Tallarn

The Horus Heresy, Book 45

By: John French

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Peter Wickham

Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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.

“Not great, but good enough.” - Iron Warriors

The narrators do a fine job bringing the story to life, and it’s not a bad story. The focus is really on the Guard, a variation on “Know No Fear.” It really demonstrates what Astartes warfare does to normal humans and to the worlds they live on. The set pieces are beautifully written and gritty. However anything bigger than individual action gets a bit muddy and starts to lose shape and rationality. Character choices and reactions don’t add up. Above all, don’t think too hard about Perturabo’s obvious, out of character incompetence in not being able to sew this up sooner.

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.

Awesome!

One of the best of the series and performed really damn well! The novellas flow well together.

Really damn good

The best iron warriors book in the heresy. If you dislike the warriors read angel exterminatus first then tallarn. Now for tallarn itself. It’s not a typical anthology I’d say it’s more of a traditional novel with changing pov. The human characters in executioner and siren are all phenomenal. In ironclad despite some characters returning from siren they’re a bit boring now. But in iron clad the real show stealer is the equerry of Horus argonis, and hrend the iron warriors dreadnought. There is kord and he is a very good human character but not as important. Each story besides witness explores a different aspect of the battle of tallarn. Executioner goes into the horror of fighting the iron warriors. Siren explains how human soldiers survived and called for help as well as the combat doctrine of what would become the tallarn dessert raiders regiment. Iron clad than explores why the iron warriors are there in the first place and how they’re reacting to being held back. I can not recommend this enough. I love it don’t the anthology tag scare you away it’s a bit misguiding

Great!!!

Great iron warriors lore and some seriously good background for sota-nul, look forward to her character being fleshed out more for the dark mechanicum

The unexpected depth of subterfuge spread throughout the story

I wish there had been more focus on the big battles themselves, but otherwise pretty awesome

Great collection

It’s great to see a series of books brought together and places together to ensure the story is understood. I think the books to well to tel the story of Tallarn.

Was here for Iron Warriors

I bought this book for the Iron Warriors, but they only start getting good spotlight at the second third of the story, and got a satisfying near-ending with Perturabo.

Weak entry in the series

The story really makes the antagonists look weak and incompetent in order for the protagonists to win. A lot of Deus ex machina to cut through overbuilt tension and at the end nothing has changed and nothing that happened matters.