Legion Skin deep

The quest for a stolen corpse in an alternate present-day U.S. dominates this sequel to 2012's Legion. Yol Chay, owner of Innovation Information Incorporated, sends investigator Stephen Leeds in search of Panos Maheras, a researcher whose body may hold the key to stopping a well-intentioned but disastrous project to store computing data in human cells. Leeds musters his corporeal friends and 47 personalities, called aspects, to investigate amid pursuit by Zen Rigby, a hired assassin working for rival high-tech company Exeltec. Continuing the theme of Legion, Sanderson explores Leeds's efforts to understand his independent-minded aspects and his need for them. Discussions of quantum physics and the infinity of time lend a slightly contrived profundity to Leeds's examination of reality and illusion, as he muses, "I'm not crazy, I'm compartmentalized." Alas, Sanderson fails to take this debate into the broader world; the sometimes flighty, sometimes assertive aspects are intriguing, but the conceptual basis of the work is never developed beyond sitcom level. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Stephen Leeds (last seen in the 2012 novella "Legion") has a condition that causes him to hallucinate a variety of uniquely useful companions. Of his many "aspects" are a trained soldier, a psychological expert, and a librarian, all of whom help him solve problems, even if they are probably the manifestations of a deep schizophrenia. These aspects make Leeds a rather versatile intelligence agent, and in this outing he is hired to find out who has stolen a corpse that contains experimental technology from a company attempting to use the human body as an information storage device. VERDICT This quick, entertaining read has the pulse of a thriller and the hook of a fascinating hero balancing on the edge of psychosis. It reads like a ready-made tale for a TV show, and, indeed, one is in the works. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.