The Talon of Horus (1) (The Black Legion) Paperback – December 6, 2016

To be honest, I began reading The Talon of Horus without much enthusiasm and with a sense of righteous disgust. I thought there could be little new to learn, and less to care, about what motivated the remnants of the Traitor Legions to coalesce into the Black Legion. I was very much mistaken…. God help me but I cannot help having more respect for Khayon and his companions than for the foolish, sanctimonious inquisitors interrogating him….John Milton was a deeply pious Puritan, yet somehow Satan emerges as the true hero of his Paradise Lost. Something like that happens here.A thought-provoking and mesmerizing novel. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed the main character's perspective. Khayon was extremely capable and commanded the respect of everyone around him. Seeing the birth of the Black Legion was very interesting.

My Review of Talon Of HorusWritten by Aaron Dembski-BowdenFive stars for this reviewFirst I will start out by saying I thought this book was going to be about Abbadon and filled with his insights as too how he is thinking, why he is making the decisions leading up to creating the Black Legion and how he enacts his rule.Instead I was really surprised at how this story unfolded. First this story began from the perspective of a Thousand Son Legionary and not a Luna Wolf. The legionary gathers fellow Astarte’s to a cause that embodies a sense of purpose. Talon of Horus as most of us know is a special power claw of five blades one for each finger with a storm bolter mounted on the top… or another description for how I perceived this book is each blade can represent a heretic legion that is now fractured after the death of Horus. This Talon or similar to a fist being a fist is weak while missing a finger or a broken one but when the hand is whole then the first is strong. These Heretic spacemarines needed a reason or a common goal, possibly a proof of existence too not just fight but fight as a legion comprised of fractured and leaderless soldiers but as a Legion. Through the help of this Thousand Son, a few World Eaters and some other Astarte’s. So together they went to find Abbadon who possibly was on the Vessel Vengeful Spirit in seclusion. The Idea of the main character and his brothers is too find Abbadon who would take all the war bands and leaderless Astarte’s who fought for Horus and Install Abbadon as Warmaster and give direction and instill a sense of purpose into the thousands of gene enhanced soldiers of war who have no sense of purpose or beliefs besides killing for the sake of killing.ABD the author stayed on point with a focused storyline about brotherhood, sense of purpose and portraying the leaderless multiple legion spacemarines as not just being mindless, heretical, blood lust killing machines but a large group of soldiers who were human enough too be more then they felt after the fall of the warmaster Horus at the Battle for Terra. This is a story about the scrap of humanity each Genetically altered spacemarine has and his sense of brotherhood. Honor, duty and self-worth I felt were the focus in this story and the author too me portrayed that well. The story flowed very well and each chapter when finished was cohesive naturally with each following chapter. This story had a strong human element portrayed by the characters and especially Abaddon. The story was so much more then Abbadon and every aspect of the story was very clear. The proper editing was evident with each chapter.This reader wants more about Abbadon and his insights, how he thinks, the character that he is. I know Abbadon as the Warmaster of The Black Legion and not much more then what most mainstream 40K fan knows about him. Abbadon is the leader of the greatest fighting force in the universe and he is hardly covered by Games workshop. So book two in the series better have more about Abbadon and I look forward to reading the next addition to the collection.

What do you know? It's in the first person. Very memorable characters, and of course, in order to make those, most fiction has to be to the extreme, but it wouldn't be fantasy otherwise. Especially liked Ahriman was mentioned in this title, here's to hoping he makes an appearance in upcoming ones for the series.Why four stars instead of five? Enjoyed the characters and history, but feel the actual story could have been told in a novella sized form, everything went from point A to B to C pretty quickly, has a cliff hangar, unanswered question that you probably won't get the answer to anytime soon, a lot of teasing of what may be to come and exaggeration at points does go a bit too far.Why begin the first 2 paragraphs with a question and not the 3rd? Ha, just did. Although I love the title and artist (big fan), I have to say in classic Black Library style, they don't, do not match the contents of the book. I would have loved the main character with his assortment of colleagues on the front instead of Abaddon.

First let me say I usually enjoy stories written in first person. I'll make an exception for this one. This tale being told by one of the key participants in his own words just makes sense.The tale of the formation of the Black Legion is one I've wanted to hear in detail ever sense I collected a Black Legion Army years ago.This is a must read for players of Warhammer 40,000 or those who just like the rich history of the Grimdark.

Reading is what I do to fall asleep many nights. I just got into 40k with the Thousand Sons and saw book 2 with Rubric Marines on the cover and thought "OH YEAH!" But it was book 2 with no book 1 in the store so I ordered it here. Evidently there are some Thousand Sons in the Black Legion, but it isn't Thousand Sons. (Like I said, I'm new.)This book is great though it has seemed to ruin reading for sleep for me. Also be advised, there is going to be a 3rd book "soon". So if you don't like waiting for a next book in the series, just give it a minute. I however like my kids seeing me get more excited for a new book instead of a new video game.

I hadn't been all that interested in the Black Legion prior to this novel, but ABD has been a reliable author in Black Library for creating interesting reads with compelling characters. Here he delivers once again, as Talon of Horus sheds some much needed light on the rise of the Black Legion. Told from the perspective of some of Chaos's lost sons the story begins as the Sons of Horus are on their last legs, the body of Horus stolen and the scattered remnants of the shattered legion being hunted across the warp, from there the story is both reflective and suitably full of action sequences, ending with a quite literal bang that serves as a solid foundation for the planned trilogy.It did seem a bit condensed to me, though I am one to read 500+ page books on a regular basis. I can't really fault it for its page count, but I was hoping the story would last longer.