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.
I’m a long time fan of Sanderson, so I try to check out all his works eventually. This one is about a schizophrenic who has harnessed his delusions–each of which has unique skills–in order to become a master of multiple fields. In this case, he’s hired to investigate a stolen camera that supposedly can take pictures of the past.
What I liked:
Obviously, the premise is unique. The story is short and reads quickly, picking up speed as it goes along. As with most of Sanderson’s works, by the time I got very far at all, I was immersed in the fictional dream and caught up in the plot–what he does best.
What I didn’t like:
The beginning took me a little longer than usual (for Sanderson) for me to feel drawn in. It fairness, this was only an issue in comparison with other works of the author himself. I liked Legion and I would read the next one without doubt, but I don’t find it quite as fine a work as some of his other pieces.
Who I’d recommend it for:
Anyone who likes speculative fiction. It doesn’t clearly fit into any genre. You could call it sci-fi or urban fantasy, sort of. But really, it’s almost it’s own little branch of spec-fic. And that works for me.
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