Legion
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4.8 • 28 Ratings
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
Now also available in the complete collection Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds.
A novella from #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Legion is a fast-paced, witty, and supremely fun thriller with a psychological bent.
Stephen Leeds is perfectly sane. It’s his hallucinations who are mad.
A genius of unrivaled aptitude, Stephen can learn any new skill, vocation, or art in a matter of hours. However, to contain all of this, his mind creates hallucinatory people—Stephen calls them aspects—to hold and manifest the information. Wherever he goes, he is joined by a team of imaginary experts to give advice, interpretation, and explanation. He uses them to solve problems…for a price.
His brain is getting a little crowded, however, and the aspects have a tendency of taking on lives of their own. When a company hires him to recover stolen property—a camera that can allegedly take pictures of the past—Stephen finds himself in an adventure crossing oceans and fighting terrorists. What he discovers may upend the foundation of three major world religions—and, perhaps, give him a vital clue into the true nature of his aspects.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reality and illusion, sanity and insanity, are but subjective labels in this thought-provoking foray into a world where visions abound like the biblical demons the title evokes. Narrator Stephen Leeds, also known as "Master Legion," alternately describes himself as schizophrenic and asserts his own sanity, even though his "hallucinations... are all quite mad." Sanderson (the Mistborn series) sends them all to Jerusalem on a mission to retrieve a camera that may be able to photograph past events. Its inventor, Balubal Razon, has stolen it to photograph the resurrected Jesus. The engaging if madcap events of this outr narrative unobtrusively prompt the reader to reflect on the nature of reality. Complications pile on to expand the divergence from normality ("Your hallucination has hallucinations") even as mainstream philosophical issues are addressed in an Alice's Tea Party atmosphere. The conclusion is left clouded in ambiguity, and Sanderson suggests that the big questions may be beyond our ability to resolve.
Customer Reviews
Agreed
I, too, hope this character sees the light of day again!
Original and thought provoking
This is undoubtedly the most original storyline that I've read in years. The author has created an extremely complex character with 'aspects' of his own brilliant mind brought to 'life.'
Additionally, the idea and implications of a camera taking pictures of the past is very thought provoking with many pros and cons brought forward within the pages of this book.
A very interesting read.
Loved it
I loved this book. I hope he goes back and does more on this character