Blurb for The Cunning Blood

[billroper]

This may not be the exact dustjacket blurb for The Cunning Blood, but it's close.

Peter Novilio was going to Hell.

Caught violating the Zero Tolerance for Violence laws, he was sentenced to a one-way trip to a prison planet in the Zeta Tucanae system. Hell was forever: Its ecosphere had been infected with microscopic nanomachines that destroyed electrical conductors, condemning its inmates to a neo-Victorian gaslight society without computers, spaceflight, or hope of escape.

But Hell was not what it seemed. Clues suggesting impossible technologies and imminent revolt forced Peter Novilio to become Earth's unwilling agent, descending to Hell's surface in pursuit of information that he could exchange for his freedom.

Peter had a secret as well: He was a member of the outlawed Sangruse Society, and in his blood flowed the Sangruse Device, Version 9, the most powerful nanocomputer ever created. Although Peter's protector and advisor, the Device had reasons of its own for visiting Hell. Peter soon discovered that he was little more than a disguise, caught in a covert war among Earth, Hell's ingenious inmates, and the deadly mechanism in his veins. For as fearsome as it was, the Device itself was afraid -- and the fates of whole worlds would depend on the threat that the Cunning Blood had discovered outside of space and time.

Comments

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

My personal preference is to not know in advance anything significant about how the story will unfold before I read the book. It seems like this is telling me too much -- although I suppose all this could happen in Chapter 1. It also leaves me feeling confused about the central plot presented here -- is Peter a sentenced criminal, a government agent, or the pawn of something inside him? Perhaps he is all three, and it makes sense in the novel, but when presented in a blurb, I find it confusing.

I think it would be a better blurb to expand a bit on the first paragraph, and then end with "But Hell was not what it seemed." Leave me in the dark as to what happens next (and hankering to find out), rather than confused about how what happens next can fit with what came before.

Of course, I don't tend to buy books by blurbs anyway, so I am probably the wrong audience to please. But hopefully my opinion is worth what you paid for it...

[daddy-guido.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a cool book - is he doing signings at Windy?

[billroper]

That's the plan.

[shannachie.livejournal.com]

Want that book. Where can I get it?

[billroper]

We'll be selling it through the ISFiC Press website after WindyCon in early November. It might be easier to have tarkrai mongol it to you...