Perfect State

By Brandon Sanderson

God-Emperor Kairominas is lord of all he surveys. He has defeated all foes, has united the entire world beneath his rule, and has mastered the arcane arts. He spends his time sparring with his nemesis, who keeps trying to invade Kai’s world.

Except for today. Today, Kai has to go on a date.

Forces have conspired to require him to meet with his equal—a woman from another world who has achieved just as much as he has. What happens when the most important man in the world is forced to have dinner with the most important woman in the world?

Wow. This. Was. Awful. Okay, clarification time. The premise and the plot was amazing as per usual with Brandon Sanderson, I was blown away once I figured out what was going on, which was a weird hybrid of dystopia and high fantasy. I was strongly reminded of The Matrix. After reading the above summary it was jarring to discover the actual genre (which was far from what is described, but there isn’t really a way to describe what he wrote!) My beef with this novella was the underlying plot, and it’s mostly because I was disappointed that Sanderson wrote something that to my mind was sex-driven. I was irritated at the nudity and I felt awful after I finished. I’m the biggest supporter of Elantris and I was flabbergasted with the world building and plotline of Mistborn, I love Legion and Skin Deep, but this was just…ugh. I didn’t like Kai. I didn’t like any of them. It was just the sexual stuff that completely threw me. I hope that Sanderson isn’t going to fall into the adult fantasy trap of feeling the need to write about sex and rape. This was just…disappointing.

I give it a 3 out of 5 (All for the plot and world building.)