Well-Built City Trilogy Series by Jeffrey Ford

The nightmare metropolis called the Well-Built City exists because the satanic genius and Master, Drachton Below, wished it so. And few within its confines hold the power of Physiognomist First Class Cley. With scalpels, calipers, and the other instruments of his science, Cley can divine good and evil, determine character and intelligence, uncover dark secrets and foretell a person's destiny, through the careful study of facial and bodily features... moreThe nightmare metropolis called the Well-Built City exists because the satanic genius and Master, Drachton Below, wished it so. And few within its confines hold the power of Physiognomist First Class Cley. With scalpels, calipers, and the other instruments of his science, Cley can divine good and evil, determine character and intelligence, uncover dark secrets and foretell a person's destiny, through the careful study of facial and bodily features. But now the Master has ordered the great physiognomist out of the City on a seemingly trivial assignment into the rural hinterlands. but there, removed from Below's omnipresent scrutiny, even the most loyal servant of logic and order can fall prey to seductions of the flesh and spirit. And in this strange and unfamiliar place possessing terrors uniquely its own, there are stark truths awaiting the eminent Cley--and inescapable revelations that could shatter his perceptions of himself, his profession, and his world. less

What terrors lurk in the ruins of the Well-Built City?Where manufactured order once reigned, now there is peace. In this second volume of the Well-Built City Trilogy, the dominion has fallen, and its vicious ruler, Drachton Below, has been defeated. Cley has renounced the title of physiognomist, striking out on his own to establish the idyllic village of Wenau, where he lives as a healer and the inhabitants’ protector... moreWhat terrors lurk in the ruins of the Well-Built City?Where manufactured order once reigned, now there is peace. In this second volume of the Well-Built City Trilogy, the dominion has fallen, and its vicious ruler, Drachton Below, has been defeated. Cley has renounced the title of physiognomist, striking out on his own to establish the idyllic village of Wenau, where he lives as a healer and the inhabitants’ protector. But when the villagers suddenly start to succumb to a lethal sleeping sickness, Cley is pulled back into the struggle he thought he had left behind. In order to cure his community of this horrible malady, Cley journeys back to the Well-Built City, braving dangerous ruins teeming with mechanical birds and werewolves. Amid the wreckage, he finds the deposed ruler, Drachton Below, comatose from the same sickness that has overtaken Cley’s village. Below created this disease, and he is the only one with the knowledge to cure it. In order to create an antidote, Cley must venture into Drachton Below’s mind to gather the information he needs from the source before the disease ravages the village—and Below’s mind—forever. less

"Jeffrey Ford's World Fantasy Award-winner The Physiognomy introduce Cley, master of a twisted and terming science in a nightmare city. In the brilliantly audacious Memoranda, the reformed physiognomist embarked on a surreal quest through the mind of the monster who imagined the dark metropolis. Now comes the third and final leg of Cley's bizarre life journey.Cley has witnessed miracles, and both he and his world have bee changed by them... more"Jeffrey Ford's World Fantasy Award-winner The Physiognomy introduce Cley, master of a twisted and terming science in a nightmare city. In the brilliantly audacious Memoranda, the reformed physiognomist embarked on a surreal quest through the mind of the monster who imagined the dark metropolis. Now comes the third and final leg of Cley's bizarre life journey.Cley has witnessed miracles, and both he and his world have bee changed by them. But now the former Physiognomist First Class must travel to the inconceivable ends of his world -- and into the perilous heart of a sentient wilderness. Only there, where demons and wraith feed on flesh and terror -- where astonishing sights and circumstance are commonplace -- can amends be made and the old Cley buried. But the Beyond has its needs and a living consciousness that encompasses all the wonders within its boundaries. And each step forward bring, Cley inescapable responsibilities as it carries him deeper into the core of legend and toward a mystery older than time. less