Tallarn (45)

The Horus Heresy #45

by John French

The greatest tank battle in the history of the Horus Heresy!

As the Warmaster's campaign of galactic domination continues, Horus' 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.

Genres: Science Fiction, 40k, Fiction, Audiobook, Anthologies, Science Fiction Fantasy, Military Fiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 2017

About the author

John French is a writer and freelance game designer from Nottingham, England. His novels include the Ahriman series from Black Library, and The Lord of Nightmares trilogy for Fantasy Flight. The rest of his work can be seen scattered through a number of other books, including the New York Times bestselling anthology Age of Darkness. When he is not thinking of ways that dark and corrupting beings could destroy reality and space, John enjoys talking about why it would be a good idea... that and drinking good wine.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fine foray into the Horus Heresy. What you have here is the Battle of Tallarn, wherein the Iron Warriors, lead by their Primarch, Perturabo virus bomb the entire planet to scour it of all the forces of the Loyalists. What they failed to realize was that the Tallarn infrastructure had planned for such events and created vast subterranean fortresses, capable of hiding thousands of war machines and fighters. The command structure of Tallarn was eventually assassinated, and yet the armies banded to gether to harry the forces of the Iron Warriors.
This book is tank combat, with a large portion of the machinations of Perturabo hidden until the very end. Add in the Emissary of Horus, Argonis and his strange band of aids, and a Vanus Temple Clade assassin, and you have several plots here that are interwoven and written in a way that is as masterful as it is interesting. This book is hard to put down and filled my mind with visuals of the battles and the people involved. The espionage of the Vanus operative, Iaeo figures prominently in the story, as she herself is at odds with Alpha Legion resources, hidden deep in Tallarn, both as Space Marines and Tallarn personnel. This story alone was worth the read, and then you add raging tank battles and epic, world spanning warfare?
Wow..... I really love tanks, a lot.
The author here has impressed me with his other Horus Heresy offerings, and his audio dramas and short stories. This may be the best thing he has ever written in my opinion, though I am sure he will do better. Everything with French seems to grow and exceed his last book. I will be interested to see where this goes, because there is a serious conflict brewed here between Perturabo and Horus. The Lord of Iron refers to Horus as his brother, when his brother deems himself to be called the Warmaster and expects the Lord of Iron to kneel. We don't see this, but that's part of the imaginative thought put into these words. The Iron Warriors leave Tallarn, but has the schism between Horus' power mad expectations, and Perturabo's refusal to embrace Chaos fully as Fulgrim and Horus has, caused irrepairable damage?
We shall see in the upcoming books.
This one was amazing and I am still amazed at the momentum each book still garners.

Danny

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In the star-pricked sphere of space one star burned brighter than all the rest. At this range the naked eye saw it as a small glowing coin. Around that star its planets waited, unknowing of their future, sleeping peacefully in the cold wrapping of space.
Slowly, like a great beast rising from sleep, the fleet turned its prows towards the star and a thousand ships went to murder a civilisation."

Tallarn: Witness: ☆☆☆

Tallarn: Executioner: ☆☆☆☆

Tallarn: Siren: ☆☆☆☆☆

Tallarn: Ironclad: ☆☆☆☆

An excellent bleak grim Horus Heresy anthology collecting the Battle of Tallarn story-arc.
Essentially a long WWI war tale set in the sci-fi W40K setting with lethal gases bombing global scale, action, thrills, twists and much more.
Individual reviews of the stories collected here in the links above.

[Sud666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tallarn was once a fertile and prosperous planet. It was a hub for logistics for the Imperial Guard during the Great Crusade. In time the Crusade moved on and now the huge warehouses and chambers are mostly empty. As these rearward troops kill their boredom, the Horus Heresy breaks out. The Iron Warriors virus bomb Tallarn and annihilate the surface population. Why are they here? That's the basis for this novel.

It is, in fact, a collection of shorter novellas. At least it seemed that way to me. It has a large cast and can be a little complex. There are two wars going on. The conventional one is the remnants of the Imperial armored forces going up against the Iron Warriors. The background war is being fought between Perturabo/Horus and the Alpha Legion vie with an assassin from the Officio Assassinorum to figure out what the Black Occulus is and why Perturabo wants it, to the point of diverting the Iron Warriors Legion off of The Warmaster's plans. This was really well done and the Clade Vanus Iaeo was a great character. As, to be fair, is the Alpha Legion's operatives. The multiple plots going on are awesome. This is a must read for anyone who wants to know about the Heresy and is a fan of the Iron Warriors or the Alpha Legion.

[Matthew Hipsher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was bad. Not in the "the story was clunky and characters were not developed", but more in the "What am I doing still reading this?" bad.

This book is mostly about the human guard forces fighting the Iron Warriors and how we all know they're going to die. It doesn't move the grater story forward in any way, not even in a small inconsequential detail, just....nothing.

Avoid it unless you're a die hard Imperial Guard fan, and even then, there's probably a better book out there to read.

[Dhruv · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprisingly bad

I wouldn't have thought that a Horus heresy novel about large scale tank battles could be boring. But I was wrong. The plot is meandering and pointless, the writing is uneven and the pacing quite bad. Worst of all, the characters are completely without any redeeming features.

Avoid this and you'll miss absolutely nothing in the main plotline.

[Arnis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jau vēl pirms pirmie nodevīgie šāvieni no Horusa un tā sekotāju leģionu šāvieniem pret Imperatora lojālistiem ir izskanējuši Isstvan sistēmā Tallarn planēta ir aiz sava augstākā punkta kā jauno Imperialistiskās armijas rekrūšu un citu Krusta karā bez astartēm tik nepieciešamo vienību pulcēšanās punkts. Lai arī vēl nav gluži aizmirsta un caur Tallarnu vēl iziet gana vērā ņemams vienību skaits, tad pēc nodevēju Iron Warriors (IW) leģiona ‘’viesošanās’’ tomēr būtu labāk vēlējušies, ka to planēta būtu ieslīgusi gan Impērijas, gan Horusa aizmristībā.

https://poseidons99.com/2025/11/09/jo...

[John Vance · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give this 5 stars for one reason, it is mainly a guard novel. There are some marines through out but mostly it’s just guardsmen riding in armor fighting Iron Warriors. While I do very much enjoy Horus Heresy books, they get a bit boring with their emphasis on the super human marines. Give me puny humans fighting in crazy violent situations with no hope of winning. That’s some tension right there. Overall, not a great Horus Heresy book, but it was such a change of pace that I devoured it. A planet wide tank battle. Yes, please.

[Christian Freed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad entry into the series. An anthology in chronological order set on a ruined world, there are plenty of armor battles for the die hard enthusiasts. Still not sure what it offers to the over all theme, but it was entertaining.

[Troy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really couldn't get into this one. In the description it said it had peturabo and the iron hands in it and considering that is a faction I havnt checked out much lore on yet I thought it would be nice to give this a read to see what they were like. I feel like it barely actually featured peturabo and the iron hands. I definitely rushed my way through this one from the boredom and couldn't wait to move on.

[Javir11 · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

Voy con prisa, por lo que reseña rápida.

Novela que no destaca en nada dentro de la saga, de hecho, la veo de las más flojitas, y no será porque no tenía mimbres para más.

El problema es que te dan a entender que todo lo que sucede durante la historia es por un gran propósito, algo que puede cambiar la guerra, y después cuando averiguas lo que es y sobre todo el modo en el que está llevado a cabo, te quedas con una cara de tonto...

Se lleva 3 estrellas porque hay mucha acción y es entretenida en bastantes partes, pero se queda corta en todo lo demás.

[Mike]

Trabajo.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally the guard get a decent showing. A solid title.

[Darius · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that finally gives an inaight into how those fleshy humans experience the war.

[Ruth Letterman · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great book!

[M.R. Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a slog to read through. After all the great books before it with the space marines, a fight amongst simple men didn’t hit the spot.

I only read to the end because my brother told me there were some key bits I shouldn’t skip otherwise I would have.

The ending was a lot better and the reason this even got a 3 star.

Hopefully not many more like this one

[Stefan Koepeknie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"1000 ships went to murder a civilization"-The Iron Warriors Chaos Legion

The largest tank battle in human history on Tallarn, involving some 10 million armoured vehicles in the poisoned atmosphere of a viral bombed planet.

[MontyJoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, bunch of boring stories

[RatGrrrl · Rating 5 out of 5]

May 2024 Read using the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project Reading Order Omnibus XX Shadows of the Warmaster IV The Dead and the Dying (https://www.heresyomnibus.com/omnibus...) as part of my Oath of Moment to complete the Horus Heresy series and extras.

I absolutely adored this!

I have to be honest that I am swiftly becoming head cheerleader of the John French fan club so take this with even more salt than usual.

This is one of those focused, novel style anthologies like Corax or Garro--look, I love Swallow too and, from the little I know and the glorious things I've read, this is the only thing Goulding and I disagree on, but adding some bits and putting a bunch of previously released stories, audio dramas, and novellas together does not a novel make! It's greatly appreciated and makes for a much more rewarding experience than listening to all the disparate elements separately, but Garro is barely less of an anthology than this of Corax, regardless of how much I love all three!--Did I mention my ADHD is absolutely odd the charts today?!

What I'm saying is I love me an anthology and, as much as I love the wild variety packs of the first few in the series and adore the equally varied, if focused on a period of time/ stage of the Heresy the later ones are, the ones that really hone in on one topic/ narrative are extra special.

I've been loving French for a while now, but this omnibus and this anthology really hammered it home and made me aware that I have a real problem with saying that everything they do is "different" in "different" ways making me starkly away of my limited vocabulary.

I've reviewed everything in here separately, but I'll blast through the contents here real quick.

Tallarn: Witness is the preface story, while also being the Coda. I listened to is last, rather than first because I do everything the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project tells me to do, unless I real it wrong and have to go back, like I did with this omnibus...

To paraphrase the Great Gonzo aka Charles Dickens:

John French: Tallarn: Witness 394 Days After the Death of Tallarn

RatGrrrl: That was the story?

Brina: It was grim!

RatGrrrl: It was dark!

Brina: It was pointedly unbeautiful!

RatGrrrl: It was... short!

[turns to Brina]

Brina, RatGrrrl: I loved it!

Tallarn: Executioner is a wonderfully, uncomfortably intimate and resonant novella that feels more like a story about a second world war tank division than something from the Dark Millennia and is all the more disturbing and compelling for it!

Tallarn: Siren was originally an audio drama and is a wonderful example of telling a rich and engaging story within the bounds of what is a very obvious plot from the outset. French is very talented at making the journey and the detail matter

Tallarn: Ironclad is a lot! I talked about this in my review, but I struggled with this one because it's very busy with a lot of perspectives and my ADHD has been kicking my arse today, but it's beautifully written with the parts I was able to force my brain to playball for being incredibly rich and fascinating. I do think it would be better served by being a full novel or of your Lexicanum who insist it is a novel, not a novella, being a bigger one. Regardless it's an impressive and fascinating work that I know I'm at least 99% of the problem with my engagement with it.

The only thing I can really say negatively about this anthology is wanting more, but that's a good thing really. Black Library could have included Black Oculus, The Eagle's Talon, and maybe even Iron Corpses in here, despite the last story being Annandale, not French, but I get that this is focused on the surface and subterranean struggles of largely non-augmented humans, rather than Astartes and macro-carriers in the sky. As far as I am aware, there aren't any other or at least not many other Tallarn stories, which is a shame, as there is so much more we could see, especially with the... Different perspectives and intimate approach French takes as well as the brutal beauty and weirdness of Annandale. More of a Mark of Calth for Tallarn would he awesome, but this is me just wanting more because this is so good!

Great stuff!

Through the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project and my own additions, I have currently read 47 Horus Heresy novels (inc. 1 repeat and 9 anthologies), 25 novellas (inc. 2 repeats), 137 short stories/ audio dramas (inc. 10+ repeats), as well as the Macragge's Honour graphic novel, all 17 Primarchs novels, 4 Primarchs short stories/ audio dramas, 3 Characters novels, and 2 Warhammer 40K further reading novels and 1 short story...this run, as well as writing 1 short story myself.

I couldn't be more appreciative of the phenomenal work of the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project, which has made this ridiculous endeavour all the better and has inspired me to create and collate a collection of Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 documents and checklists (http://tiny.cc/im00yz). There are now too many items to list here, but there is a contents and explainer document here (http://tiny.cc/nj00yz).

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and moving, but ultimately feels superfluous.

Tallarn is an an anthology of two short stories, one novella and one full novel, all packed into about 480 pages, centered around the biggest tank battle in the history of the Imperium, with around ten million tanks involved, and billions of casualties on all sides. A truly grim, devastating tale that is as astounding as a ocean wide puddle. But let's start with some of the good things first:

Tallarn focuses more on the lives on the unsung heroes of the battle, highlighting the lives and deaths of the regular soldiers that fought tooth and nail against one of the most brutal and costly traitor legions, the Iron Warriors. Bombarded day and night and finished off with a virus bombing, the planet, a once beautiful rock, was turned into a barren landscape of hellish devastation wasted away by toxic fumes. And things didn't just end there; afterwards the dropships started raining and millions upon millions of soldiers started the battle for the massive sprawling underground bunkers were military materiel was being locked away. Well, that is the gist of it, but there's also a hidden motivation; Perturabo is looking for an artifact that is supposed to give his entire legion unimaginable power, you know, the same trope we've seen a few times used again.

The story takes the side of the regular guardsmen, from the point of view of tank crews, administrators, officers, and so on. The initial stories are fascinatingly grim; a slow burn that shows us the ins and outs of battling inside a Leman Russ tank against overwhelming odds over a desolated landscape with no hope for victory. It is cruel and poignant, and feels like a proper tale that develops quite well for a while, until then, well, it ends. And the next story story starts.

And this is where some of the troubles arise. Tallarn should have been a novel. The stories, collected in this way, feel disjointed and fractured, and have no real purpose to continue the story, instead creating a more panoramic view of the fight that still seems to be missing a few corners due to the bad structuring. Despite being one of the biggest battles in the history of Warhammer, the battle itself is told through "intermissions" that acts as exposition dumps, rather than being narrated through the eyes of the characters, we only get glimpses of what happened, and we instead focus on lesser known events across the world that while entertaining, sacrifice the scale and scope of the story.

Because of this, there's also no main clear cast of protagonists, and the few that do exist, don't have enough pages to be properly developed, and they all end up feeling like secondary characters that are here and there, but never feel quite there, if you get what I mean. In other words, it feels lackluster in the end.

Tallarn, while entertaining to read due to the great detail that went into the personal battles and conflicts, from the grueling fight in the desert to the hopeless ambience that surrounds the story, does feel like an unnecessary book. I don't see how it pushes the Horus Heresy forward. If it was just a small, extra novella, it could have been better, but instead, in the way it was packaged, it feels like something bigger than it is, and it leaves you disappointed, wondering what was even the point. So, it is a good, fun book, but an skippable one if you are interest in the true gist of the Heresy.

[Jean-Luc · Rating 3 out of 5]

The battle for Tallarn involved 10 million tanks! It was the largest tank battle of the Horus Heresy, and even 10,000 years later that number has not been topped! But why Tallarn? This anthology includes 2 short stories, a novella, and a novel:


Tallarn: Witness (Short Story) - Susada Syn, the new governor of Tallarn, surveys what is left of the planet he is now in charge of.


Tallarn: Executioner (Novella) - Akil Sulan is a merchant whose business has concluded for the day. By random chance, he intervenes to save an old man from getting mugged. And then the sirens start.

Above Tallarn, the IV Legion (Iron Warriors) arrive from wherever they've been since Angel Exterminatus. They drop the life eater virus, ending all life on the planet in the blink of an eye... at least, that's what they intended. See, the Great Crusade was winding down as the Emperor's conquest of the galaxy was almost complete. Massive amounts of hardware and supplies were being shipped to the planet, but they weren't getting shipped out. More and more of the supplies were being stored deeper and deeper underneath the planet. As soon as the viral bombardment was detected, those storage depots closed themselves off from the outside world.

As the skies clear and the fires fade, civilians such as Akil are dragooned en masse to operate the tanks in storage, as the sealed vehicles are the only way to safely exit the underground bunkers. Those tanks quickly run into Iron Warriors tanks! There is very obviously no way that ordinary humans could ever hold their own against freaking space marines, but since the marines themselves are locked into their tanks, all of a sudden the odds are almost even!

Why are the traitors deployed on the surface? What are they looking for? No one has time to wonder about this, because being trapped inside a tank means there's no time to worry about anything other than whether there are any enemies hiding nearby.


Tallarn: Siren (Short Story) - The surface of Tallarn is devastated. There's nothing left. But the survivors are by definition still alive, so their duty has not ended. They must warn the Imperium about what the Iron Warriors have done. One astropath might still be alive. If the survivors can get to them, they can get a message out beyond the blockade.


Tallarn: Ironclad (Novel) - Horus' equerry Maloghurst dispatches Argonis to Tallarn. Argonis' mission: find out what the Iron Warriors are doing on this planet. Hot on his heels is Iaeo, an Imperial infocyte from Clade Vanus. She has the exact same mission. While they carry out their investigation, events from around the Tallarn system are catalogued as the scale of the fighting grows beyond comprehension.


Each of these stories is unforgiving, all fine examples that the fates of so very many, of entire planets even!, can hinge on the actions of so few.

[James Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tallarn is an agri world, a breadbasket for it's sector. It was also a staging point for the Great Crusade a place where armies mustered before setting forward again. But the Crusade has moved on, the staging points have moved with it. Now the planet is drifting into obscurity as have the soldiers and material left behind with little or no chance of catching up with the armies they belong to. The planet was forgotten, that is, until the 4th Legion led by their Primarch Perturabo and recently turned to Horus' rebellion arrive.
Tallarn is a death world. The Iron Warriors struck and struck hard. Virus bombs alongside more traditional munitions rained down from the skies. Every living thing that was not in a sealed environment has died. Loyalists in sealed bunkers and traitors in the void continue their war using sealed war-machines. The stage has been set for the largest tank battle the universe has ever seen. But the question is why when the planet was scoured did the Primarch not move on towards the Throneworld. What kept him on this dead world.
A collection of short stories and novellas dealing with the Battle for Tallarn from the initial bombardment to the Iron Warrior's withdrawal. This means that we don't follow a particular set of characters around but we also get tighter stories for those characters we do follow. And tight is the word; those stories not in sealed tunnels under the ground take place inside tanks where character are sat almost in physical contact with each other. And at any point the tiniest breach will spell death for everyone involved.
An interesting set of stories that sketch out one of the most famous battles in the Heresy and also give a little more depth to Perturabo one of the more forgotten primarchs and to his relationship with Horus and the forces of chaos.

[Gordon Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Reddit

Tallarn: A Really Important Story

I don't know how many people have read John French's novel Tallarn. I don't hear it discussed much. However, I think it's important to note in retrospect, now that we have seen parts of the siege of Terra, how important the events were to the rest of the Horus Heresy.

The short summary is that Perturabo goes to siege the world of Tallarn. The Iron Warriors turn the world to sludge using virus bombs and the people of Tallarn retreat underground into bunkers and begin to engage the Iron Warriors in mechanized warfare since no one can survive on the surface.

Both the loyalists and traitors begin to flood into Tallarn. There are a number of scenes that show that human warriors can match space marines under the very specific conditions of mechanized warfare on a single planet.

We then learn that Perturabo is engaging the loyalists on Tallarn because he is looking for the Cursus of Alganar, a portal like the one at Molech that can allow him to gain powers from Chaos. He sends a dreadnaught to find the Cursus.

Perturabo's dreadnaught finds the Cursus and is offered power, but in exchange, the Iron Warriors would have to submit to Chaos. The dreadnaught refuses and Perturabo does not get the power of the Cursus. At the same time, Horus' representative Argonis orders Perturabo to give up the siege.

Meanwhile, the Iron Warriors ground forces are defeated in a massive tank battle on the surface of the planet marking a victory for the loyalists.

The significance of all of this now is that we now know how instrumental Perturabo was in the siege of Terra. Fulgrim and Angron were almost useless and Perturabo was the only Primarch capable of real sustained maneuvers.

—

the story with the Vanus assassin (Iaeo) pitted against the Alpha Legion. That whole war in the shadows was really well done IMO.

[Rubén Álvarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tallarn es una colección de relatos que acaban formando una historia. La historia de la destrucción total del planeta y la invasión posterior de los Guerreros de Hierro. Es un libro que va de más a menos, ya que los primeros relatos son bastante interesantes, pero el último (que es el principal y más extenso) flojea mucho.

'Executor' y 'Sirena' son buenas historias, que se centran en el punto de vista de los habitantes de Tallarn, quienes ven cómo de la noche a la mañana su mundo es destruido por un bombardeo vírico. La práctica totalidad de la población es aniquilada y los supervivientes se ven forzados a recluirse en refugios subterráneos y equiparse con trajes especiales para hacer frente a un medio ambiente letal. Poco a poco, los supervivientes se reponen del shock inicial y empiezan una guerra de guerrillas, protagonizada por tanques.

Esos primeras relatos reflejan muy bien la claustrofobia de los combates en tanques, en un ambiente hostil, con unos protagonistas totalmente superados y con escasas esperanzas de sobrevivir. Personalmente, prefiero las historias con gente corriente a las protagonizadas por marines espaciales, casi siempre planos, sin emociones y con pocos matices.

La última historia, 'Acorazado', tiene varias tramas y multitud de personajes. Una de ellas está protagonizada por una asesina imperial, un personaje que me resultó muy interesante. Otras tramas están protagonizadas por marines, y esas partes me parecieron bastante tediosas y con un pésimo ritmo. Las batallas se vuelven aburridas y lo que debía ser el climax de la historia (¿qué hacen los Guerreros de Hierro en un mundo muerto?) es un auténtico bluff.

En resumen, un par de buenas historias iniciales, cuya calidad no es suficiente para que el conjunto merezca la pena.

[Simon Mee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another collection of novella/short stories, but with the benefit of a single author and a focus on a single event. There’s a clear sense of progression through the book. Big guns also go boom.

One literary tic I have noticed with the Warhammer 40K universe is that the longer a character lives, the more they doubt. Last stands are filled with either a sense of glory or, at the very least, heroic resignation:

Word must get out. Tallarn’s fate must be heard,’ he said. ‘You have served the Emperor well. You will be remembered.’
Kulok held Lycus’ gaze, and then shook his head. ‘No,’ he said, and walked past Lycus. ‘No, I won’t. But I will stand with you.’

…whereas the more a character goes on, the more they question:

They become a lie,’ echoed the primarch. ‘But we have never broken.’
‘Our word, our trust, our chains, our dreams…’ A flicker passed through the depths of his eyes. ‘Which of these remains unbroken?’

…and to an extent it’s a function of writing. The more pages a character has, the more you have to develop them, thus it becomes more likely that character will encounter a situation that tests their faith. Still, it creates an interesting plight – if you want to feel like you’re right in this universe, the best thing you can do is die as soon as possible.

There is not too much else I can add. French gets to portray the Imperial Guard as an asset rather than complete cannon fodder. The relationship between Perturabo and Horus gets a little bit of development and foreshadowing, the Alpha Legion… …kind of suck on this one. Really drop the ball a lot for a bunch of geniuses. Guess you can’t win them all.

[Matthew Faherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely minor “broad strokes” spoilers ahead, no plot details:

This is a difficult book to review. On the one hand, the story was exciting, the writing was excellent, and the ending was spectacular. But, on the other hand, it did not deliver what I feel it promised.

I went into this book expecting massive clashes of tank divisions and some extreme bolter porn. This book just isn’t that at all. The broad strokes of the battle of Tallarn are handled in small snippets throughout the book, but you really miss out on most of the major action. I guess I can understand why the author made that choice. Any machine unfortunate enough to end up at the tip of the spear in this battle must have had a pathetically short life expectancy. Not exactly riveting for the reader. Can’t really establish characters and then just cast them into the abyss every 5 pages.

By the time I reached “Ironclad” I was ready for the real war to start. But it didn’t. It kept being handled in the same obscure way. It frustrated me. I wanted explosions and titans and millions dead with the snap of a finger but instead I got a really well written story about some vital behind the scenes action. The story was GOOD. The writing was GOOD. It just wasn’t what I signed up for. The end of “Ironclad” was wonderful and tied everything up perfectly. I can’t rate this more than 3 stars because I just didn’t ever feel excited picking this book up. I felt like I needed to get through it, and I only became invested it during the last 3 chapters. For that, it secures a 3 star rating.

[Constantin Zhang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just when the Horus Heresy series started to become a slogfest, John French swoops in and saves the day!

Tallarn tells the brutal and mysterious story of the Iron Warriors Invasion of Tallarn which led to the largest Tank Battle in the history of the Horus Heresy and some of the best undercover actions since 'Legion'.

The story itself is told through several shorter stories with their own cast of protagonists, who's deeds player smaller and larger roles in the things to come. Despite a considerable host of characters and the change of point of views, John French manages to make each character count and each short story work in itself as well as carrying the overall arc forward. Probably my favorite character would be the Vanus Temple Assassin 'Iaeo'. The Vanus Temple had a rough start with 'Nemesis', but John French really manages to enrich the Vanus Temple in ways that make them feel equivalent to the major Temples with it's own distinct methods, competences and most of all atmosphere. Although she is only one character out of many, Tallarn has so far the best depiction of the Officio Assassinorum during the Horus Heresy in my estimation (for superior to 'Nemesis').

In conclusion Tallarn is well structured, gritty and brutal and absolutely worth the read! I consider Tallarn more as an Imperial Guard or Imperial Themed Novel than a Space Marine Battle Novel and that alone make it stand out from among the Horus Heresy Novels!

[Glyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology is a highpoint in the lengthy Horus Heresy series.There a couple of novellas and two short stories all previously avaiable..

It focusses solely on the enormous little explored, armoured battle on the world of Tallarn. French does a good job of suggesting the claustrophobic and inimical natute of the fighting. The world had been hit with atmosphere ordinance as a prelude to the fighting and that means that what atmosphere remains is deadly to anything short of fanks. There ave vivid descriptions of what happens if you are exposed to it and unless you can get your vehicle back to one of the underground shelters you die a very nasty death.

The overall tone can best be described as nihillistic as charaacters are buit up and killed off with an ease that would impress even George R R Martin, This is entirely correct for the setting but lacks the gut punch of the GoT deaths simply because any veteran of Black Library knows that most characters have a very short life expectancy/ The characters here are, on the whole, not realy well developed enough for the reader to buid a sympathy for before death finds them.

Describing tank combat can be a difficult thing but I liked the way French handled the fighting her and it never got too repetitive

If you are making your way through this series this is well worth the read/

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did quite enjoy this one, a bit of a different book to most in the series, having a lot less direct focus on Space Marines, and more on the guard on Tallarn - albeit this makes sense as is a famous part of Tallarn - the Imperial Guard from there.
A few really short stories interspersing two larger stories, that give a good view of the initial stages and then the final stages of the battle for Tallarn. I liked the beginnings of each chapter / section having a bit of a view of the broader battle and what was happening - a bit like historical records of WW2 I've read, and I enjoyed that sort of 'factual' overview, before drilling into a more personal view of the war.
It also nicely gave reasons for why the battle went the way it did, and the Iron Warriors ultimately left, when previously I'd had impression they were soundly beaten by the people of Tallarn, which always felt a bit off given the power disparities, whereas the book gave a pretty plausible picture of what went down.
Some good interpersonal stuff here, with some interesting twists and turns, and while focus was on the guard / everyday people, we also got to see a number of characters from differing legions here to show how multi-faceted the battle was.
All round an enjoyable book, but not quite enough punch to get above 4 stars.

[Damián Ponce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Después de Ángel Exterminatus aprendí a coger les cierto gusto a los Iron Warriors. No he cambiado de opinión pero la novela (o más bien las tres novelettes en que está dividido) es una excusa para que French se despache una tanda de guerra de tanques, que no está mal, mientras que la excusa por la que ocurre todo en Tallarn casi pasa desapercibida.
Sinceramente me esperaba más. Vale, los tanques molan, pero el arma escondida, Perturabo, al que se le podría haber sacado lucha más punta y la excusa por la que los IW están allí queda totalmente no de fondo, sino enterrado en el barro.
Para la Herejía no aporta absolutamente nada.
Destaco, eso sí, el interesante personaje de la infocito desatada, que ha hecho que le coja más respeto a los Vanus.
Prescindible para la historia conjunta, pero interesante si te mola las historias de tanques.

[Brannon Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again I think this would have been better as a standalone thing instead of a combo of other short stories. That being said, I loved the interstitial descriptions of the sort of general arc of the battle of Tallarn, and I think that it was really well written overall. I liked the obliterator foreshadowing just because It's not like the secret origin a la solo but sort of more a reflection of how chaos is timeless where you have the Black Oculus essentially saying "look, this is going to happen and you can either do it all at once and have a kickass legion of obliterators for use on terra or you can be a nerd about it and wait for gradual evolution after the great scouring" . Still, quite good especially for a compilation.