Hereticus (The Eisenhorn Trilogy, Book 3)
Hello, all. Thank you all for joining me for a long-overdue review: Hereticus, the third book of the Eisenhorn trilogy.
Now that I have my hands on Eisenhorn: The Omnibus, I have access to the full Eisenhorn series. This includes The Magos, a fourth Eisenhorn book that is not part of the original trilogy. We’ll be getting to The Magos on December 26th.
Bolters loaded, everyone. it’s time to drop back into the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium.
STATS
Title: Hereticus
Series: Eisenhorn (Book 3)
Author(s): Dan Abnett
Genre: Science Fiction (Space Opera)
First Printing: 2002
Publisher: Black Library (Games Workshop Publishing)
SPOILER WARNING
Mild spoilers for Hereticus be included throughout this review, through I will keep the first paragraph of each section as spoiler-free as possible. Heavy spoilers will be confined to clearly labelled sections.
Heavy, unmarked spoilers for the previous books of the Eisenhorn series, Xenos and Malleus, and for the short story “Missing in Action” will be provided throughout this review. I’ll also assume that you’ve read my reviews of those books, though that won’t be essential to understand this review.
STRUCTURE
Today we’ll be covering the following.
Premise
Rating
Timeline
Content Warning
Plot
Character
Worldbuilding
Prose
Theme
PREMISE
Since this omnibus doesn’t describe the individual novels, we’ll pull from Amazon’s product page for Hereticus.
Hunted by his former allies as a radical and enemy of the Imperium, Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn must fight to prove that he remains loyal as he tracks down a dangerous heretic whom the Inquisition believes dead – the dread former Inquisitor Quixos. As he grows more desperate for victory, Eisenhorn uses ever darker means to achieve his goals – but how far can he go using the weapons of the enemy until he becomes that very enemy – and no different to the traitor he hunts?
Reaction
Uhh … glaring issue here. Quixos is dead. He was killed in the climax of Malleus. Eisenhorn knows this. He’s after a different heretic this time.
Other than that, the only real objection I have to this premise is that it pushes Eisenhorn being hunted by the Imperium to the forefront, despite that being a development much later in the story. He is hunted for most of the narrative, but his pursuers are not Imperium forces.
RATING: 7.5/10
This is the strongest book of the Eisenhorn trilogy. Unlike the previous two books, where “mysteries” were effectively used to spawn unearned twists from the Warp, the mystery elements in this book take their time and pay off setups from either Hereticus or the previous books. The theme of Puritanism vs. Radicalism is much stronger in this book and gives the story far more substance. The dynamics between Eisenhorn and his associates are also much more engaging and dynamic, making the people in Eisenhorn’s orbit feel more like proper characters rather than cutouts created to fill narrative roles.
TIMELINE
Hereticus is set in the year 386.M41 (so about 40,386 A.D.), about 43 years after Malleus (which ended in 343.M41) and 146 years after the opening of Xenos (240.M41). This puts it after the events of “Backcloth for a Crown Additional” (355.M41). This also puts it before “The Keeler Image” (465.M41), which we will review on Sunday.
CONTENT WARNING
As with all things in the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium, violence and gore are par for the course, along with the mild sexual elements. It’s certainly being exploited for vibes, but it is all applied appropriately and effectively.
PLOT
The plot of Hereticus is very much a story about consequences, with the events of the previous books and stories (Malleus in particular) coming back to test Eisenhorn. There are technically two inciting incidents, one that kicks off the thematic exploration and one that triggers the mystery.
Thematical Exploration: the Radical
Most of the events of this story would have taken place regardless of this inciting incident, yet what happens here is instrumental to how events in the last third of the story unfold.
The first action sequence of the book sees Eisenhorn and his allies chase down the Chaos cultist who killed Midas Bentacore (the pilot from Xenos who died between the events of that story and Malleus). To their dismay, they discover that this cult has been rebuilding a Chaos Titan (for those not in the know, think of a Chaos Titan as an extremely edgy version of a Jaeger from Pacific Rim). Eisenhorn’s initial plan to stop the behemoth fails. In desperation, he uses warp sorcery to summon Cherubael, the dæmonhost who was the main antagonist of Malleus. The dæmon destroys the titan but breaks free of Eisenhorn’s control, forcing him to sacrifice the life of another inquisitor to create a new dæmonhost.
The shockwaves of this act shape the entire story going forward. While Cherubael doesn’t resurface until far later into the story, the members of Eisenhorn’s team learn the truth about him creating the dæmonhost (both the one seen at the end of the previous book and the new one formed here by killing an inquisitor). This triggers a series of responses that ripple across the narrative, eventually leading to the Inquisition pursuit identified in the premise.
I’ll come back to this element of the plot in Themes. Let’s leave off by saying that I feel like it was used effectively, especially considering that it had to share narrative space with something else.
Mystery Exploration: the Hidden Enemy (Heavy Spoilers)
While the first inciting incident sets off a thematic conflict, the second fills out the bulk of the story’s action and is the source of most of the narrative tension.
Not long after returning to his estate on the planet Gudrun, Eisenhorn is assaulted by elite mercenaries who slaughter most of the on-premises staff and entourage. Eisenhorn is forced to flee with a small number of survivors. He soon learned that all of his off-world bases of operation, all of his inquisitorial acolytes, and at least one fellow inquisitor have been killed by coordinated strikes from these same mercenaries. The story then becomes a claustrophobic cat-and-mouse game as Eisenhorn and his allies leapfrog across the surface of Gudrun, trying to find a way off-world that isn’t been monitored by the mercenaries. While doing this, Eisenhorn extracts clues from various mercenaries he captures to discover the identity of the enemy hunting him.
Much like with the handing of the Necroteuch in Xenos and of the identity of Quixos in Malleus, the reveal of Eisenhorn’s enemy is presented as the answer to a mystery that the audience wasn’t given anywhere near enough information to solve before Eisenhorn himself does. This time, though, it actually works.
The reveal is that Pontius Glaw - the main antagonist from Xenos and a secondary antagonist / dark mentor figure in Malleus - is the mastermind pulling the strings. A detail that I glossed over in the Malleus review is that Eisenhorn agreed to commission a mechanical body for Glaw in exchange for Glaw’s help. By Hereticus, Glaw has received this body, escaped captivity (something Eisenhorn wasn’t warned about because Glaw killed his jailor on the way out), and reestablished his Chaos cult on another world. Destroying Eisenhorn is partially about vengeance but also about eradicating the only people who might know he’s still alive.
Glaw is an established loose end from previous books, and his influence on Hereticus is a direct consequence of Eisenhorn’s past character decisions. This is even highlighted as part of one of the book’s thematic discussions. Because of this, the reveal is a functional payoff. Also, while there isn’t enough information to figure out the mystery before Eisenhorn himself does, it is possible for the audience to figure it out before the on-page reveal. The moment that Eisenhorn gets that pivotal clue that leads to this revelation is one where a keen-eyed audience member could say, “Oh, yeah, Glaw’s still out there, and he would fit the available evidence.”
Once the reveal is out of the way, the story becomes a race to stop Glaw’s plans. The plan itself is just another variation of his plan from the first book: recover a powerful Chaos artifact that will upend the order of the galaxy. While this isn’t original, that’s really not important. The thematic conflict takes over the story by this point.
CHARACTER
The character work in this book is much better than its predecessors for the same that Ridoc’s writing in Onyx Storm makes him the only real character in that book: characters who are acknowledged as allies of our protagonist, with the power to serve as a significant obstacle to him, are allowed to challenge him.
It starts small. After fleeing the destruction of his estate, Eisenhorn and his surviving entourage initially shelter with Doctor Crezia Berschilde. (While she is a new character, she builds off the events of the short story “Missing in Action”, as she was the surgeon in charge of replacing the hand Eisenhorn lost in the climax of that story with a cloned graft.) We also learn that she and Eisenhorn had nearly married in the years between “Missing in Action” and this book, though his unrequited feelings for Bequin led him to break things off 25 years prior to the start of this book. Crezia repeatedly challenges Eisenhorn for the way he goes about his business, and her decision to go behind his back (loosening the bonds of a captive whom he’d tied too tightly) helps propel the narrative forward. It’s a small thing, and it does ultimately amount to the character of who criticizes Eisenhorn being in the wrong, yet it’s still a step up from everyone who provides meaningful opposition being a villain or operating on faulty information.
The thematic discussion is where things get properly interesting. Most of the characters in Eisenhorn’s orbit don’t fully appreciate the ramifications of him playing with the powers of Chaos, due to them not have clearance to access that knowledge. (For those not in the know, the knowledge of Chaos quite literally corrupts people in this universe, so the Inquisition makes it a priority to suppress all but the most basic information. Most people know Chaos and the Dark Gods exist, and they could recognize a Chaos cultist, but few have anything close to the knowledge needed to wield that power for themselves.) As a result, they don't share Eisenhorn’s perspective on the morality of him toying with Chaos. While most of this amounts to them assuring Eisenhorn that he did the right thing, it’s not all empty validation. Every character who stands by him does so for reasons that are completely true to who they are. As for the characters who don’t, their perspectives are likewise a product of their origins, so we fully understand why they take the stances that they do.
WORLDBUILDING
What I find fascinating about this book is that all the new worldbuilding is small-scale. Things like Titans, Warp travel, Warp sorcery, and dæmonhosts are all established quantities by this point. What’s new is the exploration of the world of Gudrun that we get as Eisenhorn and his entourage try to reach a space port.
(This is a topic I previously covered while reviewing “Backcloth for a Crown Additional”. If you read that review, please bear with me, as I will be repeating myself.)
Warhammer 40K is a grimdark setting. On the large-scale, everything is horrible. The vast majority of the human population lives in squalor and misery, and that’s when they aren’t facing an existential threat from dæmons or aliens or whatever civil war is currently being fought without their say-so. There are plenty of Fates Worse than Death. Even with what I am about to say, Gudrun is no strange to this latter point, with servitors (lobotomized and cybernetically altered humans, used in the place of AI devices) everywhere, from the orchards of Eisenhorn’s estate to Crezia’s in-home medical clinic. Thousands of innocents are killed as part of the mercenaries wiping out Eisenhorn’s operations, and their deaths get less attention than we’d give a single innocent bystander killed in a drive-by shooting.
And yet, the Gudrun we see is a functional, even thriving, world that isn’t much different from the wealthier nations on Earth. There are idyllic towns, vacation destinations, and vast swathes of untouched nature that is being left in place rather than stripped away by a voracious need for resources. There are overcrowded cities, too, but these aren’t presented as anywhere near as horrific as a cities found on hive-worlds. Gudrun is a perfect example of what Warhammer 40K calls a “Civilized World” - a place where people live out lives much like our own on Earth.
Sure, that means that it’s a place that’s narratively near-irrelevant in the grand scheme of the galaxy, but that’s actually why it is perfect for this story. While Eisenhorn is being pursued across Gudrun, the lack of native threats allow the focus to remain on the hunt. Later, when Eisenhorn does get to travel to an inhospitable, alien locale in the climax, the contrast between that place and Gudrun amplifies the sinister vibes of the climax.
PROSE
For whatever reason, I found myself enjoying Eisenhorn’s narrative voice more than I did in the other books. Maybe it’s simply grown on me, or maybe Abnett had grown comfortable enough with Eisenhorn by this point to make the most narrative use of that voice. I’m curious whether this impression will carry over to The Magos, since that book comes after a decade and a half’s hiatus.
That being said, this book is also a reminder that professionally published books are not immune to typos. There are some odd word choices scattered throughout the text, and at least one punction error involving a misplaced period that made me stumble near the end of the book.
THEME
Hereticus is where the thematic conflict between Puritanism (those inquisitors who believe that the Imperium must strictly adhere to the God-Emperor’s edicts regarding human supremacy and the rejection of Chaos) vs. Radicalism (those who believe in tapping into the knowledge and power of the enemy to better serve humanity) gets properly explored.
Progression
Eisenhorn started this series a member of the Amalathians, a Puritan faction focused on preserving harmony among the Imperium’s various factions while strictly abiding by the God-Emperor’s divine will. He not against the use of psykers and mutants within the hierarchy of the Imperium, but neither does he condone Warp sorcery. This held true throughout Xenos. Malleus saw the start of a shift in his philosophy, but it was mostly Telling us that he was becoming more Radical, with the reveal of the imprisoned dæmonhost of Cherubael and his theft of the Chaos tome Malus Codicium coming across more like last-minute swerves than as meaningful development of his character.
Hereticus changes the game. Setting aside the issue of how he got here, the book opens with Eisenhorn possessing access to the power of Chaos and being fully prepared to use it as a contingency if necessary. The first inciting incident of the book is the moment where he finally needs to activate that contingency, and he has to use more Warp sorcery to clean up the fallout. As he is hunted across Gudrun, Eisenhorn taps into Chaos more readily, using Warp sorcery to turn a corpse into a suicide drone and later creating yet another dæmonhost to cage Cherubael after the dæmon breaks free again. He then uses Cherubael as one of his most potent weapons throughout the climax.
Consequence (Heavy Spoilers)
Eisenhorn does not get away with his use of a dæmonhost in the first inciting incident. Medea and Aemos are both present and survived that event. While they didn’t see Eisenhorn summon Cherubael, they did see him kill another inquisitor to bind the dæmon again.
Both Aemos and Medea are supportive of Eisenhorn. Aemos, who does have the knowledge required to understand what Eisenhorn has done, is troubled by the act but accepts it as as a matter of practical necessity. Medea doesn’t understand the full implications and is simply grateful that Eisenhorn saved her life and avenged her father; if anything, she’s more troubled by the fact that revenge didn’t actually bring her the peace she’d hoped for.
Later, when Glaw’s identity is revealed, Eisenhorn has another crisis of faith. Making a deal with Glaw in order to gain information was arguably a Radical act. Aemos again supports Eisenhorn, this time pointing out a deeper layer to the theme: responsibility. Yes, Eisenhorn has done bad things in the name of saving the Imperium, but the important thing is that he’s ready and willing to address the consequences of his decision. Eisenhorn isn’t doing evil and then turning a blind eye to the cost. With how this is framed, I don’t think it was intended as a magic bullet to end the discussion. It’s just an important layer to consider.
When Tobias Maxilla makes his obligatory Uber pickup to help gather Eisenhorn’s forces, Eisenhorn confides in the rogue trader as well. Maxilla’s perspective is rather simple. He sees himself as a man who acts out of self-interest, while Eisenhorn acts out of principle. Eisenhorn’s actions would be reprehensible if Maxilla himself performed them, but because Eisenhorn’s gaze is always upon doing the right thing, he can’t overstep. It’s an argument that emphasizes Good Intentions while dipping into Ends Justify the Means territory.
Eisenhorn hits a wall when Fischig learns the truth. With how things are framed, Fischig might have condoned everything with the dæmonhost, but the fact Eisenhorn has been engaging in Warp sorcery and hiding this dæmonhost for decades without telling anyone in the entourage destroys Fischig’s trust. As far as he is concerned, the fact Eisenhorn concealed this information and didn’t even try to consult anyone in the entourage is an admission of guilt. Eisenhorn is no better than a Chaos cultist in Fischig’s eyes. This leads to a heated parting of ways between the pair. Fischig then goes to the Inquisition and exposes Eisenhorn, leading to the pursuit identified in the Premise.
Perhaps the detail I like most about this, though, is an interaction Eisenhorn has with one of his former pupils, Gideon Ravenor (a minor character from the early chapters of Malleus, who is the protagonist if the Ravenor Trilogy). It turns out that Ravenor was chasing Glaw already, coming after Glaw’s cult from another direction. Eisenhorn discovers soon after joining Ravenor that his former pupil is also a radical, allying with the eldar and studying their psychic techniques. This makes Eisenhorn incredibly uncomfortable. While both men are equally guilty of heresy in the eyes of the Imperium, Eisenhorn can’t see the equivalence between the two. Killing people and turning corpses into puppets is acceptable to him, but he is revolted that his pupil is friends with a tall man with pointed ears. This reaction adds nuance.
Flaw (Heavy Spoilers)
If I were to identify one flaw with the execution of this theme, it’s that Abnett doesn’t go quite far enough to fully explore all the angles. His focus is on justifying Eisenhorn’s actions. I don’t think this goes far enough to write the whole thing off as a moral power fantasy, but it does wobble in that direction.
The problems start with Fischig. I think it makes an amount of sense for Fischig to be the Puritan voice to counter Eisenhorn. While his beliefs about Puritanism vs. Radicalism have never been previously explored, he has been established as a character with a strong leaning towards law and order (he was a former Arbites, after all). The opening of this book also reinforces the idea that Eisenhorn using Fischig as a moral compass to help himself from diving too deep into Radical behavior. Where Abnett makes a mistake is in pivoting Fischig into a villain role. Eisenhorn doesn’t take Fischig’s opposition into account, writing off the man who was so recently praised as his guiding light as an ignorant extremist. His refusal to even listen leads Fischig to contact the Inquisition. Fischig is then presented as a useful idiot who blindly clings to his ideology even after the Inquisition fails to show Eisenhorn the mercy he was promised. When Eisenhorn tries to escape, not only does Fischig attempt to execute Eisenhorn, not only does he then get killed by Medea, but then Eisenhorn desecrates his corpse to make a new dæmonhost for Cherubael. It’s also spiteful how all this plays out.
Then there are the inquisitors sent after Eisenhorn. These two are minor antagonists from Malleus who were fully invested in railroading Eisenhorn for crimes he didn’t commit, so already, we have a reason to not take their perspective seriously. Abnett then doubles down by revealing that they are more interested in acquiring Cherubael for themselves than they are in executing the heretic in their grasp.
I think that what Abnett was going for with Fischig and the inquisitors was the idea that moderation is important. These characters are meant to be so blinded by their beliefs that they become the very extremists that they accuse Eisenhorn of being. The issue is that Abnett just takes things too far. The counter-argument to Eisenhorn’s approach isn’t so much explored as it is demonized.
On the other side of the spectrum, while Eisenhorn and his allies talk about not becoming the evil they fight, there’s no exploration of why that’s actually bad, nor are there any characters who represent that deeper perspective. The closest we get is that Aemos begins to suffer Chaos corruption. Eisenhorn lends him Malus Codicium to study as part of their investigation into Glaw’s plans, and as a result, Aemos’s sanity begins to erode. However, this ultimately ends up working out for Eisenhorn. Not only does Aemos use Warp sorcery to help Eisenhorn escape the Inquisition, summoning Cherubael for himself, but he also is instrumental in incapacitating Cherubael so the dæmonhost can be bound into Fischig.
Overall Thoughts
I don’t think that having a theme inherently makes a story good. If a narrative is properly crafted around a theme, though, that theme can lend plot events and character decisions far greater weight. It instills a sense of cosmic purpose to the things playing out on the page.
For this reason, if the theme of this book had been better executed, I would have rated it at least an 8, perhaps even an 8.5. Eisenhorn’s progression into Radicalism and his interactions with other people around him takes a story that, in the context of this series, is rather paint-by-numbers is lends it far greater depth. There so much more going on here than just the action scenes.
Where the theme falls short is that Abnett doesn’t commit to fully exploring things. Making Eisenhorn out to be the hero despite the betrayal of his former values was what mattered most. It’s a similar situation to the various bits of commentary we see in The Empyrean. I think that Abnett does put in the effort needed to avoid sinking to those depths, particularly with the acknowledgment of consequences and Eisenhorn’s unwillingness to embrace other forms of heresy. It’s just that there was so much more than needed to be explored here for the story to earn this message of responsibility and moderation that it seemed to be going for.
OUT OF THE DARKNESS
On the whole, I do find Hereticus to be both a satisfying novel on its own and a fine end to the original Eisenhorn trilogy. Warhammer 40K is an acquired taste, so I won’t go so far as to wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone and everyone. What I can say is that, if you’re looking to check out WH40K or just want a gritty space opera story, the trilogy is worth reading to get to this final entry.
ENDINGS
December is going to be a busy month. Some of this was already covered by the winter schedule announcement last week, but I have a little more detail at this point.
On the Warhammer 40K front, we have “The Keeler Image” this Sunday, November 30th, as well as The Magos on December 26th.
For content related to The Empyrean, we’ll be bringing the analysis of Onyx Storm to its conclusion this month, as well as reviewing the bonus content version of Chapter 9 of Fourth Wing on December 17th.
As promised months ago, we’ll be returning to Magnetic Magic with a review of Book 4, Quest of the Wolf, on December 12th.
Next Tuesday, December 2nd, we’ll be wrapping up the review series for Sky Shielder.
The other big thing going on this month is an ARC copy review. Some of you may be familiar with my breakdown of The Queen of Vorn, the unpublished novel by Charlotte Goodwin. The re-release version of that book, Path to Power (Goodwin rebranded the entire series, though she’s recycling the same cover art) is currently slated for a February 20th release. I got onto Goodwin’s ARC team and was sent a copy for review. Properly reviewing this thing is going to take three weeks. You can look forward to that on Tuesdays from December 9th through December 23rd.
Whatever you’re here for, thanks for stopping by. Please remember to subscribe for the newsletter if you’d like a weekly e-mail update with the latest post links, and share this review with others if you enjoyed it. Until next time, take care, and have a good weekend.
