TL;DR: If your blurb spoils the plot of your book then you’re doing it wrong.

I’m reading The Pendragon Protocol by Philip Purser-Hallard. It’s a really good book that manages to go far beyond what could have been a really cheesy premise. I’ll talk about that in a later post. What follows is the blurb from the back cover:

The Circle are the modern-day successors of the Knights of the Round Table. Armed with the latest military hardware and operating from a hidden fortress on the South Bank, they protect 21st-century Britain from certain very specific threats – criminals who, like the Circle’s own Knights, have characters from Arthurian legend living inside their heads.

Jory Taylor, the Knight bearing the device of Sir Gawain, has grappled on the Circle’s behalf with mercenaries, serial killers and far-right terrorist cells. However, when he is captured by Gawain’s traditional enemy the Green Knight, he discovers a new side to the myths he lives by – one which, as he learns more about this clandestine world, becomes both threateningly personal and terrifyingly political.

The Green Knight is first mentioned on page 73 and we find out that Jory’s device is sir Gawain on page 77. The prose treats it as a big reveal, but, because of the blurb, it isn’t. I know when I was reading that chapter it would have been with far greater anticipation had Jory’s device not already been known.

Jory is finally captured on page 138. All of the plot up until that point has been setup. It’s pretty good setup, but really we’ve just been waiting for this point in the book because this is where the blurb suggests that true story begins.

This is a 350 page book.

I know that we live in the future, where movie trailers tell us pretty much the entire plot, but books are not movies. They require a far greater investment of time and effort. It might take me a couple of evenings just to get to the point where I pass the events of a blurb. That’s ridiculous. No one likes a spoiler.

A blurb should give you an idea of a book’s tone and suggest what kind of content it might contain. It should in no way be specific as to what actually happens.

There a few posts going around at the moment where people recommend books that would get people into SF, should that person be naturally averse to the genre. There’s also an ongoing “discussion” regarding sexism in SF. So, I thought I’d combine these two and list a few excellent books by female authors that might just convince more people to read SF.

The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke is a tale of science and love set against a richly described, all too familiar world.

It’s not often you read a book and think “Wow. They really have thought this through.” Well, Madeleine Ashby author of vN has clearly done just that. vN tells the story of Amy, a synthetic person.

Lian Hearn’s Across the Nightingale Floor is beautifully written Japanese fantasy and has magical ninjas.

The Thief is a twisty turny tale of gods and men set in a world inspired by post-Roman Empire Greece. Megan-Whalen Turner doesn’t seem to be particularly well known, but this book is excellent. I’ve only read one of the sequels, so far, but my wife assures me that they are all fantastic.

The superb A Matter of Blood by Sarah Pinborough is more of a crime novel with strong elements of horror, but it’s also near-future SF and those elements only become stronger as a series progress.

Feed by Mira Grant was once described to me as The West Wing set during a zombie apocalypse. Having not watched The West Wing, I’m assuming that’s a good thing. The book is really good anyway!

Mazarkis Williams (a nom de plume) has yet to be revealed as either male or female. Since, in my opinion, the gender of an author really shouldn’t matter (and I bloody well loved this book) it’s going on the list. The world of The Emporer’s Knife takes inspiration from the Middle East and Williams tells a fascinating tale of magic, betrayal and belief.