Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38064 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 768 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781844164035
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
This omnibus edition follows the career of Uriel Ventris through three novels and two short stories. The Ultramarines series is one of the best selling sf series in the 40K universe.

Customer Reviews

Enjoy the ride with the Sons of Guilliman
An advantage of being a relative newcomer to the Warhammer 40K world is you get to read the Omnibus editions of some of the best books from the Black Library. The new covers are very pleasing to see and you get 3 books for the price of 1. And more importantly, the ones I have read thus far have been awesome, the Ultramarines Omnibus is no exception, I did not hesitate to give it a full 5 stars.

The Ultramarines Omnibus follows the story of Uriel Ventris who has recently become the Captain of Ultramarines Chapter 4th company. The author does a good job of making Uriel's character exactly how one might expect a Space Marine of the Imperium to be...traits like his fanatical loyalty to the emperor, burning hatred of his enemies, willingness to kill and die for his emperor and chapter.

But Uriel isn't just that, we see a very nice representation of his other emotions that most people in the Warhammer Universe may not notice or might even be shocked to know a Space marine can have. His genuine concern for the common people of the Imperium, his doubts about his ability to command, his worries about diverging from the Codex Astartes - the code of war that the Space Marine must follow, and his anger and sometimes despair at the actions of some of his allies, particularly the Inquisition.

The books themselves have great plots and fast paced action that are well written and will not disappoint.

The first book Nightbringer's plot is an interesting mix of action and politics in a world of the Imperium and has one of the most interesting characters I have read about in the Warhammer Universe (Ario Barzano - can't say more than revealing the characters name to avoid any spoilers).

The second book is my favorite. Warriors of Ultramar is one of the best War novels I have read...its about a desperate attempt by the Imperium to defeat an unimaginably huge Tyranid invasion at an Imperial World Tarsis Ultra, which the Ultramarines are oath bound to defend.
The Ultramarines together with the Mortificators Chapter space marines, Ordo Xenos arm of the Inquisition and their associated Deathwatch space marines, 2 Imperial Guard regiments and the defenders of Tarsis Ultra, and the Imperial navy stuggle to fight the Tyranids. You get immersed into the action you could almost feel like you are in it, whether in a huge space fleet action or in the trenches and the walls of the defenders.

The 3rd book, Dead Sky, Black Sun, is set in a world deep in the Chaos held Eye of Terror. Its a brilliant portrayal of a world in the hands of Chaos, with Uriel trying desperately to do his duty and keep his sanity amidst the horrors around him, which include daemons, renegade space marines and factions of the Chaos Space marines of the Iron Warriors chapter battling each other for power.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Ultramarines Omnibus two parts great, one part average.
Yes, I liked reading the book and found the Ultramarines fairly interesting. I had just finished reading the compilation of short stories in the "Let the Galaxy Burn" omnibus and saw several crossover characters in this collection of novels. As I learn more about the W40K universe, I think it makes the overall story line more interesting but could also lead to confusion as to why certain characters are in a story (i.e. the gang in the second story).

The first story was very good as mentioned by other reviewers and I thoroughly enjoyed the lawful good aspect of the Ultramarines coming up against a very evil space god during a corporate civil war.

The second story was my favorite as I just like the Tyranoids (think Aliens with an attitude) as the opposition to the Ultramarines. In this case I liked how the Ultramarines found themselves working with other Space Marines that had completely different world views. Very over the top planetary destruction scenes, but that's what makes W40K so fun to read.

The third story was by far the weakest and apparently had multiple crossovers of stories that I was unaware of when I read it. This led to some confusion but did not ruin the story. The realm of Chaos was overly depressing to wade through and I agree with a previous reviewer that it was like watching a long splatterhouse gore flick. However, this does capture the W40K version of hell which is the Chaos plane. If one was unaware of the Horus Heresy and the history of W40K this story might be really confusing. One must understand that history to appreciate the opposing Chaos Marines in this story.

A fun read, but difficult to recommend to non-fans.
The Ultramarines Omnibus was a fun read, I'll give it that, but not much else. The first novel of the series, "Nightbringer", was by far and large the most enjoyable. Equal doses of political intrigue and combat gave the story some much-needed depth. The second novel "Warriors of Ultramar" had great bits of action, however a lot of the characters didn't feel fleshed out and ultimately wind up feeling one dimensional. "Dead Sky, Black Sun" was a dreary piece, with lots of gore and a pretty substandard 'hero is dishonored, hero fights to regain honor' plot.

Don't get me wrong, the Ultramarines Omnibus was a fun romp in the 40k universe, however I would have a difficult time recommending to non-fans as their first foray into the dark and war-torn realm of Warhammer 40k.