The Emperor's Soul by Brandon SandersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Though the The Emperor's Soul is set in the same world as Elantris, it is a stand alone story, and requires no knowledge of his worlds.
This short Novella is brilliantly done, and an example of how versatile Sanderson's writing is, and how he continues to push the boundaries and will continue to be one of the authors that takes fantasy to new levels.
Having read all of his other books, in some ways it felt odd to have such a small book, without the in-depth world building, but Sanderson still manages to fill his world with a fascinating and unique magic system, interesting characters, and a unique world.
Picking up a book for a new author can be risky and daunting when many of Sanderson's books run between 500 and 1000 pages. The Emperor's Soul is a fantastic book to introduce any new readers to Sanderson's worlds and writing.
The main character Shai, is not heroic in the same vein as many fantasies, but this unique take on creativity and art as an heroic trait is brilliant and has such a great new feel to it.
Though the story is fully complex and complete, I did wish, not for more of this story but for the more all-encompassing look into this creativity concept, that a 1000 page book would have had. The length of the book also limited this to a single point of view, which worked well for this book, but in some ways is a tease, since the other characters were still so interesting you want to know them better.
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