Chris Wraight’s novel Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris – the eighth in the Primarchs series – is unusual amongst the series in that it’s essentially a direct prequel to his main-range Horus Heresy stories. Told across several short arcs spanning years of the Great Crusade, the emphasis is on Jaghatai’s and his Legion’s determination to go their own way and retain their unique identity. Even while battling orks in the run up to Ullanor, and slowly being dragged into the debate around the use of psykers in the Legions, Jaghatai wrestles with his instinct to avoid the politics of the changing Imperium.
There are plenty of familiar faces here, but a few less-familiar ones too. Jaghatai is definitely centre stage, along with Yesugei as you’d expect, but it’s great to have the chance to spend time with an earlier iteration of Hasik Noyan-Khan as well, and see a little of what influenced his character and his later choices. A few other primarchs show up too, and there’s some nice foreshadowing of Jaghatai’s relationship with both Horus and Mortarion. Narratively we get lots of interesting ideas to think about, not least in terms of the ongoing psyker debate within the Legions, how the Stormseers fit within the White Scars and how they’re seen by the other Legions. It all gradually builds up as Jaghatai is increasingly drawn into the inter-primarch debate about the Librarius that will eventually develop into the Council of Nikaea.
Each of the sections is relatively short so it all feels nice and pacy, with everything hanging together as a cohesive whole by virtue of the themes running throughout – these aren’t just disconnected short stories, but carefully chosen scenes which work together to build up a fascinating picture of the Khan and his Legion at this point. Of course it helps that Wraight’s writing is so good, as it’s an absolute pleasure to read each page, and there are so many characterful touches to his White Scar characters that help to really set his depiction of this Legion apart. The episodic structure is definitely unusual but it works in context of the short word count for this series, and helps balance out the action against the wider character development.
While some of the Primarchs series have shown us new perspectives on these characters, from authors who haven’t previously been associated with them, this one is different in that it demonstrates the impact of a single cohesive vision for the Legion, and the characters in question. It’s not essential to have read the main-range White Scars stories to be able to enjoy this, but it probably works best read last as a way of stepping back and contextualising some of what happened in Brotherhood of the Storm, Scars and The Path of Heaven. However you choose to read it, this is a cleverly constructed and thought-provoking book which ties in beautifully with the other Heresy-era White Scars stories, and provides yet more depth and fascinating detail to the Khan and his sons.
Check out the main Horus Heresy reviews page on Track of Words.
