Tallarn: Ironclad

The Horus Heresy #Novella

by John French

The Battle of Tallarn grinds on to its climactic end, but what secret purpose drives the Iron Warriors to commit such mindless atrocities? The answer lies buried deep beneath the planet’s surface...

As one of the many staging grounds for the forces serving in the Great Crusade, the verdant world of Tallarn has long served as a transfer point for the personnel and war machines of the Imperial Army. Now, destroyed by a deadly virus-bomb attack launched by the fleet of the vengeful primarch Perturabo, the entire world is reduced to a toxic wasteland where the survivors must fight to defend what little remains of their home. As the battle for Tallarn rages between the traitor Iron Warriors Legion and the Imperial Army, a carpet of armour covers the surface of the toxic Dreadnoughts versus tanks versus Titans. But what secret purpose drives the Iron Warriors onwards to war?

Genres: Science Fiction, 40k, Audiobook, Novella, Fiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published February 27, 2015

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

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent novella filled with twists and solving the mistery about the IV Legion Iron Warriors wasting time and resources on Tallarn after killing the planet by viral bombing.
Loved the storyline and its cast of various characters telling it from their point of view.



A cool cast indeed. We have Hrend, the ironclad dreadnought from the title, on a quest for his primarch Perturabo, haunted by past memories of his death on Isstvan V while battling broken but still biting back Salamanders, Ravenguard and Iron Hands shattered legions; Kord, an imperial officer and his War Anvil tank crew, battling overwhelming forces of space marines, engines and titans; Argonis, Son of Horus emissary of the Warmaster and his two attendants from Dark Mechanicus and Davin priests, struggling to call to heel the IV Legion; and last but not least Iaeo, Vanus Assassin assigned on her termination mission.



My only complaint about this novella, closing for good the HH Tallarn arc, is that the final Battle of Khadive and other decisive ones were just covered in short well written interludes instead of having at last their full fleshed chapters.



For example, the Inferno Tide triggered by the Golden Fleet commanded by Rogue Trader Mistress Sangrea, coming back to Tallarn 10 years after it left, founding it a barren toxic wasteland, fighting everyone because unsure of whose side to be on, and then leaving with no reason given could have just been a full-lenght novel at last.



Or a trilogy of novels.

[Dylan Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man! John French wove a wonderful tale of war on the toxic world, from Tank crews to Primarchs, assassins to Titans this novel was packed with great cast of characters. It was a blast to read whether reading about Argonis(?) Or Kord, Iaeo or the title Ironclad, I couldn't help but turn the pages to find out what happened next!
The one downside to it was it's length, as I would have loved to see a little more of the Iron Warriors side of the War on Tallarn, as well as it was just so Damn good 230 pages is not enough for a great read like this!
I have the limited edition, which looks absolutely stunning, from the cover art to the beautiful matte Slaanesh cover. Really great stuff.
Thanks Mr. French!

[RatGrrrl · Rating 4 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 feel like my ADHD really compromised my enjoyment of this, so this is very much a stub of a review and one I will need to return to another time to really do it justice.

The brodignagian bust up on the blighted surface of Tallarn draws to a close and with it many different pieces come into play. The war also rages underground like an echo of Calth and its bloody arcologies. A planet is dead, countless human and transhuman lives have been lost, while detachments of war machines and armoured columns lay twisted and broken in the muck, but no-one seems to actually know what it is that brought the Hammer of Olympia down on this world or why Perturabo is willing to sacrifice so much blood and iron for such a seemingly inconsequential world.

While explicitly Loyalist forces do appear, most notably a Vanus Temple Infocyte, Iaeo, the novel primarily focuses on the confused and confusing disparate elements of the Warmaster's forces on Tallarn. These being the Alpha Legion and their infiltrators, Sota-Nul, a Dark Mechanicum Adept (and Warlords I have a lot of fond memories playing as in Horus Heresy: Legions #NotAnAd I haven't touched the game in ages and really should check back in), sent out alongside the Warmaster's Emmisary, Argonis, a Sons of Horus protege of Maloghurst serving penance, and one of their warped Navigators, as well as the Iron Warriors themselves, split across various units with a big focus on the Contemptor Dreadnought, Hrend, and his own corrupted Navigator Hes-Thal, and the Primarch himself.

Everyone either wants to know what is going on or is searching for the Black Oculus, an ancient and deadly Aeldari weapon somewhere below the surface, that I don't think is explicitly addressed until the last 15% of the novella (which Lexicanum insists is a novel), around the last 10% of the Tallarn anthology (but I could be wrong because ADHD). But no-one is forthcoming with information, honesty, or any sense of jolly cooperation, even when very explicitly acting in shared interests, so this is a Tinker, Trailor, Solider, Spy, or rather Dreadnought, Navigator, Infiltrator, Infocyte, all the while all the biggest engines of war rain death upon each other and the corpse of a world...

How many of those specifics do you think I looked up on Lexicanum to be able to produce that nightmare of a summary?

There's a category of Horus Heresy books, and art and media in general, where I feel like something happened, some barrier manifested between me and the story that made it harder for me to enjoy for reasons that I'm sure have very little to do with the text. It could be mood, fatigue, pain, etc. levels, more often than not, and very much the major factor this time, is severe ADHD. So this joins, among others, The Path of Heaven and Ruinstorm, as being a book by one of my favourite authors with various other elements that I am particularly interested and invested in that are on a nebulas list of books I need to revisit in a different time and place, if not headspace, to give them a fair shout.

The writing is great and there are some truly wonderful moments and details, especially around the semiotics and aesthetics of the infiltrators, the mind-boggling complex and baffling, while maintaining being absolutely fascinating nature of the training and operations of the Vanus Temple and Infocytes, and the equally bizarre counterpoint of a Dark Mechanicus Adept who is much more of a field agent than many Adepts and Magos we've previously seen. The rather (gods gamned, it I'm about to use my John French word again!) different take and perspective on the experience of being a Dreadnought really brought to visceral life through intimate descriptions of sensations, emotions, and memories, as the venerable Iron Warrior makes a late game push to get the Tallarn MVD (Most Venerable Dreadnought) award.

There's so many bits of this I loved, but my brain kept sliding off and getting confused, which is mostly my ADHD, but I do think this is a very hectic and hard to follow narrative because of all the different perspectives, how they intersect, and cutting back and forth between them, all the while there being so much glorious description and interesting information, but it's a lot! I wouldn't say it's messy in the sense that I found The Crimson King to be an absolute mess, a bloody beautiful and at times exquisite mess, but a bizarrely weighted and sometimes real stodgy mess nonetheless. But it is incredibly busy!

I also only have vague impression of what actually happened in the end. I could absolutely give an answer if put on the spot, but if I needed to give detail I definitely wouldn't bet my life on it.

I am wrestling with how engaged I was for some of it and the bits I loved, and just how much trouble I had to follow it and the way I was intellectually entertained, while not really being emotionally engaged, and my unabiding love and very obvious bias towards French as one of my favourite authors, as well as the me problem ADHD factor, and the subjective review thing. Because, if this wasn't written as well as it is this would be a three for sure, and if it was written poorly it could go as low as two. But it is written wonderfully and the bits I did engage with I was definitely fascinated and I know my ADHD was really causing problems.

I always enjoy seeing my rating waver, change, and become set in the process of writing a review for a book I'm not sure about, and for this I'm going to give it a four. I don't do part marks and numbers for art is awful, but necessary because platforms yaddda yadda yadda, but this is currently a low four. Kinda just passing the line. I absolutely need to return to this and if I struggle as much I might bring my score down.

Personally, I love the fact that French and Black Library approached Tallarn from a multi-media angle, something is really born put in Black Oculus being it's own weird little story, the refreshing and at once intimate and distancing effect of the way The Eagle's Talon is told, as well as Siren, Witness, and Executioner being their own thing. I just think this book in particular needed to be less of a big novella/ small novel and more of big novel the size of... You know what? I said I wasn't doing to mention that book again, so I won't.

What I'm saying is I want everything else in Tallarn as its own anthology, maybe with more stories, maybe getting Annandale in the mix with some more Chaosy stuff in the muck because there's so much more potential for Tallarn stories, and then this novel/la could be the length of the whole Tallarn anthology. I think it just needs a bit more space to breath and I need a higher dose of my ADHD meds and more coffee!

Through the Horus Heresy Omnibus Project and my own additions, I have currently read 46 Horus Heresy novels (inc. 1 repeat and 8 anthologies), 25 novellas (inc. 2 repeats), 136 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).

[DarkChaplain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review also published here

After loving Tallarn: Executioner , I am thoroughly disappointed with Ironclad . The way it wrapped up is simply not enough.

Maybe it is down to the format, being a good 100+ pages shorter than the usual Horus Heresy novel, but there were so many things left open or forgotten, that I was left thinking "so this is all there is to Tallarn?" by the end of it. The big, decisive battles are only told of through interludes, which in general I enjoyed. Problem is, these are very short, and deliver a topdown view, with historical context, which, while I enjoyed these aspects, also isolate them from the rest of the story. This is especially obvious due to the minimal amount of crossover between interludes and main narrative.

Sure, the Battle of Khedive is going on towards the climax of the novel, but is only covered twice in interludes, which had no effect on the overall plot. It is said to be the decisive battle between loyalists and Iron Warriors, but we only see the opening bit, the chaos of arriving tanks, and at the very end the end result, "Imperium victor". That's it. And following the main chapter between, it doesn't seem like it was relevant at all. Perturabo isn't shown interacting with his forces on the ground. The loyalist characters from the main plot had no stake in Khedive.

Almost every single one of these interludes and the decisive battles and actions they describe only serve as a sideshow for the Iron Warriors' secret hunt for an old artifact Perturabo believes he needs to use as a weapon behind Horus' back, and a loyalist tank commander's obsession with finding out the real reason for Tallarn's destruction. Had these been two different stories, I don't think it would have mattered.

It is a shame, as the interludes hinted at some spectacular bits of warfare, which would be well-deserving of some closer looks via short stories.
To be frank, I very much enjoyed seeing the various pieces of Tallarn stories come together. From Executioner over Siren to Witness and even the audio dramas The Eagle' Talon and Iron Corpses, all of these contribute to the overall conflict and fleshing out some key events. In comparison, Ironclad feels disconnected from the rest, too concerned with its own conspiracy/counter-conspiracy shenanigans to pay attention to the surface war that was advertised as massive, featuring one million tanks or more.

What I enjoyed were the tank crew chapters. They weren't as good as in Executioner, but Kord and his peers were playing off one another and the situation reasonably well. I also liked Hrend the dreadnought Iron Warrior leading the search for Perturabo's artifact. His mental state and bodily condition, and the flashbacks to his "death" on Isstvan V, were well executed and provided a good character arc.

Disappointingly, the presence of Slaanesh daemons (which were even featured on the limited edition hardcover release's jacket) was basically nonexistent. There are some tiny glimpses at the very end, but people hoping for a big daemonic element to the story will be disappointed. While it does foreshadow the artifact's purpose and identity (as it featured long ago in an Imperial Guard Codex), it does very little for the story. And even being aware of what the thing does via said Codex, it isn't really explained just how Perturabo would use it as a weapon. If anything, recovering it in the first place seems to defeat the point.

On the other hand, the Alpha Legion's involvement is fairly ridiculous here. They are playing both sides, on the surface supporting the Iron Warriors while sabotaging their efforts. There are various implications tying them into the internal schism of the Alpha Legion, but even then, they're eating their own tail. I guess that is the point, in a way, but that also made their role frustrating to follow. Certain revelations around them also came out of the blue, like the Vanus assassin's sudden knowledge about an AL operative who had it out for her. A reveal just afterwards also felt like thrown in randomly.

The emissary of the warmaster plotline also had me wonder. There were many things that weren't explained, resulting in a lack of context in certain situations or conversations. It added more intrigue to the plot, something I feel was not required, and could have been handled way quicker, and wouldn't have needed to stretch through the whole short novel. To me, it took away more than it really added. Thankfully it ended with a big entrance from Horus, post-Molech, presumably, so at least there was some payoff.

Ironclad felt bogged down by conspiracies and intrigue and a constant desire to surprise the reader. A lot of twists were easy to anticipate, while others just seemed added to convolute the plot further. On the other side it almost forgot it was a novel about Tallarn, paying very little attention to the key events of the war. Large parts play in the loneliness of the surface deserts, with relatively minor engagements in the grand scheme of things.

It could have been so much more. Given the full, numbered HH novel treatment and a change of pacing and condensing of certain plotlines, instead connecting the events more closely to the war, it could have been the defining book about Tallarn. The way it is, however, there was more of the dead world's soul and character in Executioner than there is here.

[Andrey Nalyotov · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would be plain - this is a single example of the most dark, gloomy, ambient, oppressive and hopecrushing novel i have read in years! And it is - AWESOME!
To be fair - it should have 2 review scores, because it's score actually depends on people who read other Tallarn stuff before, and people who hasn't, and read only 1 page fluff summary. For the second group Tallarn is '10 millions tanks' - biggest armored clash in all HH (probably till the Siege of Terra). This group should not touch this novella - they would be pretty disappointed. Not by the writing style (you can't unlove this kind of writing), BUT - SPOILERS, BEWARE


it's not in the book ;) (Ok it is - in several sentences of the narrative)

But for the first group - this novel-novella (decide how to call it yourself) IS BEYOND GODLIKE. As i mentioned in a previous Tallarn review - John French is a true master of ambience, occultism and fear. To give him the praise, he actually deserve - i would call him a true Lovecraft for Black Library.
Anyway - people who wants to know the dark stuff, the secret plotlines and the actual story behind all that Tallarn conflict, - should read it! You will not regret your time. It's money and time well spent.

PS. People who wants a 10 mils of tanks battle for 230 pages - do not read this book, wait for the Forgeworld Tallarn HH fluff book. They will give you 10 mils of tanks ;)

[Michael Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following hot on the heels of the general release for Tallarn : Executioner comes John French’s latest Limited Edition novella, Tallarn : Ironclad. Yes, it’s an expensive hardback novella that won’t please everyone, but for those willing to fork out for it, aesthetically it’s an absolute beauty, complete with creepy daemons embossed beneath the dust jacket. Following on from Executioner and Black Oculus it widens the view of Tallarn to take in the entire conflict, with Perturabo’s legion opposed by a ramshackle mixture of loyalist forces, while an emissary of Horus asks pointed questions regarding the Lord of Iron’s use of resources in this meat grinder of a battle. We see through the eyes of characters on both sides of the struggle, as it gradually becomes clear that for all its complexity, ultimately everything about this battle boils down to a single question – what are the Iron Warriors actually doing on Tallarn?

Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/20...

[Mhoram · Rating 4 out of 5]

John French is a genuine master of writing armoured warfare, and it shows here. Rather than focusing on the battle of Tallarn as a whole, it focuses on individual elements within both loyalist and traitor forces during the final weeks of the battle. It finally explains just what purpose brought the Iron Warriors to Tallarn, as well as showing how they were eventually driven away - a pyrrhic victory if ever there was one. The characters are moderately well-written, the various motivations are well-thought-out, and the story as a whole is genuinely magnificent. I could not put it down.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the different viewpoints in the story, especially the assassin.

[Matt Argueta · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot of Tallarn: Ironclad was very layered, which ultimately led to a strong conclusion, but felt like the journey was a little muddied along the way

While the overarching premise was very interesting and the final moments culminating into an impactful confrontation between Perturabo and Horus, the large cast of characters and weaving narrative between different layers of subterfuge made it difficult for me to follow early on. While important to the story of the Iron Warriors, I felt like this one lost me somewhere in the middle and had a few moments of feeling like I needed to just push through to the end

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know if everything involving the alpha legion is expertly written with its layers upon layers of subterfuge. Or if I am just to dumb to either understand how smart it is, or how dumb it actually is. Either way I can't help but love just how needlessly complicated and chaotic they truly are.
A great unknown variable that even everyone on both sides is like, fuck, don't know what to expect from these pricks.

10/10 would subterfuge again.

[Alexandre · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started very good and degenerated in a complete bored of a story.

[Pavle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid novella. I enjoyed it quite a bit and added more depth and intrigue into the human cost of the Heresy. Silly Perturabo.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book, I appreciated the characterization, especially as that seems to be lacking in other novels of the same genre.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely bloody brilliant. It doesn't need more than that.