Audiobook Review: Legion by Brandon Sanderson

Legion
(Legion #1)
Brandon Sanderson
Release: September 11, 2011
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A novella from #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Legion is a fast-paced, witty, and supremely fun thriller with a psychological bent.

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 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, however, 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.

Review by Rose Red:

Oh my goodness! How do you review an 88 page novella without spoiling the plot? I don't know but I'm going to gush about Legion by Brandon Sanderson for a minute. For those of you that don't know, I love Brandon Sanderson's books just as much as I love Patricia Briggs's and Ilona Andrews's books. Seriously. I've loved all of his books that I've read so far and that is all but two. I went into this novella knowing that I'd probably love it, but Sanderson surprised me again. I can’t begin to tell you how much I loved this! It was so good guys!

The characters are freaking amazing and so different from each other! I loved the main character, Stephen Leeds, and his ‘aspects’! As much as I loved Leeds, his aspects (aka his hallucinations) are what stole the show for me. I will say that J. C. and Tobias were my favorites!

Not only are the characters amazing, but so is the whole premise of the story! A genius whose knowledge manifests as hallucinations was a story I never knew I needed! It was so interesting how Leeds has almost continuous hallucinations. I loved the fact that to learn new things he imagines one of his aspects learning it and just telling him what to do. If we weren't in Leeds's head it would be kind of scary how he just happens to know things that he didn't hours before.

This novella is seriously a great take on how much we just don't understand about the human mind. Then there is this whole other awesome sci-fi element that was just too cool, especially because the characters discussed it with insights that I hadn’t thought of. Honestly, this is one of the best novellas I’ve ever read. It was perfectly paced and I was enthralled the entire time. The character development and the mystery were spot on!

I listened to the audiobook of this and the narrator did such an amazing job! I’m going to have to look up what other books he’s narrated because he did a great job making each character’s voice distinct! And I’m always a fan when a male narrator can do a convincing female voice. Seriously. That narrator nailed all the voices exactly! This was just so great! I’m really kicking myself for not listening to this novella earlier. I loved it! The audiobook was definitely one of my favorite ones that I listened to this year!

I can't wait to start the audiobook for the second novella in this series! I just want to continue listening to the adventures of Leeds and his aspects for forever. Is that too much to ask?

    

  5 / 5 Stars!