The Emperor’s Soul
The name Brandon Sanderson is not unknown to fans of science and/or epic fantasy. The creator of the Cosmere universe, who popularized the terms “hard magic and soft magic,” also finished Robert Jordan’s popular series “The Wheel of Time.”
His name is known even to those who haven’t read his books… like some people. 😅
Today on the menu is “The Emperor’s Soul,” a standalone book set in the Cosmere universe, on the planet Sel of the same system, which the prologue introduces us to through an explanation of this planet’s creation in a somewhat mystical and magical, but interesting way (and perhaps a tiny bit confusing for first-time reading).
Since Sanderson’s magical world is (obviously) quite complex, I’ll try not to go into too many details (I’ll leave that for you to understand through reading 😁).
Meet Shai, a brilliant Forger, who possesses the talent to copy or “rewrite the history” of objects and return them to their original state (or improve them) with the help of magic. One of the ways she can do this is through “stamps” onto which she engraves certain symbols and which become soulstamps.
You can already conclude that with such talent it’s not hard to awaken the entrepreneurial spirit and earn nice money.
Well… we find Shai in prison. She was trying to steal the emperor’s scepter and moreover made a copy of a work of art which she substituted for the original. For all this, the punishment is beheading.
However, instead, Shai receives an incredible “offer.” A group of the emperor’s advisors (arbiters) offer Shai the chance not to end her life prematurely, but to leave the palace free and wealthy. The only condition is that she creates a stamp with which she’ll restore the emperor’s soul.
What’s this about? Namely, Emperor Ashravan and his wife were victims of a hired assassin. The mages (Bloodsealers) somehow managed to “save” the emperor by healing (closing) all his wounds. However, the emperor got an arrow to the head and, although they closed the wound, the mages cannot recover a person’s memories and soul. If the arbiters cannot prove to the world that the emperor is alive, the country will destabilize, and the arbiters will lose all their privileges and wealth (which would delight all political factions in the empire). The arbiters, of course, are horrified by Shai’s magic and consider it blasphemy worthy of her execution, but when your (financial) rear is in a crack, you’re ready to make your principles a bit “flexible.”
Shai (expectedly) accepts their offer.
However, there’s also a “catch.” Shai has only 100 days to recover the emperor’s soul. The arbiters used the custom that the emperor doesn’t need to appear before the public for 100 days, as that’s how long the mourning ritual for his deceased wife lasts. And if she doesn’t succeed… well… you already have a picture of what awaits her.
However, there’s also a “hidden catch” that Shai is aware of… and that’s that the arbiters have no intention of leaving her alive even if she succeeds in restoring the emperor’s soul. Shai, in fact, has only 100 days to try to escape from a palace full of guards, while constantly being watched by the arbiters, and moreover she’s bound to her chambers by terrible magic, because if she tries to escape, something horrible will start pursuing her.
HOWEVER, there’s also a “special hidden catch” that only Shai knows… and that’s that it’s impossible to soulseal someone else’s soul… of course this information, for justified reasons, she decided to keep to herself. In fact, the only thing a person could do, with great effort, is soulseal and/or alter only their own soul.
AND YET HOWEVER, Shai, although she’s actually planning to use the 100 days to find a way to escape, on the other hand is drawn by the challenge of perhaps doing the impossible and along the way creating her greatest work… to create someone’s soul… and no less than an emperor’s at that. Imagine it, her greatest work would be the emperor’s soul.
And to pull this off, she must know everything about Emperor Ashravan… but absolutely everything. All known and unknown facts, all his intimate secrets that only his closest people know, everything he recorded in his diaries. Because there can’t be any errors. If the public noticed some inconsistency in the emperor’s behavior, the truth would surface. The arbiters would lose their power, and Shai her head.
And so begins Shai’s race against time, where she has 100 days to find a way to create the emperor’s soul and, in parallel, a way to escape from the palace.
During those 100 days, Shai will most often be visited by two arbiters. Arbiter Frava is a very cunning and ambitious woman, who offers Shai the chance for freedom with all possible privileges, and asks from her only that she “insert” into the emperor’s soul the ability for the emperor to be more receptive to a certain arbiter’s advice.
On the other hand, arbiter Gaotona (whom Frava can’t stand), seems to have slightly different motives when visiting Shai. Although it’s certain that, like other arbiters, he doesn’t want to lose his privileges, for some reason he’s interested in understanding Shai’s magic, as well as why this girl “wastes her gift on foolishness and deceit” when she could be a supreme artist with her talent. However (I think I’ve written “however” at least 10 times in this review 😅), Shai begins to get the impression from occasional conversations with Gaotona that his desire isn’t so much for the emperor to come back to life as emperor, but for “his Ashravan.”
Whether Shai will manage to escape from the palace, and whether she can even perform the magic to revive Ashravan (and who, truly, was Ashravan as a person), you’ll find out if you read the novel “The Emperor’s Soul.”
What’s interesting is that the novel “The Emperor’s Soul” fit into barely 160 pages (and those are larger format letters)! Writing fantasy and science fiction novels, besides talent and effort, also requires a large number of pages written. Simply, creating new worlds, civilizations, creatures, magics, technologies, as well as terminology, requires quite a bit of description and explanation, so everything can be conveyed to the reader and so they can more easily immerse themselves in the world created in that book. That’s why it’s interesting how “The Emperor’s Soul” turned out to be such a dynamic novel that unfolds over a time period of only 100 days and almost 90% of that time in the chamber/prison where Shai works on the stamp to recreate the Emperor’s soul, and where all information about the world in the book and magic we get from Shai’s thoughts and her conversations with Gaotona.
Except for the somewhat confusing (philosophical) introduction, the novel is very easy to read and you’ll quickly catch the threads of what’s happening, as well as the concept of Shai’s magic and the power of stamps. And along the way you’ll also be able to get an impression of how complex a world the writer created (about which we’ll probably learn more in subsequent books).
For the end I’d again praise “Žir Publishing” for their thorough approach to the book’s production (as when they did “No Longer Human”), starting from quality covers that are excellently (fantastically) decorated to the subtle detail that changes when turning pages (discover it yourself 😁).
All in all, “The Emperor’s Soul” is a very interesting introduction to Brandon Sanderson’s interesting fantasy world and I hope for a continuation soon.
And you, dear reader, are you familiar with Brandon Sanderson’s opus? 😀
Author’s website
Book price: Žir izdavaštvo | Delfi
Ratings (and purchase) on foreign sites: Goodreads | Amazon | Audible | Bookdepository | Fantasy Book Review | Waterstones
