The Physiognomy
By Jeffrey Ford
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
In the Well-Built City, Master Drachton Below’s power is absolute, and he will not hesitate to use it. His primary method of control is through his physiognomists, who are trained to read a person’s face and body, perceiving that person’s past and secrets—and even events yet to come. These seers are the judges and jury. Now Drachton has found something that could extend his reign for eternity: a fruit that bestows immortality. To investigate its whereabouts, Below sends cold, collected physiognomist Cley to the remote mining town of Anamasobia. One at a time Cley interrogates the townspeople, performing his usual fact finding without issue. That is, until he meets the beautiful and bright Arla, who harbors a secret that could potentially turn Cley’s world upside down—and topple the Well-Built City itself.
A Kafkaesque journey into the unknown, The Physiognomy is an award-winning trip through a land where the line between reality and imagination is constantly blurred.
Jeffrey Ford
Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, the Edgar Award–winning The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, The Shadow Year, and The Twilight Pariah, and his collections include The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, The Drowned Life, Crackpot Palace, and A Natural History of Hell. He lives near Columbus, Ohio, and teaches writing at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Read more from Jeffrey Ford
The Mythic Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fantasy Writer's Assistant: And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark: Ghost Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fearful Symmetries Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Supernatural Noir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNightmare Carnival Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Haunted Legends Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salon Fantastique Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Shadow Year: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crackpot Palace: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Natural History of Hell: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Empire of Ice Cream: Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Drowned Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inferno: Tales of Terror and the Supernatural Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Out of Body Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Beastly Bride: And Other Tales of the Animal People Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAhab's Return: or, The Last Voyage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cosmology of the Wider World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Dark Hole: and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSunspot Jungle, Vol. 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Physiognomy
Related ebooks
The Town: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5They Kill Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hour of the Dragon: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Terence, Mephisto, and Viscera Eyes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5DeadSteam: A Chilling Collection of Dreadpunk Tales of the Dark and Supernatural Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHelliconia Winter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Portal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Moore House Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClarkesworld: Year Four: Clarkesworld Anthology, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe War of the Worlds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unplugged: Unplugged Duology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Forever House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Silverlock Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beneath The Surface of Things Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House on the Borderland Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dracula's Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMr. Hands: Cedar Hill Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll the Bells on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Martyrs Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Green Inferno: The World Celebrates Your Demise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEternal Darkness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Man Who Watched The World End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quintana Roo Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Unnatural Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Stormland Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Unspeakable: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Willows Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNeutrino Drag: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carrier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
General Fiction For You
The Alchemist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anonymous Sex Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5You: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The King James Version of the Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unhoneymooners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything's Fine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Foster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Life of Mirielle West: A Haunting Historical Novel Perfect for Book Clubs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Other Black Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cabin at the End of the World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Physiognomy
9 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Since this book won the World Fantasy Award, I'd wanted to read it for a while. Thanks to NetGalley and Open Road Media for giving me the opportunity.
I see why the book won the award - it gives us a strikingly original and interesting scenario: a fantasy world ruled by an oppressive dictator, who utilizes civil servants to maintain his cruel regime. One of the tools in his arsenal is the faux-'science' of physiognomy, where an 'expert' uses phrenology and other physical measurements to determine if one is (or will be) guilty of a crime.
Physiognomist Cley is one of these experts. He's also a thoroughly unsympathetic person - one of the most repulsive protagonists you're likely to encounter in fiction. He's willing to lie and be used, has no moral or ethical compass at all, and allows his drug addiction to take him to escalating acts of cruelty and depravity.
Some reviewers have described the story as a tale of Cley's redemption - but I don't see it that way at all. Yes, over the course of the story Clay's position changes - but only because his position literally changes in relation of the locus of power. He's motivated by resentment, not ethics.
Overall, I can't say the book was a 'pleasant' experience, although it was 'well-built.' In feel, it reminded me a bit of Mervyn Peake's 'Titus Groan.' It had that same sort of oppressive, hallucinatory atmosphere.
I'm glad I read the book, but can't say I'm eager to go and seek out the sequels. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I really wanted to love this book. I stopped reading for a day and then started over in attempts to love it, but sadly, I did not. Now, before I go any further, please know this book is a three star book, for me. It’s very well written, very well thought out and executed, as well as developed. It’s super imaginative and in some areas, will bewitch you. However, it lacked just a small something for me. I don’t even know what it lacks to be honest. For about a day, I paced around my garage trying to think this through because again, I wanted to love it. Then I realized that it just didn’t excite me. Nothing in the book made me feel any one way or another. It evoked much thought, but little feel - from me. So, it was just that one little scintilla of something that differed between a three star and four. Even so, I think readers are denying themselves a good (possibly great to many) read if they don’t give this novel a shot. While I may not have enjoyed this book the way that wanted, I fully intend to read a different story from Jeffrey Ford. He is just too good of an author to ignore.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sci-fi/fantasy in the mold of The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe. This is one of the best books I've read in a while. The voice of the novel is Physiognomist First Class Cley. He works for a Hitler-like master named Drachton Below. Cley's job involves judging the character of others by reading their physiognomy. There are strict mathematical formulas for determining guilt, innocence or even what one may do in the future, but basically it comes down to if one looks like an imbecile they are therefore an imbecile. Master Below is intent on peopling his city with perfect human specimens. Sound familiar? Physiognomist Cley is sort of a Dr. Mengela, but after being convicted himself to serve eternity in the sulfur mines he has a change of heart. There are many repulsive aspects to this tale, but I found that gave it a grounding in reality.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Comparisons to *1984* and Kafka are inevitable for this dystopian novel, and though they are warranted both for style and content there is an underlying hopefulness in *The Physiognomy* that those others lack. Ford's landscape is also less familiar, set somewhere that is neither a projected future nor a distorted past, but simply *other*. Bureaucratic claustrophobia is brilliantly evoked, but rebellion and redemption (both personal and civilization-wide) are seeded within. There is something of the fable in Ford's style, yet there is also a feeling of immediacy and intimacy in his exploration of his character's psyches. Eventually false science and true fable press together too tightly and combust.ETA: On second reading, I enjoyed this book even more.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm having a great time discovering all the facets of this loose "New Weird"-movement! Here is something that, again, has a flavour that's distinctly it's own. I really like Ford's way of building a world with quite few penstorkes that still evokes imagination and feels like a solid place. I like his very fast pace of telling the story (there's a LOT going on in just over 200 pages here, a format you're not always spoiled with in fantastic literature) and the way he uses the weird and fantastic as a springboard for discussing moral issues. Not a lot of the simple black/white, good/evil thing going on here. More than anything else, this is a sort of journey of self discovery, that brings books like Voltaire's Candide or Kafka's The Trial to mind, rather than tedious quest books packed with magical swords. And Cley is a quite interesting main character indeed. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For once, a book lives up to its hype. Very well-constructed, fascinating to read. The main character, Cley, evolves and changes. The sequel, Memoranda, fills in a lot of the back story, but wasn't as good as this. Still, both are worth reading.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Can the shape of your head describe your destiny. In the Well Built City it can. A gently horrific novel by a master of the fantasy genre.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51998 World Fantasy Award. Great cast of weird characters, original and you never knew what was going to happen next. More light hearted fantasy toward end and somethings weren't explained.