Lies of the Beholder

The final book in the Legion trilogy. These novellas provide an interesting look into the idea of madness, personality and reality. This third book probably questions these themes deeper than either of the previous two. This removes a little of the rip-roaring fun that characterized the earlier stories, but replaces it with some really interesting philosophical and ethical questioning - always a hallmark of quality scifi.

Personality and reality are interestingly connected - one persons perception of reality could well be very different from someone else's. The idea of what is real has been a philosophical debate of the ages (going way back to Plato and earlier) and the ideas presented by Sanderson here are novel twists on the concept. If you hallucinate multiple imaginary friends, how does that affect your perception of reality? When imaginary things that are perceived as real by someone die but, how does that impact on that persons reality? These are deep metaphysical concepts - the type of thing that provides the foundations for the best sci fi out there. Sanderson's novella certainly touches upon them in an enjoyable and readable manner. His prose and style are something that I always enjoy. Whilst he doesn't dive as deep as Philip K Dick in these matters, he presents them in an accessible and entertaining way. His Legion trilogy is definitely worth a read and the novella styling gives them a nice manageable single read session size. High concept sci fi in an easy access package.