Disclaimer
Spoilers abound in these posts, if you
haven’t read the books and will get upset by finding out what happens just
stop.
This is also not a recap, if you want a
recap go to Lexicanium.
What The
Black Library says about the book
Censured at the Council of Nikea for his
flagrant use of sorcery, Magnus the Red and his Thousand Sons Legion retreat to
their homeworld of Prospero to continue their use of the arcane arts in secret.
But when the ill-fated primarch foresees the treachery of Warmaster Horus and
warns the Emperor with the very powers he was forbidden to use, the Master of
Mankind dispatches fellow primarch Leman Russ to attack Prospero itself. But
Magnus has seen more than the betrayal of Horus and the witnessed revelations will
change the fate of his fallen Legion, and its primarch, forever.
What the
book is really about?
Damn, these book blurbs really like to
give away the plot don’t they?
Ok, a lot happens in this book and some
of it takes too long to develop, while other bits are rushed.
We start on the planet of Aghoru, a hot
planet that has human inhabitants who wear masks all the time, and sort of
worship a giant elder monument thingy that houses a GREAT EVIL. And for the
first 3rd of the book, we get slowly introduced to the characters,
the legion, the Space Wolves and Magnus.
Long story short, Space wolves turn up
to demand Magnus join Russ in the crusade, Magnus wants to explore the temple,
chaos awakes, mayhem eschews, and the Space Wolves see the Thousand sons cut
loose with PSIPOWERZ when they think Magnus has fallen.
It’s a bit slowly paced to start and it took me a while to get into it. By the
end of the Aghoru story arc I was feeling very “meh” about the book. But it
picks up a lot after the initial arc, which really could have been tightened up
a bit.
Part two of the book has the Thousand
Sons, Space Wolves and Word Bearers engaged in a total war of extermination
against an avian humanoid species. There’s some good action in here and a great
stand-off between Primarchs.
The middle of the book is the double
act of Emperor as stage performer. First, the victory procession at Ullanor,
and then the Trial of Magnus at Nikea. I wish the Trial was a little more
involved, Magnus got some great lines but it was all a bit clipped. I think 40
pages of padding from Aghoru could have been ripped out and replaced with more
coverage of one of the seminal events of the Heresy.
It’s almost as though McNeill panicked
a little at having to write a courtroom drama, so he had the protagonist
collapse during the trial so he could hand wave it. A little disappointed at
that, but I more than forgave him for what followed.
The battle of Prospero was awesome and
epic, it swung back and forth, different characters had major impacts on the
proceedings and it was a great read. It had everything an over the top battle
in the Heresy needs; psychically controlled titans, magics aplenty, the Wulfen,
two Primarchs going at it, custodes, sisters, guardsmen, hand to hand, orbital
bombardments, the whole nine freaking yards.
But despite the great action scenes at
the end, the single best part of this book is that it explains who the Thousand
Sons are, What they believe, and why they fell. And it tells the story in a way
that makes the Thousand Sons believable and real.
The Hero-Protagonist
- Ahriman
Well Holy cow.
They finally made an established chaos
character in the 40k universe something other than a moustache twirling villain
(Tython, Bile) or a mindless buffoon (Abaddon, Lucius, Ben counters book 3
Kharn).
Ahriman is the classic “Warrior-scholar”
type. He fights when he needs to and is an instrument of war, but deep down, he’d
probably rather be reading books and indulging in his hobby of viticulture.
I really liked his interactions with
Wyrdmake, the rune priest of the Space Wolves. It was nice for once to see a traitor
legion on the receiving end of a personal betrayal. What starts as a friendly exchange
of ideas between legions ends in massive betrayal of trust and revenge. You
also feel that Ahriman is quite justified in his final acts against Wyrdmake as
well.
The other things I found appealing
about Ahriman was his interaction with the remembrancer Lumeul, his personal
story about the flesh change and his twin, and his insecurities about his
power. Ahriman felt flawed and….. human really. A lot of characters in this
universe come across as caricatures and supermen, but for all of Ahriman’s
baddassery, he really is just a guy committed to his legion and paranoid that
he will become a monster. I’m quite interested to read more about him after
this.
Why are
their humans in my book about super-powered Space Marines?
Again, the Remembrancers are great
human characters and all four of them are solid, interesting characters. It’s
also nice to see lesser psykers and how normal people deal with psychic
phenomenon in the 30k universe.
Lumuel, while clearly riffing on
Karkasy from book one, is an engaging fellow. His personal growth in the story
is immense, and he goes from a lazy gadfly to become a quite heroic character
towards the end.
Camille and Kallista both go through
horrible story arcs that show the dangers of psychic powers, and poor
Kallimakus is the victim of horrific abuse and the hands of Magnus.
These four characters tell a very
personal story of horror, and there are some truly creepy, tense and sad
moments in their story. The exchange between Lumeul and Ahriman over Kallista’s
fate at the end truly shows how far Lumeul has come, and how far Ahriman will go.
It’s a great part of the book.
There are a lot of questions remaining
for these characters and I hope they pop up again.
MVP – Phosis T’Kar
This may seem like a strange choice,
but let me explain. I really liked the different captains within the Thousand
Sons and their various fates. Ulthizaar the telepath had some great character
exchanges with Ahriman, and his final fate was sad. Khalophis literally goes
out in a blaze of glory while being a colossal engine of destruction; Maat
pulls through the battle but is a shell of what he was at the end.
All of the captains have a bit of
character, except Auramagma, who’s mostly defined through the fact that Ahriman
doesn’t like him.
But Phosis T’kar wins the MVP for the single
best death scene in the series so far. It’s a poignant moment that sums up
everything about the Thousand Sons and their fall. It’s the final moment of
realization that all of the power they have accumulated is for nothing, and all
it has done is cost them their souls.
Worst
Character – Yatiri
Ok, most of the characters in the book
are alright, some are pretty good even. However, I’m giving this award to
Yatiri as representative of a boring race of primitives who took up WAY too
much of the book.
The thing that annoyed me most about
them is the mask idea. Oh wow, a society that hides behind masks and never
takes them off. That might be cool if they hadn’t done the exact same thing only
a few books earlier, on Sarosh with Descent of Angels.
185 pages…… should have been a lot
less.
Get to know
your Legion – The Thousand sons
I think this is the high point of the
book. McNeill took a tricky legion and made them interesting, unique and
somewhat believable. Sure, he relied on WAY too many things to do with the
number nine, but all in all, the Legion is well described and well detailed.
You have the planet of Prospero, and its
past is explained in detailed. You also have the five cults of the legion
spelled out and their origin story. I like that the psykers are specialized
into traditions, biokenesis, telepathy, augury, telekenetics and pyromaniacs.
It creates a nice feel and stops everyone being “just another psyker”.
It also creates rivalries and
competition within the Legion, and marks out individual characters by their
power displays. I think the cults were a great inclusion, and anyone doing a
Thousand Sons army would profit from including them conceptually in unit
design.
I also really like how the Thousand
Sons gene flaw was handled. Lets face it, many Legions have some horrible
downsides, the Red-Thirst, Becoming Wolfen, Rages, being a boring boring person
(Sorry Ultramarine fans, but it’s true, that’s their geneflaw…. Deal with it!).
But none of them are quite as horrific
as the flesh change. It’s described in great detail, and you can feel the fear across
the Legion at the prospect of it. It’s yet another thing that drives the
Thousand Sons to know everything.
I also like the mental discipline of the enumerations, even if I think it was a
little overused. Despite occasionally going hogwild with the psychic powers,
they are a discipline Legion, which provides nice contrast to the Space Wolves.
Oh, and I love that the Thousand Sons casually
use warp entities and their power without realizing exactly what they are
doing. These guys were so very very doomed with that attitude.
PS, when they finally get around to
making legion models, they will be awesome, but perhaps not as awesome as these.
Get to know your Primarch – Magnus the
Red.
Well he’s no 21st Century Schizoid
man, that’s for sure. An obscure reference to say the least, but I couldn’t
help but listen to “the court of the Crimson King” by progressive rock Legends
King Crimson while typing this review, as every time they called him the
Crimson King that track would pop into my head.
Magnus is done quite well. He swings
between cocksure arrogance and pragmatic level-headedness but never goes into
the caricature level. His fall is well telegraphed, but it’s a classic story,
the story of Icarus or the cliché that “the road to ruin starts with good
intentions”.
Magnus means well, but he’s fucked from
day one. Seriously, I don’t know what Magnus could have done to escape his
fate, he has amazing psychic powers, and his body is essentially a visage. So
why expect him to sit and behave like a normal boy.
Faced with his legions flaw, he dooms
himself to save them. And then, when he finds out about the heresy he tries to
save the day with his forbidden powers, but in the process, muffs everything up.
But what else would he have done? Sat
down and let the heresy happen? Not warned the Emperor? Magnus gets boxed in
and his loyalty destroys him. Poor bastard.
Why the
Emperor is a giant douche
This book is a big one for the Emperor
acting on maximum nozzle.
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Magnus was doomed with a dad like this.
Magnus was a kid with special needs and needed a lot more parenting than the
others. Anyone who can casually throw off their skin and fly around the warp
needs some good solid parenting about what is in the warp.
And when Magnus solved the gene-flaw in
the Thousand Sons, did the Emperor not think “how the heck did he do that,
perhaps I will press him for answers”.
Then he punishes Magnus at Nikea for being himself.
And finally, although it’s not covered
in this book in great detail, he builds a life support astropathic prison for
Magnus to be entombed in…….. That golden throne wasn’t built for the Emperor
you know. Someone with massive psychic powers was going to be imprisoned for
all time in there, and you can bet the Emperor had Magnus lined up for the gig.
Moustache
twirling evil-bastard award – Mortarion
Mortarion is pretty painfully written
in this, and I get that it’s from the perspective of the Thousand Sons. But he
just comes across as a giant ham who wants to sneakily smack down Magnus.
Quirky
reveals and other coolness
Well, this book has a few of them, so
time to add in a new category for the reviews.
One – The name “a thousand sons” and
how they were called that before they shrank to a Thousand. The Emperor knew
what was coming? So did that mean he knew Magnus would barter his soul to save
them?
Two – There are no wolves on Fenris.
This whole little story piece was wonderfully creepy, and painted the Space
Wolves as being something far more sinister and dark than simple tribal
beserkers.
Three- Leman Russ and the façade. At
one point Ahriman sees through Leman Russ’s façade and see that it’s mostly for
show. Again, this makes the Space Wolves a lot darker and sinister than their
normal portrayal and I loved it. Russ plays the mindless beserker, but is so
much more.
Four – It’s all part of a master plan.
The whole Space Wolves – Thousand Sons conflict is set off by pro-heresy
factions who want to take out two of the most formidable loyal legions. It’s
pretty clever really.
The writing
– technical review and evaluation
At 558 pages, this is a solid sized
book and it covers a lot of ground. I’m not gonna lie, I think this is Graham
McNeill’s best work and it’s a great contribution to the Horus Heresy. This is
a book that could easily have been messed up, and a Legion that could have
turned out terribly in the story. And while the book has its flaws, it’s a
solid read.
This book gets a “must
read if reading the series” rating.
*disclaimer, borrowed art is
borrowed.
Disclaimer
The secondary plot revolves around a
pair of local coppers on a world near Dragonet investigating a serial killer
with occult trimmings. James Swallow excels at writing horror and visceral
details, and his descriptions of the crime scenes are excellent. As a dude who
watches WAY TOO MANY forensic shows on TV (While I paint, I have documentaries
or old sci-fi on, forensic shows are the most watched), I felt like he did his
research and portrayed the investigation well. 
Ok, look at the list of Assassin
clades……. Of the 4 widely known ones, one has no soul, one has no self-control,
and one has no face. It’s pretty easy to see why they put the Vindicare in
control. He’s calm, professional and meticulous…… or at least hes meant to be. 
Tariel, the Vanus Infocyte was an interesting
addition to the Warhammer universe, as I had not seen anything about the Vanus
Assassins before this book. The idea of an imperial assassin who is a pudding
in close combat was nice. I love his method of operation, hack everything,
steal all knowledge you can, and use it your advantage. I also liked all his
cyber animals and the fact he was a big steaming coward at heart. 
You’re gonna have to indulge me here
because I like a lot of Spear. I think the way he’s described is great, I think
his action scenes are great, and the horror scenes he’s involved with are
great. 
Silly masks and parlour games…..
honestly, the scenes with the Assassin bosses felt like a really bad Live-roleplaying
game where everyone is playing an archetype. Eversor is angry…… GRRRRR. 
Dorn is a big boring goon in this book
and I kinda like Dorn. To me, Dorn is one of the saner Primarchs. Sure, he occasionally
tortures himself, and he’s pretty inflexible at times, but deep down he’s a
soldier, he knows who is boss is, and he knows he is bred to fight. In a lot of
ways, he’s like Stannis Baratheon from AGOT in that he’s not a loveable person,
but he is in the right and will not give up on that fact. 
Malcador the sigilite, right hand of
the Emperor, is also the master of assassins. I don’t know about anyone else,
but Malcador is a character I am very suspicious of. We don’t really know a lot
about him and he seems to have a bucket load of power. 
That's it, I'm done painting Cygnar. The final group shots will be up in the next few days. The last model painted was thunderhead, and I enjoyed doing him a little differently than the rest of the army. 
I Like light jacks, I like them a lot in fact. I like them so much I own a literal swarm of light jacks.
Now that's a tier list, but i think they have a place in almost any list. 
