Stephen Leeds: Death & Faxes

Legion

By: Brandon Sanderson, Max Epstein, David Pace, Michael Harkins

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

From #1 New York Times Bestselling, Hugo Award-winning author, Brandon Sanderson, and co-authors Max Epstein, David Pace, and Michael Harkins, comes an audio-first techno-thriller addition to the universe of Stephen (Legion) Leeds.   

Stephen Leeds is perfectly sane. It’s his hallucinations who are all quite mad.  

A one-man team of experts, Stephen Leeds is a genius of unparalleled mental capabilities who can learn new skills or master entire scholarly disciplines in mere hours. However, these skills come at a price. Stephen must compartmentalize his brain, with each of his new skill sets being held by an “aspect”—a hallucination his mind creates with their own fully-developed personality, life, and limitations. Without these aspects, and the delicate construct of reality they provide for him, Stephen is unable to control his mind and engage with the real world.  

So when an unprecedented Internal Revenue Service data breach stumps the FBI, Stephen is brought in to investigate. With the help of his aspects, he must uncover the connection between millions of stolen tax returns, a mysterious hacker named Enoch, a strange, cutting-edge technology that uses soundwaves to transfer data, and a nearly extinct Mesopotamian religion which once rivaled Christianity. What Leeds discovers along the way will reveal the devastating consequences of this new technology, test the limits of his aspects, and lead him face to face with a man hell-bent on vengeance, for which no cost is too high.   

Stephen Leeds: Death and Faxes is a new entry in Brandon Sanderson’s Stephen Leeds saga and chronologically takes place between the novellas Legion and Legion: Lies of the Beholder.

©2022 Brandon Sanderson (P)2022 Mainframe, Inc.

Surprised

I was pleasantly surprised with book I knew nothing about it before listening to it. But I love the authors work. It took me a little bit to get into it. But then I was enthralled. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Excellent!!

Great story and superior narration. I highly recommend. I also wished this was a series. But, alas……….

If this is what being crazy means…

I love how we could just ascribe a label like “crazy” but to get a glimpse into the mind of Stephen Leeds and see how real it is to him truly helps me to navigate my own issues and be more of support to people around me, whether I understand their perspectives or not.
It can be a difficult thing to be alive. Let’s love each other along the way.

Great in all the ways.

I have enjoyed the nonfantasy books of Brandon Sanderson as much of if not more than the fantasy titles. His audiobooks share the same level of quality with Oliver Wyman being as talented as any other narrator I have enjoyed.

a great story

knocked off a star from performance simply because of the mispronounciation of Louisville. Besides that the story was well executed and a fun addition to the Stephen leeds saga!

So glad to see another Stephen Leeds story.

I for one, am not really a Brandon Sanderson fan. He has two series though that speak to me. One is The Reckoners, and the other is Legion. So when in his last story of Stephen Leeds, he decides to effectively kill him off by curing him I was beyond IRATE. Let's just say that I can much more empathies with the Kathy Bates character from Stephen King's Misery. I had even toyed with the idea of trying some fan fiction to keep the character alive. But, alas, I knew that my meager skills would not be up to the task of doing Stephen Leeds justice.

So, when I see a new Stephen Leeds story (even though it is a collaboration) I was ecstatic. While maybe a little below the level of a pure Brandon Sanderson episode it is serviceable and enjoyable. If these writers decide to continue the series then I will follow along with them. Than you Max Epstein, David Pace, and Michael Harkins, for not letting this character die.

I seem to be on a Stephen Leeds run....

I recently found a couple of Brandon Sanderson short stories that I either didn't know about or maybe they were in my MASSIVE TBR file. At this point, I'm not really sure. Anyway, after reading and listening to Snapshot and Legion, I realized that there were actually more stories out in the Legion world - so I went and found them. While I was looking into that, I found this one - which I THINK is the latest entry into this world and may only be available on Audible. Don't quote me on that, but I think that is the case. Anyway, I was on a roll, so it was a no brainer to hit the "buy" button.

I have to admit, my feelings for this series were seemingly going in the wrong direction. I REALLY liked the first one. The second one was still good, but maybe not as good as the first and the third one, well....let's just say I liked it the least. But, since I had already hit the button, I decided to just go for it.

Honestly, I'm glad I did. It is odd in the fact that THIS story is actually in a different time placement. In other words, it occurs after the first book and BEFORE the second. I think I saw it labeled as Book 1.5. I do not usually like reading books out of order, but since I had already made the mistake and didn't really have a choice, I thought" oh well".

I enjoyed this story more than the last one. It took us back to the stronger relationships that Stephen has with his aspects and it FELT more like the atmosphere of the first book. I read later that there were several collaborators on this book, but I still felt like the flow and the content were told in a way that kept and held my interest.

I liked the story, I LOVE the characters and I would gladly be willing to read anything else that comes out from this world.

I would call that a win :)

Entertaining and enjoyable

As usual, never disappointed with Brandon and his team’s brilliant story telling. I am fan of all his most. Good plot, exciting, tense from beginning to the end.

so much fun

this free addition was such a surprise to hear. great continuation of the series!! so excited to finish it!

Excellent addition to the series

This was an engrossing novel, with a hard-to-put-down storyline that was well conceived and on par with the others in the series. Excellent, high-quality narration as usual.