The Cunning Blood
Cover art by Todd Cameron Hamilton.
Peter Novilio was going to Hell.
CAUGHT VIOLATING THE ZERO TOLERANCE for Violence laws, he was sentenced to a oneway trip to Earth’s 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.
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.
But 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 supposedly 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.
"The book is absolutely au courant, and actually extends the Great Work of SF in several unexpected directions. Like most ambitiously sprawling sui generis books, this one delivers the sense – as with the work of the recently departed Charles Harness – that the author has chucked every idea he had during the writing of the novel into the pot." – Paul Di Filippo, Science Fiction Weekly
"[Jeff Duntemann] returns with an ambitious, polished tale of intrigue, nanotechnology, and something that sounds a lot like mysticism... This one has a decent chance of ending up on award ballots." – Tom Easton, Analog
"Jeff Duntemann's debut novel is a wildly inventive technofest that then morphs into something more: an examination of what it means that man is irrevocably a social animal. THE CUNNING BLOOD confounds all the standard expectations for 'prison planets.' Whatever you imagine Hell to be, you are certain to be wrong – and certain to be entertained." – Nancy Kress
"Everything you want in a hard SF novel." – Bruce Schneier
