The Emperor’s Soul: Good intro to Sanderson

The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson

Set in the same world as Elantris, The Emperor’s Soul tells the story of a Forger named Shai who is called upon by the ranking bureaucrats of the Empire. The Emperor has suffered a traumatic brain injury in an assassination attempt, and rather than have him step down, which would mean a demotion in their own power, the Guardians decide that they will call on the power of a Forger, someone who can magically imprint upon objects a new identity with their magically carved seals, to forge the soul of the emperor. The penalty for failure will be Shai’s death. However, she knows that if she succeeds, she will be killed anyway because her talents are considered blasphemous, and no one can ever know what she has done.

This novella is the first experience I have had reading the work of Brandon Sanderson, and I can see now what all the fuss is about. Sanderson has a unique, well thought out magical system, thoughtful worldbuilding, and interesting characters. The interplay between Shai and the various Guardians and guards results in interesting discussions about the nature of reality, whether or not reality cares if you believe in it, and what makes a soul.

This is a difficult review to write for two reasons. First, it’s a novella, so I don’t want to write too much in case I give away something. Secondly, most of the action is psychological, which is difficult to discuss, other than to say I found this book thought-provoking while also being an enjoyable read. I would be interested in seeing if Sanderson brings Shai back as a character in other books. Sanderson has definitely joined my list of To Read authors (though I think it would take more than Sanderson’s skill to make me pick up the WHEEL OF TIME books again) and if you are not familiar with him, I think this novella would make a great starting place.

~Ruth Arnell

Shai is a forger, able to magically change any item by rewriting its history. For example, she can turn a battered piece of furniture into the beautiful object it could have been by bonding with it, understanding its past and how it sees itself, and then altering the past enough to change the furniture’s destiny. Unfortunately, forgery is despised by the empire because forgers often use their skills to counterfeit famous artists’ work. In fact, Shai is currently in prison for doing just this — she was caught trying to steal the emperor’s scepter so she could replace it with her own forgery.

Usually in a case like this Shai would be executed, but the emperor’s closest advisors decide they need her forbidden skills instead. The emperor has recently survived an assassination attempt, but his doctors were only able to save him by giving him a new brain. Now he lives, but his brain is empty — his memories and personality are gone. His arbiters, whose positions and livelihoods are dependent on this emperor’s reign, want Shai to do something illegal; they want her to recreate the emperor by forging his soul.

Of course Shai must take this job, or she’ll be executed, but she knows that despite the arbiters’ promises, she’ll be killed when she’s done because they don’t want anyone knowing the truth about the emperor. Shai works diligently to do the job they want, but she also plans for escape. Yet as she continues to progress, her artist’s pride begins to enjoy the challenge. Does she have the skill to produce the ultimate forgery? And does she really want to, or should she use this opportunity to remodel the emperor?

I’ve come to expect a lot from Brandon Sanderson: unique and fascinating detailed magic systems, interesting settings, likeable characters, and the perfect amount of truly funny humor. Sanderson’s new novella, The Emperor’s Soul, partially meets my expectations. Shai is likeable enough, though she’s not especially memorable. I missed Sanderson’s sense of humor in this novella, not because I think every story needs to have some humor, but because I particularly like Brandon Sanderson’s sense of humor and look forward to that element in his work.

Sanderson’s magic system is inventive and intriguing and allows us the opportunity to think about some ideas that I find really interesting, such as how personalities are formed. However, Shai’s detailed explanations of her craft and all its rules tend to dominate and bog down the plot and, because this book is so short, it feels unbalanced. Furthermore, unlike Sanderson’s previous magic systems, I can’t say that I truly believed in this one. For one thing, if Shai is forging objects by changing their histories or their construction, won’t this have other far-reaching effects on the world and not just the object being forged? If the battered piece of furniture is altered so that it thinks it was loved and cared for, or so it was made from different materials, then not only its history is changed, but there are people or objects involved whose histories are now perceived as different, too. Sanderson addresses this with rules (e.g., the forgery won’t take if it’s too far from reality) but I wasn’t completely convinced.

Even more problematic, though, is trying to forge a personality. In order to do so, Shai must understand the emperor. She makes clear that this is difficult and takes a lot of time and research because people’s motives and desires are intricate and conflicting, but it’s really so much more than that. Not only can we not understand our own motives and desires, we don’t really even know what they are and they’re dependent on too many factors — our genes, our prenatal environment, our upbringing, and so many factors that we can’t possibly identify. We wouldn’t be able to do this for ourselves, much less someone who we can only know from reading histories and a diary. Especially if that person had a brand new brain that was wiped clean of all the factors that built the personality in the first place. It just doesn’t work.

But still, if we can put aside our doubts, Sanderson’s story is enjoyable and makes a great thought exercise. For example, Sanderson made me wonder what makes art beautiful. Why is an original work of art so much more appealing than a perfect copy? It’s got to be more than just the way it looks. Also it was interesting to consider how people’s personalities are gradually changed over time by outside influences and how in some cases that’s a good thing and in others it’s not.

I’m being a little tough on The Emperor’s Soul, but that’s partly because my expectations are so high for Brandon Sanderson’s work. The man writes great fantasy and it’s exciting to see him trying new things, including two shorter stand-alone works this year. More newness is expected for next year and those books are already on my TBR list, as is everything Sanderson writes.

I listened to Angela Lin’s pleasant performance in Recorded Books’ audio version of The Emperor’s Soul which I can heartily recommend for those who want to read Sanderson’s latest novella.

~Kat Hooper

I enjoyed the world in which this novella was set, and found the story enjoyable. I’d love to read more set in this world, involving this magic system. (And no, it didn’t strike me as being the same world on which Elantris was set, though apparently that was the intention.)

~Terry Weyna

The Emperor’s Soul is a stand-alone novella by Brandon Sanderson, set on the same world as the MISTBORN trilogy but in a different society. The story moves briskly and Sanderson’s prose is graceful and lively as always. It’s a pleasant way to spend a few hours.

Shai is a Forger — a person who can magically change the nature of an object (or a person) by changing its history. When the Emperor Ashravan is left in a coma following a failed assassination attempt, Shai, who was imprisoned for Forging, is drafted into an impossible assignment. She must re-create the Emperor’s soul before anyone discovers that he is brain-dead as a result of the attempt. And she faces an impossible deadline: ninety-eight days, which is the time period the Emperor is said to be in seclusion following the death of the Empress.

Shai must also dodge the treachery of various royal councilors. At least one of the ruling party, The Heritage Faction, wants the Emperor revived with a control switch. At least one of them hates and distrusts Forgers. Shai, who is a confidence artist as well as a Forger, must manipulate her way to freedom before she is killed because she knows too much.

Sanderson uses the ninety-eight days (the mourning period is one hundred days; the council argued about this plan for two of them) as a countdown device, ratcheting up the suspense. Shai’s interactions with Gaotona, an honest councilor who hates the idea of Forgery; Zu, a royal guard who is dead set on killing her; and the treacherous councilors, all gleam with intelligence and strategy.

Like some other reviewers though (see here) I had some trouble with the magic of Forging. The idea of learning an object completely and persuading it, magically, to change its nature, is fascinating. Shai, though, actually rewrites the object’s history. How do you change the history of an object without changing the history around it? For example, Shai is given a dilapidated, broken-down table for her room. The table was a gift, a token from another country. The Emperor did not trust that country, so he stored away the table and ignored it. Shai changes the table’s history so that it is cherished and cared for. Does this mean that the historic political situation changed as well? It might be easy to rationalize a history change for an object that doesn’t have ripples, but how do you explain it for a person? Later, when we see it used on a person, it looks more like an implanted memory or hypnosis than an actual alternate history. If they are implanted memories, does this mean that manufactured objects have memory and intelligence? I don’t think this wonderful, puzzling concept was fully developed in this short work.

Despite this head-scratching problem (it almost gave me a time-travel headache), The Emperor’s Soul is a fun read. As a bonus, the Tachyon Press edition has a lovely cover.

~Marion Deeds