Reviews with content warning for Confinement - The Emperor's Soul

Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

16 reviews

badbadwolf's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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rikuson1's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It Was Amazing 🤩
-★★★★★- (5.00/5.00)
My Grading Score = 100% (S)

The Emperor's Soul does not waste any time hopping straight into what this short story is all about and executing it all in a very good way. The magic system and characterization in this novella are some of the best I've read thus far with the amount of time this story goes on for. It is beyond just impressive it is simply brilliant on most criteria that can be critiqued.

Brandon Sanderson's Prose
As opposed to the two other Brandon Sanderson Books I've completed at the time of writing this review (Elantris of 2005 and Warbreaker of 2009) The Emperor's Soul would be the most recent written piece he's done that I've read thus far being published in 2012 and I can definitely see the improvement in his writing style. My biggest and really only complaint when it came to his two previous works is that I was not a big fan of the execution of the characterization via narration. It felt like Brandon Sanderson was narrating too much of their characterization and backstory to me vs. letting the character showcase or voice that out themselves. Although this writing style, I like it a lot more. It is a combination of very elegantly written characterization via narration alongside that very character capitalizing on that aspect by essentially grabbing the baton and finishing off the execution of whatever the scene seems to be that had been setup by the narrator. This can happen backward as well or be a constant dance between the character and the narrator, showcasing what is needed to be portrayed via the scene, and it's very well balanced and done. If this is how his current writing style is, I'm here for it. If it's even better in future stories, then I'm even more looking forward to reading more by him.

Verdict:

This is said to take place in the same world as Elantris, but there are no story connections between the two required. This is most definitely a standalone and if I were to recommend a great novella to anyone that wanted to get a small taste of what Brandon Sanderson is praised for, I'd recommend this over any of his other works. I'd even go as far as to say I'd recommend this over his more popular and bigger ones like Mistborn and Stormlight because of the fact that the barrier for entry and commitment required to read this one is far lower than I think it beats the others out in that regard which is a big selling point, for someone who wants to see what the fuss about him is about but doesn't want to read hundreds of pages worth to understand the hype behind him. If they wanted to read more, then they can figure out from this entry point moving forward. For people that have read his stuff but not this one, this is a Brandon Sanderson entry that I would not skip over. The best thing I've read from him so far. When I read some of his more well-known and higher-rated ones, I doubt it'll make me think any less of The Emperor's Soul, but I do look forward to reading more higher-tier works by him because if this is this good, saying "I'm in for a treat" is an understatement.

It Was Amazing

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bergha1998's review

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adventurous reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This whole idea is so brilliant. Brandon Sanderson always blows my mind. I really enjoyed the main character Shai and Gaotona too. The whole dialogue about art and what is a masterpiece and who owns it was very thought provoking. A fun quick read.

Fantasy, Thief’s Story

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iono's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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jadejade's review

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This has to be the first shorter fantasy story that I was actually invested in.

I read this novella in the [book:Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection|34226341]. I have a very bad track record with short/er story collections. When I tried shorter fantasy stories in particular I'd get to the end and feel like it wasn't worth the journey: it would always feel to me like the author just wanted to show off their fantasy world. But a cool world is not enough for me as a reader. There needs to be a point, and the story itself needs to be interesting. <i>The Emperor's Soul</i> introduced its characters, world building and conflict in a way that made me want to keep turning the pages to find out what happens in the end.

As this is quite short I won't elaborate further except to note that the author identifies The Fool in the deleted prologue available on his website, which will be of interest to fans of the author's work. That said, this novella can be read alone, with no knowledge of the author's other works.

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