Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic, But Not For Everyone
Review: Most people who pick up the book will probably be confounded by its uncompromising vision, and most of those who aren't will be offended by its unflinching sensibility. The rest will have to admit that the book is bizarre at the least. But the prose is so good that the experience of it is almost like reading poetry (don't worry, you won't notice if you don't like poetry), and many chapters have a closure that almost makes them stories of their own, even while leading the reader further into the labyrinth of the story. As a whole the book is a stunning vision of an alternative -- really alternative -- reality, and although the ending was not perfectly satisfying to me, the book is nevertheless a brave and brilliant achievement, and very much worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Supremely imaginative
Review: One of the most unique books I've read in years, it defies any specific genre. Ford is a masterful writer, creating some scenes that evoke such a sense of adventure that I found myself peeking around my room half-expecting to see the more frightful scenes of the book coming to life. A must-read.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: The morals of this book are that Beauty Is Only Skin Deep and People Should Forgive Each Others' Failings--simplistic enough to be potentially sickening. The imagery of the Fruit of Eternal Life/Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Earthly Paradise likewise could be overly familiar. Nonetheless this book is a masterpiece, largely due to a hallucinogenic atmosphere, strange settings, and a sardonic sense of humor. Frankly, I preferred Cley while he was still wicked and the Well-Built City to the Earthly Paradise.
Rating: 
Summary: Imaginative science fantasy, but it left me feeling empty
Review: The Physiognomy is a story in three acts, in which protagonist Cley shows his despicable nature, then travels through purgatory and is given the chance to redeem himself by doing right by those he had wronged. It's a simple story arc, told against a dark and surreal backdrop: The Well-Built City, crafted in the image of the mind of it's maker, the Master, Drachton Below. The territorial town of Anamasobia, inhabited by plebians whom Cley sees as almost bestial. The sulphur mines of the island of Doralice, run by twin brothers and an intelligent monkey. Not to mention Cley's vocation: Reading the nature of people by measuring the character of their faces and bodies.Ford proves to be an able scripter, and despite its sometimes-gruesome subject matter the book is filled with dark humor, often taking the form of some character saying something totally unexpected. Cley's predicaments are often novel and challenging, and the story moves right along. Small touches fill out the story and make the whole place seem vivid and real... at first glance. The Physiognomy's greatest weakness is that it never really gets below the surface of its story. Physiognomy is an impressive device, filled with the potential for all sorts of moral quandaries, but its use diminishes quickly and drastically after the first third of the book. The nature of the Well-Built City is never really explored, the ramifications of (essentially) living in someone's mind not really plumbed. For that matter, Cley himself is something of a cipher. We don't really know where he came from, what led him to Physiognomy, or why he stays in his position. Greed? Ambition? Fear? Devotion to the Master? All seem plausible, but none any plausible than any other. Moreover, arbitrary events occur at various points in the story without any reason I could see. This often lowers a scene to the level of cheap melodrama: Rather than testing his mettle, Cley sometimes is either overcome quickly and pointlessly, or saved in a deus-ex-machine fashion. It seems that the book is meant to be a sort of allegory. Perhaps a sort of twisted Garden of Eden (there's a fruit, an Adam and an Eve, and all sorts of exiles), or perhaps a simple (if heavy-handed) story about how we tend to judge people based on superficial characteristics, and that we all will go to any ends we have to to advance our position (and, perhaps, that the 'solution' to these problems is to eliminate the need for positions in society). But none of these options feels true or sufficient. The conclusion feels devoid of purpose. The book's strength - beyond Ford's writing style - is the mass of churning ideas and the way in which Ford expresses them. There are ample quantities of neat stuff to keep you reading, even if you don't quite figure out how they all fit together. The character names are also neat, sounding very evocative, but you're rarely quite sure of what. The novel which The Physiognomy most reminds me of is Sean Stewart's Resurrection Man, which also painted a portrait of an intriguing world with its own rules, but which also felt like it didn't follow through on the promise of its concepts. Neither is a bad book, but both feel essentially unfinished, like they're lacking the soul to give them true strength.
Rating:
Summary: Good start for a marvelous trilogy. Rate:***1/2
Review: The Physiognomy is Ford's second novel and the first installment of a loosely connected trilogy that narrates the trajectory of Cley, Physiognomist master class, and the fall of the Well-Built-City, the brainchild of it's ruler Drachton Below.Although Ford's creation is as inventive and multilayered as his subsequent books, I must say that TP has serious problems of plot and character development.
The plot development is uneven and the characters, with the exception of Cley, are a bit shallow. Another major flaw is the awkward and unconvincing manner with wich Ford handles the spiritual metamorphosis of Cley.Despite these major flaws TP is a book worth reading and Cley is a fascinating character.Don't missed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Add some heart, and it would be perfect.
Review: The world that Ford creates in The Physiognomy is compelling, detail-rich, and difficult to forget. I think even the most suspicious readers will be charmed by his depiction of the Well-Built City and the details like the miners who have inhaled so much dust that they turn to stone. Unfortunately, his grip on characters isn't quite as good. While Cley is engaging on a certain level, as a reader I was ultimately unable to care about either his goodness or his badness. If Ford could have made him matter just a little bit more, then it wouldn't have felt so empty at the end. Despite the flaws, one of the most original fantasy reads I've had in a long time.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book, until...
Review: This book has a wonderful premise. Cley has studied his whole life learning to use the complicated tools and mathematics that make a person an open (braille) book. Using simply the bumps on your head, and the width of your eyes he can tell what you had for lunch. He himself has perfect five star features that make him smarter, more attractive, and certainly more important than you or I. When he is finally sent into the field to investigate who has stolen a very important Item, I anticipated some rude awakenings for Cley. Indeed, he does meet a woman who sets some of his notions on end. However, just as he's starting to check each person's nostril dilations in the town to find the thief, he suddenly forgets everything he had ever learned. Poof! Suddenly he can't remember the significance of lip dimension. And that's about where I stopped reading. I scanned ahead, and as far as I can tell, he doesn't stop scratching his head and wondering where his learning went for most of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Akin to the Sci-fi authors of old
Review: This book is fantastic and all too short! It's weird and wonderful and it keeps you on your toes, wondering what's going to happen next. Cley, the main character, is a rotten, clumsy, mean-spirited S.O.B., but he's entertaining and you root for him nevertheless. The world the author creates is vivid in a surreal sense and an inspiration to other authors. I don't know about someone being so hideous that their looks can kill, but it's a very good read, nonetheless. I can't wait to read the next installment! --Jerry Gerold, Author of "The Hat Shaker's Chip"
Rating:
Summary: A Deliciously-Rendered Dystopia
Review: This book is written in a style that dense and compressed yet deliciously florid all at the same time. Other Amazon reviewers have complained about the lack of characterization, but I didn't have this problem. Cley (the Physiognomist who goes from antihero to hero during the course of the book) is certainly a complete character, and I felt there was certainly enough of the Master, Arla, and the Traveler to go around. If the denizens of the Territory seem like caricatures to us, that's because that's how Cley views them -- they seem subhuman and worthless to him.
The story is relentless. Jeffrey Ford wastes no time in moving the plot along, yet I never felt he skimped on any necessary detail. He is nothing short of a genius of a writer. Highly original, exquisitely conscious of every word, moving along at a breakneck pace yet giving the reader everything he or she needs to enjoy the ride. I didn't want this book to end!
This is basically a dystopian novel, in which Physiognomist Cley, an exalted servant under the tyrannical Master of the Well-Built City, is sent to a crummy village to examine the locals using the Physiognomy.
The Physiognomy involves taking measures of people's facial features and body parts to determine their character and their worth to society. Cley is acknowledged as a master of this dubious science. Cley, who is in trouble with the Master, has been sent to the village as a punishment. It's a crummy assignment, and Cley knows it.
He is there, however, to try to catch a thief. Someone has stolen the valuable Fruit of Paradise, and Cley must use the Physiognomy to determine the culprit and regain the fruit.
This is only the beginning, however. Where another writer would have made this the point of an entire book, Jeffrey Ford explodes the idea and takes it farther than I ever imagined.
The thief is discovered, but the whimsical Master has decided Cley needs to be taken out of the picture. He is arrested and sentenced to hard labor in the sulphur mines, where he is looked after by the mysterious Matters brothers (Cley wonders -- are there really two brothers? or just one man pretending to be both?) and a superintelligent monkey (one of my favorite characters in the book).
The Master apparently reconsiders his treatment of Cley, and calls him back to the Well-Built City. The Master needs Cley's help desperately -- he's losing control of the City and needs an ally. By this time, however, Cley is a changed man who wants only to gain the trust and love of a woman he severely wronged back in the village. "Wronged" is too mild a word -- he used his Physiognomist knowledge to surgically rearrange her face so that now, one look at her can kill a man.
I admit, there were a couple of weak moments toward the end (there's a save-the-day moment involving a coach-and-four that seems a little too "Hollywood" and the manner in which the "crystal egg" finally breaks is also a little over-the-top), but these are mere trifles.
The Physiognomy is a gripping, finely-wrought book. I can't wait to read the sequels. And, for that matter, everything else Jeffrey Ford has written.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent style, but the message is heavy and trite
Review: This is a charming allegory, only mildly irritating in its vague dream-like quality, until you realize that the thing being allegorized is the Oldest Cliche' of All: You Shall Not Seek Knowledge, Because It Is Evil. It's not very clear whether its main objective is science or technology: perhaps it does not distinguish between the two. Or perhaps it considers both the epitome of sinful wickedness, not even graced by some evil greatness. In the end, the City is destroyed and everybody lives happily in bucolic bliss, renouncing all those gadgets that only make life miserable. I was intensely irritated by the Message this book clearly tries to deliver. The resemblance to Gene Wolfe is, ultimately, superficial and misleading.
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