Customer Reviews

Courage and Honour (Warhammer 40,000)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Courage and Honour heralds a return to Graham McNeill's rather succesful Ultramarines series. Uriel Ventris, returned from his Death Oath and reunited with his Chapter, is sent out to show the flag on a recently reconquered world, where he encounters the Tau, who've recognized a plum ripe for picking.

While the first third of the novel is what was to be expected, with richly detailed equipment, characters, and ritual, from the trials that Uriel undergoes to prove his purity to the new armour he is fitted with, it seemed like a long deserved rest period. But then, after arriving on the battlefield and running into a brief scouting skirmish, Uriel is dealt off the the side. While the characters that all but replace him are at least entertaining, its like asking Skywalker to sit out of a Star Wars novel.

The plot that follows feels like a rehashed plot of hit and run then retreat. This is not to say that its bad, but after rereading the invasion of Normandy for the fourth or fifth time, you know where things are going to head from a certain point on. Names and faces have changed, but the plot remains the same. The story finishes up with a good teaser for a future novel, but I'm definitely not looking forward to the next one like I did to this one.

As an aside, seeing as how almost every one of my reviews now reads 0 of 1 helpful votes, please comment why if you don't find this review worthwhile. Thanks.

If your looking forward to a great follow up to the Ultramarine series look elsewhere because you won't find it here. To say there is little to no effort in this novel would be an understatement. The phrase "courage and honour" is so repetitive that it almost becomes nauseating painful and makes reading this poor novel by McNeill a complete waste of time. As one of Black Library's top writers it makes one wonder if McNeil has ever heard of a Thesaurus and with apathy this thick in too many pages and clearly not enough fresh ideas: what happened?

Not that bad either. The book starts off slowly; I wanted to see where it was going, but I wasn't nearly as interested as I had been in the previous four books. Once it actually gets to the meat of the invasion, however, it picks up considerably.

The best part about the book? Its depiction not only of the suddenness of a Tau attack (which I think has been lacking in virtually every other written account of Tau warfare to date), but also the transformation from lightning-fast spearhead attacks to drawn-out attrition-style warfare for two armies never designed to engage in that type of fighting; I think McNeill did an excellent job communicating this aspect of the battle.

The worst part of the book? It's a toss-up: Either the slow beginning (which almost made me stop reading), or the meat grinder-style warfare (which is an interesting idea, but not terribly gripping when you get down to the reality of it).

Overall, the weakest thus far in the series; although I haven't read Chapter's Due yet, so my opinion may change. I would have given it three stars, but I enjoy so much of McNeill's other works that I wanted to give him a break.

If you enjoyed the previous four books in the series then you'll want to read through this one and hope the next book finishes the series with better writing. The action and plot are pretty flat in this book, it's basically several hundred pages of Tau vs. Imperial Guard and Ultramarines.

However what really makes this a two star book is some terrible creative oversight on McNeill's part:

1 - The Scout Marines use laminated maps to find their way. I have more route finding technology on my iPhone than an Ultramarine Scout??

2 - The battle with the Tau hinges on defending several bridges at a junction of two rivers. In the battle the Tau army never considers just flying over the bridges but instead assaults them head on. Yet McNeill is aware of their skimmer/flying capability.

As much as I enjoyed reading about Uriel's zany adventures through the Eye on his death oath, I'm kind of glad it's over. Instead of reading another odyssey through space and time with our lovable duo of space marines, we get back to the nitty gritty of the 4th company battling xenos and heretics.

An exciting 4/5, and I'm looking forward to next in the series.

"Courage and Honour."

While "Courage and Honour" is not as fantastic as the four other titles written by McNeill, it's still a good read for hardcore fans of the Ultramarines Series. The return to Pavonis may seem a bit of a rerun of the first installment, but the story proves to be quite interesting when the Tau is added to the equation. After all, we've never had any solid battles between the Tau and the Space Marines in the Warhammer 40k novels universe as far as I know. If you haven't read about the Normandy landings of WWII, then you'll enjoy this book a whole lot more, since the suspense will still remain with you. I personally felt that McNeill is writing with the same finesse as he has always done, but there might be some who find it insufficiently unappetizing.

I advise those of you who aren't dying to know what happens to wait another year or two for the omnibus - which will probably cover Ventris' travels since he left the Eye of Terror and return to the Ultramarines. But I am one of those people who've loved this series from the beginning and will be buying it.

This book was awesome! Its space marines battling tau which is cool because they are all futuristic and high tech. I am 9 and read at about an eighth grade level and this was easy for me to read and understand.

Great book. A good read if your into the ultramarines series. especially if your done with the challenging of faith and character aspects from the previous 2 books. This one returns to the elements that make a space marine and the ultramarines what they are. I highly recommend it.

This is a solid contribution from the author, but falls short of memorable. Maybe I got spoiled with Storm Of Iron. The novel did give good insight to how the Tau persecute combat without going overboard. Sometimes space marine authors make there combat descriptions go on far too long,kind of like the fight scene in matrix 2 that just never seems to end. If you are a fan this book is definately woth having. Hopefully the author will write further about the exploits of Honsou and his warband.....

Graham just knocked it out of the park. Again. I'm a disciple of Dan Abnett, but Graham McNeill is a real contender for top dog in the 40K fluff universe. I will say as with all series, it is best to start at the beginning. The whole Uriel Ventris / Honsou saga is a very rich part of the 40K storyline. If you are looking for a book that you cannot put down, this is it!