Friday 4 September 2009

Cover art and blurb: 'The Drowning City'

Orbit love their 'hooded figure' book covers (and with good reason - they sell books), but most of them haven't hit the mark for me. But I like this one, the cover for Amanda Downum's debut novel The Drowning City, a lot more - quite sleek and stylish.

Blurb doesn't sound bad either:

The Drowning City: home to exiles and expatriates, pirates and smugglers. And violent revolutionaries who will stop at nothing to overthrow the corrupt Imperial government. For Isyllt Iskaldur, necromancer and spy, the brewing revolution is a chance to prove herself to her crown. All she has to do is find and finance the revolutionaries, and help topple the palaces of Symir.

But she is torn between her new friends and her duties, and the longer she stays in this monsoon-drenched city, the more intrigue she uncovers - even the dead are plotting. As the waters rise and the dams crack, Isyllt must choose between her mission and the city she came to save.

While the premise sounds pretty standard - magicking and politicking - I'm drawn to the setting: a monsoon-ravaged Eastern-influenced city is pretty cool. Might check this one out.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

S'funny, I saw this book listed somewhere, and remembered the blurb, then see it here too. Agree on the cover as well. This one stays up on the radars. Once reviews start coming in, then I'll make the decision.

Graeme Flory said...

I'm looking at getting a review up next week :o) It's not a bad read but it's the setting that makes it stand out more than the story itself...

James said...

Ah, I had a feeling the setting might only be disguising a rather standard story...looking forward to the review, Graeme.

Elfy said...

I saw this one the other day. It sounded pretty interesting, but like James and Peter I'm not sold yet. I'd need to see a review. I managed to find a couple, but they made it sound a little romancey and I steer well clear of those.