Brief Book Review | Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson

Emperor Kairominas is nearly a god, the master of his realm, nearly unchallenged and…his masters are demanding that he procreate. To do so, he’ll have to condescend to leave his realm to find an equal, but that equal may be far more than he expects.

I much enjoy Sanderson’s tomes, er, novels, but I’ve come to appreciate his abilities in shorter formats, as well. The Emperor’s Soul is one of my favorite stories out of his growing volume of work, and it augured that Brandon has talent even when working in a shorter medium and with a much abridged cast.

I don’t want to give away too much about Perfect State since to tell too much would spoil the fun of the story. The Goodreads/Amazon summaries finish by questioning what happens when the “most important man in the world is forced to have dinner with the most important woman in the world?” It’s accurate, but a bit of a red herring. The more relevant question, and why I bump this up from a three to a four, is more about what happens when technology allows us to retreat to our own echo chambers, self-created universes, and cultures? And what might happen if we can transcend those self-created obstacles?

We don’t all have a deus ex machina to force us to grow (or do we?), but Sanderson’s Perfect State deftly takes the trope and uses it so plainly and obviously as to transcend it.

It’s a fun, quick, and even insightful read, and it reflects Sanderson’s ongoing growth and development as a writer.

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Title: Perfect State
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC
Release Date: March 31, 2015
Format: Kindle
Pages: 87

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