"A Thousand Sons" by Graham McNeill

Preceding as it does 'controversial' books like 'Nemesis', 'The Outcast Dead', 'Prospero Burns' and 'Fear II Tread: The Treadening' (all of which I like, but which received... MIXED fan reactions), it makes sense that a lot of fans think 'A Thousand Sons' was the last good Horus Heresy novel.

What is Ahriman pointing his giant candy cane at? For the answer, look at the cover of 'Prospero Burns'.

In fact, some people got so annoyed by the books after 'A Thousand Sons' that they approach every new HH book with cynicism and a bad attitude. (This leads to twisted shit like negative 'Know No Fear' reviews.) My memory of 'A Thousand Sons' as I begin this re-read: after the frequently awful 'False Gods' and the torturously uneven 'Fulgrim', Graham basically does a 'Fulgrim' for Magnus the Red and his Legion, with a better plot and less horrendous Remembrancer-type characters... but less character development than I'd like, and not enough of anything to justify its 550 page sprawl. Then again, I read the "horrifyingly bad and self-indulgent" 'Prospero Burns' before I read this book, so I probably ruined it all by reading them out of order... Time to see whether I still kind of dislike this HH classic (I'm guessing I'll probably love it this time round.)

The book starts with a bit of ominous narration, likely from Ahriman, set a long while after this book ends (perhaps even post-Rubric?). Confusingly, the book ends with similarly italicised narration, but this time set before the introduction (but after the book's narrative concludes). Confused? It's a book about Tzeentch's favourite pawn, so get used to that shit. As the book starts (probably a few years before the events of 'Horus Rising'), we meet Ahzek Ahriman and his cabal of powerful sorcerors, and learn the Thousand Sons Librarians are split into different schools of magic like the Corvidae, Pavoni and Raptora. Fortunes of the different cults are governed by the tides of the Warp, which the Sons call "the Great Ocean". This leads to a fair amount of competition and bitterness between cults. The Pyrae are "warmongering students of battle in its most brutal forms" and fond of "showmanship". A prominent Pyrae, Khalophis, is confrontational and brusque. The Corvidae are Ahriman's cult. They're seers, future-readers. The Pavoni "had a reputation for venality and spite". Phosis T'Kar, the leader of the Raptora, seems to have telekinetic powers and can also make barriers to save his warriors from harm. The elite Thousand Sons captains also have 'spirit guides' called Tutelaries who seem to be benevolent daemons which help them work their magic. If you geek out about different schools of psychic power in 40K, this part of the book's for you, but I feel one of the main failings of 'A Thousand Sons' is the fact that the different cults (and, in fact, their members) aren't really fleshed out or given distinct characters. They have one pretty straightforward character trait and they stick to it through the whole story. There are some great moments with these guys - for example, in contrast to the measured and diplomatic approach of the Corvidae, the Pyrae seem almost barbaric in their brash tactlessness, leading to the slightly hilarious moment where Khalophis asks the mirror-masked tribesmen of the Aghoru whether they take the masks off for "mating", leaving them quietly appalled. But... it probably would have been better if more of these 550 pages were used for character development of these cults. I feel like, y'know, they might be important in the future.

Oh, another bit of lore here: It seems the Sons are often seconded out to other chapters during their training (like an apprenticeship?) which often impacts on their personality. Uthizzar served with the Space Wolves (briefly) and had a bad time of it; boastful T'Kar was with the Luna Wolves and was close to Abaddon and Sejanus. Pretty boy Hathor Maat was with the Emperor's Children and caught Fulgrim's eye thanks to the "perfection" of his features. Ahriman was with the Word Bearers and disliked his time there; too much blind, unquestioning certainty. Yet he befriended Erebus. Perhaps an early indicator that Ahriman is a little naive and a poor judge of character. I liked this idea a lot, I thought it was a shame more wasn't made of this than a few brief asides.

There's plenty of stuff here for anyone who was fiendin' for more fluff on the 15th Legion. We learn (or rather are reminded of the established fluff) that this Legion were susceptible to mutation and gene-seed flaws, and were benched in the first half of the Great Crusade (though they were far more gifted psychically than other Legions). Then Magnus somehow turned shit around and saved his Sons from the brink of destruction, and all that good stuff. The Legion is still very small (10,000 - 9,000, a mere fraction of the Ultramarines or Word Bearers) and is made up of 9 'fellowships' of, I guess, 1000 or 1100 Astartes. The FEEL of the Thousand Sons Legion is very much ancient Egyptian/Middle Eastern. For example, Magnus is attended by 60 "Legion Eunuchs". (Aren't they ALL eunuchs, kind of?) We learn early on that the Sekhmet - the fighting elite of the Thousand Sons - fight frrom a place of complete calm, meaning some compare them to soulless robots. FORESHADOWUUU! Also, the Sons use Cataphracti combat robots which don't use the standard Legio Cybernetica 'wafers', but instead use psychically charged crystals. These robots are also decked out to look like Pharoahs, with a blue and gold colour scheme. FORESHADOWUUU! 

I do love the introduction of Magnus here. Like in 'Betrayer', it's a great description of how the big red guy takes after his father in his twisting, changing, indefinable appearance - you get the feeling he's impossible to describe definitively. Except that he certainly has one eye missing. Which he may have sacrificed in a pact with a warp entity to save his Legion from extinction. Magnus with his Sons is outwardly "embarrassed at his pre-eminence among equals" though Ahriman feels that self-effacing stuff is probably a facade. In his tent, Magnus makes his commanders stand in a 'spiral' arrangement. Their position on the spiral is determined by factors unknown to them, but significant in their Primarch's mind. The closer you are to Magnus, the more in favour you are. A pretty weird way to treat your generals, but the Sons seem to accept it. The Sons are certainly a Legion that over-analyses. The significants of the number of warriors in a group, the number of syllables in a name, these factors are considered carefully and cross-checked aginst the special Good Omen/Bad Omen chart. At one point we find that the XVII legion are considered unlucky because their numeral is an anagram of 'VIXI', apparently meaning "I lived/I am dead".

We also meet some non-Astartes characters early in the book. Kallista is apparently a clairvoyant, as she has a vision of Prospero burnin'. She also seems to have a bit of a substance dependency problem. Camille is able to read the past (and the purpose) of an object just by touching it. Lemuel is here to fill the Karkasy role: the friendly, slightly comical guy who is drawn into the dirty business of the Legion (and probably complains bitterly to anyone who'll listen about how the two ladies he hangs out with put him right into the "friend zone"). Yeah, speaking of that... Attitudes towards women aren't necessarily MUCH better than in 'Fulgrim' - we're only on page 25 when one of the main female characters is described as having "a vulnerability that made men alternately want to protect or deflower her". As the big homie Rupert Giles said, "I think the subtext is rapidly becoming text." As the Sons are quite obsessed with knowledge, they actually make good use of their Remembrancers - for example, using them to dig through the library of a defeated civilisation. You can see why they apparently made efforts to find Remembrancers with psychic gifts. We also see a more practical use for the Remembrancers than we usually get in these novels - cataloguing and analysing a culture's myths, so the iterators can replace them with 'subtly altered' versions, which redirect loyalty towards the Imperium. A sinister but useful application for a group that all too often seem completely worthless.

Anyway. Magnus' reason for being on this boring-ass planet? He seems to have discovered a webway portal under a giant mountain on the world they're visiting. Brief flashbacks to Magnus spending time with the Emperor and travelling Terra, and unlocking its mystical secrets. The portrayal of the Emperor has been pretty dickish in this series, but it's hard not to feel sympayhy for him at this point: we find out that he warned Magnus about the dangers of abusing the Great Ocean for selfish gain. Magnus recalls this, then instantly discards the advice ("Well, I'm pretty much the cleverest being that ever lived, so I'm sure all be fine; plus, my motives aren't selfish, I just want everyone to acknowledge my brilliance is all.")

We're not long into the book before the Vlka Fenryka show up on the planet with intention of bringing the Thousand Sons back into the Great Crusade. You can see why the Emperor himself delivered the upbraiding to Lorgar, it's difficult to boss a Primarch about if you're anything less than a Primarch yourself. Here, they send a mere Astartes captain. Not a great idea. During this sequence, Ahriman befriends a Space Wolf Runepriest, and we get hints of a tragic past involving the loss of a sibling of Ahriman's. Soon enough, we're on a journey into the subterranean, daemon-infested hell B'NEATH TH' MOUNTAIN, which does give a sprinkling of déja vu. The setting's not a million miles from the similar scenario Zahariel faces in 'Fallen Angels'. The scenario of a Primarch fighting daemonic/Chaotic forces and overreaching due to their own arrogance and their underestimation of their opponents... that puts me in mind of 'False Gods' and 'Fulgrim'. And the writing about Astartes facing daemonic adversaries for the first time... well, that reminds me of more HH novels than I can count.

So here's a problem. We have a battle with corrupted Eldar Wraithlord Titans, where Magnus gets a laser beam or whatever blazed at his headpiece. Magnus' Legion believes he might be dead. Of course, we KNOW he can't die at all in the HH arc. So that's kind of a dumb choice, but allowable simply because it's an opportunity to illustrate the strong bond between Magnus and his sons. But then, in a matter of pages, Magnus gets pulled into a creepy tentacle pit to do battle with some creepy warp-dwelling asshole nerd, and his Sons think he's dead... AGAIN. What is McNeill trying to do here exactly? Does he think dramatic tension needs to be built by fake-killing a Primarch a few times in a very short span? It's not helped by the extremely obvious symbolism we see in Magnus' temporary imprisonment: a wingéd serpent tempts him with glimpses of forbidden knowledge. You sure you don't want an apple and an oak leaf in there somewhere, Graham? Shucks.

As the story progresses, we find ourselves on Shrike, where the Sons fight alongside the Word Bearers and Space Wolves. Two Legions they disapprove of for different reasons. Ahriman and Wyrdmake, the Space Wolf Runepriest, have become close over this time, and Ahriman's brothers don't approve...I really like the moment where Ahriman meets Russ and feels the aggressive, uncouth barbarian persona is a deliberate exaggeration, perhaps so his enemies underestimate him? It really fits with the more nuanced portrayal of the Wolves in 'Prospero Burns'. Ultimately, disagreement over Shrike's Great Library leads the Wolves and the Sons to open conflict. Ahriman is the only one who tries to keep the peace, but Magnus overrules him, swearing "I do not need (Russ') forgiveness, but I will have his damned respect!" Fightin' words, but this, at least, is a conflict that doesn't seem lame and forced; the relationship between the brother Legions in the book leads to this organically. Magnus and Russ face off, ready to kill each other, but Lorgar steps in. An impressive scene, but even more so now I've read 'Aurelian' and know that Lorgar was told beforehand he might die on Shrike if he intervened in their struggle. While Primarch-on-Primarch bloodshed is averted, Russ still swears vengeance, and also throws some pretty strong words around regarding the Thousand Sons Librarians. When Lorgar points out the Wolf runepriests are psykers too, Russ is like "NO IT'S DIFFERENT THO LOL U MADDDDDD?". This puts my sympathies even more firmly with Magnus; as much as I liked the Wolves in 'Prospero Burns', I still don't think they got round this obvious hypocrisy - though Abnett certainly explained their viewpoint in a more measured way.

Around this time we get a bit of background regarding Magnus' actions on Prospero before the Emperor rejoined him. Apparently, he fought the psychneuin (a terrifying xenos species with an oddly Jewish-sounding name). These fuckers combine several commonly held phobias, as they're big insects which psychically lay eggs in your brain, and then you get eaten from the inside out. Yikes. I'm sure they won't be relevant later, so forget I mentioned them. Magnus' story of his 'revelation' on Prospero is one of the most bizarre things in the book - entranced by the shards of a fallen statue in the wilderness, he writes book after book on the designs and patterns he finds, and ends up convincing his whole culture that they were put here for a reason by a primordial Creator. (Footnote: The broken statue was in the form of a graceful, long-necked bird... one of the traditional symbols of Tzeentch. I'm just sayin!) Unfortunately, this idyll was shattered when PSYCHNEUIN TOTALLY ATTACKED! At this point of the story, though, that's totally glossed over to be discussed later, as Magnus is distracted by the fact the Emperor has summoned him to a world... named... NIKAEA! O shit!!! When I started the book, I'll admit that I thought this whole story took place post-Nikaea. My fault for poor reading comprehension, whoops. Just to note, we're halfway through the book and the story described on the back jacket is only just beginning.

Jump-cut to a year later, as the Sons draw near to Nikaea. The planet's described compellingly as a wondrous and terrifying example of how the Imperium's might can mold nature. Making planetfall, Magnus is greeted by Fulgrim and Sanguinius (leading to a great moment of foreboding as Ahriman predicts a Blood Angel's death in the Murder disaster - see 'Horus Rising'). However, the Emperor's psychic aura is restricting many of the Legion's powers. The Sons suspect a trap, and they're right to. It's revealed that the Emperor and many of his sons and grandsons and various playa hatas have gathered to sit in judgement of the Librarius Programme (or more accurately, Magnus). I like the brief, vicious showing here from Othere Wyrdmake, going out like a snitch and makin' a signed statement on the guy who WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HIS BRO. It's a shocking moment, yet it isn't dwelled on.

Then we have one of the only Mortarion moments in the whole series, as the dry-voiced witch-hunter weaves a simplistic fable, playing effectively to the cheap seats. I remember hating this when I first read it, but now I like it a lot. When I consider how much McNeill did for Perturabo - previously a pretty boring, shallow character I didn't care much for - it feels like BL could do worse than to give him a Mortarion book. It's unfortunate that this Primarch has so little material in the HH series, but what IS out there is actually pretty great.

Then the case for the defense is allowed to speak. Magnus opens his defending speech by quoting the Book of Revelations, and then saying that Imperial society is beyond superstition and myth of that nature now. His speech is a great, telling piece of drama, hugely arrogant but showing his ultimately positive, utopian (and very naive, but likeable) view of the Imperium's future. Kind of feel like he needed a shady space lawyer though (cue Matthew McConaughey as a sleazy, girl-chasing Iterator). But it gets worse, kids. Just as the Emperor's judgement on psykers is about to be delivered, Magnus suffers a vision of Horus' fall - the battle on Yavin's plague moon, and the the transformation of Lupercal into an avatar of Chaos. That'll distract ya from putting together a coherent argument on a complex subject.

Then... ugh. Then we get Yeseugi Khan, Stormseer of the White Scars. Damn this scene is fucked up. First, Graham describes the V Legion warrior as a "noble savage", apparently un-ironically (what are we in, the 1800s?) and then has him speak in broken English about how paleface talk with forked tongue and not understand holy powers of psyker. It's just a page or so, but to me, it hurts the book A LOT. To wrap it up, Ahriman and Magnus are moved by Yeseugi's "simple honesty". Fuck that patronising shit... Even Chris Wraight's sterling attempts to retcon this as a symptom of the Scars' resistance to Imperial culture can't make me excuse Graham's fuckup. Astartes hail from ALL different cultures - many of which aren't even on Earth - so why are the Asiatics the only ones given an exaggerated accent in this series? It's bullshit. Don't even get me started on fucking Nagasena... Having said that, the scene does actually serve the story well and I found it really moving that the regimented, proud Astartes Librarians of several Legions made a spontaneous gesture of solidarity with Magnus. But it's not enough to stop the Emperor from slammin' the gavel down and officially declaring the Librarius finished. Now obviously there's a lot of merit to avoiding overuse of psychic power, but the Emperor's judgement seems like 100% horseshit to me - do as I say, not as I do type shit. Accepted wisdom is that with this show-trial humiliation, the Emperor wanted to shock Magnus into seeing the possibility he might be wrong about magic. But shaming a being so proud seems like an obviously bad idea to me. Seems he just wanted the psyker-haters (a faction more numerous and vociferous than the psyker-advocates) kept onside.

Following the delivery of the edict, we flash forward to the Legion chillin' on Prospero... totally ignoring the edict. Lemuel is still being trained in magics, and the Sons are still using their powers almost casually. Prospero (and Tizca in particular) seems an idyllic paradise. Sadly we know the purpose of all the rapturous paragraphs about the beautiful silver towers, amazing architecture, friendly people and lovely climate are just to make its scouring more brutal. At this time, Magnus tells his cult leaders of the vision he had of Horus' fall. He's spend the time since Nikaea trying to disprove it, but he now believes it to be true. Obviously they react with horror and disbelief, but they trust their Primarch and they have no choice but to come around. If you've read 'False Gods', you already know how this went, but it's interesting to see it described from another perspective. So then it's time for Magnus to put the ASS into astral projection (these jokes are why my reviews take so fucking long btw) in hopes of warning the Emprah of his son's treachery. Feels like McNeill's ensured that Magnus' arrogance is already well-established, but what the heck, let's have another sequence where Ahriman is like "Lord, we better be careful, in case some awful entities from the Warp get out, you know, dameons." And in response, Magnus says "Hahaha, silly Ahzek. You know there's no such thing as monsters. I'm sure everything will be fine."

As we know, the Crimson King's warning didn't go as planned, and McNeill describes the catastrophe well. (I still think that the sequence as it was described in 'False Gods' was one of the only good things in that book.) To add to the sting, Magnus realises his father's plan was to install HIM on the Golden Throne so he could act as the psychic focus for humanity. I guess Magnus gets super butthurt as he realises he's missed out on the chance to be a desiccated semi-corpse soldered to a huge golden tomb for thousands and thousands of years. Following this humiliation, and the realisation that Daddy is cuttin' a switch gettin' ready for a whuppin', Magnus is visited once again by the Chaos powers, who gleefully twist the knife by telling him the Space Wolves are on the way to kick his whole Legion in the dick. So Magnus takes the "high road" and acts like a weepy little bitch, preventing his Legion from foreseeing the battle; when the Wolves show up and attack, he orders the Thousand Sons to accept their punishment and be brought to Terra in penitence. Sadly, the cult leaders have had enough. Also it may not have been the most tactful time for their Primarch to tell them "Guys remember that one time I saved you all from gene-seed mutation? I actually did a literal deal with the Devil to accomplish that. So, thoughts on that?"

Oh yeah, during this whole time, a bullshit subplot was happening with the three Remembrancer characters, where one of them is attacked by Psychneuin, and one is burned out by clairvoyant visions of the Space Wolves sacking Prospero. Maybe it's the same person actually? I'll admit I wasn't paying a huge amount of attention. This subplot's resolution is also far from satisfactory, but it's one of the only unresolved plot threads in HH I don't give a shit about. Seriously, I don't care if they ever tell me what happened to these guys.

Inevitably, the 5th Legion show up, spoiling for a fight, as is their wont. The Wolves V Sons battle sequences are pretty damn cool (and brutal) - maybe the only part of the book where I'm willing to concede 'A Thousand Sons' beats 'Prospero Burns'. It reminds me of 'Fulgrim' a bit - hey, all these really trope-y characters you don't care much about who haven't done much of note this whole book are going to start dying, feel the feelings - but it's good for what it is. Maybe it's the Sons' untrammelled use of magic, maybe it's the Astartes V Astartes wrongness, but the Tutelaries start going nuts at this point in the book and we start getting the feeling (or rather, it's hammered home) that too much magic might be being used and some Bad Things may happen. While these scenes are great, I don't know if we need to switch between all the captains to confirm yes, this dude is also feeling nauseous and sweaty and has stomach cramps (are these guys about to suffer the flesh-change, or are they little girls about to get their first period? OHHHHHHH! Andrew Dice Clay ova heah!) I found Ahriman's final showdown with snitchin' Othere Wyrdmake incredibly satisfying, what a great (and cold) way to deal with a duplicitous hypocrite: mortally wound him with the Truth.

This is far from an evenly matched fight, but with crushing inevitability, the Thousand Sons have to suffer one last insult. The Wolf King and the Crimson King fight face to face, and Magnus gets beat down like a clown. He has one last trick (or illusion?) up his sleeve, and it's a good one, spiriting the Thousand Sons away from Prospero and leaving the Wolves standing around looking slightly ashamed and confused.

The book ends with the Legion devastated, only a thousand of them having survived the horrifying assault. HA HA THEIR LEGION NAME IS APT NOW AT LEAST, RIGHT? They've escaped complete destruction, but for what? Trapped on one of the Eye's Crone Worlds, they have no succour from the flesh-change, which is growing more and more prevalent. Their Primarch is brooding in seclusion, most of their command elite are dead, and some of the flesh-changed Sons are embracing their hideous new forms. It's a fascinating situation they're in. What bums me out is that the HH series hasn't build on it yet, apart from some brief scenes in 'Aurelian' and 'Betrayer', and the short audio drama 'Lucius: The Eternal Blade'. But apparently Graham is pencilled in for another Thousand Sons book - 'The Crimson King' - sometime on the HH schedule, before the end of next year I'm hoping.

While re-reading this, the description in 'Aurelian' kept coming to mind... to paraphrase, Magnus is manipulated at every turn, yet believes himself the manipulator. His arrogance and hard-headedness make him hard to love, and I came to this book as something of a Magnus cheerleader. And the pointless human character subplots hurt the book, which feels quite padded as it is. I think this is far from Graham's best book, and also far from his best depiction of a Primarch (hello, Perturabo and daemon-prince Fulgrim). In the context of the full series, Magnus as a character is hardly what I'd (with a wince) call a "top-tier" Primarch. (Maybe Ferrus Manus and Vulkan are the only ones less interesting so far. But I don't care about those guys AT ALL.) After re-reading 'A Thousand Sons', at least I feel like I know Magnus The Red a little more as a character. But I still find the idea of this being one of the best Horus Heresy books a little baffling. I give this a high 7/10, and I doubt I'll re-read it until more Thousand Sons stuff comes out.

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