Reviews

Reread review

I. Love. This. Book. Just love it.

I first time I read The Emperor's Soul was about a couple of years ago and I was completely blown away. So obviously, I never reread it because why would anyone want to reread an awesome book? And yes, that was sarcasm.

But there was a reading challenge on Goodreads that I participated in and I needed to read a book with the title starting with the letter E (the last time I read the book was also because of this challenge) so I decided that it was time. And I am just as blown away this time. For one, this novella has the most awesome plot.

Shai is a Forger, of the magical variety. She can carve stamps to rewrite the history of any object and alter it. Like if she wants a chair to break as soon as someone sits on it, she can rewrite its history so the chair had a defect while it was being made.

Unfortunately, Shai is betrayed and gets captured. She's mere days away from her execution when she's called up in front of the Emperor's advisors. Turns out, the Emperor was assassinated. The news hasn't broken out yet and they've found a way to excuse a hundred days of his absence. His body has been healed but the mind is blank. In those hundred days, Shai's task is to forge the Emperor's Soul, essentially creating a someone's entire personality from scratch so it resembles that of the dead Emperor.

Now let's take a minute to appreciate how fucking amazing that synopsis is... After which we will talk about the rest of the novella, which is just as amazing.

Now, we've all noticed that there are very few high fantasy standalones, compared to series. It's because they're really hard work. You have to build a world, establish its rules, and introduce characters and an interesting plot that's relevant to the world that's been created. You also have to move the plot along and give a resolution. All without making the whole thing overwhelming for the reader. And to accomplish all of that and more... in a novella, no less. It's unbelievable. I can't fathom how Sanderson did, but that's why we love him. He's brilliant.

The world building, plot and character development are so seamlessly intertwined that you never feel like you have to take a second to absorb it. The writing is simple yet beautiful and the world is fascinating. And the characters...

We have two main characters. The first is, of course, Shai. The other is Gaotona. He is one of the Emperor's advisers and someone who knew him well. He's acting as a test subject for Shai while also keeping an eye on her. He and Shai are quite different. He is a truly genuine man while Shai has told so many lies that it's difficult to separate who she is from who she pretends to be. But they're both clever and they're both good. They come to understand and respect each other despite their contrary beliefs. Gaotona is a grandfather figure for her and their relationship is perfectly done.

I could go on but I don't want to give too many details. All I really want to say is that this is masterful and I so badly want everyone to read it. Just... please read it. You will not regret it.