Having read some of Brandon Sanderson’s books before, I was excited at the prospect of another novella! The back cover painted a very exciting plot and it lives up to it. At about 80ish pages the book packs in quite a story; the protagonist has a well developed character. There’s hints in the book about events in past which I hope are explained in Skin Deep.
The story starts off with our protagonist, Stephen Leeds also known as Legion, who has dozens of hallucinations that each have their own personality, specialty and quirkiness. Off the bat, we get to meet J.C who was a Navy SEAL and loves his guns. We meet Ivy, the detective type of character of the group. There’s Tobias who is the scholar and Kalyani who Leeds conjures up when he needs a translator.
Legion is a well chosen name for Stephen Leeds but he doesn’t like this moniker. He’s made tons of money using his special flaw and lives in a mansion large enough to house each of his hallucinations. One of his hallucinations has his own hallucination, chew on that a bit. Leeds likes to claim that he is totally sane, I am still on the fence.
“It’s very disturbing for him; he hates being reminded he’s a hallucination.”
“I’m not a hallucination,” J.C. snapped. “I have state-of-the-art stealthing equipment.” Brandon Sanderson
The plot is fairly straightforward and moves fast, something you’d expect of a novella. I found myself engrossed after reading just a few pages where Leeds and some of his hallucinations are introduced. He’s sort of hired to look for a man who invented a camera that can take pictures of the past.
The book is thoroughly enjoyable and all the hallucinations shown have an interesting personality that I want to read more of! This book reminded me a lot of another novella I read by Brandon Sanderson, Snapshot. It had an excellent plot, a good protagonist and ticked every box in terms of keeping the reader hooked.
Definitely a must read!
Legion
Reading this makes me want the book.
I would definitely recommend you read it 🙂