2 min to read

Legion

Title
Legion
Author
Brandon Sanderson
Published date
18/10/2018
Pages
352
Publisher
Tor Books

Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds by Brandon Sanderson is an anthology of three short novellas about a genius Stephen Leeds. To deal with his extraordinary mind he is creating a hallucinations, aspects as he calls them, of the experts in differences fields who help him deal with all kind of situations. He works as a detective and only takes the cases that interests him, which also are not ordinary.

I really enjoyed this book, although it won’t be my favourite from this author. I do prefer the complex stories full of details and many different story threads. But it’s a very nice idea of dealing with brilliant mind flooded with different information. I really like Stephen’s aspects, they all have their own personalities, little quirks and some kind of mental disorder. I love they little banters and that they all seem to have their own personal life.

The stories were engaging, full of action and it was very easy to get swept with unfolding events. I would gladly read more about Stephen adventures, new ones as well as the old ones, which were just mentioned, but sounds really interesting!

As all Sanderson books the idea used in a book is very creative and well written. After just few pages I was like: wow, what an awesome concept for the story! And it was really funny sometimes, when normal people have to deal with protagonist quirkiness. To make his aspects works he have to convince his mind they are real, so he always holds door opens for them, orders them meals in restaurants and books their own seats in planes. And what’s really interesting, when some aspect is not with him directly he can’t access their knowledge and skills.

The last novella Lies of the Beholder is much darker and more serious. There’s no happy banter any more and Stephen have to deal with his declining mind state and get hold of his aspects who are becoming unstable. It describes beautifully loss and loneliness, that the most precious things are not material and can’t be measured.

I really enjoyed this book and if you like short, not very complex stories I’m sure you’d love it too!

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