The Emperor's Soul

"I bounced back and forth between giving this book 5 stars or 4 stars. It’s not a perfect masterpiece to me, but it’s close. I saw myself in the character and found myself rooting for her. It made me question relationships and cause so much reflection that its significance to my life made me want to rate it 5 stars… but it’s not quite there"

"Great description for such a short book. I read as a stand-alone, but I might go and read the other books now! "

"Made it to chapter 7, but DNF. Wasn’t anything special up to this point so I’m not disappointed to walk away now."

"One of my favorite novellas of his. Spectacular really "

"This is a perfect novella. The characters are all complete, the story is well-paced, and the end is satisfying but really makes you think."

"3.5/5 ⭐️"

"Great story, concise, imaginative and very entertaining."

"4.0 on my Sanderson scale. <br/><br/>Another tricky one to rate. I enjoyed it and there weren't any parts I didn't like, however I have enjoyed other of Sanderson's short stories more. Like Legion and Infinity Blade. However, this story was much more complete than those novellas. I'd say this short story really is that - a complete story just short. <br/><br/>I started out reading this book wondering how it would tie in to the world of Elantris and I wondered whether the story came before or after the events of Elantris. And I am still not sure, but I've realized it doesn't matter. It just shows, in my opinion, how real the stories are. If you think about Earth, there are many different regions with many different places and ways people do things. It would only make sense that there is another region far away from the city of Elantris and Sycla and that they would do things differently. The magic is quite different from the Elantrian magic, but it still has ties to the Elantrians. <br/><br/>It also has quite strong ties to Stormlight. Which makes it so much more exciting because you can see the universe of the cosmere relating to one another and maybe more importantly, all the things they talk about in all the books make <i>sense</i> as they relate to one another. It really is phenomenal. As a mini side note, it's also always nice to see and hear different people explaining the cosmere and it's three realms. Helps me remember and understand to see so many different explanations. <br/><br/>It also can be read as a completely separate book but it is still more interesting to know both Elantris and Emperor's Soul to be able to compare the two. <br/><br/>Overall, it's a good story that is fast paced but not rushed. It didn't feel lacking in any way. The ending is hopeful but also an interesting concept to think about with what happens to the Soul. <br/><br/>Lastly, from day ninety-eight onward for some reason I had the song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUA0mo1vPkQ">"Sun and Stars"</a> by Really Slow Motion in my head. And man, let me tell you, that made for <i>quite</i> the EPIC ending. Just repeating the song over and over while those last couple chapters were going on really brought me so much more into the story. I'd suggest listening to the song while you read that part, or listen before and get the song in the back of your mind to listen to as you read."

"Fantastic read. My only complaint was that it was over too fast. Such a fun story with some great characterization, considering how short it is."

"Amazing, love the writing style, the concept, the plot, the world. Simply amazing "