Courage and Honour (5) (Ultramarines) Paperback – January 12, 2016

The story was good and when I got the book it was in good condition.

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.

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.

For the Emperor!! Purge the xenos, the heretic, the traitor, the impure. But really, this was fantastic and I loved the tension created even though we all knew darn well that the "good" guys would come out roughly on top.

This is incredible, as with any of the Ultramarines books, and moreso anything that Graham McNeill puts to paper.Uriel is back in an outstanding story that is engaging from start to finish and is hard to put down. The Ultramarines series was my introduction to the world of 40K, and has given me very fond memories of the tales within.

This was a definite page-turner for me. It was the first time I've read about an Imperial force taking on the tau (I don't know why it's not capitalized in the book, but it's not), and it is an Imperial force, not just Space Marines. Imperial Guard and the local PDF regiment play prominent roles. It was cool (at least for me) to revisit the site of the first book in the series, but - minor spolier alert - nearly all the previous characters meet grim ends. All in all, however, an excellent read.

The first 3 books in the series were better - this one sort of rambles on a bit... but I still really enjoyed reading the entire series. One of the best series in the Warhammer 40K universe - this series incorporates EVERYTHING! There is tons of action, tons of intrigue and every enemy of mankind in the 40K Universe!

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.....

...courage and honor, courage and honor....in case you didn't get it, the book's title is Courage and honor because it's all about courage and honor. Courage and honor seems to now be part of the Codex Astartes as the standard greeting in the book between Ultramarines seems to be 'courage and honor' which spreads to the Imperial Guard who are soon also greeting each other courage and honor and thinking about courage and honor in their heads and admiring the courage and honor in the Ultramarines. Honestly I don't think there's a single chapter in the book that doesn't mention courage and honor at least twice and usually multiple times at the end, it really sets the tone for the book and it's not good.This book (I'm not going to say the title again!) sees Uriel Ventris redeemed after his Death Oath and put back in command of the 4th company. Unfortunately he's right back to the way he was at the start of this series of books as a flat, bland and uninteresting Ultramarines with little in the way of appeal and it's much the same for the soldiers under him. Over and over throughout the book you get the 'his heart swelled with pride at the efficiency of the Ultramarines' which once is bad enough but I found it increasingly irritating that it happened throughout the book and even the IG officers were spouting the same rubbish about how amazing the Ultramarines were fighting with such courage and honor (sorry!) and it was such an honour to fight alongside them. The author shouldn't need to tell us how great these Ultramarines are as we should be able to see it through their actions.It's particularly disappointing that Ventris hasn't really changed at all after his Death Oath and just feels like a school child always trying to please his teachers and is just back from detention for being a naughty boy. I've always thought his punishment was daft as clearly he did the right thing and saved the planet rather than the planet destroyed and the Ultramarines killed. Ventris has been convinced he was in the wrong and is doing his best to make it all right by following the Codex Astartes as closely as possible rather than the potentially far more interesting development that he would believe he was correct in the first place and start to disagree with the rigidness of the Codex Astartes and Ultramarines in general. One of my favourite aspects of the Eisenhorn trilogy is the change in Eisenhorn himself over the period of the three books yet after five books with Ventris, we seem to be going backwards.Although I've never been a fan of Ventris or the Ultramarines I've found in the series so far that the author has made the rest of the story good enough to be worth reading the book. This time the bad guys are the Tau which are fairly well portrayed and good to see as there's not many books with them and the continuity of returning to the wrecked Pavonis after the first book is also appealing to see what's happened in the aftermath of a Spare Marine battle. However most of the story is not particularly appealing as it's almost one long battle from start to finish with little else happening, there's a few story elements introduced that seemed to start to build then almost immediately collapse and go nowhere. I get the feeling the author had a few ideas he wanted to develop but for whatever reason they went nowhere and he went with a fairly straight forward big battle which there's plenty of elsewhere.Here's hoping Chapter's Due is better.

Ok to book 5 of 6 in the ultra marine series. Ive just finished it and after the dubious book 4 (the killing ground) i can say dear graham has returned to the action and descriptive environments and character portrayals we all know and love. This time another alien race are the protagonists (no spoilers lol).What happened when uriel and pasanis retuned to mcragge is explained and it is clear that various elements inside their chapter are still unsure of the returning heros. The book is rather good and i enjoyed it but the title courage and honour is repeated far too often in the book. It becomes amusing that a skilled writer repeats himself so much...its almost laughable. Courage and honour...courage and honour to you...and what of you oh more honour and courage bla bla bla. I made rubbish like that up in primary school. The read is good but i get the feeling that this series has lost its momentum. I have book 6 of 6 in my hands now (the chapters due) so ill review this soon. If you have read the first 3 books i can tell you that the iron warriors of chaos are back. Hopefully we will finally understand what happened to the rebel marines left on medregard, the evil new born clone of uriel and perhaps an epic standoff of honsou and uriel. I pray this will be epic but sadly im not holding my breath. To conclude....Courage and honour is a good read and can be used as a standalone book. Try and forget the title although it crops up again and again and again and again and again in the book and you'll be in for a blast.

Great continuation of the ultramarine saga like all 40k books it's full of action and is faithful to the source material

good

Present