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Out of the entire collection of novels within the Black Library, never have I read a 40k book with such emotion. This book is by far one of Abnett's best, right next to Gaunt's Ghosts and the Ravenor trilogy. Eisenhorn, unlike so many others in this dark millennium, actually has a sense of morality and understanding with the people around him. The final book of Hereticus had put me at a loss for words and made me look back from the very beginning with the hunt for Ecyclone back on Hubris. It felt almost as if you were part of the journey. The novel gave me more of an emotional connection than let's say Catcher in the Rye or The Great Gatsby. I've never read a 40k novel until this, and it really opened my mind to reading.

However, one of the things that kept me perplexed was that unlike most books, this one had no central theme, almost no symbolism, or any literary devices. I mean, what was the message Abnett was trying to get across? Here is my analysis:

The central theme that's revolved around the Eisenhorn trilogy is the idea of duality of man which
is exemplified through Eisenhorn's descent into heresy. Cherubael, a daemonhost enslaved by Inquisitor Quixos, ultimately is the incarnation
of what Gregor will become. When Gregor first meets the daemon, he is applaud by the monstrosity of the corrupt, decaying, warp tainted creature. However, over time Eisenhorn himself also slowly decays and corrupts into something that he's not. Cherubael often hints at Gregor that they are one of the same person but at the same time they are not. The daemonhost symbolizes all that is unholy with the approach of radicalism and Gregor during the events of Xenos representing the inner being of what it means to be puritan. However, as the trilogy progresses, Eisenhorn questions his own authority and his own traditional approaches. It becomes apparent that during the events of Malleus, Gregor is getting nowhere as far as finding Quixos, Cherubael, Prophaniti, and the dozens of psykers who escaped during the Thracian Primarsis tragedy. At this point, Eisenhorn is faced with his innermost conflict. Out of the entirety of his career, always sticking by the book, always playing by the rules and always kicking it old school, where do you draw the line? Every resource that Eisenhorn has ever had at his disposal is diminished. Only a small few are left in his retinue, and at that point he has nothing left to lose. He makes the decision to cross the line into radicalism and down the path of heresy. Over the course of a few hundred years, Eisenhorn has turned into something that is almost foreign to the Gregor he once knew from Xenos. In a way, if we were to turn Eisenhorn inside out, we would see a being much like Cherubael, tainted, damned, corrupted.

Overall, this was one of the best introduction books into the 40k universe and would highly recommend it to anybody willing to put in the time and effort.


And now, I write this while awaiting for the next book
in the Bequin trilogy: Penitent.

You pretty much nailed it. Eisenhorn is the story of how far a righteous man will go when he is doing 'the right thing'...

Yeah, goes full circle from actively hunting radicals and such to employing methods the same or worse than those he used to despise.

Staring into darkness too long, in the end he fell to its spell.
Including using your oldest and most trusted retinue to host a deamon, a trainee inquisitor and basicaly going pretty much as radical as a inquisitor can go without bat gak chaos crazy.

Well, to be fair, Uber didn't give him a lot of choice on that one.

Eh, I think Eisenhorn still skirts the edge of full Radical. Unlike the men he fights who have fully fallen, Eisenhorn still has enough of his old self to pull himself from the brink- and he also knows to keep his pet daemonhost on a leash so tight it chokes. While he partially has become the thing he used to despise so, enough of his humanity remains to pull him away from Chaos.

Cherubael at the end of Hereticus is much, much more loosely bound than Cherubael at the start of Hereticus.

However, one of the things that kept me perplexed was that unlike most books, this one had no central theme, almost no symbolism, or any literary devices. I mean, what was the message Abnett was trying to get across?

40k novels are, almost entirely, pulp fiction. That is to say, there's no deeper meaning or hidden message. It is exactly what it says it is. Even in the Eisenhorn series, this is brought up early on, where it is commented, regarding Inquisitors, that Radicalism is not a question of "if" but "when".

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Cherubael at the end of Hereticus is much, much more loosely bound than Cherubael at the start of Hereticus.

Confined isn't the same as bound, cherubael was confined in eisenhorns estate, but was no where as "bound" as at the end of hereticus, several notable passages even state this, as another poster said, the choke chain was on.

 Formosa wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Cherubael at the end of Hereticus is much, much more loosely bound than Cherubael at the start of Hereticus.

Confined isn't the same as bound, cherubael was confined in eisenhorns estate, but was no where as "bound" as at the end of hereticus, several notable passages even state this, as another poster said, the choke chain was on.

While Cherubael is active during the first part of Hereticus, he's thrice-bound. The choke-chain is "tight" as Wyzilla puts it. He's got a tiny fraction of his true power available to him.

When Cherubael is bound again on the Essene, he is not thrice-bound. He has about three quarters of his full power available to him. About the only thing stopping him going on a rampage and acting freely is that he still has to obey the letter of Gregor's orders.

I've thought of Eisenhorn as similar to, of all things, the Odyssey. A journey spanning ages over which the main character's companions die and are replaced, and how his adventures change him.

Two friends of mine got into 40k after reading it.