The Sword and Laser discussion

(Topic is I suppose spoilery of what's already revealed in the book description...)

In my opinion, I think the book description the publisher provides does a TERRIBLE disservice to the book!! I for one feel the potentially shocking, amazing reveals of the atmosphere program, and that the data is corrupt, were ruined by putting that right in the book description. I can only imagine how I would have felt as a reader to have had it dawn on me what was going on!
That said, I'm not sure what a better description would be. What would be an adequate description to clue the reader into what they are in for, but leaving the aspects of the atmo'program and data corruption to be discovered?

For those that haven't seen it here is the original description

"A computer program etched into the atmosphere has a story to tell, the story of two people, of a city lost to chaos, of survival and love. The program's data, however, has been corrupted. As the novel's characters struggle to survive apocalypse, they are sustained and challenged by the demands of love in a shattered world both haunted and dangerous."


Ok, since I persuaded you, I guess I should give it a try.

"This is a love story. Not a story about people in love, although there is that as well. But a story of how the many facets of love affect us as we go through life. This is a future story. Not a story set in the future, although it is that as well. But a story about the many ways the future may unfold. This is a survival story. Not a story about how we survive, although we do. But a story about the many ways we survive every day. This is a story."

It won't attract people who are into plot heavy books, but I don't think that is it's core audience anyway.

Wow, I’m glad I didn’t read the description. I just started it because it was the pick. Whoever wrote that should be fired.

Imagine if that person wrote descriptions for other things:

The Empire Strikes Back - Luke finds out Darth Vader is his father while Han Solo gets frozen in carbonite instead of attending a dinner party, betrayed by an old friend. Also muppets.

The Shining - a writer named Jack goes crazy because of a haunted hotel and tries to kill his family but fails because his son has psychic powers, and Jack ends up frozen to death but also inside a vintage photo. Also twins.

Well there goes my Empire Strikes Back & The Shining movie night :-(

Yeah that book description is super spoilery! Like Trike I’m glad I just started reading without looking at the description.
It’s a hard book to describe without spoilers tbh. If I had to come up with something, I’d probably describe the characters in the opening chapters or something, to give a taste of the book’s themes and the sense of dislocation “hang on, wasn’t Antoine Antoinette a minute ago?? What’s with the owl?” and hopefully make prospective readers want to find out the answers.

Wow I'm glad I didn't see that book description. I saw Tom's 5-star review, and maybe his tweet about it (?) and found it was in Hoopla and just downloaded it without thinking twice.

I think I would give it some kind of vague post-apocalyptic description since that's how it starts....

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Wow I'm glad I didn't see that book description. I saw Tom's 5-star review, and maybe his tweet about it (?) and found it was in Hoopla and just downloaded it without thinking twice.

I think I wou..."

IN A WORLD (reminded me of this movie)

to your point, I read many Goodreads member's reviews upon completion after writing my own so I would not be influenced by theirs, which is my custom. I was surprised to see the same theme of "can't tell you what it's about without spoiling it but worth a try." the fact that the blurb does worse than unpaid non professionals is disgraceful.

i for one was very glad Tom recommend this for us. and as a result i jumped right in on the S&L recommendation. Because if i read the book description i would have said nope, been there done that! got the movie poster! Best thing to say is the plot is standard fair Sci-fi but the way it's told is very unique. Of course more elegantly and professorially put than that.

Tassie Dave wrote: "Well there goes my Empire Strikes Back & The Shining movie night :-("

On my world, the S stands for “Spoiler”.

I didn't read the blurb either. If I had read 'A computer program etched into the atmosphere' I would have probably skipped it.

AndrewP wrote: "I didn't read the blurb either. If I had read 'A computer program etched into the atmosphere' I would have probably skipped it."

I agree with you and Lee. This is just the sort of thing book that I would have checked the cover and checked the description only to decide I probably wouldn't read it. I think I may even have read the first chapter and decided the same thing. It's so nice to get the sort of gentle peer-pressure to read something I normally wouldn't - this is exactly why I'm here - so thanks Tom for the pick.

glad you mentioned it Seth. I clearly remember putting this on my TBR list when it was announced and thinking the cover is really uninspiring. I know I should not judge a book by its cover. but if Goodreads has taught me anything it that everybody does at least to some extent and the blurb, cover, lack of review would never draw my interest.

I honestly don’t know if I would have sufficiently understood what the book was actually about if it weren’t for that blurb. It is spoilery, but truthfully, after I finished the bookI reread that blurb, thinking, “Okay, was this story what I think it was?”