Book Review: The Emperor’s Soul

Book Review: The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson

Shai is a Forger, an artist with the mystical ability to change the past of objects; mostly used to create copies of other artworks, but with larger implications that cause fear and loathing in the minds of others.  When she is captured while trying to substitute a Forgery for an important Imperial artifact (due to her patron making his own escape too early), Shai expects that she will be put to death.

But fate intervenes.  It seems that the Emperor has been attacked by a rival faction.  He survived, but with brain damage that reduced him to a vegetative state.  The arbiters, fearful of losing their place if the rival faction takes over, offers Shai a deal.  If she can use her Forgery skills to restore the Emperor’s mind and memories, they’ll let her go free.  Shai realizes that they in fact would never allow her to live with the knowledge of the Emperor’s true state.  But perhaps agreeing will allow her to buy time to come up with an escape plan–and if she succeeds, the Emperor’s soul will be her masterpiece!

This novella is by Brandon Sanderson, who you may know from the Mistborn series or his work finishing The Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan passed away.  This is the closest he can get to a short story, so he says.  It has his trademark interesting magic systems, and some fascinating characters.

The primary relationship in the story is between Shai and Gaotona, an elderly arbiter who is both keeping an eye on Shai to make sure she is doing the job, and also acting as a test bed for her “stamps” that allow her to temporarily change a person’s memories.   Through their conversations, we learn how Shai’s magic works, her motivations and some of her background, as well as the real reason she was in the Imperial palace to begin with.

The conversations also contrast Shai to the government-approved “Rememberers” who use similar magic to mass-produce knockoffs of period pieces from the era the current regime wants to emulate.  Gaotona comes to understand Shai’s  sense of artistic pride and creativity, while she learns to appreciate his integrity and loyalty to the Emperor.  Also, we delve into the personality of the Emperor, his good qualities as well as where he fell short, and the Empire has suffered as a result.

There’s also some blood magic in the plot, which may be a little too intense for more sensitive readers, but aside from that, while this was written for adults, I don’t think it unsuitable for junior high students on up.

The book is well-written, has a mostly-likable main character (though she is a criminal by profession) and bits of an interesting Imperial China-like setting (the story takes place in the same world as Elantris.)  I’d recommend it to fantasy fans, especially those that might be intimidated by longer works and trilogies.