The Emperor's Soul

hardcover

Published Nov. 8, 2012 by Tachyon Publications.

ISBN:
978-1-61696-151-0
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4 stars (100 reviews)

When Shai is caught replacing the Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she must bargain for her life and create--to Forge--a new soul for the emperor in less than one hundred days.

2 editions

Review of "The Emperor's Soul" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

2020 Reread
If you were the wall, what would you rather be? Dreary and dull, or alive with paint?

Bumping the ratings up from 4 to 5 stars because this story hits all the marks. In so few pages Sanderson is able to craft a deep and full story, provide some hints to the Cosmere and have a loose connection to Elantris itself.

Original 2016 Read

Her ancestors had worshiped rocks that fell from the sky at night. The souls of broken gods, those chunks had been called. Master craftsmen would carve them to bring out the shape.

"Mistborn: Secret History" changed my opinion of novella's Sanderson has done and "The Emperor's Soul" was an incredible read and glad to have given it the attention it deserved. Interesting characters, political deception, and a complicated process known as Forging was expertly crafted and executed in very few pages.

My interest in …

Review of "The Emperor's Soul" on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is my favorite of the (at least half dozen) Brandon Sanderson books I've read so far. It's got a great heroine, a fascinating magic system, a surprisingly interesting setting, considering that almost the entire thing takes place in one room where the heroine is being held captive, and I was horribly disappointed when I got to the end and realized it was over already. My only complaint is that this is only a novella, because I WANT MORE!

Apparently this is set in the same world as Elantris, but although I've read that I would never have noticed and this is completely stand alone, no need to have ever read anything else by him. Sanderson is really into detailed systemic worldbuilding and magic systems that have rules so clearly defined that they could easily be translated into computer or board game systems. In his full length novels I sometimes …

Review of "The Emperor's Soul" on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Entirely untypical in one respect: far less verbose than the Sanderson style I am used to since starting on the Stormlight archive. This novella was a quick and delightful read with a typical Sanderson magic system inspired by Chinese art. It was written in a single sitting during a flight back from Taiwan. This kind of novella makes me envious of Sanderson's skill and craft. If you want to know whether his style is your thing this is the perfect starting point.

Review of "The Emperor's Soul" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A good book, that while based in the same world as "Elantris", you truly don't need to have read that book first to appreciate this one. In fact, you have to look REALLY hard to find anything that ties the two books together at all.

A lot of things in this book remind me of Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series. Particularly "Words of Radiance". And honestly, even those books are loosely related to this one.

Review of "The emperor's soul" on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This shorter work reminded me so much of why Sanderson is way up there on my list of favorite authors currently living and writing. He manages to capture the essence of what makes a person do what they do so well that it just draws you into the story that much more. He captures the thrill of the artist as their works reach completion, the charismatic pull of the leader, and he puts them there on the page in a way that just works. He really is an amazing writer.

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