Damnos

Space Marine Battles

by Nick Kyme

++ASTROPATHIC CHOIR INTERCEPT XC114, VALIN’S REVENGE 965973.M41++

++MESSAGE FRAGMENT RECOVERED BY CHOIRMASTER++

++TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:++

++…ALL IS LOST, CASUALTIES PRESUMED NEAR TOTAL. ONLY KELLENPORT REMAINS. AS LORD-GOVERNOR, RECOGNISED BY THE HIGH LORDS OF TERRA, I BESEECH ALL IMPERIAL SERVANTS RECEIVING THIS MESSAGE TO COME TO OUR AID WITH ALL HASTE. MAY THE EMPEROR SHIELD US. SCANT INFORMATION EXISTS ON THE INVADING FORCE SAVE FOR A BINARIC DATA-BURST. TRANSLITERATION FOLLOWS: ‘WE ARE THE NECRONTYR. WE ARE LEGION. WE CLAIM DOMINION OF THIS WORLD… SURRENDER AND DIE.’++


++DATA-SEAL OF LORD-GOVERNOR ARXIS VERIFIED IN ASTROPATHIC ROUTING MEME…++

++MESSAGE ORIGIN CONFIRMED AS DAMNOS, MINING WORLD, ULTIMA SEGMENTUM++

++TRANSCRIPT FORWARDED TO THE BRIDGE FOR ATTENTION OF CAPTAIN SICARIUS++

++MARK MOST URGENT++


This premium, 446 page hardback contains the classic novel Fall of Damnos, the brand new novella 'Spear of Macragge' and eight colour pages of illustrations, maps and force organisation charts.

Genres: 40k, Science Fiction

Hardcover

First published September 1, 2013

About the author

Nick Kyme (b. 1977) writes mostly for Black Library. His credits include the popular Salamanders series and several audio dramas.

Reviews

[Terrible Reviewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I wish Damnos was a short story, as the characters were so dull, by the tenth page I wished they were dead"

Nick Kyme, author of the fairly decent Salamander series and many other novelisations, oh yes, Vulkan Lives which 'added' to the Horus Heresy series. A rather bad read. I'm down on him already, I've not even started yet. Nick Kyme is a former editor for Black Library, which generally leads to said editor being able to write novels for the publisher. This is rather common, as a few other editors have had the chance to wordsmith a few novels. Steve Lyons possibly be one of the better. Laurie Goulding being the worst - Nick Kyme sits somewhere in the middle. He's a nice guy in real life, but being nice doesn't mean you can write. There have been flashes of brilliance from Nick, but few and far between.

So Damnos is another overpriced re-release by Black Library. Originally released in 2011 as The Fall Of Damnos. BL decided to re-release it in a hardback edition, with a short story to-boot The Spear Of Maccrage lovely stuff. All yours for £20. Bargain. Anyone that say's £20 is the standard rrp of a hardback book need to think again. OK cynicism aside, it looks nice, but reads bad. What? I gave it a compliment there. Jon Sullivan's artwork is top notch, when isn't it! The problem is the word content. So let me get to it. Damnos, a Imperial world is about to go too shit. This is the standard operating template for Space Marine Battle Novels. Imperial citizens in strife, send in the Space Marines, hand a tasty mouthful of bolter-porn, hardship and loss, a naughty enemy who will go to any length to win... and we've got a blue print ready.

Tangent there - so the story centres around Damnos, a world that until recently has essentially been strip mined. Fuel and something under the ice... apparently. Well, under the ice is a former dynasty of flesh-bearers, now devoid of any life, they are known as The Nercon. Think of the Borg from Star Trek and your close - but these guys are tougher, and wholly a lot badder! They look like Terminators with glowing green eyes, they rewrite and replicate themselves like that T-1000 from Terminator 2. There's no stopping these malevolent buggers - Surrender and Die is their mantra, not Surrender or Die no, we want your boots, jacket, motorcycle and flesh this time. Sorry Arnie, these guys are on a different level to you pal. Every badass needs a foil, enter the Ultramarines, cobalt blue angels - well their not angels, their gene-breed super-human warriors. 2nd Company under Sicarius make planet fall, along with well named company sergeants, Scipo and Paxor. A awesomely named Agrippen, a venerable dreadnought (basically a veteran space marine who almost died and is placed inside a massive two-footed tank) and many others who I've forgotten about - which tells you something. The Space Marine's are of course the main characters, but every novel that involves Astrates, need some humans, welcome Falka and Jynn - there's rather a cute story of friendship/bonds/love/hardship going on here - this is all taking place while hell is literally flooding out of the bowels of Damnos.

Necrons are essentially equal to Space Marines; they are unrelenting, they do not fear death, they do not fear anything, there is no glory, there is only death! The reader will notice the kill count rising within a short space of time, Marines are dying, there is no hope of relief. To make matters worse, several of the Ultramarines sergeants have doubts about Sicarius leadership, they believe him to be vainglorious and seeking the leadership of the Ultramarines. He is quite literally the complete opposite to any Ultramarine I've read before - where they are meant to be pragmatic and tactically astute, Sicarius is fool-hardy and gunhoo. It was all rather weird reading him charging into the centre of a Necron phalanx with his 'Lions' very weird indeed. Oh well.

Scipio is a rather excellent character, one with very humanistic traits - that of caring about those he leads and those he has lost. This DOES work really well, as any other Space Marine character (barring Loken from Horus Heresy) don't give a rats arse about their past comrades (and even some times their current). It's hardly ever we see a Marine Company reduced from 100 to at least half of that - it just doesn't happen in Warhammer 40K canon. So in that respect, the novel was a risk, but well received.

What didn't I like? Sicarius doesn't fit within the Ultramarines mantra of followed doctrine and tried and tested principles set out by the Codex (basically many books written by Roboute Gulliman - a kind of Sun Tzu to everything Marine-based). He just doesn't work, ever. The Necron's are way to human, for creatures who have dwelled for millions of years, they seem hell bent on petty scrobbles, which ironically aren't meant to be part of the Necrons make-up i.e. canon. It's weird.

There are some nice tibbits on how the Necrons became to be, how they de-flesh future Necrons - a hazard several Marines stumble across. The story is OK, there is just nothing to it - you know how it's going to pain out due to the nature of the enemy. That's the problem, the Necrons and perhaps the lax characterisation, trying to do something with established canon is brave, but silly - Ultramarines sale because they are like the Romans, they've a standard operating template and a standard makeup - why change that?

[Callum Shephard · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a trend second to the Collector’s Edition copies of the Horus Heresy series, Black Library has taken to re-releasing older titles in hardback form. The first among these was Armadeddon by Aaron Dembski-Bowden and now we have the similarly place-named Damnos by Nick Kyme. Each has had a novella length follow-up story tacked onto the end, either exploring events which were not depicted in the original novel or stories which took place at a later date on the same world. As it consists of two stories, we’ll be treating this edition as an omnibus, addressing and scoring each story in turn.

That done, onto Damnos.

Fall of Damnos



Set on the doomed world of Damnos, the story follows the conflict between the Ultramarines’ Second Company and the necron horde which dwelt beneath the planet’s surface. Having been awoken long before their arrival, the astartes led by Sicarius find the world’s military broken and the remaining populace in full retreat. Determined to turn the tide, the Ultramarines mount an assault, but internal politics cause many to question the captain’s orders. After so much has been lost, how can any hope to find victory against an undying foe such as the necrons?

If there’s one thing to be said about Fall of Damnos, it clearly emphasises the scale of events, the cost behind them but most of all the story’s direction. Within a chapter it’s made very clear how great a threat the necrons truly are, with their forces being awoken and proceeding to rout any who oppose them. We see progressively bigger Imperial forces brought against them only to be smashed down in their advance. Along with setting up a number of important human characters, it gets a lot of details out of the way while setting up the book’s foe. In a very short space of time it establishes their enemy very effectively while keeping them grounded enough in power to show they can truly be fought. Better yet, their SPESS TOMB KINGZ aspects are kept to a bare minimum in this sequence, allowing for some genuine terror to seep through as they pick apart the Imperial military on the planet.

This point needs to be praised for two reasons: Firstly getting much of the busywork over and done with so what is actually advertised can actually be focused upon, a problem more than a few novels make. Secondly as it makes it very clear (even more so than the title) this will not be a joyous war and will be a fighting retreat at best. While Kyme is visibly hamstrung by much of the source material from the fifth edition Codex: Space Marines, he never goes so far as to repeat Mat Ward’s mistake of trying to write the Damnos Incident as some kind of victory or at worst a draw. Only a handful among them truly believe it can be won, through either stupidity or arrogance.

Speaking of arrogance, there’s the characterisation of Cato Sicarius and his role within the book. Despite having little more focus than any other character of the novel, Sicarius is easily its biggest strength as it utilises the few character details he was actually given beyond an obscenely long list of skills and victories. Much like in The Chapter’s Due and the previously reviewed Veil of Darkness, Sicarius is a risk-taker who skilled, brilliant, but failing to know when to retreat or when the battle is lost. This point is made clear many times when the captain is fighting the necron menace, mentioning that others would have retreated and sentenced the world to exterminatus than lose soldiers fighting as he is here, particularly his rival First Captain Agemman. The actual rivalry is made into a plot point, with distrust among the Second and First Company elements accompanying the mission and internal politics between figures being in the background even as the chapter battles against the xenos. While never fully addressed, this internal political conflict is handled far better than many 41st millennium titles with it as a major plot point such as Soul Drinker and The Death of Antagonis.

The secondary characters of the company react to the politics in varying degress, but ultimately have their own tales to tell. Each given varying degrees of focus and their own tales become either relevent to themselves as a personal arc or the story as a whole. While Scipio and Praxor ultimately fall into the former, the likes of Tigurius are unfortunately in the latter camp and heavily overlooked as a result. Often feeling fairly two dimensional, the librarian only serves to show the power of the necrons and highlight a concluding sequence of the book. Furthermore the number of secondary characters both within the Second Company and among the humans leaves many aspects either unexplained or underdeveloped such as many characteristics surrounding the guerrilla fighter Jynn. We’re told she’s a fantastic figure on par with Creed or Yarrick yet it’s never really. This is one of the book’s flaws: There are a good twenty characters if not more which are being used to try and give the story scale yet the ambition behind using them overwhelm’s Kyme’s ability to balance them out. There’s easily enough named figures here to rival the cast of A Song of Fire and Ice installment, yet he needs to write about them all in only a fraction of the page length.

In order to tell the characters’ stories and that of the space marines the book utilises constant flashbacks, but these are added at the worst of moments. Almost as soon as the space marine drop begins with the Ultramarines assaulting the necron forces, it jumps back to hours prior to flesh out their personalities. A choice which immediately kills all momentum behind events and the excitement behind the attack. While some are better placed, they frequently either get in the way of the events on Damnos or feel drawn out.

A more positive note is the tactics utilised by the Ultramarines. While all Black Library authors have varying grasps of military tactics, Kyme take the time to make note of troop movements, rearguard actions and the movement of forces in trying to support one another. It’s definitely a cut above that of the previous Gaunt’s Ghosts novels and even Graham McNeill’s Ultramarines series, making the Company feel more like a tactical military force than a band of vaguely organised knights. That being said, some moments are very questionable such as guerrilla fighters apparently having astartes grade bolt clips at their camp. There’s also more of an effort to define the relationship between the astartes and mortals. While unfortunately lacking much of the reverence or respect many novels have come to use as a plot point surrounding them, the astartes are frequently referred to as “angels” and seen as religious warriors directly connected to the Emperor’s power. A point which, while always a part of many books, is more evidently explored here.

Unfortunately Fall of Damnos’ greatest weaknesses ultimately come from two things. The first is the source material behind the conflict, with Kyme having to use many previous details written by Ward which are either childishly simplistic or are more at home in a superhero comic. A constant point of this is the various names of the squads such as the Immortals, the Lions, the Titan Killers and such. All of which are very at odds with the overall themes of the space marines in the book. As bombastic as they might be, they are professional soldiers as much as they are crusaders and such nicknames simply feels like an attempt to appeal to a younger demographic. Many factoids taken from the previous Codex: Space Marines are always extremely at odds with the book’s themes and even the Ultramarines themselves.

The other big problem is the necrons. While far more toned down than in many other stories which feature their new incarnations, these versions of the necrontyr are overblown, well past the point of being able to be taken as a serious threat. This is especially true about the flayed ones, for all their descriptions of gore, wearing the skins of others and madness, their leader constantly screaming for a tailor and wearing them as robes turned horrifying insanity into utter hilarity. The few times the necrons do work beyond the opening chapter are always when the necrons are either silent or completely missing beyond their basic troops. The choice of descriptive names, one in particular being given the title Stormcaller, were similarly questionable.

Fall of Damnos is extremely hit and miss, but there are good ideas in here. Much like Veil of Darkness, you have to stomach Invisible Space Pharaoh Wizard Necrons and the book is visibly overstuffed, but many of the interesting ideas present here are enough to warrant a look. While I would still recommend Warriors of Ultramar as a book involving the Ultramarines facing a losing battle on a planetary scale, Kyme’s personal touches make this worth going through at least once. For the internal politics, the tactical details, the varied characters and managing to turn Sicarius into an actual character rather than a fanboy’s personal Mary Sue.

Spear of Macragge



Set during the events of the previous novel, the book follows the tale of take commander Chronous as he takes the fight to the necrons. With Sicarius facing impending defeat, he engages the undying warriors in a massive armoured battle as Tigurius attempts to find a way for them to survive the Damnos Incident.

Following directly on from the conclusion of Fall of Damnos, Spear of Macragge slots into place extremely well with the book. Re-using many characters, taking place within mere hours of the last chapter and focusing upon the arrival of someone seen descending from a strike cruiser at that book’s conclusion, it’s an expansion which works extremely well. If anything it’s a justified reason to purchase this collection over the original, delivering a much more satisfying conclusion to events than the abrupt ending the book originally had. Winding down and addressing the final moments of the battle rather than having the story come to a screeching halt.

The only point which really separates this from the other book is the addition of Chronous, mentioned previously but unseen in the last novel. While more human and less acidic than Sicarius, he unfortunately remains a far less interesting character without the ambition or arrogance to cause friction with the others. Any interest in his character really comes from the battle against the necrons, managing to slow down their advance but not fully halt them through as much fault of his own as their own skills. Similar problems also arise with some returning characters, while the likes of Scipio do continue with the roles we saw last time their stories were largely finished. While including them does make the story feel far more whole, it’s hard to ignore the fact that this is an extension of the story rather than a truly natural progression.

The upside of the novella’s addition is the final sequences in Damnos’ remaining city and the battles which finally forced the Ultramarines to retreat from the planet. With so many elements having been left out of the fight and arriving at the last minute, it makes it fully clear just why they had to leave: They didn’t give up immediately and even after being pushed back as far as they could still tried one final time to achieve victory with what they had. The battles themselves are of a very different nature from the almost-all-infantry engagements of Fall of Damnos, instead placing a heavy emphasis upon vehicle related combat. As well as an armoured battalion led by Chronous, thunderhawk gunships and necron fliers are seen in the mix fighting and engaging one another as they attempt to finally wipe one another out. The sequences themselves lack some of the desperation of the previous battles but are still something to behold, showing the same degree of control and organisation Kyme had with the troops but with a very different style. They are ultimately what the majority of readers will be drawn to and the book does place heavy emphasis upon them, at an unfortunate cost.

Because of so much focus on the battles, a lot of the final moments feel rushed. Not given the same focus they deserved and instead shortened to make use of the page count they had left, something especially true during a certain delaying tactic Chronus is forced to make. Furthermore, irritatingly weak depiction of the marines come into play again. While this was fine with the necrons for obvious reasons, we get instances here like a space marine’s helm being crushed when colliding with a wall and one being killed by one or two bolter rounds. This isn’t to mention a very questionable take on techmarines which seems extremely at odds with what we know of their role within chapters and relationship with other marines.

Also, there are some very odd choices of vehicle names in this book. Many which are good and fit the chapter well but then you get others along the likes of The Ram, Thunderstorm and similar names. It can be quite distracting, especially when one tank is named Stormwarden among other things.

Ultimately Spear of Macragge succeeds in giving the story a better conclusion, if rushed in places, and more battles. If you likes what you saw in Fall of Damnos, chances are you’ll have fun with this one. Just expect a few more flaws here and there, but thankfully less monologue spewing necrons.

Verdict: 5.2/10



Omnibus Conclusion



There’s some obvious weaknesses in the narrative and failings here and there, but ultimately Damnos is worth your time if you’re a fan of Nick Kyme or the Ultramarines. It’s unfortunate that this depiction went with the new necrons and didn’t have more pages to fully utilise everything included within the tale, plus a few less head-scratching decisions, as otherwise this would likely have a higher score. Along with the Word Bearers trilogy it’s a rare tale which shows the space marines losing for a change, but not due to a lack of competence, skill or intelligence as such this is also recommended for potential authors wanting to have marines on the losing side in stories.

[Heinz Reinhardt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Genuinely hate leaving negative reviews, but this one was just...dull. The problem with some of the Warhammer novels is that they're almost, entirely, one big action sequence. Very little story, no possibility to invest in any of the characters. Such was this one.
There were nifty elements, such as introducing some minor persona to the Necron overlords, and giving them a sense of culture. The way they were written was well done: frighteningly emotionless automatons, like the Terminator, coming to kill you. Save the overlords, of course, who weren't soulless even if having been turned into machines.
Even with that, it was just hard to find a way to care about the characters. Everything was generic, cookie cutter, Space Marines versus the Galaxy type story.
Here and there, a fun romp through a book long battlefield, and a nice visceral release. But when an entire series line is written in the same manner? Just loses my interest.
Your mileage may vary.

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Review: http://thefoundingfields.com/2013/09/... (w/ links)

“An excellent Space Marine Battles novel, in my view – Damnos, both the original novel and the exclusive novella, are among the best of the series as Nick Kyme brings a great look into the Ultramarines.” ~Bane of Kings, The Founding Fields


"++ASTROPATHIC CHOIR INTERCEPT XC114, VALIN’S REVENGE 965973.M41++

++MESSAGE FRAGMENT RECOVERED BY CHOIRMASTER++

++TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS:++

++…ALL IS LOST, CASUALTIES PRESUMED NEAR TOTAL. ONLY KELLENPORT REMAINS. AS LORD-GOVERNOR, RECOGNISED BY THE HIGH LORDS OF TERRA, I BESEECH ALL IMPERIAL SERVANTS RECEIVING THIS MESSAGE TO COME TO OUR AID WITH ALL HASTE. MAY THE EMPEROR SHIELD US. SCANT INFORMATION EXISTS ON THE INVADING FORCE SAVE FOR A BINARIC DATA-BURST. TRANSLITERATION FOLLOWS: ‘WE ARE THE NECRONTYR. WE ARE LEGION. WE CLAIM DOMINION OF THIS WORLD… SURRENDER AND DIE.’++

++DATA-SEAL OF LORD-GOVERNOR ARXIS VERIFIED IN ASTROPATHIC ROUTING MEME…++

++MESSAGE ORIGIN CONFIRMED AS DAMNOS, MINING WORLD, ULTIMA SEGMENTUM++

++TRANSCRIPT FORWARDED TO THE BRIDGE FOR ATTENTION OF CAPTAIN SICARIUS++

++MARK MOST URGENT+"

Well, it’s not every day you get a review copy of a book that you’ve already read and reviewed before. My original Advance Review of Fall of Damnos can be found later in the review, but it appears that this time, rather than just simply reprint the now out-of-print novel as either a singular book or as part of a larger omnibus, Black Library have started to take a similar approach to that of the New York Times Bestselling Horus Heresy series with their somewhat less successful Space Marine Battles books. Whilst I’m not up to date on this series, the most recent book I’ve read being C.L. Werner’s strong The Siege of Castellax, the first (and to date only) Space Marine Battles novel that I’ve read that has focused on the Chaos Space Marines. However, it’s not really a series that you have to read in order, as veteran Warhammer 40,00 readers will know that rather than telling an ordered series of events, the Space Marine Battles books focus on specific events that have already been covered in various Space Marine Codexes or the main Warhammer 40,000 rulebook. This allows for a great development of these events, assuming – as was the case with novels like Rynn’s World by Steve Parker and Andy Hoare’s Hunt for Voldorious, two early entries in the series – that the author can stray clear of the typical bolter-porn, guns blazing format that pretty much ensures that the entire book is nothing but action with minimal character development.

You can find my original review of Fall of Damnos here. However, be warned, my writing is pretty pathetic then and I like to think that I have improved since. But if you don’t want to read through eye-scalding text (or are reading this on Goodreads rather than the actual site as Goodreads doesn’t have a link to this review), then you’ll probably just want the pull quote. I wrote that “With just two books, Nick Kyme is already challenging Graham McNeill’s reputation as king of the Ultramarines.” And that couldn’t be more true. Fall of Damnos really is that good, and although it has received a rather diverse reaction in the Warhammer 40k fanbase (as has it seems, any novel not written by either Aaron Dembski-Bowden or Dan Abnett (and to a slightly lesser extent, Graham McNeill) – and it’s probably going to be a book that you’ll either love, like I did – or hate. I know fellow Founding Fields reviewer Bellarius has strong feelings against this book.

However, back to the review. I’m not going to talk about the original novel, Fall of Damnos, in any real depth here because the short answer is that I’ve already covered it before on TFF, and I’m not really a big fan of reviewing the same thing twice. I’m going to focus instead on Spear of Macragge, the novella that comes attached to Damnos in the same way that Blood and Fire was part of Armaggedon, the recent hardback re-release of Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s popular Helsreach novel in the similar series. It’s new, you haven’t seen it before – and it fleshes out the original novel in more depth. It seems the ‘fleshing out’ of Fall of Damnos is coming out in two halves, not just the novella – but there’s also the audio-drama Veil of Darkness that I am reviewing at some point today in a different post, adding some further exploration of the aftermath of the Damnos conflict and what ramifications it had on the Ultramarines as a legion.

Spear of Macragge however is a novella that is set during the events of Fall of Damnos (and also follows on, serving as a second act in a ‘trilogy’ of sorts if you count Veil of Darkness as the final act) – and features several of the key scenes, such as the Siege of Kellenport, that many owners of the 5th edition of the Space Marine Codex will be aware of – that were left out of the original novel. The attention is on Tank Commander Chronous, another familiar face here, and feels a more interesting, captivating and engaging than Sicarius before him. As this book however chooses to recount events that most people who have read the lore will be already aware of, several elements are rendered unpredictable, thus robbing the book’s tension. I mean, the Necrons have the potential to be one of the scariest races in the Warhammer 40,000 Universe if done right, but the considerable lack of tension here despite the relatively high stakes really didn’t help matters much. Then again, this isn’t really Nick Kyme’s fault, as he’s choosing to expand on an already written tale featuring characters that are models on the tabletop, so obviously – you know from the get go that these big names won’t die over the course of the book.

However, that doesn’t stop the novella from being any less awesome when it comes to its finale. We get to see the characters that we’ve met before pressed to the limit, as the true horror of the Necron threat is revealed. Whilst Spear of Macragge is largely action – it’s action done right, and Kyme has crafted a page-turning read that serves as a fitting addition to the main events in Fall of Damnos, and is well worth the additional price for this hardback novel as opposed to just buying the individual book. Like Veil of Darkness, Spear of Macragge provides the reader with a very strong read.

The battle sequences are really awesome as well, with a variety of fun sequences inside. There are clashes with a battalion of armoured tanks (as one would expect when the main character of Spear of Macragge is a Tank Commander) and the aerial conflict that this book brings to the table is just as fun as its ground counterparts. Kyme certainly knows how to write some gripping action sequences, and Spear of Macragge, much like Fall of Damnos – is full of them.

The only thing that I didn’t really like about Spear of Macragge was the fact that it felt a bit rushed in places. Other than that, I feel that Nick Kyme got this extra addition to Fall of Damnos spot on, and really handles it well. If you enjoyed the first novel then Spear of Macragge is one that you should find awesome as well. As a whole then, Damnos is a lot of fun, and is a novel that’s certainly worth checking out. Recommended over the standalone novel if you’ve enjoyed Nick Kyme’s previous works and want more. Speaking of more, can we have an ongoing Ultramarines series from Kyme, please? That would be awesome.

VERDICT: 4/5

[Brett Bricker · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and exciting read regarding the near massacre of the Ultramarines 2nd Company at the hands of an awakening Necron tomb world. Damnos is split into two books "Fall of Damnos" and "Spear of Macragge." Overall the writing is rock solid, with a few bits of repetition and awkwardly worded sentences. Nick Kyme's created some truly interesting characters for this series and I especially like the story telling from the Necron perspective. I do feel the description of the combat was a little too bland, however there were some gems sprinkled throughout. The pace was good, the plot interesting and the characters engaging. A fun, yet depressing read. I do feel that "Fall of Damnos" ended rather abruptly and the end fell pretty flat. Overall, the book was not harmed by these flaws.

If you like either group of combatants, I suggest giving it a read. It is worthy of your time.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Already ready 1st part of book. FALL OF DAMNOS. LOVED it too

[William J McPherson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Save your time, read something else. It’s absurd these books are in the same series as one like Helsreach. Waste of time, waste of money.

[Ulzeta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite fun.

[Antoineph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Your classic space Marine battle book, but with a more humane spin and interestinf depiction of necrons

[Fiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though two stories are set in this book, their quality is much the same. I'll only briefly write down my experience and thoughts of this book, without going too much into detail and without naming all the things that went into this rating and review.

The Ultramarines are colored as arrogant, egocentric, aggressive misanthropists. Though this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it didn't fit in with the characters I would expect from that Order.
Also I've seen a lot of plot-armor and plot-devices in this book. For instance, the Ultramarines spoke of and lamented their casualties, but frankly the reader hardly ever gets to see anything bad happen to these marines. They also often talk about their laurels and soon-to-gain glory, and how well they do in battles and tactics, but again no details are ever shown to the reader as to what makes them good tacticians, what good decisions where made and what exactly makes them outstanding fighters. All in all, throughout the entire story, you'd expect them to be dead and defeated, but every time their righteous defeat draws near some implausible plot-device comes along to save them.
Plot-armor: Enemy fire that >melts!< god-weapon installations from the imperial guard, which annihilates gigantic star-vessels with a single hit, if fired on ultramarines, merely scatters them around like pebbles, causing a few warning runes to flash.
Not convincing.

The necrons where well done whenever the reader got to see the things from their point of view.
Unfortunately, that's all you got. Appearently necron warriors only stand around and do nothing, judging by how far the Ultramarines slash and drive their way into enemy ranks just to pull back again when at some point their brains kick in like "oh, that won't work, let's fall back" (with no sign of harm or casualty). The necrons also seem to stop fighting and "do something better somewhere else" everytime they are about to break through the final line. Redeployment of a force in superior position when the army is known to have incredible numbers is nothing I can buy as a reasonable choice.
The necron warriors are also pictured as a pretty peaceful lot. You can fire heavy weapons at them, kill them, they will not shoot back. Unless ordered so by some superior. Seriously, someone needs to check on the sourcebooks about defensive and counter-aggressive sub-protocols even the most basic necron has forged into whatever goes for their brains. They are aggressive and hateful, you'd expect their default routines to be "Annihilate every intruder, independent of my own demise", not "ignore every intruder, independent of my own demise".

The humans were the most reasonable and comprehensible. Most likely because you see them suffer and die so much - they are vulnerable, that makes them believable, and they struggle to survive, which also adds to their credibility. They actually develop tactics, too, with decent arguments. Unfortunately the survivors start to die once they are "pushed" into helping the Ultramarines.
Also, toward the end of the book, the humans lose their credibility, though not as much as the Ultramarines. while when there was hardly any chance for them to win at the beginning of the book, toward the end of it they were clearly winning the war. So why is it then that they >begin< to commit suicide? Not very convincing.
The few main-character humans were also clad in plot-armor, though.

Plot.
The plot was the only thing really good about this book. But it felt like one person with a sense for plotting has designed and scetched out the whole plot, while someone else put words to it. Many scenes seemed unrelated to what happened before or after them, though they were in chronological order, the characters acted weirdly in relation to the things happening directly around them. Many lose threads come up never to be picked up again.
In short: The whole thing was plot-driven. I think it would have been more enjoyable to read if the characters had driven the plot instead.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is what bitter defeat is like. I have read about many Imperial victories so it was refreshing and bittersweet to see how proud warriors face defeat. I liked the Necrons and their fluff and hope 40K gamers read this find out about the diverse uses of Mindshackle scarabs and the sanity shattering sound the Doom Scythe produces.