite being a fine character, but primarily, all the side characters in this book had some relevance to the plot. The more compelling of them I want to point out now is Ardaric Vaanes. I do not know how else to put this, but his dialogue was written in such a way that it reminded me, heavily, of several of the elf lords in the Silmarillion, primarily Thingol (I believe). While I enjoyed his reasonings for splitting from Uriel after they go through so much together, and I enjoyed the character overall, I strongly disliked his resolution in the epilogue. I just do not think that he would have desired so strongly to actually kill Uriel for leading his warband to destruction, going so far as to join with Honsou. Vaanes, while not an entirely honorable Space Marine, still abhors chaos and all its machinations. He, quite literally, calls the Unfleshed daemons, because they look evil, and therefore he desires to kill them. And also, when he and Uriel first meet, Vaanes is leading his warband in the destruction of an Iron Warrior flesh camp, which he states he does because they're chaos and thereby he hates them and seeks to destroy them. Furthermore, Uriel was still able to convince Vaanes to go with him in the first place, and help him to find his resolve in the weird hallway that tried to make them all turn against one another, so there is literally a part of Vaanes that is an honorable Space Marine who desires to stay loyal to the Imperium and the Emperor? I just don't at all buy that Vaanes would join Honsou, even though Honsou has him at gun point and the only other thing he could do is die. A good overall side character, who kind of fell apart at the end of the book.

And, similarly, I liked Honsou. He was compelling, but, unfortunately, contradictory unto himself. When Uriel and Honsou met face to the face for technically the second time, Uriel has this moment of kinship with him, which I just found stupid? Uriel is like, here is another warrior, who has a warrior spirit, and wishes to prove himself, and fights for a sense of honor, even if that takes a different shape than the way Uriel understands it. But none of that describes Honsou at all? And maybe that's the point? But everything Uriel thinks in that moment is just completely false, like, Honsou don't gaf about any of that, he is a pretty basic chaos warlord who sees an opportunity to overthrow his betters and take over Khalan-ghol, and does so. And, furthermore, instead of doing something like honorably dueling Uriel, has him sent down to the savage morticians. I would have found this moment of kinship ultimately a waste of time, but the way it resolves was kind of incredible, as when Honsou offers Uriel to join him, Uriel dwells on his situation, up and to the point where I actually thought he was going to accept Honsou's offer. It is not often I actually get baited into thinking something is going to resolve one way, but then goes the other.

Then, one more point toward the epilogue, I am wholly unexcited for that to go somewhere in a future book, if it does. Honsou compels Vaanes to join him, setting up that they will try to get revenge on Uriel. Please, I hope that never comes back, because that's not interesting. It is not the set up to a story I want to read. This book was a story I wanted to read, because it went places I didn't expect it to (even if it is sort of full of holes, it was still an enjoyable book), more quickly than I expected it to. But I already know how a revenge story of this machination plays out, so please, I hope that is not in store. If it was the plot of a short story that's fine, I am not reading those.

To move from characters to setting (though, I am also going to go back to some characters, i.e., the Imperial Guardsmen and the Unfleshed), the setting of a daemon world for this story was just really fun, even if it led to some things not really making sense. Chiefly, that any of this happened. I think if you find yourself in the warp, that is kind of it buddy, but looking past that, it's a fun setting. Especially the Daemonculaba, and the savage morticians. These two aspects do something incredibly well for chaos, which I often find 40k fiction forgets to truly emphasize: chaos is evil. Chaos guys like to do things that are evil, because it is evil. But unfortunately, with that being said, a character like Honsou being not only an Iron Warrior but also a half breed makes his character make no sense, because he is far too grounded, and fearful of daemons (chiefly his 'lackey', Onyx), and the savage morticians (but then doesn't fear literally going and giving the sleeping heart of blood a kick???). Anyways, the Daemonculaba led to one of my favorite scenes, wherein Uriel is shoved inside of one (which in of itself doesn't actually make sense to do, but I'll come back to that). Inside of it, Uriel should have died, but has a dream about how much he loves the Emperor and being an Ultramarine that he wakes up and literally punches his way out, and goes on a killing rampage. In the moment, I had loved this scene even more because I thought Uriel was naked during this, but I think he actually had his power armor on, which doesn't make sense? Because why would you want to put the armor into the Daemonculaba, wouldn't that ruin it? Like, they do that to break down his genetic material to feed into the growth of other chaos space marines I believe, so...? And here I would return to a big discrepancy with the Daemonculaba. Why would they put Uriel in to one, when it is stated the inside of Daemonculaba are for the use of growing a space marine, not genetically breaking one down? Does it work both ways? But also, how long have they been producing the Unfleshed this way? A big part of the overarching story is the Iron Warriors stole a bunch of loyalist gene seed, and each Unfleshed is apparently grown using that seed... but it sounded like they basically just stole that gene seed, and how much did they steal, and how many good chaos space marines have they been able to grow, because there were sure a lot of the Unfleshed, who could not have worked the way they did unless grown with a loyalist gene seed... but then later it's stated that the Unfleshed, or at least the Lord of the Unfleshed, was a normal child originally, kidnapped and turned into an Unfleshed... which makes no sense? While the overall idea of everything above is good and fun, there are just so many inconsistencies that either lead to something which goes unexplained or a contradiction that I was left both intrigued and disappointed.

Similarly, while I absolutely loved the warband of renegades idea, literally where in the name of holy terra did they all come from? There's like dozens of chapters represented in this warband, how could they have all possibly ended up on a literal daemon world IN the warp? There was a lot of stuff said about the Iron Warriors stealing a bunch of gene seed, a lot of which comes from one of the Imperial Guard characters, and so was the ship that seed was on just chalk full of dozens of strike teams from dozens of space marine chapters? And they were, for some reason, not killed, but brought and given a chance to seek refuge on a daemon world? Or were they all brought here by the daemon train, because Vaanes randomly knows all about that. And then throughout the entire book, literally three members of the warband speak ever. Vaanes, a Blood Raven, and a Wolf Brother, the latter two of whom speak literally once, and the Blood Raven is just mr. exposition who expositions on a bunch of stuff I sort of had a hard time believing he would know. Other than that, they just all let Vaanes speak for them and direct all of their actions, which, for RENEGADES, I found impossible to believe.

The biggest hole in this novel, for me, were the two Imperial Guards. I found it highly unlikely that either of them would have survived for as long as they did. In fact, the first time Uriel and Honsou fight, there was a big avalanche or collapse or something, wherein I thought the Guardsmen died, but then randomly later its described they both survived and kept pace with the space marines all along. And then one just randomly dies after they escape the savage morticians, and the other one ultimately dies pointlessly also, so what was even the point? At the end of the book, when the heart of blood summons to itself its suit of animated literal sauron armor (which, why did the daemon in the daemon train let that happen?), a female guard from the same regiment as the guy still alive appears, either from within the armor or was being held by it. What? This section was so completely unexplained, random, and possessed absolutely no bearing on anything that I am dumbfounded an editor did not suggest McNeill to just cut the Imperial Guardsmen entirely.

And, really quickly, this book still possess my greatest pet peeve of reusing words within the same sentence or paragraph. In fact, this book has one of the worst offenders of this I have ever seen. It is stated, I think by Honsou, that Uriel and his warband are to be taken down to the lair of the savage morticians, wherein dwell the savage morticians. Awful.

Overall, despite this long review which probably mostly comes off as negative, I found this book to be good. It has a lot of fun scenes. Chiefly was when Uriel and the warband were going down a hallway that had a daemon which tried to convince them to all kill themselves, from which they were saved by Uriel shouting that they should all remember their most honorable moments as space marines, and each member of the warband just starts shouting battles they were at and proud to have been at. Another great scene was when the Unfleshed all start beating their chests and chanting 'tribe,' and Uriel joins in. The daemon train guy getting Uriel to awaken the heart of blood just so he could have a battle with it was really funny. The siege subplot centered around Honsou was good, and relevant to the point that it did not feel pointless, and apparently is a tie in to McNeill's Iron Warriors novel, so I'll have to check that one out.

The idea of an exiled Ultramarine winding up on a daemon world, undoing an Iron Warrior warlord while witnessing a battle played out between two daemon lords is a good idea on paper. In execution, this book left a lot to be desired, but I think overall there is a solid novel here, though its submerged within something that was probably written very quickly, and edited very lightly.

[Bill Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uriel is still a compelling read, and I did enjoy reading the book, there were some points where you just want the story to get on with it already. Some areas get a little nonsensical, and a bit unnecessarily heavy on the imagery. The sense of deus ex machina can be annoying as well, Uriel is addictive.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book. David Weber meets H. P. Lovecraft with a little William Burroughs
thrown in. Nonstop blood and guts for 400 pages. I wouldn't want to make a
steady diet of this, but it was really fun.

[Carlos González · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le doy cinco estrellas porque a pesar de que es la que menos me ha gustado de la trilogía me ha encantado. Es más oscura que las demás y quizás un poco deprimente pero es que en el universo de Warhammer 40.000 solo hay guerra, muerte y destrucción ¿no? ;-)

[Kjirsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Death, blood and entrails on an alien planet.

[Patt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is how 40k novels should be written!!!!!!!!!!!

[Andwerdone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took the story in a very dark gruesome turn I wasn't expecting got really good.

[Efti · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I did not like this episode, but showing a chaos world it pulled me in. It was nothing extraordinary though.

[La Criatura]

In the next few paragraphs I'm going to say a few things that sound really mean but I PROMISE that unless otherwise specified I mean them in a complimentary way. Just please keep that in mind.

It's really hard to go into this one completely blind, and I'm kind of glad I didn't because if I knew nothing about this book I probably wouldn't have been terribly interested. Ventris has grown on me but I'm still not sold on Ultramarines in general, and as much as I've praised the two previous books in his saga I am not sure if sans knowing the premise here I would have read this third one.

Fortunately/unfortunately people sure do love to talk about this book, or at least about one of the central conceits of it, and just knowing the barest details about it I can't say I really blame them for that. I've of course heard of the daemonculaba before, both from friends and from random 40k fans going "hey have you heard of this thing that's in 40k lore, it's so fucked up". I read up briefly on it before. I then proceeded to not read about it for over a year, and when I finally picked it up, read the entirety of it in about three days.

I think this book is quite good. I really love Chaos Space Marines in general but I especially love them when they're doing stupid catty infighting because they hate each other for countless varieties of petty slights. I love Honsou specifically, he is hysterically funny in the way that only complete and utter shitheads can be and it makes me laugh every time anyone just starts microaggressing him about his other dad for no reason. Every time I read about CSM it really drives home the point that the only real reason they're not a more significant threat to the Imperium is that no one hates Chaos Marines as much as Chaos Marines hate other Chaos Marines. The fact that Ventris' whole venture is just happening tangentially to Honsou having to deal with TWO SEPARATE ARMIES besieging his fortress because both of their leaders PERSONALLY hate him so much is unbelievable. I love you guys. Every time Honsou is onscreen I hoot and cheer and every time he's not onscreen I'm hoping he'll return soon and I can watch him be more of a big gay idiot.

And I have really warmed to Ventris. He's a fun protagonist, and I loved the bits about him grappling with his faith and loyalties in this. They put the "not so different after all" bit with him and Honsou in this book just to tease me because god knows I love a good corruption arc, but it really is kind of just true. The parallels between them as people who have given all and devoted their lives to their father's works only to be rejected and cast aside because of a flaw... Uriel waxing poetic about the idea that in another life he might have campaigned in a Black Crusade or two... I snort that like crack cocaine I LOVE that shit.

I have to reiterate: this book is quite good. It's also basically softcore porn.

Frankly I'm astounded that more people haven't clocked that about it. You hear a lot about the daemonculaba and how weird and fucked up it is but reading it is very much like... well you wrote an elaborate setup for forced transformation hucow hyper-pregnancy wherein the main character gets unbirthed and then undergoes tentacle orifice invasion. I think there would maybe be some plausible deniability if this wasn't from a guy who's previously written Fulgrim torture-gang rape, Fabius Bile's Hucow Farm, whatever was going on in Nightbringer with that Wych who raped the guy who was undergoing surgery, and all the Molechian brother-sister incest/inbreeding that was really vital to the plot of Vengeful Spirit for some reason. And the casual "yeah we had to have a priestess fuck a pig, for Slaanesh reasons" thing from False Gods.

The point is, I have been on the internet long enough to recognize when someone is super horny for something that's kind of out there 9/10 times and this novel is... extremely obvious about it. Once more, I have to reiterate, none of this is meant as an insult. I think it adds a lot to the texture of the book and it did make me feel batshit insane to read the part where Honsou gets pissed off and threatens to have Ventris violently raped and then dismembered. I think I'm just a little peeved at the general public perception of this novel, because it feels like the stuff in it gets debated on its merit as if it's just like, general edgelord nonsense or whatever. You guys don't get it like I do >:(

Anyways. Big ups. I love that Ventris was angsting last book a little about not being able to have a family and then has a child in this one and immediately is a deadbeat dad about it. I love that Honsou is now raising a shitty kid who looks exactly like the guy who immediately achieved "bitch ex-wife" status for him. I don't know if I'll read more of Ventris' stuff because again, Ultramarines, but I definitely at least want to reread Iron Warrior and maybe some of that omnibus as well.

Pervert! You will live forever.

[Vladislav Okishev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ця книга стала для мене певним рубіконом у світі Warhammer 40,000 — межею, яку я б не радив переступати тим, хто надто чутливий до сцен насильства, крові та тілесного жаху. Адже половина тексту буквально просякнута жорстокістю, болем і зламом плоті... і чомусь я отримав від цього справжнє задоволення)

Все починається з сюжетного удару: капітан Ультрамаринів Урієль Вентріс разом із жменькою вцілілих повертається на рідний Макраггпісля неможливої перемоги, здобутої в попередній книзі. Він вирушає до священного храму, де проводить кілька днів, викарбовуючи на стінах імена загиблих побратимів. Та замість пошани на нього чекає... арешт. За відхилення від непохитного Кодексу Астартес його звинувачують у єресі. І попри героїзм і жертви — заслуги не мають значення. Його зневажають. Його виганяють. Разом із вірним другом Пасанієм його засилають у серце кошмару — демонічний світ Медренґард, аби там він спокутував провину, виконавши смертельну обітницю.

Те, як закручуються події, вражає і викликає справжній жах. Ув'язнення, подорож крізь спотворений час на демонічному поїзді, зітканому з кісток, м’яса і ще гірших речей, які я навіть не беруся описувати — і це лише початок. Там герої отримують нове завдання від самого демона. Вони або виконають його, або помруть. Або щось ще гірше.

Світ, у якому вони опинилися, не піддається жодним законам логіки чи природи — він огидний, спотворений, живий. Завдання веде їх у жахливу фортецю, яка перебуває під страшною облогою. І що далі — то більше абсурду, крові, мутацій, втрати людяності й відчаю. Кожна сцена — наче удар по уяві. І все ж — неможливо відірватися.

Це не просто гримдарк. Це — глибоке занурення в пекло, з якого неможливо вийти тим самим, ким увійшов. Лайк.

Оцінка 3, бо забагато було нелогічних моментів для мене та сюжетних дірок =()

P.S.
Макрагг — рідний світ Ультрамаринів, капітана Вентріса.
Кодекс Астартес — це збірка військових правил і принципів, якими керуються космодесантники (Астартес). Його створив Робаут Ґілліман, Примарх ультрамаринів, і він визначає тактику, організацію, дисципліну та поведінку для всіх легіонів Космічних піхотинців. Кодекс також містить правила для бойових одиниць, їхнього екіпірування та стратегії. Виконання Кодексу має ключове значення для забезпечення ефективності та єдності в рядах Астартес.

[Antón García Jouve · Rating 4 out of 5]

He leído esta novela poco después de Tormenta de hierro, en parte porque es su continuación, y en parte porque el estilo de Graham McNeill me encantó, y he de decir que, aunque me ha gustado algo menos, no me ha defraudado en absoluto. En este caso, la ingeniería militar y la estrategia quedan en segundo plano y dejan paso al arco de redención del protagonista Uriel Ventris y su compañero Pasanius, plagado de aventuras y horrores, pero también varios personajes conocidos regresan aquí, y el narrador mantiene ese entrelacement que salta de uno a otro, en ocasiones a un ritmo frenético digno de una película de acción (véase el primer combate entre Ventris y el antagonista, que no nombraré por no destriparle la trama a nadie). En cualquier caso, no faltan las batallas masivas, las máquinas de guerra infernales y una fortaleza inexpugnable. De hecho, todo es más exageradamente brutal y desmesurado si cabe, y podría decirse que el inmenso castillo de Khalan-Ghol, con sus torres kilométricas y su arquitectura que desafía la lógica, es un personaje más de la historia. Asimismo, las mutaciones corporales asquerosas, la violencia extrema y el gore alcanzan aquí cotas sorprendentes. Me costará olvidar cosas como lo que sucede en una nave que atraviesa la disformidad cuando falla el campo Geller (una mezcla de Event Horizon y el eclipse de Berserk), los campos de carne, los restos humanos semivivos de un dreadnought arrancados de cuajo de su armazón metálico o las daemonculati, una de las ocurrencias más enfermizas que jamás he leído. El lenguaje de la obra, que parece ser característico del autor, contribuye a la perfección a esta atmósfera nauseabunda regodeándose en la escatología y la crueldad, con símiles del tipo "sufrió una sensación increíblemente dolorosa en el interior del cráneo, como si le estuvieran clavando agujas al rojo vivo en las cuencas oculares" (p 303). Quizá algunos dirán que abusa de adjetivos como "maligno" o "repugnante" (todo puede ser repugnante en este libro, incluso un trozo de piedra o un sonido), y es cierto que en ocasiones su estilo es tan excesivo que resulta cómico, pero para mí es precisamente eso lo que convierte esta lectura en un auténtico placer. No esperéis sutilezas, solo sangre, vísceras, destrucción a mansalva y una trama adictiva con más de una sorpresa.

[Stefan Popovici · Rating 3 out of 5]

Consequences

Shortly after returning to Macragge, Uriel Ventris and his sergeant, Pasanius are put on a show trial for straying away from the Codex Astartes. Their punishment is exile under a death oath to destroy an Iron Warriors facility (which randomly appeared in a dream to a librarian).

This sets the stage for the main novel but personally I find this premise laughable. Ventris had just lead the defense of a star system against a Tyranid hive fleet and is condemned to exile for having stripped a Thunderhawk of its armor (among others)? And why was Pasanius exiled with him? And why not anyone else? Anyway, it's just a short story but rather silly.

Dead Sky, Black Sun

After their exile, Ventris and Pasanius are conveniently kidnapped by a demonic train (?!) and conveniently transported to the very planet in the librarian's dreams. There they are thrust in the middle of a conflict between two different factions of Iron Warriors and he must work to penetrate an impenetrable fortress and destroy it.

On their way they meet a group of renegade Space Marines from various loyalist Chapters and enlist their help to defeat the Iron Warriors. Sadly they lack any form of background, there is no explanation about how they got there and how they manage to survive and none of them have any personalities to speak of (only their leader, but even him is uni dimensional and does not have any kind of growth). They serve only to help Ventris and to provide a sort of counter-balance to the endless platitudes uttered by the Ultramarines. And in here lies the biggest problem with the book. Too much of it is dedicated to the doctrines and beliefs of the Ultramarines which are frankly devoid of any nuance or grey area.

What redeems this is the way that the planet of the Iron Warriors is presented. It's a bleak place, devoid of anything good or warm where no shred of hope or honor has remained. The interior of the fortress is even worse with the author painting an extremely grim and disturbing picture. Also worth mentioning are the various fights which are very good and fun.

Overall a good read but a very obvious step back from the previous entry.

[Leon Pescador · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dead Sky, Black Sun is where McNeill hits his stride in the Ultramarines Omnibus. Ventris expands beyond his simplicity from Nightbringer, while keeping the action and horror from Warriors of Ultramar. I still

The pros? The characters - the Ventris and Pasanius duo, the fellow exiled Astartes, Honsou and his fellow Chaos Space Marine minions and rivals, etc. The plot, overall, is a good balance of simple, fun, yet even a little subversive - and that is bolstered by the much more imaginative worldbuilding on this go. Sneaking into an already besieged, corrupted, sorcerous Chaos on a hellscape planet deep in the warp? Raising a rebellion of cast out supersoldiers and flayed giants? McNeill lets his imagination run wild and for the better, leading to more intriguing moral and ethical situations in this book than in its two predecessors. With our two favorite Ultramarines in exile on a suicide mission against their heretical brethren, the recurring question of "what makes me different than my enemy?" and "what am I willing to do to accomplish my mission?" is much more impactful this go around. In the beginning of the Omnibus, the dilemma of Ventris's deviations from the Codex Astartes and the inner struggle of common sense versus blind dogmatism felt forced - the plot always presented an obvious reason to deviate from the Ultramarines' most sacred text. Here, Ventris and Pasanius are never given black and white dilemmas, but simply shades of gray, which makes the plot much more compelling.

The cons? The execution of some action sequences or plot points can be quick, convenient, or hard to follow. The arrival to the Eye of Terror via the Chaos infested Thomas the Tank Engine is way too convenient, though it definitely keeps the plot tight. Similarly, the initial infiltration of Honsou's fortress is also difficult to follow. Somehow the two Iron Warriors warbands besieging the fortress cannot find a way inside, but a ragtag band of cast out Astartes can on the first go.

Overall, big improvement on Nightbringer and Warriors, and sets a high bar for the Ventris chronicles.

[Gordon Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now we're talking. After a playing boy scout in a couple of books facing off against the brawny and toothy alien threats, the tike has come for Uriel Ventris to meet some renegades and heretics.

The shift in antagonist helps the story. Ventris still unbendingly believes that he is the good guy as he kills all those who disagree with him, in the fashion of a less self-aware Judge Dredd, but he's forced to work with colleagues who have taken even less savoury career choices in order to combat villains of the most disgusting nature.

Along the way we learn that Ventris's moral code might not apply quite so universally as previous books, and there are Lovecraftian elements that do little for the story but ratchet up the horror. McNeill's dialogue could use some work and it is regretful that he goes quite so enthusiastically all-in on the clunky and not-as-intimidating-as-it-should-be 'Savage Morticians' as the name for a group of elite baddies, but overall this is a serious step up in quality for the series. The true horror of this setting is that the Ultramarines are effectively the Whitecloaks of a galaxy in such a sorry state that humanity really, really needs the Whitecloaks to keep them safe from greater threats. Here's hoping the later books in the series continue to play with such themes.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

The series has taken such a downhill turn since that first short story and book one which is a real shame. The dialogue has taken a hefty plunge into eye roll / cringe territory and the main villain in this book suffers from this the most. One of his lines in the book was similar to Ben Stiller in Dodgeball (and not in a good way) “nobody makes me bleed my own blood!”
In fact, I just finished the book and I can’t even remember the villain’s name. That’s how little I cared for him as the antagonist. He’s just a generic hateful bad guy with no personality and bad dialogue.

The story itself is a bit meh. I just didn’t find it interesting and it felt like a bit of a drag to read. It was a real slog to the end and it’s not even a long book. It’s like the author wrote this years before book one and got better at writing by the time he wrote the first book. I’m really hoping book four will pick it back up but I don’t even have the next three yet so I may not bother. But I probably will.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first Ultramarines trilogy was one of my earliest forays into Warhammer 40K and probably one of the first of those with Space Marines as main characters. I remember liking them quite a bit back then, but over time this was the only one I remembered at all. I struggled with Nightbringer, got on a bit better with Warriors of Ultramar, but Dead Sky, Black Sun was likely the most memorable because it does a bit more that the previous two. It's more focused, the setting is interesting, and the villain factors into the story more than just being there to kill or defeat.

It still has a few issues overall with how it's written, but it's still the high point of this trilogy and I'll probably tackle the second trilogy eventually based just on this one alone. I will say that Uriel probably has some of his cheesiest dialog in this one. You'd think that's not possible, but he really goes above and beyond here.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another (the last) exciting romp in the story of Ventris of the Ultramarines. This time, Ventris finds himself in the Eye of Terror, fighting Chaos warriors on their own ground.

This one wasn't as good for me as the previous ones. It's just too many daunting challenges, nevertheless defeated time and time again. I also felt like the setup wasn't organic enough.

That said, McNeill excels at description, bringing a Lovecraftian level of world building to the Chaos realm, wielding Clive-Barker-style grotesqueries to set the mood. The endless charnel house of human fodder does beg the question, though, of where all these people come from. I'm also curious about where the food for these people comes from. Oh well: middle management the novel this is not.

I do have a better sense, now, of what the Chaos worlds and people are supposed to be like, which was true of the Ork horde and the Tyranid brood in the previous books. From that side, McNeill accomplished his goal skillfully.

[Sebastian Zaldua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se nota que las dos primeras novelas fueron una preparación para esta tercera. Si sos sensible al horror corporal, la tortura, la deformación, este NO ES TU LIBRO.
A pesar que la Daemonculaba en si es fuerte, lo mejor logrado del libro son los ambientes sofocantes, tétricos y desesperanzadores.
Los personajes, Uriel y Pasanius, son llevados a los límites físicos y mentales. Las descripciones son soberbias (aunque a veces un poco sobrecargados) y sentís casi como si fuese una serie por el nivel de detalle.
Hay mucho mito alrededor de este libro, pero se entiende porque salió hace como 20 años, de que hasta el autor se disculpó junto con directivos de Warhammer 40k y que nunca más iban a sacar algo así. Pero es un libro que cumple lo que promete.

[Christian Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an epic novel. Nowhere near the previous two novels in scope - mostly focusing upon Ventris and Pasanius as they fulfill a blood oath for “dishonor” against the Codex Astartes from the events of the previous novel - this novel is still a rollicking adventure.

Cast about on a warp-spawned planet behind the Eye of Terror, Ventris and Pasanius must fight through pure evil to fulfill their oath.

Probably one of the most violent and gory books I have ever read (reader be warned), it not only describes the evils of Chaos itself, but presents itself as an amazingly well-written siege novel.

Definitely different than the last two books, and certainly more limited in scope and space opera, but still amazingly written.

[Drake · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author really likes describing each facet of a given image, so much so that he's prone to repeating words in the same sentence or two. It's prose more apt for codices than creative fiction.

The plot is a fantasy adventure in the set dressing of 40k. If you like battles, there are many for you. But I glaze over when that's all there is.

And there's just something about attempting to write Chaos. Or any Lovecraftian evil: if it's horrifying beyond our comprehension, what suspension is there for our disbelief? How do we immerse ourselves in a world in which violence & pain that we couldn't even imagine is common occurrence?

[Jayme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this is more my tempo!

Whereas the previous book was a planetary, high-stakes battle for almost its entire length, this book takes two lead characters and puts them on a much more grounded* and focused adventure** as a consequence of their actions in that previous book.

*as grounded as flying into a cosmic dimension tear, landing on a dead planet, and attempting to liberate it can be
**an adventure in the sense of being thrown into a civil war between the most repulsive villains possible, who force breed recruits amongst many other evil acts

I really liked this change of pace. It felt like a real fantasy tale rather than the usual sci-fi epics.