The Magos (An Eisenhorn Novel)

Welcome, all. We’ve finally reached the end (for now, at least) of Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn’s novels. If you haven’t already checked out my reviews of the previous entries, I encourage you to do so. Otherwise, let’s dive once more into the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium.

STATS

Title: The Magos

Series: Eisenhorn

Author(s): Dan Abnett

Genre: Science Fiction (Space Opera)

First Printing: 2018

Publisher: Black Library (Games Workshop Publishing)

SPOILER WARNING

Mild spoilers for The Magos 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, Malleus, and Hereticus - and for the short stories included in Eisenhorn: The Omnibus will be provided throughout this review. I’ll also assume that you’ve read my reviews of those books, though this 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 The Magos.

Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn has spent his life stalking the darkest and most dangerous limits of the Imperium in pursuit of heresy and Chaos. But how long can a man walk that path without succumbing to the lure of the Warp? Is Eisenhorn still a champion of the Throne, or has he been seduced by the very evil that he hunts?

Warhammer 40,000’s most beloved anti-hero finally returns in a stunning new novel that pits him against his oldest and most constant foe, and forces him to confront the true darkness of his own self.

Reaction

This premise is not entirely inaccurate, but it is mostly fluff.

To get the big lie out of the way: no, The Magos does not put Eisenhorn against “his oldest and most constant foe”, unless one tries to argue that refers to Chaos itself (which is fine if that is indeed the case, but the Archenemy is the foe of everyone not on its team, so this really waters down the narrative concept of “enemy”). His foes in this book are the Cognitae, and by extension, the King in Yellow. Given how the books of the original Eisenhorn Trilogy established Pontius Glaw and Cherubael as the closest thing Eisenhorn had to recurring antagonists, while the Cognitae were first associated with him in “The Keeler Image”, fluffing up the Cognitae like this feels every bit as forced (albeit less damaging) as what Paolini did with Bachel in Murtagh. Maybe there’s something in the Ravenor novels (which I do plan to go through) that will better explain this, but for now, I am underwhelmed by what this premise tries to set up.

Aside from that, the story does toy with the question of how far Eisenhorn can go down the road of Radicalism and with him confronting his inner darkness. It only toys with these ideas, though. You can see the shape of what Abnett was going for, but in execution, not nearly enough time is spent exploring it for it to feel meaningful.

There’s also a rather important question that needs to be asked …

Is This Really An Eisenhorn Novel?

Eisenhorn is not the main character of this book. If anything, the titular Magos, Valentin Drusher, is.

Drusher is a Magos Biologis (a biologist) who lives in the world of Gershom, forced into early retirement by a lack of demand for his services and an inability to travel elsewhere to advance his career. The story begins with him being recruited into Eisenhorn’s retinue to help with an ongoing case. Most of the story is experienced through his POV, with secondary characters occassionally taking over. Eisenhorn only serves as POV for a handful of action sequences in the back half of the book, when the retinue is split up due to circumstances. Most of the character development also goes to Drusher, with him being forced by strenuous circumstances to be more decisive and to stand up to danger.

This is where the shape of Eisenhorn’s character arc comes into play. Drusher quickly figures out that Eisenhorn is a renegade inquisitor and calls him out for both his hypocrisy and his callous handling of the lives around him. Eisenhorn’s battle with the inner darkness is less about him developing and more about him creating situations that force Drusher to develop. In the climax, the pivotal character decisions that dictates the ending of the story is Drusher’s, not Eisenhorn’s.

Furthermore, outside of events that may have made Eisenhorn into an even more powerful psyker than he already was, this story doesn't leave a discernable impact on Eisenhorn. He starts the book as a renegade and ends it as a renegade. At most, it feels like he’s here so he can get a plot coupon for admission into Bequin’s series (which I plan to do after the Ravenor books).

I do think this book is a great addition to the overall Eisenhorn mythos. Giving us a outsider's perspective of him and showing how he impacts the lives of strangers makes him feel more nuanced. That’s particularly important after Hereticus, a book that seemed more eager to be an Eisenhorn apologist than to actually explore the thematic significance of his actions. It’s just that is reads like a book that Eisenhorn was tagged onto, rather than a book that is truly about him.

RATING: 7/10

This is a very enjoyable book. While Drusher is not a particular aspirational hero, he is very sympathetic, and it's great to read how he comes into his own in a crisis. The Cognitae are also a refreshing take on the threat of Chaos. After dealing with dæmons and cultists in the previous books, it's interesting to read a book where the Chaos-based antagonists are just people trying to use Chaos for their own ends (in this case, the dismantling of the Imperium) rather than outright Chaos worshippers.

The main thing to note about this one, per what we covered above, is that it really isn't an Eisenhorn story, just a story that includes Eisenhorn. That doesn't make it a bad story. It's just that, if you picked up The Magos because you wanted to read an Eisenhorn story, you will likely be disappointed by this book.

TIMELINE

The Magic is set in 475.M41. That puts it 89 years after the events of Hereticus (386.M41) and 10 years after the events of “The Keeler Image” (465.M41). It also comes 25 years before the first Bequin novel, Pariah (500.M41).

CONTENT WARNING

The levels of violence, gore, and general brutality in this book are consistent with the books of the original Eisenhorn Trilogy. There are zombies reanimated by Warp sorcery and a scene where Eisenhorn uses his psyker abilities to torture a woman to death. It’s unpleasant stuff. As is also consistent with previous entries, though, this is never overdone or self-indulgent. At worst, Abnett is leaning into deep into the grimdark vibes.

PLOT

The story begins as a slow-burn mystery, much like the previous Eisenhorn books.

Drusher is recruited into Eisenhorn's retinue because Eisenhorn needs to rule out the possiblity that a large number of deaths (including one of his adepts) is due to an animal attack rather than a Cognitae operation. This is a somewhat weak premise, but Abnett at least does something interesting with it. Drusher uses the fact that Eisenhorn recruited him, versus bringing in someone more qualified form off-world, to figure out that Eisenhorn is a renegade. Drusher then helps decipher clues needed to help Eisenhorn find the Cognitae operation.

Once the Cognitae operation is located, the mystery is dropped in favor of action. Roughly half the book is a running sequence of fights, with the members of Eisenhorn’s retinue pairing up or separating as circumstances shift. This is when Eisenhorn finally gets POV chapters and when story tries to engage with the internal conflict set up in the premise.

Overall, I do feel like this plot is functional. The twists don’t feel unsupported or forced, as was the case in the trilogy books. The transition from mystery to orue action also feels like a natural progression. It’s a simple story, and that works fine in this case.

The one major flaw I see here is the plot coupon issue. Most of the story reads like a standalone story, or perhaps the first book or a new trilogy. Then, in the climax, Eisenhorn has what I can best describe as a vision from the Warp, and in that vision, Bequin appears to him and starts dumping exposition needed to get him into her series. Suddenly, this story that was standing strong on its own becomes one of those prequels to explain some obscure element that could have been handled more efficiently with a throwaway line of dialogue. This flaw wasn’t so huge as to ruin the story, but it did suck a lot of energy out of the climax. It was explicit confirmation within the narrative that Eisenhorn would prevail, coming before the final moments of peril.

CHARACTER

Valentin Drusher is honestly the best part of this book. He’s a regular guy, down on his luck, who gets a chance to find out what he’s truly made of when thrown up against the machinations of Chaos. This revealing of his true character also gives him a chance to stand up to Eisenhorn in a way that most other characters can’t or won’t. My only real complaint about Drusher is that there are a few moments where his standing up to Eisenhorn verges into fanfiction territory. I’m not saying that Eisenhorn can’t be stymied by some random recruit and forced to think about his life as a result, but there’s just something about the way this altercations are framed that doesn't feel entirely natural. This is a small quibble, though. Drusher’s story overall is excellent.

Eisenhorn is a very different animal. I don’t think his characterization is mishandled. It’s just that he’s more interesting from Drusher’s POV than his own. The outsider perspective shows us an Eisenhorn who has been work down by the centuries and made bitter by his decades as a renegade. Once we slip into his POV, we’re shown a man who hasn’t changed since the end of Hereticus, to the point that events that are meant to be framed as him confronting his inner darkness feel like he’s just going through the motions.

Due to most of Eisenhorn’s retinue either dying or parting ways with him at the end of Hereticus, most of the secondary characters are new. The only returning cast members are Medea Benticore, who sits out most of the story, and, Harlon Nayl, who serves as a sort of mentor figure to Drusher on the hard realities of being in an inquisitor’s retinue. Of the new characters, the only one of note is Germaine Macks, an Arbites assigned to Gershom and Valentin’s ex-wife, who is recruited to aid Eisenhorn’s investigation prior to the start of story and who recommends Drusher when the need for a Magos Biologis is identified.

As far as I can tell, The Magos is the introduction of the King in Yellow into Eisenhorn’s stories. Again, I haven’t yet read the Ravenor novels, so maybe there’s most history there. All we really get here is that the King in Yellow is the Big Bad lurking behind the Cognitae. (The only other thing I know about the King in Yellow at this time is that there’s apparently lore about him maybe being a former Custodes. If so, this would make him an incredibly daunting opponent even before Warp sorcery gets involved.)

WORLDBUILDING

While most of the concepts introduced in this book (again, as far as Eisenhorn’s stories are concerned) are just extensions of past lore. There's a Warp language called Enuncia that can be used for incredible acts of sorcery, but that’s not exactly a game-changing bit of lore in a world where psychic dæmons can be hurt by prayers. Much if the action occurs in a pocket universe between real space and the Warp - again, not exactly rewriting the laws of the universe.

The one reveal that I find rather wild is what the Cognitae are up to in this story. They've built a Warp machine called the Loom and are using it to built artificial dæmon bodies to house human souls. Imagine if the Avatars in Avatar were psychic constructs that were nigh-impervious to physical damage and could twist reality around themselves. Apparently, the Cognitae have already made a handful of these things and sent them to the King in Yellow. This is something I really hope is followed up on. It is the kind of development that can radically impact stakes in future Warhammer 40K stories, or at least the stories of any characters clashing with the King in Yellow.

PROSE

The most noteworthy change from the Eisenhorn Trilogy is the shift to 3rd Person POV. This allows Abnett to POV-hop between chapters and scenes, though he's mostly consistent about holding on whatever POV he started a given scene with. It also means that the original framing device of the trilogy and short stories - that they are personal accounts that Eisenhorn has recorded of his adventures - is dropped.

I don't think that this is inherently a good or bad change. It works for the story being told. The sense of this being an outsider’s perspective of an Eisenhorn adventure is enhanced. The narrative voice is also significantly different from the Eisenhorn Trilogy, with even Eisenhorn’s POV chapters being affected by it.

THEME

The Magos is a Warhammer 40K novel about the Power of Friendship.

Drusher and Eisenhorn both begin the novel as highly isolated individuals. Drusher lives alone after a life that hasn't gone the way he hoped it would, while Eisenhorn has become so mistrustful of the galaxy and so fixated on his mission that he no longer even values the lives of his retinue. The stress of this adventure forces both to prioritize what they value. Drusher, having found himself surrounded by people again, chooses to prioritize finding and helping the other members of the retinue, while Eisenhorn is prepared to abandon everyone in the name of destroying the Loom and killing the present Cognitae members. The fallout of these decisions is what drives the events of roughly the back third of the book.

While the handling and resolution of this thematic conflict isn't particularly deep or nuanced, I think it works for the story being told. This is a grimdark setting. Friendship isn’t going to solve everything, but messages about finding hope and strength with one’s comrades are appropriate here.

A RETURN TO FORM

The Magos is a decent story, and I did enjoy reading it. Just make sure that you manage your expectations. If you are here because you want an Eisenhorn adventure, this book will probably feel lacking, if not outright frustrating due to the plot coupon elements bear the end. However, if you are open to a Warhammer 40K adventure that just happens to feature a prominent character, I think you will enjoy this.

THE DARKNESS ENDURING

Next on the docket for Warhammer 40K content are the Ravenor novels. I have an e-book edition of Ravenor - The Omnibus, which includes the three Ravenor novels as well as three short stories. By the time this post publishes, I’ll have already finished reading and drafting the reviews for the first two novels, Ravenor and Ravenor Returned.

I’d like to maintain this pace of one Warhammer 40K book per month, and I’d also like to review the short stories in something resembling chronological order. Thus the tentative release schedule for these future reviews is as follows:

• Sunday, January 18th: “Playing Patience”

• Friday, January 23rd: Ravenor

• Sunday, February 15th: “Thorn Wishes Talon”

• Friday, February 20th: Ravenor Returned

• Friday, March 20th: Ravenor Rogue

• Sunday, March 22nd: “Perihelion”

I’m hoping to proceed to the Bequin novels in April. We’ll see how things go.

And, of course, we have plenty of non-Warhammer content coming. Next Friday, January 2nd, we’ll kick off the new year with the final retrospective of the Onyx Storm review series. The Friday after that, March 13th, we’ll be continuing Magnetic Magic with Book 5, Curse of the Wolf.

Whatever you're here for, thanks for stopping by. Please remember to subscribe if you haven't already to receive the weekly newsletter, and please share this review with others if you enjoyed it. Take care, everyone, and have a great weekend.