Courage and Honour is the fifth book in the hugely successful Ultramarines series featuring the Courageous Captain Uriel Ventris and his Veteran Sergeant Pasanius.

This book is in many ways like coming full circle in the series. Uriel Ventris’ first mission as captain was to put down a rebellion on the Imperial world, Pavonis and this novel has the 4th company returning to the same troubled planet.

Following shortly after the events of The Killing Ground, we are shown flashback scenes of the testing of Ventris and Pasanius. Testing them both for purity: Mind and Body. After all, these two Astartes have been alone and fighting their way back from the Eye of Terror, a mission which should have most likely claimed his life (and possibly his soul).

Review by Jeff Preston

I usually shy away from anthologies. Not that anthologies are inherently “bad” or anything…but it seems to me that the stories either grab you and then drop you off at the next corner, anxiously wanting MORE…or really just fail to snag you in the first place. Anthologies tend to cater to a wider variety of subjects/ interests and I know my own tastes tend to be more focused.

In spite of this, Tales of Heresy is focused enough to be fun for anyone interested in delving more in to the extremely popular Horus Heresy series.

Since each of the stories is independent, not really tying to one another in any way, I’m going to break down each short story within independently as well.

Review by Jeff Preston

This is Book Nine of the Black Library Horus Heresy series, the second novel of the series by Graham McNeill.

Thus far I have read the entire series. The series is overall exceptional; easily the best work but out by Black Library to date. There have been a few small “bumps” along the road. I point to Descent of Angels as the low point of the series as far as catching and holding my attention as well as staying true to the feel of the other books.

My favorites of the series so far are Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow and Legion by Dan Abnett. My reasons? The former is a standalone that neatly dove-tails in to the previous novels: the latter is a standalone that really challenged my own personal bias (I’ve always loathed the Alpha Legion).

Review by Jeff Preston

The Inquisitor’s Handbook is a hodge-podge of bits and pieces scattering all around the game system and the background. It’s a goody-bag of weapons, skills interpretations, new background options and new ‘fluff’ which may or many not suit a particular player group. To me it didn’t feel like it had quite the same character as a player’s guide for other systems – ones which generally limit themselves to player advice and increasing player options – but it felt like an expansion of the corebook material overall, for both players and Games Masters. I felt, reading through it, as though some of the content here should have been in the corebook and vice versa, particularly the background information and the Calixis sector particulars. It would have made more sense, to me, to have increased the player and character creation options in the main book and then had the Calixis specifics in a sourcebook, or collected in this volume with the specific data appropriate to it. The ‘imposition’ of the Calixis sector as the group’s playground is just another aspect of the ‘hemming in’ that has been a criticism of Dark Heresy.

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

Fantasy Flight Games has launched a new website for the Dark Heresy RPG. Dark Heresy is a roleplaying game based upon the universe of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000. The setting of Warhammer 40,000 is a dark, gothic future where the Imperium of Man is beset by dangers within and without. In Dark Heresy players take […]

We’ve been waiting a really, really, really long time for a Warhammer 40,000 RPG. I remember buying Rogue Trader – and still have it somewhere in a folder, it having fallen apart with use – and the promise in that was of a full-on Warhammer 40,000 RPG arriving at some point in the near future. That was 1987, it is now 2008 and, finally we get our Warhammer 40,000 RPG. It has a lot to live up Dark Heresy, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay was pretty much a masterpiece and gave D&D a run for its money in UK popularity, the wargames have ensnared generations of kids in their clutches and the 2nd Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, despite being a supplement treadmill and despite getting zero support from Games Workshop, was a success as well. Then, just as Dark Heresy does come out, and sells out pretty much immediately, we learn that GW/Black Industries are dropping ALL their roleplay etc lines, triumph and tragedy in one fell swoop.

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

Lots of updates to the Flames Rising Amazon Store today. Horror & Dark Fantasy fiction, games, movies and more. Included in these updates is the option to pre-order: Ventrue: Lords Over the Damned (Vampire the Requiem) Battlestar Galactica (Season 3) Small Favor (Dresden Files) Purge the Unclean (Dark Heresy) Over at FlamesRising.RPGNow.com you can check […]

The stunning news this morning is the Black Industries Announcement. Black Industries regret to announce that Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods out in September will be the final product to be released from Black Industries. Needless to say, I’m a bit stunned by the news. Dark Heresy sold around 20K copies this past […]

The fleet of the Warmaster’s 63rd Expeditionary Force have departed the shattered system of the interex en route to Davin at the behest of First Chaplain Erebus of the Word Bearers Legion. Expecting to find a world left under control and compliance of the Imperium of Mankind, the newly christened Sons of Horus Legion instead finds treason. The occupational forces left behind by the Warmaster Horus himself have turned against the Emperor and the ideals of the Imperium’s Great Crusade, and Horus vows revenge against those he once trusted who have betrayed him.

The fictional universe represented by Warhammer 40,000 is intricate and full of no small amount of intrigue. There are hundreds of factions at work and in motion, set against one another. Plans within plans, mechanizations and motivations that prop up the grim darkness of the war without end in the 41st Century of the Imperium of Mankind. Within the pages of the Horus Heresy, a trilogy-in-progress, what can be described as the single most important chain of events in the history of humanity are brought to light and out into the open in colored detail rather than objective narration from the Imperial point of view; the civil war that befell the Imperium after the spiritual corruption of the Warmaster Horus, mightiest of the Primarchs.

How did you get into gaming? Well my first experience was with a choose your own adventure type book which had a character sheet and everything. All I remember about it was that it had a crazy looking snake-man on the cover with a scimitar and a black cover. Then in high school I met […]