Blurb:
When a woman with perfect memory sets out to solve a riddle, the threads she tugs on could bring a whole city crashing down. The God-King who made her is at risk, and his other servants will do anything to stop her.
To become the God-King’s Amanuensis, Manet had to master all seven perfections, developing her body and mind to the peak of human performance. She remembers everything that has happened to her, in absolute clarity, a gift that will surely drive her mad. But before she goes, Manet must unravel a secret which threatens not only the carefully prepared myths of the God-King’s ascent, but her own identity and the nature of truth itself.
Author: Daniel Polansky
Publisher: Tordotcom
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 176
Release Date: 22/09/2020
My Chosen Format: Kindle
My Rating of ‘The Seventh Perfection’: 2 out of 5
Review:
Having absolutely adored Polansky’s ‘The Builders’ I got incredibly excited to try more of his novella-length fiction. Sadly, for me at least, this just never threatened to hit the high points that The Builders achieved.Â
The writing style in this one is very different to any other kind of book. It’s set out in chapters where each chapter is essentially a conversation with a different person. Except it never really feels like a conversation as you only see one side of it. We see the book through the POV of Manet and, despite her being the one that asks the questions, we never see/hear anything she asks. The characters react as though she has said something, though, so we are left to puzzle what she said by way of how they answer. I assume that, considering we are Manet, we don’t need to know what she said … because we said it? Therefor we should know?
I say each chapter is a conversation, and it is. The entire book is conducted pretty much through the medium of speech. However, the conversations start off as you’d expect. A question is answered … but before said question can be expanded upon, the character in question will go off on some rambling monologue about their past, the past of the city etc … This falls flat for me for two reasons: the first being, everyone does it. Literally everyone. If asked what colour the sky was, many of them would pontificate on the reason for the clouds hanging in the sky rather than give you a simple answer. My second reason is that they all have the exact same style of speech when going off into their ramblings. It makes it pretty hard to differentiate who is who as perhaps only one or two have a clear, distinguishable character.
We get pretty much zero world knowledge near the start, as it’s built up throughout the book via different rambling conversations. The annoying thing about this is that I never really find myself caring for the main character or what she’s trying to achieve. I just felt pretty detached from point A all the way up until point B at the end.
It’s not an entirely unenjoyable book. The writing and story being told are fairly good, you just need to cut through a lot of the rambling. I do feel that the story was a tad linear, though.
That format of answering a question, without us the reader knowing the question, sounds like something a writer would come up with thinking they were so clever. It would drive me bonkers!
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ps,
You’ve really been pumping out the reviews it feels like. Great job! 😀
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I’m somehow managing to keep to two a week or so. I can feel it slipping 😂
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Well, no pressure. Just wanted to let you know I liked the output 🙂
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I’m liking it, too 🙂 feels good to be continually active
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Yea, it certainly wasn’t for me. This was my version of your Tchaikovsky book. Loved everything I’d read by Polansky so far, so this one felt like walking into a wall I hadn’t seen. Bit jarring.
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Ooooph, that’s harsh! But extremely on point. sorry you had to get that feeling 😦
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Interesting… but, just as was the case with Bookstooge’s recent Czajkowski review, I already have the thing on the shelf, as it was highly recommended by Ola (10/10) 🙂 So, I’ll judge for myself one day…
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Oh, absolutely. It’s one of those books that you either love or hate. So it’s a good chance that your tastes will differ to mine. It was Ola’s review that made me want it
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Ah, sorry this didn’t work out for you! I loved it to bits, but we can’t have exactly the same tastes – it would be boring 😉
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It was a mixture of your love for it and it being written by Polansky that made me pick it up. Ah well, I’m sure Asher’s work will be one we agree on 😉
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I’m very hopeful, that’s for sure! 😄
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This doesn’t sound enjoyable 😕
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I’d describe it as the marmite of books
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I hate marmite 😅
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I actually quite liked this, but it took a bit for it to grow on me. And I can definitely see disliking it. Also this is a little embarrassing but… marmite is what now? I’m mean, I googled it, but how’s this a thing? I sounds… um
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It’s literally a love or hate product (marmite). Aussies call it vegimite. Not sure you guys have anything like it? It’s not a bad taste if you like strong stuff
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Great review! I don’t think this story would be for me either… It sounds like one of those reads that you either love or hate.
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Yea, I honestly don’t think there’s much of a middle ground with this one
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