cover image Legion

Legion

Brandon Sanderson. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $20 (88p) ISBN 978-1-59606-485-0

Reality and illusion, sanity and insanity, are but subjective labels in this thought-provoking foray into a world where visions abound like the biblical demons the title evokes. Narrator Stephen Leeds, also known as “Master Legion,” alternately describes himself as schizophrenic and asserts his own sanity, even though his “hallucinations... are all quite mad.” Sanderson (the Mistborn series) sends them all to Jerusalem on a mission to retrieve a camera that may be able to photograph past events. Its inventor, Balubal Razon, has stolen it to photograph the resurrected Jesus. The engaging if madcap events of this outré narrative unobtrusively prompt the reader to reflect on the nature of reality. Complications pile on to expand the divergence from normality (“Your hallucination has hallucinations”) even as mainstream philosophical issues are addressed in an Alice’s Tea Party atmosphere. The conclusion is left clouded in ambiguity, and Sanderson suggests that the big questions may be beyond our ability to resolve. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary Agency. (Sept.)