# The Chapter's Due [Spoilers]



## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

Just finished reading Graham's latest story. I don't really know what to make of it. I felt as though Graham rushed it a little bit. Its only about 320 pages. And if its the final confronation between the Thrice Born, Honsou and Uriel, you'd think it'd be a little longer. I couldn't help but think Graham portrayed the Ultramarines in the same manner as Ben Counter and the Battle of the Abyss. They made all the renegade marines and Iron Warriors who have been trained and warped for thousands look like nubes. It did piss me off as I am a Iron Warrior Fan. 

Did I think that Honsou and the Thrice Born were going to win? Absolutely not. However I think a little more realistic approaches over astartes over astartes could have made the story more fascinating. The traitor astartes were swept aside like normal men. 

I think it was a dissapointing story overall. I also think that the depiction of the Ultramarines was way too cliche, probably the best example. But who knows? Graham can make another story as Honsou is presumably still alive and the Thrice Born mentions that he has hidden powers that could possibly make him a daemon prince. But hey if your a big Ultramarines fan, all the power to yah! You probably will like the book. Everything goes well for Uriel and 40 Iron Warriors firing at him all miss. He also comes right in time to save Calagar. I truly thought this was interesting at how the Ultramarines have it their way and in Dark Creed, the Word Bearers champions made captains and chapter masters look like bitches. 

The Thrice Born was disapointing and was pretty much taking a shit the entire book until the end. Then kills a couple ultramarines and gets owned. I disliked the portrayel of Honsou looking like a coward. Throughout other of the stories he has faced opponents much more fearsome than him and has fought them without this introduction of "cowardly" traits he has obtained all of a sudden. The Iron Warriors little finale with Honsou was redicolous as they shot up the ground and did so until pretty much everybody was in cover.

I like Graham McNeill's Writing, however, thought the battles were rushed and very simplified withe the greatness of the Ultramarines. I don't want to take down of an authors work. But I give this book a 5/10. But enough of what I thought. What did you heretics like or dislike?


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

Could you tell us a bit more, specifically who dies?.


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

Lord of the Night said:


> Could you tell us a bit more, specifically who dies?.




Quick synopsis: The Thrice Born soon takes Honsou's army and has them swear alliegence to him. From then on, the pirate army is called "Blood Born." The initial attack puts the Worlds Of Ultramar by surprise. Two worlds of Ultramar are left into barren wastelands. They devastate the Ultramarines fleets initially by leading them into traps. Even Calagars battle cruiser is destroyed. When they reach the planet, The Ultramarines many companies along with a retinue of Raven Gaurd looking for Vaanes are able to hold the Thrice Borns arimes at bay. Meanwhile Honsou is tasked at destroying an ancient weapon that could destroy the Thrice Born. Honsou must seek the tomb of the Savior of Calth and destroy it. Vaanes betrays Honsou and tells Uriel everything. Ureil goes to the tomb and kills Grendel and pimp slaps the New Born to Death. Honsou starts kicking Uriels ass and Vaanes saves his him. Honsou gets pissed off and kills Vaanes. Honsou blows up the charges but nobody dies and Uriel gets the Weapon. Honsou's body is never found. The Thrice Born finally comes to the scene of the last battle where all he does is pimp slap Calagar. Uriel jumps on top of the Thrice Born with the weapon and destroys him. The armies of the Thrice Born are destroyed but nothing about Honsou is mentioned after he supposidly blows himself up but is never found. FIN

As a Chaos fan, I wasn't very intrigued.
Though I must say you do find out some interesting history at what was the fate of the blade that stabbed Horus and what who the Thrice Born really is.


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## World Eater XII (Dec 12, 2008)

Alot of pimp slapping goes on then?


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

ckcrawford said:


> As a Chaos fan, I wasn't very intrigued.
> Though I must say you do find out some interesting history at what was the fate of the blade that stabbed Horus and what happened to the Leader of the Word Bearers on Calth.


Fancy elaborating on that in Spoiler Tags? :secret: The Anathame went to Fulgrim right?

This review only further entrenches the reason why I won't read the Ultramarines series, the whole winning against the odds all the time annoys me. I enjoyed _Storm of Iron_ though, but I enjoyed it as a standalone novel.


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

World Eater XII said:


> Alot of pimp slapping goes on then?


Yes... :laugh:, metaphoric slapping.

Damn I didn't mean to sound whinny. I like how the beginning of what I thought about the book was calm... and slowly releasing my anger. haha. Couldn't help it.

I don't know how to do spoiler tags. I've tried doing them and they aren't working. 


SPOILER++++


Funny thing Child of the Emperor, but thats what I thought. 



> A shudder of unadulterated terror passed through the M'kar as it turned its gaze upon Uriel and saw the glinting dagger he carried. Its eyes widened in recognition.
> "The shard of Erebus!" Cried the daemon lord.


So I assume that this is the same Daemon Knife used to stab Horus.

Also the Thrice Born also known as M'kar, is Maloq Kartho of the Word Bearers. So it would not be surprising for him to know about it. 

In Horus Rising



> The blade was rippled along its length, grey like napped flint...


The Chapter's Due



> Its blad was triangular in section and fashioned from some strange stone, like chipped flint with a glitter sheen to its edge.


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## World Eater XII (Dec 12, 2008)

Im with COTE, i read the first omnibus and Dead sky(?) but found the story was a bit banana insane,space marines loving warp mutant things? I shall pick up chapters due just to read about honsou!


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

World Eater XII said:


> Im with COTE, i read the first omnibus and Dead sky(?) but found the story was a bit banana insane,space marines loving warp mutant things? I shall pick up chapters due just to read about honsou!


Pretty much what I did. I should have expected it to be a Ultramarines praise book, however, Graham McNeill went through all the trouble and did a good job portraying Honsou and his captains in a few other books, that I was surprised at the final outcome being so quick and blunt with its "Evil" characters. I think thats were most of my frustration is at.


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

no doubt having produced such a rich book like the thousand sons that somewhere along the lines he just spewed out chapters due just to meet a deadline and put no real thought into it. ill read it still but not on the top of my to do list now.


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## Lord of the Night (Nov 18, 2009)

One more question. What happened to Notha Estassay in the novel?, he is the Slaaneshi blademaster. It appeared that he died in _Iron Warrior_ so im wondering if he survived into _The Chapter's Due_.


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

Yes he did die, and though I don't feel like going back to look for it because its basically irevelant as the remainder of the retinue gets whipped out so easily by Uriel and his buds but someone else leads the Ecstasy's retinue of blade masters.


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## Chaosveteran (Aug 29, 2010)

Hi,

Will this be released in soft back as well or just hardback? 

Thanks!


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

They might, it really depends but they will eventually get it on soft cover some day. The reason why I say "someday" is because there is so much to do in BL that making a soft cover version of _The Chapter's Due_ is just another task.


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## Chaosveteran (Aug 29, 2010)

Well that's just pants... It sucks having all the books in the series as soft covers and then 1 hardback...


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Yes it will be released in soft cover some time next year- the books in hard back are usually released in paper back about 12 months later, at least that's how long I waited for _Courage and Honour_


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## FORTHELION (Nov 21, 2009)

Sorry guys but i must have been reading a different book, i really enjoyed it.
The ultramarines were getting their asses kicked and were about to lose when the legion of the damned turned up and turned the tide. 
Has nobody else realised it was them who came to the rescue of the ultramarines?


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

I didn't actually think it was. I don't actually remember the Legion of the Damned being in it.

The core of Honsou's army was eventually destroyed with the death of the Pirate Queen. And of course, M'kar was about to kill Calegar when TAH DAH, Uriel comes out of nowhere with the "Shard of Erebus" sticks it M'kar's ass and poof! He goes back to the warp. 

Not to mention when Uriel goes to get the "Shard" 40 Iron Warriors miss him and his little possie completely. (My guess is that Uriel lagged the 40k world, I hate when this happens to me in MW2, but it works for whoever does the lagging).


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## FORTHELION (Nov 21, 2009)

the legion of the damned appear in the part when they are in the temple of the ultramarine captain from the heresy.


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## Captain Galus (Jan 2, 2008)

I think reading these books is what makes me so bad at playing Space Marines on the tabletop.


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## Roninman (Jul 23, 2010)

Guess have to wait for soft version before buying if what you said about this is true. I think personally that Uriel series has been steadily going downhill since Dead Sky Black Sun novel. This has been very high on my list and only just because it featured that lovable bastard Honsou.

Disappointed too about book lenght, only 320 pages? Thought this would be much bigger novel since it featured full size invasion oh chaos fleet. Is schedules so tight that they cant write longer novels or are ideas for some good story gone. 

Graham should think little more about Uriel and what he really is. First 3 novels were great, but i simply cant imagine him beeing so nice and humane all around. This is practically a grownup kid raised to kill without no guidance of right choices coming from parents. Maybe he is just one of thousand rare ones, that we get on 10 other novels. Almost all novels about loyal Space marines have been about some higher ranked Astartes who is generally a nice guy. Always imagined these late Space Marines to be the superior forces on battlefield but outside combat totally ignorant pricks. Maybe veteran marines have grownup mentally, but i dont see that trait much on younger marines either.

And your mentioned Uriel running through 40 IW shooting at him. This again makes almost sound like the thing from Dead sky novel where he charged naked against Iron Warriors aiming Bolters at him and they even shot him. I understand that author wants to make look like a hero but comon. I loved all other books that Graham wrote, but seems this series is going downhill. Plot of this book sounds nice, but if its gonna be like this i cant see its on my must-to-read list anymore. But maybe after it comes in softer version then maybe.


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

Captain Galus said:


> I think reading these books is what makes me so bad at playing Space Marines on the tabletop.


If you could actually play the ultramarines the way they are percieved in the novels, lol... it would be very much like getting a 3+ invulnerable save on all your models and reroll everything including your rerolls while having your opponent reroll everything plus rerolling it again.



Roninman said:


> Guess have to wait for soft version before buying if what you said about this is true. I think personally that Uriel series has been steadily going downhill since Dead Sky Black Sun novel. This has been very high on my list and only just because it featured that lovable bastard Honsou.
> 
> Disappointed too about book lenght, only 320 pages? Thought this would be much bigger novel since it featured full size invasion oh chaos fleet. Is schedules so tight that they cant write longer novels or are ideas for some good story gone.
> 
> ...


Yeah, I know what you mean. But to be fair, Graham McNeill has been writing a lot for BL this year and most of his work was pretty good. Especially Empire. I just thought his creation of both Honsou and Uriel had pretty good books about them and that their grand finally should have got more attention. I would have much preferred it if he had waited till next year and written it better. The beginning of the novel was pretty good, but then like a quarter of the way through, it goes fast. Lol, and I totally forgot about the random scene with the Legion of the damned. I read it up and its actually really funny. The IW miss everything so they unload on the loyalists in cover and the loyalists are basically dieing, then the Legion of Damned appear out of nowhere, and poof! Iron Warriors dead except honsou and the Legion of the Damned disapear. You can tell this book was done due to deadlines.


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