Legion by Brandon Sanderson
September 10, 2012
Dragonsteel Entertainment
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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.
First sentence: “My name is Stephen Leeds, and I am perfectly sane.”
Brandon Sanderson does it again. And by again, I mean win my bookish heart.
This is, by far, the best book novella I have read. I had no expectations for this book and I was, simply, blown away by how much I enjoyed it. I love everything in this – the story, the characters, the humor, the mystery. EVERYTHING.
Legion is about Stephen Leeds, an unconventional detective who is schizophrenic and sees hallucinations (or aspects as he calls it) that lend their expertise to aid him in his investigations of unique problems. He is asked to find Balubal Razon who stole a camera that can take photos of the past and recover it.
The story isn’t so much about the mysterious camera, but about Stephen Leeds and his aspects. They are the best part! Each of them are an expert in different things (like J.C. who is handy with weapons and security, or Armando who is a photography expert), and seeing them work is fascinating. They are strangely efficient. They never let Stephen down. It makes me wonder about these aspects and why they know so much. Is it because those aspects are Stephen’s way of coping with his intellect? Or is it something that is one of those unexplainable phenomena?
(For some reason, I imagined J.C. as Jayne from Firefly. Now I can’t get rid of that image!)
I love the bits of humor when the aspects talk to each other or Stephen. I’m pretty sure I had a grin on my face every time they bicker. I can see how much they care for each other; they are a family, even if they are hallucinations. They make my heart soar. SO MUCH LOVE FOR THAT.
When Stephen tracks down the mysterious time-traveling camera, I felt a bit let down with it, [spoiler]the whole religion vs. science debate and the terrorism issue[/spoiler] because I thought it could’ve been done better and developed on more. I felt like that plot was rushed, almost like information was thrown at me before I could put on my catcher’s mitt. I couldn’t process everything and some things just went over my head. However, my disappointment with that plot doesn’t make me want to rate Legion low.
The only question I have at the moment is: why is this novella not a full-length book? I WANT MOARRR. I have a lot of unanswered questions about the aspects and everything! AND I need more interactions between Stephen and his aspects. GIVE ME MOARRR.
From the sounds of things I’d say the plot was rushed because of the length. And I’m surprised this is only a novella! You could explore so many sideplots and things in a full length novel, and it sounds interesting and complicated enough to be able to last that long.
Anyway, I am very very intrigued by the sound of this. (And may or may not want this power because it’d be really handy, except I don’t want the aspects that come with it because I’m sure I’d forget they’re not IRL people and turn to talk to one in a public place and yeah…) I might try and hunt down a copy one day. I’ve been meaning to get into Brandon Sanderson’s stuff.
OMG, I must read this!! And why haven’t I heard of Legion before? I absolutely loved Steelheart and wanted to read another Sanderson book even since I finished it, but then I saw that most of his books are high fantasy (Steelheart was urban fantasy <3) and I'm not really a HF person….BUT this sounds AMAZING and just PERFECT (I'm esp. curious of those "aspects" of his). So I'm totally getting this (yay for christmas gift cards!). I don't even care that it's only a novella :)
I NEED MORE SO BADLY!!!!
I like your rating system! Stephen seems like a really intricate character and I think I may try this one if I like Steelheart!
Lovely review! <33
Sounds really interesting and you have a super cute blog!