The Seventh Perfection

Daniel Polansky is a brilliant writer. Yet this book didn\’t engage me in the way I expected. Perhaps it\’s due to my autumn mood today but I was disappointed by the narrative\’s predictability. By the end of Chapter 7, I thought I knew where Mr Polansky was leading me. And while it\’s the journey, not the destination which is important in spculative fiction and fantasy? The spell of the author\’s words no longer wrapped me. I\’d spotted the trick, fallen out of the magic, and couldn\’t get back in sync. So, this book just didn\’t work for me. Mr. Polansky\’s craft is solid. But, once I knew our destination, the fun was over for me. Sorry. Not for me.

The end was not a surprise, the story closed well, well foreshadowed and everything…. but I didn’t feel satisfied. I think we are creatures who find change satisfying—or at least I do— and so to see perpetuation made me unhappy. I could do with hope in this world, ans this didn’t give me any. Perhaps if there had been more context on the past, if I could have read how terrible some parts of the past were… but this was like seeing a giant machine coming apart and the loss of the random nut will inevitably add up, won’t it? … For evoking such strong emotions and making me think, I would give this five stars. But because I won’t re-read it, bumped down to four.

I was enjoying the perspective of the way the story was being told. A way I never recalled. Just seems the ending just seemed to collapse.

The Seventh Perfection is a fantasy written in a style that I’ve only ever encountered in short stories before. The narrative consists solely of conversations the main character has with an array of people, but with a twist: her side of them has been removed completely. The reader is perfectly able to infer that she’s there from how people refer to her presence. They comment on her questions, refer to something she does or says, or describe her looks or mood. And the whole time she remains silent. I feared it would be difficult to get the hang of the story, but already by second page I was perfectly able to follow what was going on. It takes a while before there is enough information about the main character to form a picture of her—if I hadn’t read the back copy I wouldn’t even have known she’s a woman—but all in all, the story was easy to follow. Manet is seeking to unravel a mystery of a woman whose picture she has been sent in a locket by an anonymous person. Why her identity compels her isn’t made clear, and for the first half of the book I assumed she was on an official government business, as she is constantly referred to by her title amanuensis. Little by little, it becomes clear that she’s on a personal mission, that the woman’s identity matters to her, and that the God-King she serves isn’t happy about it. Mostly, because along the way, she learns the truth about how the God-King came to ascend in the first place. The book is set in a world that is a mixture of fantasy and technology, but it’s only ever hinted at. There are no descriptions of surroundings—or people, for that matter. There are beings other than human that Manet encounters during her quest, and towards the end the interviews aren’t even with humans anymore. So, despite the lack of descriptions, the world emerges as rich and complex. We learn a surprisingly lot about Manet, despite the fact that only the second to last chapter gives her voice. She emerges as a rather unlikeable person—she manages to anger almost everyone she encounters, her friends included—but extremely determined. There is nothing she wouldn’t do to learn the truth. She is one of the few people who have learned the art of seven perfections, a discipline of body and mind, the seventh of which is a perfect memory. While this was interesting, the narrative style that erases her from the picture made her special skills go unused and unnoticed. It’s therefore slightly unnecessary that she is such a unique person. She could’ve been anyone, really. The Seventh Perfection is an excellent book. It gets four stars for the story and the world, and an extra star for pulling off the chosen style with such skill. If you’re looking for a quick and surprisingly immersive read, I warmly recommend this one.

I received a copy of The Seventh Perfection in exchange for a fair and honest review. The Seventh Perfection is the latest novella to come from the mind of Daniel Polansky, and it\’s an adventurous take on a fantastical world. Manet is famous for her perfect memory – complements of her mastering the seven perfections. Now she\’s on a quest to solve a riddle and save the city, ideally before the perfection she has mastered costs her everything. “Well, thank Ba\’l Melqart that you were born into the era of His benevolence.” I can say with complete honesty that The Seventh Perfection is like nothing else I\’ve ever read. It\’s wholly unique, and was unafraid to take risks. Admittedly not all of those risks paid off, but I still respect them nonetheless. The world itself seemed to beg for further exploration, and that alone was enough to keep me reading this story. Actually, I wouldn\’t have minded seeing even more of the world that Polansky built here. The entire story is told in the second person, which I know can be off-putting for many readers. In this case, it did feel like it forced an extra layer of distance between the main character and the reader. A bit ironic, really. Much of the novella is about Manet searching the city for answers. Thanks to the perspective, that means there are a bunch of new characters talking at her (and us, by proxy), to tell the tale. It\’s also important to note that we see other characters reactions to Manet\’s words, but not her own. It\’s an interesting twist, one that makes the tale feel just a touch more mysterious. Honestly, this story really reminded me of a lot of classic JRPG games, where the NPCs do all of the talking, and the main character never seems to say anything. That added a heavy dose of nostalgia for me, but again, I can see why others might not enjoy it nearly so much. It\’s probably going to depend on your preference, and your mood at the moment. Still, I cannot get over how unique this novella is. I truly do mean that, too. This book is unlike anything else I\’ve even heard of, let alone read. I absolutely adore that, and give Polansky credit for giving it form. On that note, this is the first piece of work I\’ve read by Polansky. If the rest of his works are anything like this one, I think he\’s going to be an author worth looking into.

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