The Emperor's Soul

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Additionally, I have a few other novellas that are more on the thriller/sci-fi side. These include the Legion series, as well as Perfect State and Snapshot. There’s a lot of material to go around! The internationally bestselling author of the Mistborn and Stormlight Archive series presents two very different novellas that nevertheless showcase his remarkable gift for gripping narrative, world-building and empathetic characters. Available for the first time in one volume, a publishing event for all his many fans. The second was an out and out fantasy but focused on a very clever idea. This was considerably longer but still really only a novella.

What I find absolutely refreshing from Sanderson's books is that he never focuses on his character's appearances. It doesn't matter what a person looks like - what matters is how they behave themselves, how they present themselves and what their skills and talents are. I feel that this is a very important message to deliver in a world where everyone and everything is judged by looks. One of my favorite quotes was this one. It shows that you can't really see when something goes wrong/right in life, as it's more of a fluid process than we assume; Shai is a Forger, an artist who can copy and recreate almost anything through the use of forbidden magic. Sentenced to death for the theft of a sacred imperial relic, she grasps her final chance to live, and to perform the greatest feat of Forgery imaginable.The world building is incredible, the descriptions second to none. I feel like I've been in the palace, seen the painting, spent time in the room were Shai was imprisoned which she made better with her forgery. The Emperor's Soul is set in the Rose Empire, a nation on the shardworld of Sel. This is the same world in which Elantris was set, though few connections are made to that book within The Emperor's Soul. In the postscript, Sanderson explains that he was inspired to write this story after visiting the National Palace Museum in Taiwan and also by memories from the two years he spent in Korea as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. El alma del emperador sigue la historia de Shai, quien es cautiva y está a punto de recibir un juicio luego de hacerse pasar por una noble de alta alcurnia, falsificar unas pinturas y robar algo del Imperio Rosa. Sin embargo, recibe una propuesta por parte de los árbitros (quienes manejan parte del trono y la política del imperio) que será la única oportunidad para salvarse el pellejo y a su misma vez beneficiarlos a ellos con el mantenimiento del orden y el poder sobre el imperio. A cambio de su libertad, la misión de Shai es hacer una falsificación del alma del emperador luego de que este mismo hubiera recibido un atentado que lo dejó inerte e inservible mentalmente y en el que murió su esposa, la emperatriz. Para ello, debe copiar cada aspecto de la vida del emperador Ashravan, desde sus gustos más sencillos hasta lo más particular como sus actitudes y comportamientos para que absolutamente nadie sospeche de que es una copia exacta o al menos, casi perfecta. It took me some chapters to get into the story, mostly because I thought it'd have more resemblance with the novel, but I ended up loving Shai's journey.

The other thing that I'd like to point out, and that amazed me, is that for the short time we spend with them, the character development, even that of the hallucinations is fully realisedEs increíble la capacidad de Sanderson para crear sistemas de magia (o poderes) tan bien hilados, originales y divertidos, la imaginación a la hora de crear historias y lo completos que son sus personajes. Y poco más tengo que decir. Once again, Sanderson designs a rather ingenious system of magic. While Sanderson does have his faults in that he can be a tad too wordy (just like the late Robert Jordan could be), and he sometimes doesn't give the proper “breathing room” of some positive aspect amidst the darkness of some more depressing stories (see the first of his *Stormlight Archive* novels, though his *Mistborn* books don't fall into this trap), but he is ingenious at developing characters just enough for what the story needs, and at creating unique and interesting systems of magic.

I've learned new words such as 'Soulstamp' and 'Soul casting' and 'Essence mark' and along with Legion this has been a phenomenal introduction to Brandon Sandersons universe and I cannot wait to continue my journey.Nevertheless, the Emperor’s advisors recognize Shai’s unmatched talent and give her one chance at freedom, which involves the greatest forgery of all: recreating the soul of the Emperor himself. Shai is given one hundred days to complete the forgery, the traditional grieving period for the Emperor to mourn the loss of his wife. Since this is a short novella I don't want to write anything that might give something away. All I'm going to say is - do yourselves a favor - read it. If you are not into fantasy - read it. Who knows, this might be the book that will get you into it. And if you are Sanderson's fan, but haven't read this yet- you are missing out big time. As she delves deeper into her work, it begins to consume her. She puts her all into it, though her life is in danger, because she needs to find out if she is capable of such an awesome task, unable to leave without finding out if her forgery will work or not, not even to save her own life. Shai is given an impossible task: to create—to Forge—a new soul for the emperor in less than one hundred days. But her soul-Forgery is considered an abomination by her captors. She is confined to a tiny, dirty chamber, guarded by a man who hates her, spied upon by politicians, and trapped behind a door sealed in her own blood. Shai’s only possible ally is the emperor’s most loyal councillor, Gaotona, who struggles to understand her true talent. Time is running out for Shai. Forging, while deducing the motivations of her captors, she needs a perfect plan to escape…

This book is perfect, am still marveled by the fact that its even a novella, the way the plot unravels, and that ending, I did not see that coming, then again its Brandon Sanderson, I shouldn't be surprise, he is a genius.This book is not so much action as it is a work of philosophical and psychological suspense. I say philosophical in a specific way. Sanderson does not engage in the level of commentary that he does in the *Mistborn* novels (not even that of *The Alloy of Law* the similarly short *Mistborn* novella). His commentary applicable to our society is brief. This isn't a preachy book at all. What I mean is that the story of Shai and how she uses her magical “art” to set about restoring the Emperor and escaping is tied up in philosophical and psychological aspects of that specific plot. It really is interesting. It's like some films that have a person mostly in one room undergoing days, weeks, or months of adversity, but the difference is that this story has a happy ending. I hope that's not too much of a spoiler to say that. ;) There was rarely an obvious branching point in a person's life. People changed slowly, over time. You didn't take on step, then find yourself in a completely new location. Then you stopped paying attention as you drifted farther and farther away. ”