The Emperor's Soul: A Cosmere Novella (Cosmere Universe)

by Brandon Sanderson

From the bestselling author of the Mistborn Trilogy and co-author of the final three books of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series comes the tale of a heretic thief who may be an Empire's only hope for survival.

Shai is a Forger: a foreigner who can flawlessly re-create any item by rewriting its history using skillful magic . . . although she's currently condemned to death after trying to steal the emperor's sceptre, she has one last opportunity to save herself. The emperor has barely survived an assassination attempt, he needs a new soul and, despite viewing her skill as a Forger an abomination, her captors have turned to Shai for help.

Skillfully deducing her captors plans, Shai know the first thing she needs is a perfect escape plan. but in the meantime, her fate and that of the empire lies in completing an impossible task: is it possible to create a forgery so convincing that it's better than the soul itself?

• ISBN10: 1473212642
• ISBN13: 9781473212640
• Publish Date: 17 December 2015 (first published 10 October 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gollancz
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 144
• Language: English

Reviews

[Metaphorosis Reviews]

reviews.metaphorosis.com

4.0 stars

Shai, a "Forger", is caught replacing a painting, and forced to create a fake soul for a severely injured emperor.

Brandon Sanderson's approach, as he admits in an afterword, is to develop magic systems that operate according logical, vaguely scientific principles - an approach he demonstrated to good effect on his debut, Mistborn. In some ways, it's quite similar to L.E. Modesitt's Recluce series, but less topheavy, and with better story. In The Emperor's Soul, he does more of the same.

Much of the story is devoted to an exploration of the mechanism of soulstamps - the tools Forgers use to alter an item's history (and thus its present substance). It's interesting and well thought out. But Sanderson never loses track of the fact that we're reading this for story - the magic system is just a support. And despite a limited environment - Shai is locked in her room, and interacts with a handful of people - he provides a full, balanced story.

This is a novella, but I'd have been happy to read more. The story is based in the same world as Elantris, though I didn't see any major links. In any case, a very good book from a very consistent and satisfying writer.

[zyarose]

What can I say that probably isn't always said about Brandon Sanderson?

The magic system is, as usual, amazing. Slowly revealing the magic system's in the way he does is a treat, watching the pieces unravel before you feels decadent at times. The Emperor's Soul was a simple book, comparatively speaking to a lot of other Sanderson books - not too many overly complicated politics, or mysteries are revealed. Instead we follow the life of a magic user who has been jailed in a world where the magic is all but outlawed. She gets given a second chance (of sorts) to save the Empire. I loved the main character and the way her evolution was shown and how her thinking was laid out so you could read and watch her transition.

The descriptions of the forging and the complexity of the magic will stay with me, as well as the weight of the book. For something so simple, the religious discussions, the discussions on belief and reality, and the idea of the self were fantastic and weighty.

[jnikkir]

And we have another winner!

Review to come, but for now my 5 stars should say enough.