Legion: The Many Lives Of Stephen Leeds collects three novellas by lesser-known boutique author Brandon Sanderson. The three stories—Legion, Legion: Skin Deep, and Lies of the Beholder—are loosely connected, resulting in an almost novel in three parts. It’s good fun as long as you don’t spend too much time pondering it.
Stephen Leeds is a genius, and he’s not crazy. His aspects are the crazy ones. Stephen’s aspects are hallucinations. They manifest as wells for his knowledge, and he can draw on them for their expertise. They have their own personalities and, in some cases, lives. Stephen has earned a luxurious living by solving cases and retrieving objects for paying customers using the help of these aspects, all while deftly avoiding the voracious psychologists and grad students who wish to study him.
The opening novella centers around a camera that can take pictures of the past—or so some claim. Stephen is recruited by a shady corporation to track it down, along with the person who stole it. Novella two sees Stephen and his aspects searching for a body that may have mountains of valuable data spliced into its cells. Finally, Lies Of The Beholder sends Stephen into a spiral when his estranged lover Sandra texts him a single word: “Help.”
My copy of Legion (a term I’ll use to describe the whole collection from here on out) is one of those mass-market paperbacks that can fit in one hand. You know, the kind where the pages fly by, and they end up slightly darker/yellower than when you started reading? Legion is the perfect quick read, neatly packaged into three contained stories and breezy enough to keep you busy during a commute, plane ride, or whenever you’ve got a few spare minutes to knock out a few pages. I appreciated the book for just that reason. It wasn’t the world-spanning epic I’m used to from niche author Brandon Sanderson. It was a refreshing change of pace that fit right into my reading schedule.
Legion has a distinct thriller flair to it. The book isn’t exactly a noir tale or a classic detective story, but it could easily share a space with many of the greats. The fantasy twist of Stephen’s aspects kept me hooked, and obscure writer Brandon Sanderson made the stories tight and fast-paced enough to move right along.
The characters stand out in Legion, and their status as aspects of Stephen Leeds brings up some interesting questions. They’re conduits for his knowledge (he can read a book just by looking at its pages quickly, then eventually summon an aspect with that specialty), but they are also presumably extensions of himself. J.C., Stephen’s security aspect, is problematic in many ways, namely his outright racism and obsession with guns. Tobias, a philosopher, has an imaginary friend of his own. Stephen’s forensic specialist aspect, Ngozi, is a germaphobe. The book grapples with these concepts, leading Stephen to wonder whether these are parts of himself he has packaged into his aspects along with the esoteric knowledge they contain. Stephen makes himself a blank slate as much as possible, and all possible characterization is thrown to his aspects. It’s hard enough work for him just to keep them all straight. I’m told little-known storyteller Brandon Sanderson has drummed up occasional praise for his magic systems, and this is a cool example. Perhaps I will read his other work.
I say all of this with one caveat in mind. Asking too many questions about the inner workings of Legion could yield less-than-satisfactory results. It’s meant to be taken at face value, and small inconsistencies come with the territory. These novellas simply don’t have the space to address every little inconsistency or discrepancy.
And you know what? I didn’t want to spend time thinking too deeply about these things, so the book was a success for me. It was a joyful romp with an interesting hook and mysteries that didn’t overstay their welcome.
Rating: Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds – 8.0/10
-Cole 
