Tallarn: A Review

[Phoebus]

I guess the first thing to establish is what Tallarn is.

 

Per the Black Library website, the contents of Horus Heresy Book 45 are the novella Tallarn: Executioner, the novel Tallarn: Ironclad, and the short stories “Tallarn: Siren” and “Tallarn: Witness”.

 

“Siren” and “Witness” are, by virtue of their size, the easiest to render a verdict to. “Witness” was a poignant e-short, and despite providing a look at the aftermath of the battle for Tallarn, it serves well as an introduction to the anthology. Most readers familiar with the old lore concerning this battle know the broad details - to include the outcome - but French captures well the cost of the victory.

 

Tallarn: Executioner, the novella that follows, features, in my humble opinion, some of French’s best writing. There are bits that I thought were a bit too telegraphed - stock characters and military tropes, if you will - early on in the story, but as a whole Executioner is a solid bit of immersion into the kind of hell fighting on the deadly surface of Tallarn had to be. I dislike classifications like “Best Warhammer Universe Tank Combat Story” because they strike me as specific to the point of uselessness (just because the tank parts are great doesn’t mean everything else might not be awful), but in this case I really can’t recall someone nailing that kind of action and atmosphere in a while.

 

“Siren” is the third tale told in the anthology. Like the novella it precedes, it gives a perspective on the conflict on Tallarn that is limited... but all the more powerful for it. That sense of isolation - of not knowing what is happening throughout the planet, of where friend or foe are, of what can be done, if anything at all - is something French strove for, and “Siren” does a great job of maintaining that after Executioner. Beyond that, though, “Siren” is just a very good story. The objective is clear, the characters are both apropos to the setting and likeable, and there are some powerful scenes - not the least of which are the closing scenes and the ending itself. The suspense during the former is palpable; when the message makes it to Imperial forces throughout the galaxy, it feels like a real payoff moment.

 

Tallarn: Ironclad, on the other hand, does not succeed. A short story, and even novellas (in some cases) can get away without full character work, but Ironclad’s cast just appears from thin air. Some insight is eventually given into the backgrounds of Hrend - the eponymous protagonist, Iaeo, and Kord, but for the most part they, and Argonis, are virtually blank slates that arrive with little more than their assigned task. Of those four, only Horus’s emissary feels like something approaching a full-fleshed character.

 

Making matters worse, there’s a lack of insight as to what everyone in Ironclad is doing. We know Hrend’s been given a task by Perturabo, but not what. We know Iaeo’s after the Alpha Legion operatives, but I’ll be damned if I remember just how it is that she got there. We know Kord has stumbled on to the notion that the Iron Warriors are searching for something, but we get little more than vague allusions as to how he did so. They, and Argonis, get roughly equal time under the spotlight, but there’s no real clue as to what it is Perturabo has his Iron Warriors looking for until the objective is actually revealed. Absent that, Hrend and Kord’s scenes feel repetitive and wasted, while Argonis’s and Iaeo’s scenes - though well-written - feel oddly disconnected.

 

Sadly, there is no real payoff at the end. The Horus Heresy series has often been guilty of keeping the primarchs and their motivations away from the reader. In this instance, I can’t be sure if the story suffers or benefits from it. French understandably tries to give Perturabo a deeper purpose than just turning all life on Tallarn’s into slime... but he does so is in the aftermath of the IVth Legion turning all life on Tallarn’s surface into slime. Now, I will be the first to acknowledge the context within these characters operate, and how that involves brutal, uncompromising wars to unify the species by killing anyone who refuses. Perturabo’s motives and actions nonetheless feel jarring when put next to each other; it would make for an improvement for a primarch to acknowledge this disconnect.

 

And besides, does anyone feel they know how exactly the MacGuffin that French introduces was meant to do?

 

We certainly get an idea as to what the forces surrounding it/that were a part of it (?) intended to do to the Iron Warriors, but how exactly was any of this meant to protect Horus or at least check the forces Perturabo thought were corrupting him?

 

Where the action is concerned, Ironclad is a mixed bag. French does an excellent job showing Argonis and Iaeo in combat, and admirably ties in the latter’s cognitive abilities. The Assassins of the Clade Vanus didn’t get the best representation in Nemesis, but this infocyte shows what a killer whose true weapon is data could accomplish. Meanwhile, Argonis’s escape aboard his Storm Eagle late on feels vivid and real. The action featuring Hrend, on the other hand, is... interesting. The Ironclad Contemptor’s combat scenes are most interesting when they incorporate the disjointed, surreal existence the Iron Warrior leads, but they also feel rather stock and generic after a while.

 

Where French does fail is in showing a macro view of the war for Tallarn. Fleet actions and the climactic battle that Black Library (unfairly and incorrectly) billed as the attraction for these tales, however, feel like an afterthought - at best. Even if the Horus Heresy (or Warhammer 40k) isn’t hard military science fiction (not that it should it be), it’s a shame that its large-scale actions are written almost to the lowest common denominator. It’s understood that Tallarn’s fate will be decided on its surface, but it feels like so many of the strategic decisions made to get to that point are hardly the product of even a semi-competent commander, much less those of a primarch. This is particularly the case when basic concepts of this universe are ignored, such as Mandeville Points being left unguarded or city-sized warships that are supposedly capable of breaking open continents having no part to play when hundreds of thousands of tanks decide to enter a geographic bullseye.

 

On that note, perhaps the worst moment of Ironclad can be found when the loyalists decide to take to the surface. More specifically, it’s their motivations that make me question how seriously French was taking this story at this point. The Loyalists essentially roll the dice and assume Perturabo will come meet them in open battle because they’re showing their hand. Why would he, though? Why wouldn’t he just bomb their massive armies from orbit?

 

And what about the Loyalists’ own motivations? If they can pass word of this attack, why are they fighting without a plan? Why can’t a ranking commander be determined? Why can’t coordination take place between their forces?

 

When the Germans and the Russians fought the Battle of Kursk - the largest tank battle in human history, and one French references in his afterwords - it wasn’t just because. It certainly wasn’t because Stalin wanted to dare Hitler to meet him in the open, or vice-versa. The Russians were trying to exploit a 100-200 mile gap that had emerged between the fronts of two different German Army Groups. The Germans wanted to recapture Kursk as part of an effort to close that gap. The importance of that gap, and the scale of their armies, is what drove thousands of tanks and artillery pieces to have at each other there. Even in the dystopian 31st Millennium, where unimaginable technology and personal combat cross paths, battles aren’t fought just because. It would be one thing if the Loyalists sought to destroy the Sightless Warren and capturing the Khedive was the most important piece of that equation, but by the time we get to Chapter 14 that battle just feels like something French is obligated to deliver.

 

For better or for worse, the paragraphs that preface Chapter 14 of Ironclad, which describe - in very broad terms - the battle of the Khedive, also serve as a perfect representation of the novel itself: they lack the intimate intensity of Executioner and “Siren’s” action, while also failing to do justice to the scale of the conflict itself. In the end, the first third of this anthology feels like almost mandatory Heresy reading. It is very engaging stuff, with well-written characters and riveting action. The meat of it, however, feels like an incomplete novel divided into unequal parts, which don’t deliver on the promise of the earlier installments.

Edited October 2, 2017 by Phoebus

[Roomsky]

Great review.

 

Haven't gone through the Tallarn books recently enough to refute any of your criticisms, though I agree with the general statement that Ironclad is the weakest link. That said, I still really enjoyed it, especially for John's trademark plot density in a shorter-than-usual package. I'll concede they weren't particularly deep, but to me they certainly felt right. I know that's nebulous, but he really finds that sweet spot between understatement and overstatement. Characters are distinct, both in posited beliefs and actions, and while we rarely see what lies beneath their outward personalities, I'm never left doubting that there is something beneath. I guess it comes down to nothing occurring within that pulled me out of the story, but hey, I don't care about tank battles.

 

YMMV of course, your points against are difficult to dispute from any objective stance. 

 

Also, no mention of Sota-Nu? I really enjoyed a presentation of the Dark Mechanicum as something other than "Loyalist tech-priest who really wanted that banned Kitten-Grinder 9000."

[DarkChaplain]

I tend to agree. Ironclad was the weakest part of the entire arc, and the longest. Executioner was amazing tank crew action to a degree that I'd find it easily recommendable to even non-HH or 40k readers interested in the subject. It did a few things terribly right and shines for it. Ironclad meanwhile attempts to do a lot of things but all end up in a less satisfying way, while the interludes turned out to be the more interesting story that somehow didn't gain prominence.

 

I wish Ironclad (or at least the novel) had been more of a meta story about the entirety of the war and the relevant plotlines threaded throughout short stories or novellas akin to Executioner, Siren and Witness.

[bluntblade]

A very erudite review

[HeritorA]

Phoebus

Amazing point on 'Executioner'. That kind of warfare is totally the best grind we can expect from John. That's why Titan death and Beta-Garmon events are definitely should be done by him.

 

As for the 'And besides, does anyone feel they know how exactly the MacGuffin that French introduces was meant to do?'

 

- exactly the same question after getting through 'Ironclad'

[Phoebus]

Roomsky,

 

I really should have mentioned Sota-Nu, as she (and Prophesius, to a lesser degree) was well-written and added to the atmosphere of the scenes she was in. This review probably should've been more comprehensive where the cast as a whole was concerned.

[Tymell]

Great review, Phoebus. I feel much the same way about all these stories, but I really struggled to express exactly -why- I feel that way about Ironclad. I wanted to love it after how good Executioner was, and I liked -bits- of it, but I couldn't express just why I felt it didn't work. You've managed to get it across far better than I could, and I hope I can borrow some insight from your review if ever I need to express it too ;)

[HeritorA]

Roomsky,

 

I really should have mentioned Sota-Nu, as she (and Prophesius, to a lesser degree) was well-written and added to the atmosphere of the scenes she was in. This review probably should've been more comprehensive where the cast as a whole was concerned.

She was an interesting character. Very deeply written and unexpectedly not from the claide we always expect assssins to come. Point is - it is always curious how assassin (which in general standards is still human) compete with transhuman (which AL are).

Plus for the love of all it is sacred checked everything HH related and didn't found any real background as to why Horus emissary was guilty in some transgression to his Legion.

[Phoebus]

Sota-Nu was the Dark Mechanicus adept. Iaeo was the assassin. ;)

As for Argonis... that bit of background would have made Ironclad better. I suppose we can always hope more information will come in a subsequent novel - rather than a separate short story that undermines it for the sake of $4.99.

[Jareddm]

Have not read Ironclad yet, but individually have read all of the others.  The whole ending of Siren gave me chills.

[HeritorA]

Sota-Nu was the Dark Mechanicus adept. Iaeo was the assassin.

 

As for Argonis... that bit of background would have made Ironclad better. I suppose we can always hope more information will come in a subsequent novel - rather than a separate short story that undermines it for the sake of $4.99.

Ahh, yes - sorry I meant Iaeo. Read Ironclad a long time ago. Yeah - definitely wanted to have a real 'backstory' for Argonis.

Jareddm

As for the ending it is not extrapollated very well in Ironclad after the Siren.