A Thousand Sons is a landmark book in the Heresy series. As well as being one of my personal favourites, it was the first Horus Heresy novel to make the New York Times' bestsellers list. Before A Thousand Sons the Heresy series was still finding its feet, occasionally misfiring in its search for dynamic storylines that would highlight the scope of tragedy of the civil war. Not only did A Thousand Sons succeed in doing this, it marked the beginning of a golden age that saw the Horus Heresy become Black Library's flagship series.
A Thousand Sons is the story of, surprise surprise, the Thousand Sons Legion and their primarch, Magnus the Red. The Thousand Sons are a legion of psykers, steeped in occult lore and mistrusted by the greater Imperium for the arcane powers they wield. The tragedy of this doomed legion is that despite their deviant culture they are extremely loyal, misunderstood warrior-scholars who act for the benefit of those who despise them. Their downfall is hubris, a fatal flaw which drove Magnus to assume mastery over the Warp and so become a pawn of Tzeentch. A Thousand Sons makes no attempt to hide its eponymous legion's arrogance, but this seems like a mild imperfection compared to the blind, hypocritical bigotry of the Space Wolves, the Thousand Sons' rival Legion. The single-minded Wolves are a foil to the Sons throughout the novel, providing set-up for their fateful confrontation at the end. The novel is in no hurry to get there though, opening on the desert world of Aghoru and meandering through the warzone of the Ark Reach Cluster before briefly stopping off at Ullanor on the way to Nikaea.
A Thousand Sons bears witness to the greatest events leading up to the Heresy, and none is more central to the plot than the Council of Nikaea, also known as the Trial of Magnus the Red. Forced to defend his use of pysker powers, Magnus has his greatest moment during the Council, putting aside his ego and righteousness to deliver a transcendent raison d'etre for humanity's use of the Warp. However, the Emperor sees farther than all and bans the Legions' use of psyker powers. Magnus in his well-meaning arrogance disobeys in order to prevent Horus's fall, and so invites damnation.
The resulting Battle of Prospero is one of the best battle scenes in the Heresy series. It ends in tragedy and defeat for the Thousand Sons and the first step along their road to heresy, but in that moment no-one could see them as wrong. The power of A Thousand Sons is that it perfectly encapsulates this tragedy, delivering a resonant chapter in the Heresy series with the style and skill of Graham McNeill at his best. It is a must-read.
