La Part du Chapitre

Ultramarines #6

by Graham McNeill

La vie d’un Space Marine est tout entière consacrée à la guerre. Après avoir vaincu les forces Tau, le Capitaine Uriel Ventris des Ultramarines retourne sur Macragge, le monde natal du Chapitre. Mais il n’aura que peu de répit ; à peine arrivé, il doit retourner au front, cette fois contre les ennemis jurés des Ultramarines. Les Iron Warriors, avec à leur tête le Chef de Guerre renégat Honsou, se sont rassemblés en une force imposante et brutale. Leur cible est le système d’Ultramar, leur objectif l’annihilation. Le combat ultime entre deux Chapitres Space Marines est sur le point de commencer, et Uriel Ventris devra se montrer à la hauteur du puissant Honsou s’il veut sauver Macragge.

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

406 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 27, 2010

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

[Gordon Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having gone into this series expecting lots of action and little substance the previous entries largely exceeded those meager expectations, mixing up style and approach and keeping the stories fresh despite the inherent banality of the lead character.

Alas, in this sixth book it feels like the author has tired of the series and is keen simply to wrap things up with some big fight scenes. If big fight scenes are all you're here for then I'm sure it'll be largely enjoyable, but you can find exciting action in so many other 40k books that it's difficult to find much to recommend here.

[Callum Shephard · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there’s one thing which needs to be said about The Chapter’s Due, it’s that everything which takes place is on a grand scale. Right from the introductory chapter you’re made aware of just how high the stakes are and just how dangerous the foe the Ultramarines face is.

After spending his own series rebuilding his forces and preparing for the assault, Warsmith Honsou launches an all-out assault upon the home system of the Ultramarines: Ultramar. His opening attack completely devastates one of its worlds within hours and helps properly introduce the powerful ally he has gained: the daemon prince M’Kar. Honsou is utterly hell-bent on destroying Ultramar in the name of revenge against Uriel for his actions in Dead Sky Black Sun, and he easily has the power to do this. His forces outnumber the Ultramarines fifteen to one, he has an entire star fortress to use as his flagship, in depth knowledge of the codex tactics the Ultramarines favour and knows exactly how to bypass their best defences. Worse still, unlike many other Chaos warbands, his forces are both loyal to him and united in their desire to destroy Ultramar; removing the one major weakness the forces of the Imperium could exploit.

The scale and value of the book’s conflict is both its biggest strength and its biggest weakness. On the one hand while we were told the other worlds in the series were Imperial worlds, none of them were paramount to its survival. Tarsis Ultra and Panovis were both worlds the Ultramarines were honourbound to protect and while they might have been needed for nearby systems, their loss wouldn’t be a blow which would resonate throughout the whole imperium. Ultramar however, would be. As both one of the best defended locations outside the Cadian Gate and home to a First Founding chapter, its loss would be a sign of humanity’s growing weakness and inability to combat its foes. As Guilliman’s gene-seed is one of the most stable and the most commonly used for new foundings, losing the Ultramarines’ recruiting worlds would have disastrous consequences for the creation of new chapters.
To make matters worse, unlike other books this is set at the very end of the 41st millennium when the established timeline effectively ends. Meaning that if Ultramar was to be destroyed it would not contradict any previous events, leaving the possibility open for failure or a truly pyrrhic victory.

So why is it also its biggest weakness? The characters who are involved and the size of the conflict. Even spreading out the chapter’s heroes across multiple battlefields, the books simply wasn’t large enough to cover the whole war. Some conflicts either had to be completely glossed over or left to audiobooks like Eye of Vengeance, reducing them to a few pages of descriptions. The way their written does give the impression of a huge battle which fits in with what we’re seeing elsewhere, but it’s really a case of telling and not showing at times.

As for the characters; many of the important Ultramarines we see here are ones who’ve either never shown up before or have only featured in brief cameo appearances. Chapter Master Calgar, who plays one of the most prominent roles in the whole thing, only made brief appearances during a couple of previous books. Others like Sicarius we’ve not seen at all in the past. The reason for this is because most of the older series tried to avoid featuring such major characters and left events to ones of the author’s own creation. I don’t know the exact reason for this but it was likely to be one of two things –
The first possibility is this was to maintain the seemingly legendary status of the characters and leaving them as the icons they were in the codexes. The authors having far more creative freedom over their characters and the ability to show them on a far more human level without disrupting any outward presentation of power on the part of its best warriors.

The other, and more likely possibility, was to prevent future changes to the canon from causing problems. While, again until recently, new rulebooks and fluff tended to be loyal to their themes and source material they also tended to expand upon previous details. Either by including traditions, rituals or, usually the most problematic of all, new major characters. Keeping events close to the heart of the chapter tended to create massive problems in on-going series. One example of this is the Blood Angels saga which had author James Swallow being forced work his way around massive, usually very stupid, changes to the chapter’s background and act as if a lot of new characters had always been there.

With the final Ultramarines book being set on Ultramar, there was no real way to get around now having major characters included so there are a lot of key players who have not had prior appearances or characterisation in past books. In all fairness McNeill does write them very well and makes them feel genuinely human, a point I’ll get back to later on, but you can’t help but feel at least one previous novel should have helped to properly introduce them to the series. Giving them some establishing events or grounding prior to the massive war. When they show up in this it feels like they’re just “there” and you don’t feel quite the same connection as you do to the heroes of the fourth company. Their presence also causes the problem that they sometimes feel like they’re overshadowing Uriel; as while he does have a lot of the book’s focus placed upon his part in the conflict people like Calgar feel like they’re playing a much greater role in events. This isn’t helped by the books greater focus upon the villains.

Rather than just showing their named leaders enough to establish they’re the villains Tau in Courage and Honour, The Chapter’s Due spends a lot of time fleshing out its antagonists. Not so much Honsou or M’Kar but two who play a surprisingly large role in events – the Newborn and Ardaric Vaanes. In previous books, even during the Iron Warriors series, neither had that much time devoted to them. They were often just the henchmen and background characters. Here we actually get a lot of details given to their motivations for siding with Honsou, why they are traitors and some greater complexities to their personalities than you would expect. This is especially true of Vaanes, and while welcome it further marginalises the series’ main characters to the point where you can have problems remembering if they even did anything important after you’ve finished. Again it’s something which is as much a weakness as it is an asset to its tale.

One complaint which people have said in the past about the book is that it makes Chaos too powerful. That the Ultramarines are far too easily beaten back or have their security systems bypassed by the traitor marines, and the power of the Iron Warriors is boosted beyond credibility. This is something which always seems like an odd criticism to make for a number of reasons. The first is that the book makes it very clear that Honsou has spent a lot of time preparing for this, this isn’t some random group of traitors who have tried to single handily storm Ultramar. This is a horde of fifteen thousand Chaos space marines, supported by mercenaries, the Dark Mechanicus and all sorts of support troops – a force which eclipses even the largest loyalist chapters and is capable of taking hideous losses. Honsou himself has a further edge in his familiarity with the codex tactics, using it to predict how major counter attacks will be made and keep them “dancing to his tune” the exact sort of tactical genius he showed in Dead Sky Black Sun. And to top this all off the has an ace in the hole in the form of the Newborn, a creature which is shown to give him an edge no other invading force aside from the Word Bearers during the Horus Heresy ever had against Ultramar.

Now, even if you don’t buy into that consider something else: this is effectively a miniature Black Crusade. Ignoring all the jokes about “Abaddon loses 0-13 to Imperial Guard” these crusades are constantly hideously damaging even when the Imperium wins. Billions of Imperial Guard die each time, entire worlds burn, the Imperium is pushed to the very edge of defeat and assets which they might never be able to replace are lost. McNeill doesn’t suddenly make them capable of running rings around the Imperium, it’s simply dispelling the illusion of their incompetence. And honestly this dispelling of illusions behind the factions featured in it are what elevates it above the rest of the series, even more so with the Ultramarines themselves than Chaos.

The Chapter’s Due was first brought out in 2008, the same year as Warhammer 40,000’s fifth edition was introduced along with the new Codex: Space Marines. The previous two codexes had been written by several people; with Andy Chambers, Jervis Johnson & Gavin Thorpe writing the third edition codex and Pete Haines & Graham McNeill working on the fourth edition. This was always a good move to have as having several people working on a codex at once could, in most cases, prevent personal biases from coming too heavily into play and preventing anyone untested from having too much control. The fifth edition codex abandoned all this and gave it to one games designer: Matthew Ward. Someone who had been responsible in the same year for turning Daemons in fantasy into game breaking steamrollers who could walk through opposing armies with ease, and was involved in writing the background for the fifth edition rulebook in which he retconned almost all of the Sisters of Battle out of existence.

If this wasn’t enough to raise concerns an often quoted White Dwarf interview started to reveal incredibly heavy biases on his part:

"[The Ultramarines] are one of the hardest working chapters out there... The Ultramarines are the most focused, proficient, and tactically aware force in the galaxy..."

"The Ultramarines are undoubtedly the best Space Marines ever. Yes, really! Thanks to the heritage of Guilliman and their myriad heroic deeds, the Ultramarines are the exemplars of the Space Marines. With a few fringe exceptions... all Space Marine chapters want to be like the Ultramarines and recognize Marneus Calgar as their spiritual liege."

Believe it or not things only got worse from there. A ludicrous amount of the codex was devoted to the Ultramarines, or rather Ward’s warped bastardisation of them, claiming that all chapters worshipped Guilliman over their own primarchs, any who weren’t codex adherent were ineffective backwards fools and hyping the hell out of his favourite chapter. Inventing battles the Ultramarines won single handedly which supposedly were just as important as every other major imperial war. Even rewriting an Ultramarines loss into effectively a victory and devoting half the book purely to their “glory” and how much better they were than everyone else. One of the more infamous claims he made was that due to Toras Telion, one of Ward’s creations, was that “Ultramarines can boast the most skilled marksmen of any Space Marine Chapter” and also “even the rawest [Ultramarines] scout can achieve a level of expertise worthy of the most experienced Captain.”

To make matters worse, he started inventing flaws in other chapters to make them seem worse, like claiming the White Scars and Raven Guard had some massive distrust from one another and the previously genetically stable Salamanders suddenly gained very obvious, borderline racist, mutations. He even chose to start retconning chapters into being codex adherent such as the White Scars chapter. Every battle the Ultramarines fought was without assistance, with few casualties, massive feats like having Calgar slay an Eldar Avatar in single combat and never an outright loss. You can probably guess the space marine battles he listed were not quite so glorious for the other chapters. Then took things a step further and started to have his favouritism influence how he wrote other codexes such as having a passage crediting Guilliman for the Blood Angels’ survival and new leadership.

Now, this was a large diversion, and I do plan to review Ward’s bastardisations in depth someday, but you needed to understand how the fandom viewed the Ultramarines. That at the time of The Chapter’s Due’s release, the Ultramarines had devolved from by-the-book badasses into overhyped, badly written Mary Sues. Hated to the point where Ultramarines players were switching chapters, new players were believing that having an upturned omega symbol on your models made you better than everyone else, and the self-respecting remaining Ultras fans vocally decrying this nonsense. The Chapter’s Due wasn’t just an attempt to give a grand finale, it seemed to be a major attempt to return the Ultramarines to form, making them highly skilled but not completely wanked out invincible.

The Ultramarines in this book make mistakes. They take losses, they are pushed to the point where they almost lose and they are actually fallible. They win in spite of their flaws, in spite of being outgunned and with a real and obvious risk of losing to a stronger foe; not, as Ward’s ones would, casually stroll through Honsou’s army and crush him in five seconds. They don’t win single handily either, requiring help from the Inquisition, Mechanicus and a squad of Raven Guard to eventually win. Groups who, contrary to Ward’s portrayal, have skills which are beyond the capabilities of the Ultramarines in some areas. Even when the Ultramarines do win, it’s a bittersweet victory. Almost four companies worth of marines have been killed and several of Ultramar’s worlds are burning, but the chapter has the resources to recover. What is more is that it successfully drove the Chaos force out of their system, killing many of their leaders and completely destroying the daemon prince M’Kar – an act which is all but utterly impossible in 40k. Again, they’re good but they’re not completely invulnerable.

Best of all however, was the portrayal of the characters Ward turned into two dimensional jokes – especially Sicarius and M’Kar. Sicarius specifically was a briefly mentioned Ultramarines character introduced in the Medusa V campaign, helping to unite the space marine forces there and head after the Chaos forces on the planet. He needed more depth, but Ward’s distinct lack of skill turned him simply into a badly written figure with no personality nor anything which resembles a character. The only thing you learn about him every single time he’s brought up in the fifth edition book is that he’s supposedly better than everyone else. That he supposedly is capable of winning every victory, outdoing the Raven Guard at the very tactics they have spent millennia specialising in and refining to perfection and leads “the finest fighting unit in this (Ultramarines) or any other Space Marine chapter” – that’s all you learn about him. The Chapter’s Due gives him a personality befitting his level of skill: he’s an arrogant, self-confident risk-taker who seemingly buys into his own reputation of invincibility. He completely accepts a piece of propaganda boosting the Ultramarines’ reputation as truth until Calgar corrects him on it, resents Uriel for breaking the codex and when he performs a risky manoeuvre to attain victory he refuses to consider what would have happened if he had been wrong. It’s something which greatly helps to balance out his previous portrayal without retconning his victories out of existence.

M’Kar meanwhile is similarly a vast improvement over his presentation in the codex. This is again a character with no personality and a one note trait: he’s constantly used as a bitch for whoever Matt Ward needs to look stronger. Every time he’s turned up in a codex he has simply been used as a target to curb stomp by Calgar, Chief Librarian “I’m now corrupted because Ward says so” Mephiston, and Kaldor “monument which is all that’s wrong with 5th edition Warhammer” Draigo. Most of the fandom as a result looked at him as an utter joke, but McNeill actually manages to make him threatening in this book. One of the victories against M’Kar is actually noted to be a fabrication used as propaganda, with the Ultramarines being unable to overcome the daemon and instead were forced to imprison him. Some of the victories against the daemon prince are suggested to be lies produced by the Imperium’s propaganda. When he appears in person, he’s displayed to have considerable power – summoning vast hordes of daemons to completely overrun entire cities and manages to come within inches of slaughtering Calgar and the chapter’s greatest warriors.

This is true of many of Ward’s characters who show up in this book, they’re given flaws, they’re given character, they’re actually written by someone who understands how to write something good.

So that’s The Chapter’s Due, when taking into account only what is seen in the novel it is a good read, definitely amongst the best in the series. When taking into account the attempt to correct the atrocious writings of the current codexes is becomes far better, a sign that there are writers who do want to maintain the quality of writing we saw in the fourth edition. Is it the best of the Ultramarines novels? No. While it is definitely one of the best there are one or two better such as Warriors of Ultramar, but if you are a fan or have been disappointed by the direction Warhammer has taken this is strongly recommended. It’s a fine send off to the Ultramarines series and while not a finale in the same sense as Phalanx was to the Soul Drinkers, that can be overlooked by the attempt to preserve what the space marines truly are.

[Jack Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

sick

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whole series is a master piece.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man, I was SO SAD I didn't enjoy this book. Essentially this is where the Iron Warriors & Ultramarines finally clash again for THE ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN (lightning crashes, etc.).

I really enjoyed the first few chapters, setting things up. And yay, Pasanius is finally back in the damn books again!

Then ... woof. The battles are slogs. We follow some other Ultramarines that I didn't give a damn about, and every time we cut to Honsou & his gang it just seemed to be wheel spinning. I essentially skimmed about 75% of the book & still felt like I got everything important out of the story (EVERYTHING to do w/Uriel's ... semi-sorta clone was interesting, I thought, so at least that part of the story was worth reading this).

Overall it just felt to me like Graham has grown tired of the Ultramarines and just kind of ... wrote by inertia throughout this story. Oh well. I'll give him a pass here, but sad that the series ended on such a dull note.

[Aleksejs Miščuks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the worst book, but honestly there are at least 2 filler plotlines that could have been taken out and the story wouldn't loose anything.

[Eleena Yasmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graham McNeill has never disappointed me before and he did not disappoint this time either. Uriel Ventris has always been a solid character for me, love him to bits, and as always he is a joy to read about. His nobility, the easy friendship he has with Pasanius, the revulsion for the Newborn that turned into sorrow and regret for the boy he used to be… gorgeous.

Pleasantly surprised as well to see my dearly beloved Raven Guard make an appearance alongside their Ultramarine cousins! Aethon Shaan is a perfect example of a classic RG captain, and I highly enjoyed the brief scenes we had with him. Lovely as well to see the easy respect and cooperation between the two cousin chapters, none of those power struggles and ego I’ve come to expect from two Astartes chapters working together.

And who can forget our antagonists? Honsou is as enjoyable and despicable as always, and I love him for it. Loved the small bits of banter between him, Vaanes and the Newborn. Speaking of Vaanes, what a complicated man. I loved him too, that confusion in him of who to fight for, what to fight for. Like Uriel, I too want to know what happened to him. And the Newborn. Oh, poor Samuquan. He broke my heart. When he called Uriel father. When he thanked Uriel for ending his misery. That poor, poor child. Wherever he is, I hope peace awaits him.

Loved the book to bits. Action was thrilling and got my heart racing, and it’s perfect with moments of tenderness and comradeship intertwined within. With Calgar and Tigurius, Scipio and his men, Uriel with his. Even the little back and forth between Shaan and Kyre. These humanising moments are always my favourite part of Astartes novels, and I was spoiled with them here. If I have anything to criticise, and its minor at best, it would only be the sometimes awkward pacing of the book. The jumps in POVs are mostly incredibly well done, but sometimes does take away the tension a little. I also expected a little more out of the final battle with the Newborn, it felt like it ended so quickly, especially given the thrill of the Uriel and Vaanes vs Honsou fight.

All in all, in Graham McNeill’s writing I trust, because I find that he delivers every single time. Most certainly I will be rereading this.

[Stefan Popovici · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final entry in the Ultramarines series. After his defeat on Medrengard, Honsou has gathered a large army and has invaded Ultramar. Marneus Calgar must mobilize his Chapter and meet this invasion in battle.

The story is divided into 3 view points. One follows Cato Sicarius, another Marneus Calgar alongside the 1st Company and his chief Librarian with the final story following Uriel Ventris. Each of these forces are deployed on a different planet facing a different enemy.

What is different in this book is that for the most part the Ultramarines are on the backfoot. Their reliance on the Codex Astartes is proving to be a liability by making them predictable and their tactics exploitable. Throughout the book they must learn to adapt and improvise in a way in which they haven't really before. Each conflict is different and poses unique challenges and enemies. This helps a ton to keep the book feeling fresh and the action exciting. Of course the Ultramarines are always portrayed as beacons of excellence and honor but that's always been the case.

There's a frustrating amount of potential here for some interesting characters but they don't really go anywhere. There are hints and teases but no real payoff for most non-Ultramarine character threads. The battles however are spectacular and gritty and towards the end there's even a small appearance by a most unexpected force.

After the main novel there's a short story focusing on a squad of scouts fighting on a fourth front. This is a bit odd coming after the story actually ends and feels out of place but is short and fun enough that it doesn't overstay its welcome.

At the end of the day the book is a fitting and satisfying conclusion to an overall excellent series.

[chance nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

wasn't great wasn't terrible. this is my first ultramarine book but had high hopes after reading a thousand sons. both uriel and to some extent Calgar come off as bland and uninteresting hero types compared to the people surrounding them. there were also too many named characters show up and die in 2 paragraphs. I would have loved to see a book about quintus it's a shame he died immediately. similar to the blood gorgons the narrative tends to jump from place to place with no explanation and to characters that you never see again. also there is a weird repeated use of adjectives when describing things specifically there were at least 5 different lines about the space Marines having no mercy phased exactly the same way and the same thing applies to describing the armor of the claws of lorek. ALSO the claws of lorek aren't orange THEY ARE RED the book calls the sons of lorek orange and black several times but every piece of art with them in it has them in a dark red armor.

[Tammy Hansen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve gotten to about 60% of the book and I just can’t stomach any more of it. I have read other WH40K books, including Eisenhorn and earlier Uriel Ventris books, and I thought they were pretty good. They would have over-the-top evil and violence, but it would be balanced with political and social insights, personality quirks, introspection, and strategy, so that you could see the humans behind the characters.

This book however is just death, battle, death, battle, blah blah, and includes only a caricature of the Uriel Ventris from previous books. It seems only the bad guys are worthy of the insights and introspection, while the good guys are little more than walking battle machines spouting morale-boosting slogans. There’s no balance, no finesse, and no depth to Uriel and his men.

I like stories with gore and battle and evil enemies versus good guys, but without balance, it may be a book but it’s not a well written story.

[Christian Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A non-stop battle, from one world to the next in defense of Ultramar. “The Chapter’s Due” neatly ties a bow on the saga of Uriel Ventris and the stories of the five books before this one, and overall, McNeill does a good job of it.

He’s an excellent writer and knows how to frame the Ultramarines well. I do wish there were more moments of quiet and discussion in this novel, but it was written to serve as the culmination of thousands of pages of narrative, and succeeds in that.

If you’ve read everything before this novel, there’s no reason not to finish here.

[Ronan Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay dokey, time to read something challenging again. I think that's it for the Uriel Ventris series - Graham McNeill is as ever a great writer for 40k but the end of this was more an "Ultramarines Chronicles" than a "Uriel Ventris". Tigurius and Lord Calgar have a good turn out, there were some much appreciated callbacks (or calls forward, don't know when Mark of Calth was published) to my beloved Horus Heresy and Aethon Shaan made me want to collect Raven Guard. Nice job Graham

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Details:
The Chapter’s Due by Graham McNeill
Black Library Publishing
320 pages
*advance review copy.

Description:
War is unending in the life of a Space Marine. After defeating tau forces, Captain Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines has returned to the Chapter’s homeworld of Macragge, but there is little respite. The Ultramarines are thrust back into battle, and this time the enemy is the Chapter’s greatest nemesis. The traitorous Iron Warriors, led by renegade Warsmith Honsou, have gathered together a massive and brutal warband. Their target is the realm of Ultramar. Their objective is total annihilation. It is a final showdown between legendary Space Marines, and Uriel Ventris must take on the might of Honsou if he is to save his Chapter’s homeworld. http://www.blacklibrary.com


Review:
The Chapter’s Due is the culmination of several interesting plots, distinct groups of protagonists/ antagonists and a second trilogy of Ultramarines goodness. All sorts of fans will love this novel because there is something in it for everyone. Most obviously fans of the Ultramarines will get the most out of it, but so will fans of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Raven Guard, Inquisition fans and of course Iron Warriors.


Without spoiling the story for people, I’ll just let it suffice to say that the scale is epic. Honsou brings the war to Ultramar in the largest gathering of Iron Warriors, xenos mercenaries, traitors and a whole metric boat-load of daemons since the Horus Heresy.


Think of it in these terms:

The Ultramarines symbolize a sort of “by the book” style of fighting. Literally. Granted, it’s a big book that covers everything in the sphere of warfare, but still, it ultimately equals predictability. The realm of Ultramar is the…”THE” bastion of the Ultramarines. Outside of Terra itself it is the single largest fixed fortification in the universe.


Chaos Space Marines represent…Chaos. Obviously. Super-soldiers bred for furious assaults who know no fear. Angels of death regardless of which side of the traitor/ loyalist line they are on… the Iron Warriors even more so as masters of siege warfare; a completely unpredictable foe.


It’s the Irresistible force versus the Immovable object.


So now the stage is set for the plot. The Ordo Malleus arrives to deal with the warp-spawned daemonic incursion. The Raven Guard arrive as well (oh boy, they are portrayed nicely). The Adeptus Mechanicus plays a crucial part (as Honsou has Dark Mechanicus with him).


I have to admit it is nice to see the cast of characters, chock-full of big names as well as seeing the Ultramarines fighting on their back foot. Off balance and dealing with something that very seriously threatens the entire chapter.


I’ve discussed this in several reviews, and there’s no sign of stopping: I LOVE it when the characters are in real peril. I really love the author to scare me. Build up characters, make me love them…and then hurt them, scare me with the threat of their demise. Make me want those characters to survive. I thrive on the slaughter of sacred cows. I want to laugh and cry, get choked up and pissed off. I want an investment in the books I read, and I go on the assumption that everyone else does too.


Graham McNeill does a fine job of beating up many sacred cows in The Chapter’s Due.


There are many moments in the story where as a reader you never really know if this is the last ride of Uriel Ventris, Pasanius, Learchus, or Marneus Calgar or Varro Tiberius for that matter.


I have to admit that the story does start a bit slow. The first quarter of the book took me a couple days to get through (which is rare considering I can burn through 300 pages in a night). One problem with books about massive battles is that…battles all start to sound the same. Yep, slash, stab, shoot, spurt, “Courage and Honour!” splat, “Death to the False Emperor!” entrails, bolt-casings, yadda yadda yadda, yawn. McNeill does a fine job in breaking it up, and keeping the reader coming back for more. I never lost interest. Actually the story got better and better as it rolled on.


The last ¾ of the novel I absorbed last night. A nice analogy would be in The Matrix Revolutions, with the APU units fighting in The Docks against the swarms of sentinels: the first part things looked fine. Yeah, toasting lots of bad-guys, carnage, APUs kicking ass. The sentinels were simply probing, wheedling them down until the end it was simply too much.


The Ultramarines did much the same. They started off strong; they have the uber-bastion of defense in their favor. The Iron Warriors however tested, prodded and showed why they are superior in siege assaults and the futility of static defenses.


The characterization of the antagonists (and protagonists) really made the story pop. You get to sympathize with The Newborn and Vaanes and think of some Ultramarines as arrogant pricks. You can’t help but admire both sides. THAT really is what sets Graham McNeill’s writing ahead of the pack. Seriously.


Overall it’s a very good book: surpassing Courage and Honour and on par with The Killing Ground as well as a fine summary of the story arc.


Rating:
Even with a hint of slowness at the start it finishes strong and left me wanting to assemble and paint more Ultramarines. Thanks Mr. McNeill!

4 out of 5 Stars.

[Noah Dunaway · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one’s Kindve a slog to be honest, pretty disappointing, I was excited to see the return of Hansou but he wasn’t too interesting in this entry. The Newborn should’ve been the focus of the B plot, I thought he was far more interesting and had more potential for conflict

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

last 200 pages were a 5+ star

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. but it seemed a bit rushed at the end.

[Maximiliano Aregger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice ending to the Ultramarines, yet to read the Iron Warriors part

[Paul Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uriel and Honsou getting at it again! What’s not to like

[Ulzeta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite fun.

[Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

The scale of this book was one of my favorite parts. It wasn’t just the company this time, the stakes were higher and the whole chapter was needed.

[Michael Lucius · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fantastic read, happy to have finally tied up loose ends that go back all the way to Warriors of Ultramar. Graham McNeill is one of my favorite writers and proves once again why.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

decent

[Alejandro Lage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un final perfecto para la gran saga de los Ultramarines.
¡Coraje y honor!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapter's Due is the sixth book in McNeill's Ultramarines series and for a novel that was obviously trying to be the climax of a long series, honestly I found it a disappointment. To put this review into to some context, I haven't been able to find much time for reading lately and the reading of this book has been very much in fits and starts. How much that has affected my opinion I am unsure.

After the trials and tribulations that took Uriel Ventris and his loyal sergeant Pasanius away from their chapter in a quest for redemption and their struggle to return to their brothers in arms, the pair are now back in the heart of Ultramar, fully redeemed and trusted by their brethren after Ventris's victory against the Tau. But respite is not in the nature of the 40k universe and Warsmith Honsou of the Iron Warriors and a powerful daemon thirsting for revenge against the Ultramarines, and in particular their Chapter Master, Marneus Calgar, have plans to bring the realm to its knees.

While this book is built upon events depicted in the previous stories it feels very different to the previous volumes. For a start the perspective jumps from Ventris and Pasanius to Honsou to Calgar and Chief Librarian Tigurius and other characters far more than in the previous books. Indeed it feels as though Ventris and Pasanius have been sidelined somewhat and forced to share the limelight with characters we have had little time to bond with.

While the concept of an invasion of Ultramar dictates a much greater scale, for me this is the greatest failure of this book as it tries to cover catastrophic events of planetary destruction in one single volume. Inevitably major events are skipped over, told retrospectively or just given short shrift. There is little effective build up before the mayhem is unleashed and so the climactic battles lose significance and tension, a lesson I thought that would have been learned well from the success of the Horus Heresy books.

Another problem is that while it is welcome that major characters from the 40k background take center stage it backfires in that I had little faith that McNeill would have the temerity or permission to kill off such canonical figures like Marneus Calgar and so while they are frequently imperiled, I never feared for them. Also characters are placed in grave danger and against insurmountable odds only to be saved at the eleventh hour by deus ex machina plots and inexplicable macguffins.

Having said all that it was an enjoyable if throwaway read. McNeill writes well and all the characters are on the whole interesting, (although many are very similar - another problem with an entire cast of post-human supermen).

Ah well enough of me ragging on this book, it might all have been I never got sufficient time to get into the story each time I sat down to read.

[Andrew Ziegler · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting that I read this novel directly after finishing the Book of Fire trilogy by Nick Kyme. Why? Well, Chapter's Due was written before the end of the trilogy, Nocturne, came out. But they share an awful lot of strange similarities. an awful lot. That being said, it is almost definitely for the simple reason that I read Nocturne before Chapter's Due that I liked the former a little better. Weird right?

I followed all of the Ultramarine's books, all six of them, and although they all followed a simple line of continuity from start to finish, this one, seemed almost out of place with the others. I am not saying McNeill isn't an excellent writer, he is, and maybe one of the best in the BL stable. I am however saying that Chapter's Due was the scale and scope of what I expect the novel, Know No Fear is going to be about. Because I have read THIS tale of the defense of Ultramar that basically spells out the end of Know No Fear, I will prob like that novel a little less too, because it will basically be a 10,000 year older repeat tale with different characters, whose fates I happen to now know.

Chapter's Due just did not seem as good as the others in the series, the character of Ventris was much more of a minor character to other Captains and Chapter Masters. (Speaking of which, Read Fall of Damnos before this, it sets up Capt. Sicarius and the 2nd better) Perhaps if I had read Nocturne after this, and Know No Fear wasn't about what it's about I would have a more positive outlook on this novel, but I think my feelings over the treatment of the characters themselves would not change.

Also, it might be because this is around the 40th Black Library 30-40K novel I have read now, but characters are beginning to merge together in their similarities, can someone out there tell me, REALLY, tell me the differences between Pasinius and Ba'ken?

Rant over.

If you ask me in a couple of days if Chapter's Due was good I will say, YES. The entire series is worth reading. That is why I gave it the four stars. I just might be getting overwhelmed by the repeat themes and character archetypes, which makes me sad, because it has been a glorious run, and the Horus series is nowhere near complete.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid end to the series. I wanted to give it 4 stars, but I like McNeill's series - he's a solid writer who has a good grasp of how to move a story forward and how to relate books back to previous works, as well as developing characters - so I erred on the side of generosity.

My biggest complaint about this book is probably the battle with the Blade Dancers: 17 of them attack, and 2 are killed before they reach close combat, leaving 15. We're all clear on the math so far, right? Then a couple die, then a few more, then they start "dying in droves," then a few more get pummelled to death... If as many had died each time it's mentioned, the CC battle would have been over in less than a minute. The hyperbole was there to serve a dramatic end, I realize, but that still doesn't make up for it soon becoming impossible for so many to die and still have it add up to only 17.

But other than that, I thought the writing was pretty spot on.

[Abhinav · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this novel. Everything has come full circle now for Uriel Ventris and Pasanius Lysane. Not to mention that this a novel about a sub-sector wide deployment for the entire chapter and Graham really delivers on that idea. Just like Nocturne by Nick Kyme, which was another novel in which an entire chapter goes to war, The Chapter's Due is a really visceral novel that'll keep you hooked from the beginning to the end. Some great set piece battles and some really fantastic camaraderie between the various characters.

You can also check out a slightly longer review over on the page for Ultramarines: The Second Omnibus

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

A full review for the novel is now available over at The Founding Fields

http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/05/...

[Meitnerio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Realmente, me lo he pasado en grande leyendo este libro. Con el anterior de Warhammer en que me quedé un poco con ganas de acción y me apetecía un libro que la tuviera por los cuatro costados. Y es que es eso justo lo que da. Adrenalina, tiros y explosiones junto con una trama sólida que permite a cualquier fan de la acción disfrutar como el que más. Sin ninguna duda, el mejor de la saga y un colofón brutalmente espectacular para la misma. Una pasada. Es así como un libro de Warhammer debería ser, sin duda.
Evidentemente, aquél que busque otra cosa que no sea acción, que la busque en otro libro, pues éste no es para él.

La reseña completa aquí :)
http://meitnerio.blogspot.fr/2013/09/...

[Lexicanum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Better than "Courage and Honour". A bit boring to read in the middle - I'd say this stems from having too many parallel stories there resulting in doing none complete justice. Especially the strand "Tigurius and Calgar" seems a bit dull. Unsurprisingly the core "Uriel-Honsou-Newborn" strand is least affected by this. Will see how it turns out as I am now nearing the end of the novel.

UPDATE: yeah, not much change. The end was wrapped up too fast and was a bit predictable. So overall ok and on the average Space Marine novel.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Six books of being battered and kicked around the 41St millennium hasn't slowed the good Mr Ventris down. In fact for this novel he got the whole chapter to join in on the fun to be had kicking traitor ass back to the eye of terror.

it's a good read but fans might find the wider chapter view a little disconcerting after all this time sitting on one our two main character shoulders. Don't worry it's worth the effort to keep all the little Smurf names straight.