The Death of Integrity (13) (Space Marine Battles) Paperback – September 3, 2013

The plot begins with a Chapter of Space Marines, the Novamarines (who are descended from the Ultramarines and Guilliman) arriving to aid their cousin-Chapter, the Blood Drinkers (descended from the Blood Angels and Sanguinius) in destroying the space hulk called the Death of Integrity. As they begin to, a force of magi from the Mechanicus (machine cult of Mars) shows up, demanding they stop and manually clear the hulk so that it can be stripped of valuable ancient technology.While the Ultramarines can (and often are) accused of being the go-to generic Space Marine model, the Novamarines are a bit more "cultural" in that they make permanent bodily record of their heroic deeds, tattooing their flesh with their battle actions so that when they die the Emperor of Mankind can judge them worthy enough to be in his army for the final battle. They also have an entire mountain range on their homeworld they are carving the interior from, transforming it into a fortress and site to honor every single fallen Marine. On top of that, they commune with the departed for guidance.On the other side, their cousins the Blood Drinkers come across as vampiric in more ways than one: they are incredibly handsome, have prominent fangs, have a keen interest in blood ("Sanguinary Master" is a critical role for their Chapter), and turn into ferocious warriors in battle, preferring close-quarters fighting. As the novel progresses, you learn many troubling things about them that only profoundly deepens the Chapter, though some of it (namely their genetic flaws and the Black Rage that drives them to wanton slaughter) comes as no surprise if you know anything about their parent Legion, the Blood Angels. Still, this particular Chapter has a great and tragic history to it that really must be read.Regarding the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars, not much other than their arrogance and technological prowess (and, early on, their jealousy and penchant for deceit) is expressed to the reader; better development of their characters and beliefs is shown much later in the novel. I suppose this is partly because the Mechanicus was the focus of an entire Horus Heresy novel ("Mechanicus" is the title), but with all the focus on the Marines' clearing of the hulk and the suffering of the one Chapter, not much time could really be spent on the Machine Cult without stretching things a bit.As for the hulk, it's something else. Just having a space station or moon base or derelict ship isn't enough: in Warhammer 40,000, you go ultra-big or not at all. A space hulk can grow to insanely huge proportions (the Death of Integrity weighs an estimated 37.9 trillion tons), made up of various debris, ships of every kind, asteroid, just about anything. It can also house a massive army, in this case the alien species known as the tyranids, specifically their genestealer forms.The effort of killing hundreds of genestealers alone makes for a terrific read, but what awaits the Marines and Mechanicus at the heart of the hulk is what readers will truly be stunned and awed by. I did not see any of the final twists coming, even with the hints author Guy Haley dropped along the way.Overall, Death of Integrity lives up to its ominous name. It stars a cast of heroes tasked with increasingly bad situations to overcome, already burdened by tremendous weights, and when they learn just what it is they are fighting and fighting for, they are left shaken at best and broken at worst. Not everyone fails to make it out, but those who do may wish they hadn't.Highly recommend.(Oh, and in case you're wondering, the figure on the front is Blood Drinkers Chapter Master Caedis, as he is made to look later in the book).

An amazing warhammer saga book. Plenty of action. This author is also excellent at context writing. The only beef I have is the ending. So many things were left undone.

My favorite part of this book is definitely the characterization of The Nova Marines Chapter. Perhaps the only chapter coming from Guilliman that I find interesting. The dialogue and banter between marines is relatively common fair for your average Space Marine Battles book. Where Guy Haley excels is in his action sequences and he delivers on those in this novel. Chapter Master Caedis of the Blood Drinkers is also written quite well and that ends up being important.This is Guy Haley before he got a little long winded.

This is an excellent account that shows a Space Marine incursion into a Space Hulk and their battles with the genestealers inside. It really does a nice job of showing the complications of battle in the hulk, and just how interesting a hulk is. The red-robed priests of Mars have their own agenda (Shocking!) and all in all, this is really well done.Definitely pick up for a WH 40K fan, science fiction or military fiction fan.

A fully deserved entry in the Black Library Hall of Fame. Haley manages to pack so much into one book - two Space Marine chapters with unique back stories, a Space Hulk infested with Genestealers, a Mechanicus Explorator chasing a priceless treasure. All of these strands are woven together and developed into an engrossing read, with a great mix of curveball plot twists and great battle scenes in equal measure. It finishes with an ending that epitomizes the grimdark universe of 40k and leaves you wanting more. Haley's work is one of the best for Space Marine novels.

As always from this series good, fast paced Adeptes Astartes action. From the first chapter to the end lots of awesome close intricately detailed action. Good plot line to go along with the dual chapters. Really enthrawls 40k enthusiasts with the Novamarine and Blood Drinker backgrounds. Nice twist at the end. Good solid read.

Not a great read but a good one. Some of the settings seemed to drag on too long and I found myself skipping over parts and then having to go back to see if I had missed something.

Great book with a solid story, great setting & atmosphere, and enough action and plot twists to keep the pages turning.It's definitely one of the strongest entries in the 'SM battles' series, that has disappointed in the past.

Good story set in the modern imperium, the ending was very good. Even though I 'knew' the plot before hand, I still enjoyed every moment, and couldn't put it down

dieser Roman hat alles was ein WH40K Buch enthalten sollte: Düstere Atmosphäre, mörderische Kämpfe, starke Charaktere und eine Menge Misstrauen und Intrigen. Das Buch sehr gut beschrieben, und es ist schwierig es beiseite zulegen.

So wie gleich zwei völlig unterschiedliche und gegensätzliche Orden die Hauptrollen in Guy Haleys neuem Space Marines-Battles-Roman besetzen, so unterschiedlich und gegensätzlich ist auch die Qualität des Romans selbst.Aber zunächst einmal zum Wesentlichen, der Handlung: die Blood Drinkers, ein Nachfolgeorden der berühmten Blood Angels, die sich, anders als viele ihrer Brüderorden dem Rausch des Bluts vollkommen hingeben, haben auf verschiedensten Planeten Aufstände von Symbiontenkulten niedergeschlagen. Als dann plötzlich das Space Hulk "Death Of Integrity" aus dem Warp bricht und sich als Zentrum und Ausgangspunkt dieser Epidemie herausstellt, müssen die Blood Drinkers jedoch um Hilfe rufen, da sie alleine nicht in der Lage sind, das gigantische Konstrukt zu zerstören und die Zehntausenden von Symbionten an Bord zu vernichten. Ihr Hilferuf wird von den Novamarines, einem Nachfolgeorden der Ultramarines, die sich insbesondere durch ihre extrem enge Befolgung des Codex und ihre Ganzkörpertätowierungen auszeichnen, aufgefangen, die ihren Cousins sofort ihre Unterstützung anbieten - und auch von Forschungsteams des Adeptus Mechanicus, die mit dem Space Hulk so ihre ganz eigenen Pläne haben...Guy Haley gelingt es dabei hervorragend, die völlig gegensätzlichen Orden mit Leben zu füllen, jedem seine eigene Geschichte und seinen eigenen Charakter auf den Leib zu schneidern, jeder auf seine Art düster und heroisch zugleich. Auch wenn die Rollen als Good Cop (Novamarines) und Bad Cop (Blood Drinkers) eigentlich klar verteilt scheinen, lässt Haley immer wieder durchblicken, dass die Dinge doch eben nicht immer so sind, wie sie scheinen und wirft die Frage in den Raum, wer von beiden Orden jetzt das größere Opfer bringt, eher den Idealen des Imperiums folgt, fanatischer in seinem Glauben ist...Das ist sicherlich die eine große Stärke des Romans. Die andere liegt in den packenden Actionsequenzen, zu denen natürlich auch die Alien-ähnlichen Genestealer bzw. Symbionten beitragen, die in ihrer Andersartigkeit und Aggressivität einfach perfekte Gegner für Space Marines sind und deren Tod nur gerechtfertigt erscheint. Haley lässt Hunderte von Terminatoren und Dutzende normale Brüder sowie Scouts, schwere Waffensysteme, Skitarrii und Waffenservitoren aufmarschieren und entfacht im Laufe des Buches eine epische Schlacht an Bord der "Death Of Integrity", die ihres Gleichen sucht.Leider jedoch kann nicht der ganze Roman mit der Qualität der Schlachten und den Einblicken in die beiden Nachfolgeorden mithalten. Der Anfang beispielsweise ist äußerst zäh gehalten, es dauert über 100 Seiten, bis wirklich etwas geschieht. Und das Ende kommt dann im gleichen Maße abrupt wie der Beginn schleppend war. Und lässt auch Einiges an Epik, Tragik, Dramatik vermissen, um ehrlich zu sein. Hier hätten noch 20 Seiten mehr nicht geschadet, in denen das Ende noch ein wenig ausgebaut hätte werden können. Irgendwie wirkt es so, als hätte man Haley ein Seitenlimlit gesetzt, welches er dann unbedingt einhalten musste. Schade. Dass der Epilog dann noch mal ein wenig beschwichtigen kann ist zwar schön, aber ein Buch sollte auch ohne Epilog ein angemessenes Ende finden, welches hier leider aus meiner Sicht nicht der Fall ist... Trotzdem ein guter Roman und daher noch knapp die 4-Sterne-Grenze erreicht.

This is one of the better Space Marine Battles. Although perhaps not quite as good as "the Battle of the Fang", which remains my favourite in the series, it is a rather close contender with almost all of the ingredients that make a good, exciting read. It tells the story of the purge of a space hulk infested with aliens that has the capacity of breaking in and out of real space and represents a large threat to all of the surrounding worlds.Within this basic narrative, several other stories, dimensions and ingredients are weaved together.One is the constant struggles of two Successor Chapters of Space Marines to continue to serve, despite being overstretched. One of these is an Ultramarine Successor chapter - the Novamarines. The other is that of the Blood Drinkers, one of the Successor Chapters of Sanguinius' Blood Angels. Both have their challenges, particularly the latter.A second dimension is that of the two leaders of the two represented Chapters. Chapter Master Caedis, Lord of the Blood Drinkers, is determined to purge the xenos plague that the huge cemetery of lost ships harbours, although his days are numbered. First Captain Mantilio Galt of the Novamarines, is bereft with doubts about his duties, and these tend to affect his judgement.A third dimension is the irruption of a Mechanicum squadron, just as the two Space Marine ones are about to destroy their target from afar. This irruption leads to a major reconsideration of the initial battle plan, with the devious and untrustworthy magi striving to recover as much lost technology while using their allies rather unscrupulously and keeping their own secrets, and in particular the one that lays at the centre of the hulk.Well-told and fast-paced, even if not entirely original - Mechanicum expeditions to recover lost artefacts seem to be rather fashionable these days among Game Workshop authors - the book is both gripping and easy to read. It also contains a number of interesting twists where past, present and future collide and interact, with an undertone of gloom and doom, as the beleaguered Empire of Man and the human race declines and struggles to face multiple challenges.I did, however, have at least one significant grip. The book never explains how the main prize that the Mechanicum priests are after ever got to be part of the Death of Integrity, especially since, given its age, it must have been one of the main components. Apart from this, and a few other minor quibbles which are not really worth mentioning at the risk of providing spoilers, this was a superb read. Four stars.

This book is everything a perfect 40k book should be. You have the interaction between 2 space marine chapters which is extremely well done, you have a mission of dramatic scale with a massive space hulk which needs to be cleansed. You have the xenos written very well, not just bolter fodder but providing a real challenge even for humanities greatest warriors. You then also have mystery and intrigue with a great little insight into deep history which provides a gripping end.Probably not quite as good as Battle for the Fang but certainly jostling for a high ranking place amongst the Battles series. I'd put it second. Definitely a must read.