Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds, is #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson’s novella collection of science fiction thrillers that will make you question reality–including a never-before-published story. Stephen Leeds is perfectly sane. It’s his hallucinations who are mad. A genius of unrivaled aptitude, Stephen can learn any new skill, vocation, or art in a matter of … skill, vocation, or art in a matter of hours. However, to contain all of this, his mind creates hallucinatory people–Stephen calls them aspects–to hold and manifest the information. Wherever he goes, he is joined by a team of imaginary experts to give advice, interpretation, and explanation. He uses them to solve problems . . . for a price.
His brain is getting a little crowded and the aspects have a tendency of taking on lives of their own. When a company hires him to recover stolen property–a camera that can allegedly take pictures of the past–Stephen finds himself in an adventure crossing oceans and fighting terrorists. What he discovers may upend the foundation of three major world religions–and, perhaps, give him a vital clue into the true nature of his aspects.
Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds includes Legion, Legion: Skin Deep and the brand new, shocking finale to Leeds’ story, Lies of the Beholder.
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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An incredible story. Well told and very very unique. Definitely concluded well. Not much else to say.
This book represents the best and the worst Brandon Sanderson can make —at least according to my tastes (yeah, pretty personal opinions here. Not a review).
In a world much like ours, Stephen Leeds is a brilliant man, the kind of person that can flip through a book or just glance into a cluttered room and know everything there is to know — literally. But this superpower comes at a price: Leeds imagines people. Dozens of them, each one with their own history, personality, skills… and madnesses. Life is mentally taxing for Leeds, obviously, but also socially and financially taxing. Fortunately, he uses his gifts (the ability to absorb a subject or skill and create an “aspect” that personifies such talent) to earn an indecent amount of money. His aspects, after all, require each one room all for them in his mansion.
The first two stories (novellas?) are marvellous. I devoured them. The last one is sad and confusing, but it saves itself at the very end with a fitting closure for Stephen Leeds.
So this is a light-Sci-Fi, if there is such a thing. The only real element of Sci-Fi could be the fact that Leeds memorizes books in minutes and learn complex skill just by reading or observing. Oh, yeah, and in the first story there’s a camera that takes photos of the past; the second story features DNA-incrusted IT information; and, oh! The last story has a holodeck. Yeah, no. It’s pretty much a hard Sci-Fi.
And I loved it. Particularly the first two tales, which deal somewhat with the bad side of Leeds’ talent but concentrate much more in the “adventure”. The last story is totally about Leeds and his almost forty aspects. It’s good, but it’s a depressing, taxing story to follow. No spoilers here, you’ll have to judge by yourself reading it. I’m sure many readers will disagree with me. I even see people saying the third story is the best. It might be, but not when compared with the rollercoaster ride of the first two.
(Review for third book “Lies of the Beholder”)
In this third entry to the Steven Leeds series, I found myself missing the humor of the first book. The book was not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but in the first entry we are introduced to this character who is full of witty remarks that keep you chuckling throughout the story. By contrast, the second and third book both get more and more serious, leaving all humor behind like yesterday’s soggy newspaper.
The story comes to a very interesting conclusion, and we finally get more information about Sandra. Maybe though, if Steven had just gotten some sleep somewhere between book 2 and 3 he would have been able to pull some more sarcasm out for us to laugh along with.
Brandon Sanderson is THE world-builder of the current generation of SF/Fantasy writers and while I love his Cosmere books with all my heart, it’s his smaller series like the Legion books that really get me where I live. Stephen Leeds suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder, but rather than destroying his life and casting it into chaos, his personalities augment him and make him better, as each is an expert at some skill Stephen needs to get by. Poked at and prodded by both the psychiatric community and the paparazzi, Stephen gets called in to solve mysteries, much like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes and the great thing about this volume is that it includes ALL the Stephen Leeds stories under one cover so you don’t have to pay the rather high price for each individual book in hardback…like I did. Travel the Cosmere all you want, but when you’re ready for a rest, sit a spell with Stephen Leeds and his Legion of friends. I just wish there were more. Last I heard, this volume was all the Legion books Sanderson was planning to write and that would just be a shame for such a marvelous, original character.