Tallarn

The Horus Heresy, Book 45

By: John French

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Peter Wickham

As the Warmaster's campaign of galactic domination continues, his generals seek out fresh battlefields to conquer. After leaving the Crone World of Iydris behind, Perturabo strikes for Tallarn. A bitter, vengeful primarch, the lord of the Iron Warriors unleashes a deadly bombardment against the world, killing millions but entrenching the survivors.

A brutal, all-consuming armoured conflict ensues, the greatest of the war and one that grinds down all combatants over more than a year of relentless battles. But Perturabo's reasons for the attack are about more than unleashing punitive destruction against the Imperium - he has an entirely darker purpose in mind.

©2016 Games Workshop Limited (P)2017 Games Workshop Limited

Good story

Can’t believe I skipped first time around. Good story don’t skip! Fifteen word minimum why.

Right Up There With The Best In The Series

Excellent listen. Loved the story. The narration was good but had some room for improvement. My major sticking point was the performance in relation to the female characters and the dreadnought. Still very good but could have been spiced up with either some more sound effects/voice modulation for the dreadnought and a female narrator for at least some of the female parts.

I was a little worried when it looked, initially, like it would be a anthology but it has a single major storyline told through a number of different viewpoints. Overall it comes together nicely. The story is not as contemplative as some the early entires in the series but miles above the bad ones. It has a feel of gravitas and epic scale that is sometimes lacking in the large scale novels. None of the characters are really super touching but each has their own points. I recommend.

Nail biting tank tension.

Shines a fantasyic light on the refular citizens caught up in Horus’ space marine war. Excellent read, even if you aren’t into the Heresy.

Good But Took a Long Time to Cover Little

The writing was good and I really enjoyed each story up until the last. While they were separate stories, they were all part of the same main story, so don't worry about another scattered anthology. The last story wasn't bad, I just think by then I had gotten my enjoyment of the grim dark and battle scenes and wanted to see how this moved the lore forward, which it did eventually get to, it just takes the entire book to get anywhere. If they had cut maybe 2 hours from this audiobook I think it would have been 5 stars.

Tigers in the mud with plot.

When this book gets to the tank fighting, it reads like Otto Carius' Tigers in the Mud. It is a terrifying projection of the grim dark war of the Horus Heresy, well researched and painted in grissly realism. Unfortunately, the grandeur of the horus heresy is also its greatest weakness. You are torn from the viseral writing of combat into the murky politics and connivings of demi-gods and assassins. To me, the need to explain why cheapens the book from great to merely good.