Sometimes, you know a book will be perfect for you going into it. Sometimes, like here, you stumble into it completely unawares. It was the cover that first caught my eye, and then the blurb – a woman with a perfect memory looking for answers. But it was the prose and the narrative style that won me over. I’ve never seen anything like it. I still think it’s best to go in blind and knowing no more than that, but if you need more convincing…

The narrative is fragmentary, each chapter from the point of view of a different character telling something to our protagonist, who remains invisible. She moves through the story like a ghost, seen and spoken to, but never heard. A trick like that takes skill. I’m not sure it would work in a novel, but Polansky did it masterfully.

Along the way, we slowly learn what Manet, our protagonist is looking for and how the current state of affairs came to be. The setting and its history are a delight. I also loved how it played with themes of truth and the cost of learning it, propaganda, revolutions, power.

Since the hints are dribbled slowly, since none of the narrators is very reliable and many of them are odd, you have to do some assembly yourself. But oh, do I ever love it.

The Seventh Perfection shows what is possible with a fantasy novella, it's one of those books that is hard to review without spoilers so I won't even try.

All I will say is that is is definitely worth the read as it's very creatively written as the story is told through other people talking to the 'narrator' alone though dialogue alone, sounds weird I know but it's so cleverly done that it's very impressive how well it works without all the descriptive work you usually get.  This is really a book you have to read to believe so read it, you'll love it!

This is a fascinating, experimental novella. It is told in pseudo second person; our protagonist is silent, nameless, and only we only know them through the observations of others. Polansky has given us half a conversation, but a whole story.

It touches on broad themes, such as the fragility of empire, the role of propaganda, and the sacrifices inherent in learning hard truths. The main character both accomplishes her goal and becomes what she fears and hates most, all in one fell swoop.

The worldbuilding is deft and seamless. Each little tidbit we’re granted pulls ten times its own weight when it comes to creating a sense of atmosphere and grounding. While it’s temping to label it dreamlike, oneiric, that would do poor justice to the sense of existence that Polansky manages to convey.

I would highly recommend this novella to fans of KJ Parker’s novellas. It has the same sense of irreverence and experimentality.

the humor in the book, the characters, the worldbuilding, all of it created this masterpiece of a book. I was so excited to be able to get an early copy of this, and I wasn't disappointed at all. the pov was definitely interesting and took a second to get over, but it didn't hinder my reading by any means.

Unfortunately, I lost this copy and can't read it. I'll rate it high due to that I feel like this can be a new favorite of mine.

Daniel Polansky es uno de los autores de fantasía épica que más he disfrutado en los últimos años. Hace unos años publicó un "re-telling", si lo podemos llamar así, o revisitó la historia de los 47 ronin pero en clave animalesca. Ya sabéis, la historia del grupo de guerreros desterrados que van a rescatar a su señor o capitán del castillo donde lo tienen preso. Pero los protagonistas son gatos, ratas, tejones, perros y demás. Una chulada. Desde entonces cada vez que sale un libro suyo me lanzo a leerlo sin pensarlo. Con The Seven Perfection he tenido algunos problemillas, el mayor de todos es que no he logrado entrar a la historia, pero vamos por partes. Conocemos a Manet que va en busca de una mujer a petición del Dios Rey (o Rey Dios) del lugar. Es peculiar porque aunque la protagonista del libro es Manet, nunca la escuchamos ni oímos su punto de vista. Sus intenciones y sus pensamientos quedan ocultos al lector. El libro está narrado a través de una serie de entrevistas, declaraciones y monólogos de la gente con la que ella habla para rastrear a esa otra mujer.

Manet tiene memoria perfecta, ya que ella ha logrado controlar a la perfección las siete perfecciones (aunque nunca se especifica exactamente qué son ni cuáles son todas las siete, ni siquiera si es algo real o no). Y Manet solo tiene un retrato de la mujer a la que busca. La trama per se nunca me acabó de llamar la atención, y me ha parecido más un experimento literario que otra cosa. Y aquí radica el punto fuerte de libro, que es tremendamente original el cómo está contado. Que nuestro narrador no fiable sea precisamente no fiable al 100% por el simple hecho de que jamás se dirige al lector directamente crea un efecto extraño y peculiar. Es como leer declaraciones sobre una persona pero nunca llegar a ver, conocer o escuchar a la persona de la que hablan. El lector crea expectativas completamente irreales del personaje y traduce todos estos relatos en un algo abstracto que parece ser nuestra protagonista.

Y por esto me ha gustado el libro y lo recomiendo. No sé si era intención o no del autor pero mi lectura ha sido la de una disertación sobre cómo interpretamos las redes sociales y sobre cómo nos creamos expectativas sobre alguien que desconocemos. A menudo ocurre que oímos mucho sobre alguien, quizá en una polémica o solo comentarios sueltos y comenzamos a crear una imagen en nuestra cabeza de esa persona. Quién es, cómo es, cómo piensa. Retazos subjetivos y falsos sobre alguien que recomponemos para que encaje en nuestros parámetros. Y como al final, cuando por fin conocemos a esa persona, nos asaltan dos posibilidades, o aceptamos la realidad y pensamos "anda, no pensaba que fueras así" o negamos la realidad con paranoia y desconfianza. Me ha parecido un libro interesante pero difícil de recomendar. Es un libro complejo y que no goza de acción ni de grandes batallas. Pero que mantiene bien el misterio a lo largo de sus breves páginas con declaraciones de lo más intrigantes.

This was a very strange read and although I ultimately enjoyed it, there was a bit of me that felt it was being clever just for the sake of it. It tells the story of an amanuensis looking for a murderer and investigating her own past at the same time. The premise is an interesting one, but the execution makes the plot a little hard to parse. The narrative is written as one side of a conversation, as we follow our protagonist through several interviews with potential suspects or witnesses, but we only get their testimony. As such, it does take a minute to get used to the structure and I am quite sure that it won't be for everyone. For me, this is definitely a story I will remember more for the innovative form over the plot and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys experimental writing.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a story about a woman, Manet, who mastered all seven perfections (??), thus becoming a virtuoso and having perfect memory, and her search for another woman of whom she only has a portrait in a locket.

The most interesting part is that the story is told in a kind of 2nd PoV monologue, as the interviewed people answer Manet/you to questions that are only implied. These monologues are the only way we learn about the world and its history. I really liked that, instead of making it a long standard fantasy novel about a troubled world and a revolution and a God-King, all these things are just hinted at through this ingenious way of writing, and we are given only slivers of information and thereby we are free to supplement the story with out own oppinions and thoughts.

Overall, a very interesting and satisfying read. 

* Plot: 4.5★
* World building: 3.5★
* Characters: 3.5★
* Coherence/Consistency/ Sense of time: 3.5★
* Language/Humor/Witticism: 4★
* Enjoyability: 4+★

This is probably the weirdest thing I have read this year, but I liked it.

I just finished The Seventh Perfection by Daniel Polansky. This novella feels very experimental and is unlike anything I have read before. There were also some parts that were a little hard for me to understand. I have an engineering degree and read a lot, so this isn’t a common experience for me. Not sure how I feel about that, actually. Brb, existential crisis.

Full disclosure, I received an arc of this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank Macmillan-Tor/Forge for continuing to approve my arc requests.

On the surface, The Seventh Perfection is a story about a woman named Manet who is trying to figure out the identity of the woman pictured in her locket. Manet is special. She has reached the Seventh Perfection, mastering her body and mind to reach the highest level of service to her God-King. She can remember everything she has ever encountered, so as she tracks people down to gain information for her quest, she has no need to write anything down, only to listen.

And this is where the book gets clever.

The story is told in 2nd person, through chapters of monologues titled with the names of the people Manet is speaking to. Through these monologues we learn about the history of the place Manet grew up in, how there was a revolution led by students years ago that led to an Empress getting deposed and replaced with the current God-King, and the tragic but noble loyalty the woman he loved provided to the cause. But as the story progresses, we also learn that there’s a difference between the history and what really happened. As the point of view shifts through the characters that Manet speaks with, we learn bits and pieces of what happened and who the mysterious woman in the locket is. Each character speaks what they believe to be the truth, but their truths don’t exactly line up. Manet and the reader are forced to reconcile between those truths to figure out what is actually going on.

This book is less than 200 pages, and it’s super enthralling and easy to get lost in, but that doesn’t make it an easy read. I’ve read it once and will probably have to go back and read it a couple more times before I finally understand it. Honestly, it’s giving me a headache writing this review because even though I thoroughly enjoyed the book, it’s hard to put the experience of reading it into words. Without giving up any spoilers, the book started out as a small scale quest for Manet to find the truth, whatever that means, and turns into something with potentially more far reaching consequences. I think this rush of confusion and passion for continuing the search is something Manet and the reader share, especially because of the way the second person point of view forces the reader to become intimately familiar with Manet even though she doesn’t really have her own voice in this story. Also, while each person or group of people she spoke to had their own distinct voice and biases that made them enjoyable to read, it was also hard to piece together what the truth actually was. This story made me work in order to understand it, and I don’t think that I completely do understand it. That experience as a reader is really weird, and a little unsettling. Usually reading a book is the least complicated part of my day. It’s the way that I relax after working at a job where I basically rent out brain time to complicated problems. This book was like exercise, exhausting but invigorating at the same time, until you realize that you don’t have a six pack yet. Basically, you need to take a shower after this book.

If you are looking for a beautiful piece of fantasy that will blow your mind, then I think you should pick up this book.

Having read Those Above and Those Below, I approached this book with positive anticipation and I was not disappointed. A fantasy land with echoes of old empires and older gods, but the same human foibles underpin a rollicking story. With well-judged pace and a plot that reveals detail up to the very end, I lok forward to the next Polansky

The novella follows Manet, an Amanuensis (a person who dictates a manuscript) for the God-King, the supreme leader of the land. What makes Manet special is that she has a fantastic memory and dictates conversations mentally, rather than dictating it with ink. One day, she receives a locket from a mysterious force. The locket contains a picture of a woman who looks suspiciously like her yet isn’t. This propels her on a quest to investigate who exactly the woman in the locket is, while in the background, an increasingly illuminating light is shed on the world around her, as the reader gets a better and better glimpse of its dark underbelly.

That sounds simple enough. But there’s one thing I didn’t mention: the protagonist’s dialogue and thoughts are not included in the novella (with the exception of one chapter). We hear the person she’s talking to, and it's implied what she says through how the characters respond to her, but it’s never written out. To say that there’s a learning curve to the writing style is an understatement. Not only is the character initially portrayed in the story as a cipher whose background is explored by other characters' responses to her - many of whom she has just met – but the history of the fantastical world is unraveled in this fashion, too. Thus, the first half of the novella feels like solving an unsatisfying puzzle. But in the second half, things come together at the same time the story becomes propulsive and is an improvement of a read.

The Seventh Perfection is an exhausting read, both in terms of its themes and the level of work it demands to fully understand it. But by exerting yourself through a vigorous read, the benefits of absorbing the story feels so much more satisfying and potent. It might even be potent enough to chew on and savor the themes, rather than throw them away if they took the form of a trite, mediocre story. Reading the book is like a one-way conversation, in which you, the reader, are silent while the book is speaking to you. And hopefully, just like Manet, you will absorb important information without having to write down any notes.

This...was confusing.

Don’t get me wrong: we’re promised innovative storytelling and we get that. But it wasn’t for me, unfortunately. It’s told in second-person, each chapter a new character talking to *you* (a character named Manet) as she tries to uncover the secrets of the God-King. Things are told in a very disjointed fashion, as things unfold as a sort of dialogue, and it wasn’t something I had much patience for. That said, it’s an impressive feat, and certainly unique and memorable.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book. My opinions are my own.

This is not an easy book to review. It's a little confusing to read and it's very different from my usual reading experience. Not to say that that's a bad thing! It's just I can't exactly wrap my head around what I've just read yet. 

We meet Manet, a woman with a perfect memory. Or actually, we don't meet her. We meet the people she talks to. Every chapter is a monologue of a character in the book, talking to Manet, slowly revealing the story. Who is the woman in the locket? 

This could have been a lengthy fantasy book about revolution, a God-King and the beings that live outside of the city. But it's not. There is a world of stories that the author hints at, but all we get to see is a snippet, a few days in the life of Manet, seen through the eyes of others. And it's refreshing! For me it's a new take on the fantasy genre and I enjoyed reading it!

This book has an interesting enough format, with the way it’s all told from a second POV, and the chapters are all written interview style from different characters, minus the main character’s but I just didn’t care enough.

This is a weird novella, and I am here for it. The Seventh Perfection, by Daniel Polansky, sits somewhere between a full novel and a novella at just under 200 pages. But what a 200 pages it is. The story’s main gimmick is it is told completely from a second-person point of view, and it makes for a strange and fascinating tale. However, there is a reason that most books AREN’T told from this perspective, so did Daniel Polansky manage to use an original narrative technique while telling a compelling story? Yes, yes he did.

The Seventh Perfection tells the story of Manet, but you won’t know that for a while. Manet is a historian of sorts who has mastered the seven perfections. Each perfection represents a difficult skill, including things like perfect pitch and perfect memory. The perfections get harder as they climb in level, and Manet is one of the few who has mastered all seven. Manet is trying to track down the hidden stories of how the current God-King ascended the throne and overthrew the previous tyrant. When her chase starts to overturn stones that were better left unturned, she finds herself on the run from the law – yet consumed with the need to find out what happened.

While the story feels a little tried-and-true, Polansky’s narrative style breathes fresh life into the tale. Because the book is in the second person, we never actually get to hear our protagonist think or speak. The entire book is written in dialogue from people in conversation with Manet – and you never hear Manet’s side. The result is a book that sounds like it would be confusing, but Polansky’s eye for knowing which tidbits to include means that it actually flows extremely well. Since the entire book is dialogue, the pace is lightning fast, and I managed to finish the entire story in about two hours – every minute of which I spent glued to the pages. It felt like I was reading the book version of a video game speedrun. I was constantly in awe of how effortlessly Polansky managed to paint a vivid picture of the world, people, and story with only half of the dialogue in a conversation. Truly, it is an impressive piece of writing.

The crowning achievement of The Seventh Perfection is probably how well I felt I knew Manet by the end of the book, despite literally never hearing her speak or think. The dialogue slowly helps the reader piece together who this mysterious woman is and the process helps you become extremely invested in her struggle. I needed to know the answers to her questions because she needed to know. And the answers shocked and delighted me.

I can’t say too much more about The Seventh Perfection without giving away some large spoilers. Suffice to say, I very much recommend this book to anyone looking for something short and different. Its tiny page count and lack of bulky descriptives mean you will blast through it in about a day, but what a day you will have. Polansky has created something clever, rich, and fun, and I think everyone should check it out if given the chance.

Rating: The Seventh Perfection – 9.0/10
-Andrew

I wanted to love this book but the chosen writing style is one that I haven't historically been a fan of. The few characters I made it through were very interesting but, as a reader, I struggle with following this type of POV and story presentation. By about a quarter in, I couldn't keep track of characters and DNF. Top marks on originality for sure, and I'm bummed that I wasn't able to finish.

When I pick up a Tor.com book, I'm pretty much guaranteed a distinctive story. There's always something interesting about the storytelling, perspective, style, world-building, or other element that makes the reader nod along and say yep, I see why they picked this story.

This was another such case. I really admire the author for making some truly daring choices. The story is told entirely through second person POV, through a variety of other characters' conversations with the main character (whose perspective and dialogue the reader never hears).

That being said, unfortunately I do think much of the book went over my head. To be fair, I was extremely tired when I read it, and I think this story required more concentration than I had left to give that evening. Regardless, I love seeing authors take narrative risks and appreciate being given the opportunity to read an electronic advanced copy of The Seventh Perfection for free. Readers smarter than myself will probably absorb more from this story. Thank you Tor.com! All opinions are my own.

This was unusual. Written in second POV it was a bit confusing at first. The story slowly unfolds, but the open-end of the book left me with a lot of questions.

I had initially been excited about checking The Seventh Perfection out because it seemed like a good introduction to Daniel Polansky’s writing. Well…. This may not be the very best book to start out with. Or maybe it is and I won’t know until I pick another up. This is just a very odd book, primarily due to the writing style. It’s written so that you only get one side of the conversation, like eavesdropping on someone’s phone call. 

The main character Manet is somewhat of a mystery. She works in some capacity for the god-king and it’s clear that she holds some power because the folks she speaks to become deferential when it comes up. Small details are revealed as the story goes along and soon it becomes apparent that she is highly trained and has mastered all of the “perfections” which is quite rare. She is clearly searching for someone – a woman in a locket picture – and the questions she’s asking aren’t safe. 

The story follows Manet’s search for this woman pictured in the locket and each chapter is the next step in her search. It takes place over the course of a few days and escalates into quite an adventure by the end. The writing style leaves a great deal of room for the reader to interpret as far as Manet’s actions because you only get the side of the person she’s speaking to. 

Overall, this is one of the most unique short stories I’ve read and while I feel that it’s not representative of the author’s usual writing style, I can at least say it’s made me curious about his other work. This was a bold piece of art, perfectly suited for novella format.

This novella cleverly creates a world through conversation alone. The protagonist searches for something and we experience her search only through the other side of conversations she has with people she meets. I think the experimental narration works really well, creating a mysterious story that is compelling as I wanted to know what was happening. I like a book that drops you into a situation and leaves you to figure it out on the trot. I'll likely reread this some time in the future and look forward to seeing how the story builds from the perspective of knowing how it ends.