Audiobook Review – Legion: Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 4 hours and 23 minutes (208 pages)
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: November 24, 2014
ASIN: B00PLZSQBE
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Legion series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

I got this as a free audiobook from Audible.com. This the sequel to Sanderson’s book Legion. This was an interesting and engaging book. It follows a different investigation and story than Legion did, but uses some of the same characters as we saw in Legion. I enjoyed the story.

I listened to this on audiobook and it was narrated by the same narrator as the Monster Hunter International books (which honestly confused me a bit at first, I thought I was listening to an MHI book). The narrator does an excellent job and I really enjoyed this as an audiobook.

Stephen Leeds is a genius who has packed knowledge into other people or Aspects. He can summon these aspects to obtain the knowledge he needs in certain situations. Leeds is hired by I3 to recover a missing corpse. The corpse is not just any corpse though, it is a scientist who has modified his cells to hold information. It’s a very valuable corpse and potentially a dangerous one, a side effect of this potentially viral genetic modification is that people lose parts of their DNA and develop cancer.

This was an investigative thriller with some paranormal elements. It was a well done and engaging story. You get a lot of story for the short length of the book.

I love the idea of someone having multiple aspects or people that are only visible to them. I love how Leeds uses these aspects to hold his vast repository of knowledge but still has to treat them like normal people. So, for example they need a place to sleep and need to be transported places, etc. If Leeds aspects aren’t with him he can’t access the knowledge they hold.

We get a little more insight into how Leeds’ aspects work in this book, but there are still a lot of questions around that. We also get to meet some new aspects.

Overall this was a well done paranormal thriller. Leeds is a fascinating character and solves an engaging mystery in this book. The Legion series is very different from anything else Sanderson writes. And, although I don’t like these books as much as his fantasy novels, it is a very well done and engaging series. I would recommend both to Sanderson fans and to fans of paranormal thrillers.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge
– 2015 Audiobook Challenge