The Magos by Dan Abnett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have been hauntingly melancholic since I reached the middle section of the last short story in this book title The Magos. There is spoilers and I pretty much want to just get my thoughts on this page rather than give a review or recommendation. By the end of this, you will know what this story means to me.
Everytime Dan Abnett brings up Thracian Primaris, my heart breaks. Characters I’ve lost returned to speak with Eisenhorn close to the end of the story and each character, Titus Endor, Aemos, Midas were each lashings upon my soul. Oh, sweet Cherubael. I felt the punch in my gut when they spoke to Eisenhorn of regrets and longing as old friends would speak where they still alive. Gideon Ravenor and his promise to hunt Eisenhorn down is such a tragedy.
But the nail in my heart was Alizabeth Bequin. Since we came across her in the Eisenhorn trilogy she has been near and dear to me. When she was placed in stasis and then lost, I felt the loss as if she were a family member. I feel the heartache that Eisenhorn felt in this story as he speaks to her in a way he never did when she was alive. I feel the sorrow of the chasm between them in my soul as if it were my own.
I remember who I was when I read the very first Eisenhorn story and to finish reading this book now I feel as Eisenhorn does. Old. Beaten. Starving. Yet, with drive and determination to continue to move forward. I have grown with this series and this beautiful yet haunting end just makes me somber in the face of the end of the story. There is one final piece of the puzzle left in Pandemonium and I don’t know if I am ready for it. I cannot bear to think of losing Eisenhorn, or Beta Bequin, or the “angel”.
Final thoughts. This story is so close to my soul. I am at a crossroads in my life personally and this sentence on page 580 spoke volumes into me. “It takes balls for a man to go into a fight when he knows how to fight. It takes a damn sight more to go in when he doesn’t. Not to have a clue but to go for it anyway. Balls of steel.”
“Head full of stupid.”
This will be my light for the next few years as I venture onward. Anyway, this story and it’s wondrous arcs are my favorite, and it means so much to me.
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Author J.M. Topp 