The Emperor's Soul is a masterpiece

[Ale the Metallic Conjurer]

"True art was more than beauty; it was more than technique. It was not just imitation. It was boldness, it was contrast, it was subtlety.” 

The human soul is not a mere wisp that grants us life. An object is not something that can be casually molded into whatever you please. Art is not simply painting on a blank canvas. No person is of one emotion or desire; no art is of one thought; no object is of one process. These are dense thickets with branches and twisting masses of vegetation. Shai is no different. Gaotona isn't. Ashravan isn't. 

I am blown away by the degree of depth and beautiful storytelling in a book that's only 100 pages long. Everything in Shai's story captivated me at every point. The prose was spectacular in describing the soul, passion, the deep intricacies of art and emotions. Forgery is easily one of the best magic systems I've seen. Not just because of the magic itself, but due to its Connections to the novella's themes and Shai's inner thoughts. Shai herself is not only one of the most intelligent Cosmere characters so far, but there is depth - the perfect embodiment on the novella's outlook on human emotions. On the surface she's a manipulative thief who just wants thrill and money. But she's also a character of regret, honor, and passion. Regret for using Forgery for crime, desire to show the whole world her art, and desire to live a normal life.

Gaotona might be up there with Kelsier. His love for Ashravan and respect for Shai added a lot to his character. Seeing his newfound appreciation of Forgery in the epilogue almost had me tearing up. 

Emperor's Soul gets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. 

 

 

Edited October 2 by Ale the Metallic Conjurer

[Treamayne]

Concur on all points. Well written review. I'll also mention that I usually recommend this early for people new to the Cosmere as it does such a great job of explaining the Spiritual, Cognitive and Physical aspects so well that it makes reading other works much easier. It's obvious why this earned a Hugo. I'll also point out that Brandon has said:

Spoiler

Brandon Sanderson

I've been hesitant to do a sequel, as I don't want to "George Lucas" the story. Emperor's Soul is one of those stories that turned out very well on its own, and I worry that doing another story could take away from how well it works on its own now. I might have Shai do cameos in other stories, though.

4 hours ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

His love for Gaotona and

Did you mean Ashravan here?

4 hours ago, Ale the Metallic Conjurer said:

epilogue almost had me tearing up

Not "almost" for me.

[trav]

Shai is too much of a female power phantasy for my liking. Even in her flaws she is nearly infallible. This "I am such a genius without even trying" stuff is tiresome to read.

"This is a task for 10 years! There is no way I can do it in 5. Even if I worked all around the clock it would take me 2 years at least. The best I can hope for is 1 year. You'd be lucky if I can manage to do the basic work in 6 months. I'll finish everything in 3 months while also doing pointless other stuff on the side, and this is my final offer!"

Other than that the book is very good indeed.

[Ale the Metallic Conjurer]

On 8/1/2023 at 5:56 AM, Treamayne said:

Concur on all points. Well written review. I'll also mention that I usually recommend this early for people new to the Cosmere as it does such a great job of explaining the Spiritual, Cognitive and Physical aspects so well that it makes reading other works much easier. It's obvious why this earned a Hugo. I'll also point out that Brandon has said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Brandon Sanderson

I've been hesitant to do a sequel, as I don't want to "George Lucas" the story. Emperor's Soul is one of those stories that turned out very well on its own, and I worry that doing another story could take away from how well it works on its own now. I might have Shai do cameos in other stories, though.

Did you mean Ashravan here?

Not "almost" for me.

Reading this definitely helped me understand some things about The Hero of Ages. 

Yeah, I meant Ashravan —_—

Very valid. I was getting there ngl. The epilogue hit different.

 

17 hours ago, trav said:

Shai is too much of a female power phantasy for my liking. Even in her flaws she is nearly infallible. This "I am such a genius without even trying" stuff is tiresome to read.

"This is a task for 10 years! There is no way I can do it in 5. Even if I worked all around the clock it would take me 2 years at least. The best I can hope for is 1 year. You'd be lucky if I can manage to do the basic work in 6 months. I'll finish everything in 3 months while also doing pointless other stuff on the side, and this is my final offer!"

Other than that the book is very good indeed.

This is... an opinion. Forgery isn't like other magic systems. The main component to successful Forgery is knowledge about the target's history. Shai was the equivalent of a student doing a multi-week cramming session. It also helped she already had experience creating Essence Marks. Furthermore, she was never sure the Essence Mark would completely work as intended.  

[Duxredux]

I agree, The Emperor's Soul is well worthy of the Hugo and changed the way I perceive people and interpret primary and secondhand descriptions of a person. There's something incredibly daring about directly pointing out how difficult it is to really get a portrayal of another human being to really feel right as described and explored by a fictional character. Shai feels more real to me than some of the biographies I've read, ironically. The way she views the world and people is a way that I sometimes try to view them, trying to understand why people do what they do. I'm sure other people do this all the time, but I think TES is what had me start doing it far more deliberately.

On 9/28/2023 at 1:43 AM, trav said:

Shai is too much of a female power phantasy for my liking. Even in her flaws she is nearly infallible. This "I am such a genius without even trying" stuff is tiresome to read.

"This is a task for 10 years! There is no way I can do it in 5. Even if I worked all around the clock it would take me 2 years at least. The best I can hope for is 1 year. You'd be lucky if I can manage to do the basic work in 6 months. I'll finish everything in 3 months while also doing pointless other stuff on the side, and this is my final offer!"

Other than that the book is very good indeed.

I dunno... a few years ago I might have thought something similar, but that was before Brandon wrote 4 books secretly because he needed a break from writing and the stress of COVID-19. That seems like a similar degree of impossibility, and yet some people found new favorite books from the Secret Projects. No one should do this, but apparently if you lock Brandon in his house with his writing desk his productivity skyrockets (like seriously, no one get any funny ideas about chaining Brandon to his desk, he's got plenty of people to check on him, his weekly updates, and Intentionally Blank so we would know and come and find you. You can be patient and wait for Stormlight 5-10 like the rest of us). Brandon's own life as a hugely prolific and speedy writer to me gives more credibility to Shai's output as a hugely prolific and speedy Forger when locked in her carving room. 

I also think that Shai may have misrepresented the actual scope of the project because what she did for Ashravan was at the onset fundamentally different than any of her previous projects. Ask any contractor to do work for you and they will almost always overestimate their time table because it's easier for people to adjust to getting their stuff earlier than expected than later than expected - it also gives flexibility for complications that almost always happen, doubly so if it's a special project of a variety that they've never worked on before despite owning all of the tools that would let them do it. In Shai's case, every single time she verbally talks about the incredible difficulty of the project, she's reinforcing the 100-day deadline they gave her and the tone of impossibility necessary to keep her own execution at bay or the other Forger from picking up her work. Assuming she wasn't lying, she had never made an Essence Mark to be used on another person, so she's also breaking new ground for herself. It's the equivalent of asking the person who writes extremely detailed and convoluted D&D backgrounds for their characters that all happen to be based on themselves to turn around and write the biography of a high profile leader that people personally know. A major difference from this and Shai's usual work is that she merely needed to capture the authentic Ashravan. She didn't need to come up with plausible explanations for a falsified background or personally generate anything fictional about Ashravan for this to work. In Shai carving stamps to test her model of Ashravan on Gaotona there's also an echo of Brandon taking up the end of The Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan passed away and offering up sections of prose to the editor, Jordan's late wife Harriet. Once Shai had her model and understood who Ashravan was at his core, then she could write the groundwork for the sequel after his death, changing nothing about his history, simply using his "near-death" experience to alter future behavior by kicking off a period of retrospection, Ashravan likely reading from the very journal that Shai had worked extensively from, before he would decide to become a great leader. So much of this is fundamentally different from Shai changing the present nature of her own soul, and perhaps it was easier than she expected even given the monumental nature of the project. Shai had very good reasons for emphasizing the impossibility of her task and not having a good personal estimate on the timeframe.

I'm not trying to change your mind or say that you're wrong, I'm just offering the reason it works for me. I tend to focus on reasons to improve other peoples' appreciation of a book, though I acknowledge that there can be genuinely bad storytelling that no amount of positive spin will salvage.

[Ookla the Sibling]

On 2023-09-28 at 3:43 AM, trav said:

"This is a task for 10 years! There is no way I can do it in 5. Even if I worked all around the clock it would take me 2 years at least. The best I can hope for is 1 year. You'd be lucky if I can manage to do the basic work in 6 months. I'll finish everything in 3 months while also doing pointless other stuff on the side, and this is my final offer!"

 

I've seen a lot of people pointing this out, and I have to admit that I didn't even notice this. Having had it pointed out to me, it does seem a little weird that she was able to do it that quick, but Shai just radiates competence and I love her and totally believe that she would have been capable of this impossible feat.

I really enjoyed this book, which I wasn't expecting because I normally don't like shorter stuff. I found that Shai was really interesting and for some reason I love stories that start in prison cells. I don't know why, I guess it's just an interesting way to introduce a character because they can't do stuff and there's no one to talk to, so you get a little internal monologue to get to know them. 

The thing I liked most about it though is the atmosphere in Shai's room. The feeling of panicked speed working and basically last minute cramming for a test is kind of super relatable. I feel like there's almost a mode that my brain goes in where the work consumes it and time and space are meaningless. Shai definitely has this feel to her.