Legion and The Emperor's Soul
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
The internationally bestselling author of the Mistborn and Stormlight Archive series presents two very different novellas that nevertheless showcase his remarkable gift for gripping narrative, world-building and empathetic characters. Available for the first time in one volume, a publishing event for all his many fans.
LEGION
Stephen Leeds, AKA 'Legion', is a man whose unique mental condition allows him to generate a multitude of personae: hallucinatory entities with a wide variety of personal characteristics and a vast array of highly specialised skills. As the story begins, Leeds and his 'aspects' are drawn into the search for the missing Balubal Razon, inventor of a camera whose astonishing properties could alter our understanding of human history and change the very structure of society. The action ranges from the familiar environs of America to the ancient, divided city of Jerusalem. Along the way, Sanderson touches on a formidable assortment of complex questions: the nature of time, the mysteries of the human mind, the potential uses of technology, and the volatile connection between politics and faith. Resonant, intelligent, and thoroughly absorbing, LEGION is a provocative entertainment from a writer of great originality and seemingly limitless gifts.
THE EMPEROR'S SOUL
When Shai is caught replacing the Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she must bargain for her life. An assassin has left the Emperor Ashravan without consciousness, a circumstance concealed only by the death of his wife. If the emperor does not emerge after his 100-day mourning period, the rule of the Heritage Faction will be forfeit and the empire will fall into chaos.
Shai is given an impossible task: to create - to Forge - a new soul for the emperor in less than 100 days. But her soul-Forgery is considered an abomination by her captors. She is confined to a tiny, dirty chamber, guarded by a man who hates her, spied upon by politicians, and trapped behind a door sealed in her own blood. Shai's only possible ally is the emperor's most loyal councillor, Gaotona, who struggles to understand her true talent.
Time is running out for Shai. Forging, while deducing the motivations of her captors, she needs a perfect plan to escape...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The quest for a stolen corpse in an alternate present-day U.S. dominates this sequel to 2012's Legion. Yol Chay, owner of Innovation Information Incorporated, sends investigator Stephen Leeds in search of Panos Maheras, a researcher whose body may hold the key to stopping a well-intentioned but disastrous project to store computing data in human cells. Leeds musters his corporeal friends and 47 personalities, called aspects, to investigate amid pursuit by Zen Rigby, a hired assassin working for rival high-tech company Exeltec. Continuing the theme of Legion, Sanderson explores Leeds's efforts to understand his independent-minded aspects and his need for them. Discussions of quantum physics and the infinity of time lend a slightly contrived profundity to Leeds's examination of reality and illusion, as he muses, "I'm not crazy, I'm compartmentalized." Alas, Sanderson fails to take this debate into the broader world; the sometimes flighty, sometimes assertive aspects are intriguing, but the conceptual basis of the work is never developed beyond sitcom level.