Jo Walton delivers a series of connected stories in Everybody’s Perfect that ask us to think about the power of belief and its effect on reality. Inspired in part by Marguerite Youcenar’s A Coin in Nine Hands, these tales connect characters via a strange dream that ends up transforming the magical city of Serenissima. Like its earthy counterpart, Venice, the Serenissima lives for trade, connecting different worlds in an ever-changing mix of peoples, ideas, and faiths. Unlike our Venice, the Serenissima can only exist as long as people believe that it exists. Any slight change in that belief can affect the city in unexpected ways.
We are introduced to the strange world of the Serenissima by Tiry, a Bauta (one of many species in the city) laborer. One night, Tiry has a dream that two things will happen. First, a cure will be found for the plague that has swept through the city. (It’s hard not to read this plague as an analog for AIDS, since it’s spread by sexual contact, especially sexual contact between different species.) Second, he dreams that a Tisani (another species who’ve arrived in the city) will be crowned doge and will marry the sea. Both of these events are impossible, as far as everyone in the city knows. Healers have only learned to keep the plague at bay and the Serenissima has never had an official leader. And yet, before even a day has passed, the rumors–especially the rumors about the Tisani doge–have spread around the city.
We jump from character to character, species to species, through the next eight chapters, as Tiry’s dream spreads across the city. We meet a fortune teller, a healer, an apprentice wizard, a would-be spy, a gendarme, a researcher, and the Tisani who Tiry dreamed would be the doge. There’s even a chapter narrated by a species everyone believes exists, though no one has ever seen. Each chapter reveals more about the city and its people. We see their heartbreaks and deepest desires. We also see how the species treat each other in the unforgiving Serenissima. The dog-headed Andomen face near universal racism while people like Tiry, who prefer to take lovers outside their own species, are looked down on. Tiry and a couple of the other narrators in this story have been infected by a potentially fatal sexually transmitted infection are treated by lepers by those who don’t have it.
There is plot in Everybody’s Perfect, but the characters and the setting are the stars in these connected stories. Readers who love to explore fantastical worlds with deep lore will find a lot to enjoy in this book. I’m normally a plot person myself, but I was fascinated by the Serenissima and its people. I was reminded of Walton’s Thessaly trilogy, which is also partly built on the idea of how people build up some kind government whenever they get into a big enough group to need a social contract.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.