Welcome to Reading and Reeling, where I share my thoughts on various books, movies, and shows. I'll usually review things as they come out, but in this case, I'm going to make an exception. After all, this is the first work by Brandon Sanderson that I've read, so I wanted to take the opportunity to comment on it.
There are some spoilers below, of course.
I picked up this novella, published in 2012, after hearing Brandon Sanderson refer to it as "something a little more literary" than some of his other work. Given that he's such a big deal in the fantasy world, I've been feeling the pressure to read something by him for a while, but since 700-page-long books with complicated magic systems (see Sanderson's Mistborn) aren't my cup of tea, a short novella that leans toward literary fantasy seemed like a good place to start.
The story centers on Shai, an expert forger of objects of all sorts who has been sentenced to die for thievery. Despite her forging methods being considered a heretical abomination by her captors, they approach her after the Emperor is basically killed and ask her to forge a new soul for him before anyone finds out what happened. They promise she will be set free if she completes the task in ninety days. Despite the task seeming impossible and Shai's lack of trust in her captors, she accepts the challenge. She delves into the Emperor's personal life to recreate a forgery of his soul using magical stamps, and we're off.
What stood out most about this novella is how well it works despite most of it occurring in a single room. It is very much character-centric and theme-driven, and it does character and theme fairly well. But the ninety-day clock is always ticking in the background, which adds plenty of momentum that isn't character-centric.
Most of the tension comes from Shai's relationships with two characters, both the Emperor's arbiters. Frava is a scheming senior arbiter Shai is constantly trying to figure out. She isn't on the page as much, but her schemes are always in the background, pushing the story forward. The second is Gaotona, who doesn't have the power of Frava. We see him more, as he is often in Shai's cell to oversee her work, and we hear his perspective on the abdominal life Shai has chosen as a forger and a thief. The interaction between Gaotona and Shai as they discuss their different beliefs about the world and art is the heart of the book. It's well done, with both characters learning something from the other by the end.
The big-picture plot of Shai having to complete the soul in time is well done, too. It's simple and is steadily paced. The ending action sequence is exciting and satisfying, as are the last few pages that bring Shai and Gaotona's characters to a satisfying (literary) end. I never felt like the story dragged, despite the simplicity of the plot.
The one noteworthy criticism I had about this book was minor, and it surprised me. Early on, much ink is spilled on the difficulty of creating the forged soul. If I remember correctly, it's presented as something that could be expected to take years they want in just ninety days. Add to that Shai can't leave the room or interview people who knew the Emperor (other than Gaotona), and I felt there had to be some other plot point to explain how she could get it done so fast, but there wasn't. I found Shai's completion of the work to be somewhat anticlimactic. There was a lot of tension for me that didn't pay off. I was surprised because Sanderson isn't a stranger to complicated plots, so to have that plot point feel underdone wasn't something I expected.
But that was minor, and I didn't have many other criticisms. I am happy to have finally read something by Brandon Sanderson, and I wasn't disappointed. I wholeheartedly recommend this book if its premise interests you.
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