Please Critique My Query Letter!

I'm gonna do something crazy. I'm going post the query letter I've been working on for my fantasy manuscript. I know this blog doesn't get a lot of traffic (yet) but hopefully a few of you will take the time to give me a little constructive criticism. Once I'm done with my final manuscript revisions (soon hopefully) I'll submit the query to the all powerful Query Shark and maybe Workshop Wednesdays at BookEnds, LLC. but for now I'm going to throw it onto my own humble little blog. 

Ok, here it goes:

Dear Properly Spelled Agent's Name

In the heart of the tyrannical Astrolian Empire, deep in the bowels of the Coliseum, the orphan Sol is raised by a makeshift family of guards and fellow slaves to become the most famed gladiator in all the land.  With his fighting partner, a yeti-like giant from the frozen south, Sol must battle cunning warriors and fantastic beasts to delight the crowd and stay alive. 

When a captured member of the Resistance is forced into Sol’s cell as a sex-prize, her words of defiance compel Sol to question his long-accepted fate as a slave.  Outside the stadium, an unknown bard’s tales transform Sol into a revolutionary folk hero and inspire an oppressed populace.  The Empire decides that the fighter must fall and Astrolia’s most ruthless assassin is tasked with Sol’s vilification and eventual demise. Sol’s only hope is to rely on friends, new and old, in order to do what no slave has ever done: escape from the coliseum and the only home he’s ever known.

SOL OF A GLADIATOR is a fantasy novel complete at 83,000 words. I am seeking your representation because I love your blog. Thank you for your time and consideration. 

Sincerely,

Adam Gaylord

Contact info 

So, what do you think? Is it ready? Is it a flop? What needs work? Where am I? AHHHHHH!!!!

Thank you very much for your help.

Should Writers Post Manuscript Pages on their Blogs?

Google has failed me.

Usually I just type in a question and the all-powerful Google tells me the answers. Since I've been trying to figure out whether I should post the first few pages of my manuscript on this blog, I asked the Google but to no avail. I'm sure that somewhere in the infinite blogoverse there is the perfect post telling me what to do but for now all I've been able to find are clues. For example, the awesomely cool Query Shark commented way back in 2008 that:

"If an agent doesn't ask for pages, or specifically says not to send them, I do like the idea of a blog or a website with pages available. That's a good idea. I've actually started looking at some of those."

I'm pretty much in the do-whatever-the-Query-Shark-says camp but I wish there was something out there a little more definitive. Have you seen anything? Should I grow a pair and post some pages? Throw me a bone!