For the seventh story in Black Library’s Summer of Reading campaign the attention turns to the Horus Heresy, with the prose version of John French’s excellent The Eagle’s Talon audio drama. A brave, unusual story when told in audio format, if slightly less so in prose, it details a key moment in the Battle for Tallarn as three squads of Imperial Fists attempt to infiltrate an enemy transport vessel. Written as transcripts of linked vox excerpts interspersed with dry commentary from an unknown narrator, it takes a while to adjust to the choppy style but turns out to be an unusual, effective structure.
On the one hand it feels a touch naughty of Black Library to put out a re-working of an existing story as part of this campaign, as it would have been nice to get something completely new, but on the other hand this is such an interesting story that it certainly deserves a prose release. Having already listened to the audio it’s hard not to read this with those voices in mind, which perhaps influences the enjoyment of the story (for the better), but there’s no doubt that this is another indication of John French’s superbly high calibre as a Black Library author.
One comment