Dead Sky, Black Sun

The Chronicles of Uriel Ventris: Warhammer 40,000, Book 3

By: Graham McNeill

Narrated by: Bruce Mackinnon

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

A Uriel Ventris audiobook.

Exiled Ultramarines Uriel Ventris and Pasanius venture into the heart of the Iron Warriors’ fortress-world in search of atonement – but will they find anything but horror and death?

Listen to It Because

Explore the Iron Warriors' fortress world in the Eye of Terror through the eyes of exiled Ultramarines Uriel Ventris and Pasanius. Dark technology and even darker magic combine, and Ventris meets an enemy who'll haunt him for a long time to come.

The Story

Exiled from the Ultramarines Chapter by Marneus Calgar, Captain Uriel Ventris ventures deep into the dreaded Eye of Terror to atone for his disgrace. There, Uriel must unleash the Emperor's vengeance upon the followers of the Dark Gods and bring His divine light to this area of darkness. But a far more terrible foe dwells within these worlds of insanity: the ancient Chaos Space Marine Legions. With dishonour behind him and certain death ahead, Uriel must gather every ounce of courage if he is to survive and regain his honour!

Written by Graham McNeill. Narrated by Bruce Mackinnon.

©2021 Games Workshop Limited (P)2021 Games Workshop Limited

Great performance, very weak dialogue

Almost every character is a 2d cutout. The villains are Snidely Whiplash and the heroes are Dudley Doright and Simple Jack. The dialogue is quite weak and hammy at best. The true brilliance of this work is the world building of Medrengard and the inner workings of a Chaos fortress on a daemonworld. There's some really slick and sick concepts in here. Graham McNeill seems to be a George Lucas type with weak dialogue and character logic but mind bending world building. This isn't Abnett but it has its moments.

Bruce Mackinnon does his best with what he's given here but it must have been challenging to voice without a laugh.

I enjoyed it.

That was fun. The ending was surprising and made me laugh. I look forward to seeing if Captain Ventris and his friends stay together.

Old w40k are great, but roughly wrotten

The Ventris books are all very entertaining, but this really does hearken from a time when little to no effort was put into the books. The writing is poor, bordering on laughable, at points. but it is really interesting to see how they used to think about the lore. there was a silliness and joy in these older books that is almost completely lacking from the grimdark that has in recent years.

Pretty Pog.

Great voice acting and a pretty good story, this book really shows the better aspects of the 4th company captain.

I don’t regret it

It’s the best one in the series. Didn’t think I wanted to hear about the blueberry marines because they seemed so generic. But like all other factions I don’t have an interest in learning about, i end up falling in love with them when I do. Great story and darker then the others

Audio

Sometime the audio would like it was being played from far away or down a tunnel. Everything else was great!

Read Storm of Iron first!

Not a bad novel. It's not for the squeamish as there's some grotesque imagery. It's a good tale for those who are interested in a simple story of good vs. evil without too much complexity. I read Storm of Iron a long time ago but if you haven't DEFINITELY read it first, there's a fair bit of tie in to that book here.

Great work as usual!

McNiel has come a long way in writing good descriptions without dragging on and on. I felt engaged and constantly wanting to know what happened next through the whole book.
Bruce delivers some of the best narration in all of Warhammer. some of the readings you just wish the Reader would actually use their voice, intonate, show some character, do anything other than read just the words on the page. Bruce delivers unique voicing, character, and expression for every character he reads, and it really brings them to life.

Didn’t expect that

What a great story. However, hope it’s just the beginning to good series unless there are already in print.

The best book on Uriel Ventress so far

I loved the fact that the characters were thrown into the heart of chaos all alone this time. No army to protect them, no legions to have their back, no tanks and thunderhawks - only gorilla warfare and masterful tactics. Absolutely amazing book!