Foundling (Monster Blood Tattoo, Book 1) (Paperback)

by D.M. Cornish (Author)
Key Phrases: dormitory master, excise clerk, dark trades, High Vesting, Master Fransitart, Madam Opera (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 8 Up–This inventive debut novel follows Rossamünd Bookchild, a foundling boy saddled with an unfortunate name, as he ventures out from his childhood home at the orphanage into the wide world of the Half-Continent, a Georgian-esque society where humans wage an unending battle against the shadowy monsters of the wilds. (The tattoo of the series title is the mark given to the slayer of such a beast.) During his journey from boy to man, Rossamünd has his share of adventures, encounters a variety of colorful characters, and learns that the world is more complex and perilous than he was raised to believe. Including an extensive Explicarium (glossary) and pages of maps, diagrams, and character portraits, Cornish's world-building efforts show a depth and intricacy reminiscent of the work of J. R. R. Tolkien or Robert Jordan. While the elaborate jargon may bewilder some, the unique and fascinating Half-Continent, where ships with organic engines sail caustic vinegar oceans and monster-hunters gain supernatural powers through dangerous surgeries, is a delightful, refreshing standout in a sea of cookie-cutter fantasy worlds.–Christi Voth, Parker Library, CO
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 7-10. "Night, they used to say, was when monsters grew bold, when the knickers roamed and the bogles haunted." Rossamund Bookchild, a boy saddled with a girl's name, journeys from Madam Opera's Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls, assigned to wander the dark roads at dawn and dusk as a lamplighter. In the first book in the Monster Blood Tattoo series, first-time author Cornish gives the Dickensian orphan story an original spin as Rossamund faces a world at war with creatures such as the Grinnlings with their wicked, grinning mouths. The world building of the Half-Continent is expertly envisioned and peopled with intriguing characters: the evil Poundinch (who tricks Rossamund onto the wrong boat early in his travels) and the beguiling Europe, an experienced monster killer (and slayer of men's hearts), who prefers tiny x-shaped tattoos to mark her kills instead of the usual monster-faced blood ones. Readers wanting to immerse themselves further into Cornish's fantastic world can wander for hours through more than 100 pages of glossary ("Explicarium"), detailed maps, and drawings of uniforms and ships. Cornish has added his own impressive black-and-white portraits to give the characters additional substance. At the close, the protagonist is poised for his next adventure, with enough secrets, promises, and mystery to create impatient demand. Cindy Dobrez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Speak (September 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142409138
• ISBN-13: 978-0142409138
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #275,855 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 1 in The Monster Blood Tattoo Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A vibrant and fascinating world, July 3, 2006

By	E. M. Rivera (San Juan, PR) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Foundling (Monster Blood Tattoo, Book 1) (Hardcover)

"Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling" is being pushed by its publishers as a great original: "fantastical without conforming to the generally accepted notions of fantasy" (by which they mean that it isn't peopled by wizards and unicorns living in a vaguely European, mock-medieval setting.) The book certainly achieves this goal, although fantasy readers will probably take offense at the insinuation that the genre has nothing but princesses and dragons to offer. Even if this isn't the first fantasy world you encounter with "tri-corner hats and flintlock pistols", there is no denying Cornish's originality. The Half-Continent is a world at war: humans and monsters have been fighting for centuries. Biotechnology supplies light, engine power and even, in some cases, superhuman powers. Our hero, Rossamund, leaves the protected, if not fully comfortable, world of the orphanage where he was raised to start a career as a lamplighter outside the city walls. Early in his travels he is diverted from his true path and we discover the Half-Continent and its inhabitants through his adventures. The world is rendered with thoughtful and convincing detail, complemented by the author's own illustrations and an extensive set of appendices (the "Explicarium".)

In truth, "Foundling" is more of a first act than a first book: characters are introduced, mysteries are suggested, the scene is set; but the arc is not complete. I, for one, eagerly await, Act II.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not since Tolkien, April 15, 2008

By	E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

By this point I think the nation's readers of children's fantasy novels have hit a kind of boredom plateau. You get a new fantasy on your desk and you have to tick off the requirements. Alternate world? Orphaned hero or heroine? School for the extraordinary? To a certain extent, a lot of these tried and true stand-bys are essential to a good book. There's a reason they exist, after all. But after reading a bunch of them, reviewers like myself get a little jaded. Kids think everything's new, so they're more inclined to love the newest sparkly cover that comes down the pike. For us, finding something that is truly original and truly unique is almost impossible. I mean, it's not as if Harry Potter was the first boy to go to wizarding school even. So imagine my surprise when I encountered a truly rare and amazing fantasy world. A place so thoroughly thought out, planned, meticulously recorded, and imagined that it feels less like a fantasy novel and more like the factual memoirs of an alternate world. I'm not exaggerating here. Aussie D.M. Cornish has spent (according to his bookflap) "the last thirteen years bringing the Half-Continent to life." The result is a book that feels like the first true successor to Tolkien I've ever found.

His name is Rossamund Bookchild. Bookchild because he is an orphan raised by a Marine Society and given the same last name of all the children there. Rossamund, normally a girl's name, because that was the name pinned to him when he was left on the steps as a babe. Growing up reading exciting pamphlets recounting daring deeds, Rossamund has a dream of someday becoming a sailor (or vinegaroon) on the vinegar seas where high adventure awaits. He dreams of someday seeing the vicious monsters that constantly do battle with man around the country and must always be kept at bay. Yet instead of a glorious life on the seas, Rossamund is told that he is to be apprenticed as a lamplighter, lighting the roads of the Half-Continent. It's a disappointing blow, but on the way to his new job Rossamund hops the wrong boat and finds himself facing monsters, rever-men, teratologists, bogles, leers, wits, and a host of other characters and dangers. Moreover, has Rossamund always been told the truth about the monsters people fight, or is there more to some bogles than meets the eye?

Normally when an author wants to introduce you to a new fantasy world, the hero is a kid from our mundane universe who is pushed through extraordinary circumstances into a peculiar realm. Rossamund, however, inclines far more closely to the Bilbo Baggins mode of adventuring. He has led a nice sequestered life in Madame Opera's Estimable Marine Society and his journey turns out to be very much a series of adventures, both good an ill, that are new to him simply because he has only read about the wider world and has not yet lived in it. Yes. Fine. Our hero is an orphan as per a million fantasy novels before. But never have I had such a clear sense that a character's parentage is not the point of the series. Phew!

Really, Rossamund is a great hero. Like Taran in Lloyd Alexander's The Black Cauldron series he yearns for adventure. But unlike Taran he's not a brash young man with a braggart's tongue and a desire to enter battle. Rossamund seems to want adventure without wanting to ever hold a weapon in his hands. He's a rather gentle kid. He'd sooner say nothing than say the wrong thing, a tendency that causes the people around him to open up unexpectedly. Which, from a narrative perspective, is keen. Rossamund's growth in this book is not complete, a fact noticed by the sweet bogle that considers telling him the secret of his name. Still, you have confidence in this hero. He is kind and good and that goes a long way when you have to spend a whole book with him.

Another difference from your normal run-of-the-mill fantasy is Cornish's use of female characters. Strong female characters, that is. At first I figured that this would be yet another boy-boy-boy book. But then you meet the character of Europe and it's all up in the air. Europe is the fighting fulgar that meets Rossamund early in his travels and inspires both his respect and his disgust. She kills monsters for a living, which wouldn't be so bad if the first one Rossamund encounters with her weren't such a sweet but stupid fellow. Her moral complexity mixes with a personality that has enough pep and zazz to keep you guessing about her intentions for most of the book. Fighting women in fantasy novels tend to have no sense of humor, but Europe is quite the wit (inside joke) when her innards aren't trying to reject her new organs.

Maybe it's Cornish's Aussie roots, but he has a knack for language that exceeds the norm. His descriptions are nice and no question, but dialogue seems to be his bread and butter. "Don't give me a reason to remember yer name any further, me darlin' chiffer-chaffer." Or calling someone a "prattling hackmillion". That kind of thing. His easy-going language will strike you as almost cockney at first, but closer inspection of the words and phrases used put a very particular spin on the entire affair. His talent for names is nothing to scoff at either. You'll read titles like Sloughscab, Poundinch, Europe, and Licurius, which pour out of the author like mad wild things.

Regarding the sheer complexity of this world, here is my thinking: Cornish is so invested in this Half-Continent he has created, and so clear on every minute and tiny detail involved that you can't help but be swept up in the logic of it all. Even more amazing though is that Cornish describes everyday realities of the realm without making them sound anything but simultaneously routine AND amazing. Everything we learn about Rossamund's world is extraordinary, but Cornish has it so well-planned that it almost feels routine and logical. Not in the boring sense, of course.

Standing at a handsome 434 pages, this book may appear a bit daunting to your average reader. So you can well imagine my amazement when I hit page 312 and found the story to be over. Finito, as it were. The next 122 pages consisted of an elaborate and enticing Explicarium "Being a glossary of terms and explanations including Appendices". Sounds simple, right? Well, it begins with a explanation of pronunciations for certain terms in this book. Then an explanation of italics. And then a list of faux sources used to research this book (which is always fun). The glossary is extensive and you can basically learn quite a lot about the Haacobin Empire in which Rossamund lives, including history, characters, and different kinds of boats if you've an inclination to do so. Of course, at the same time you'll run across definitions like "muck hill: pile of poo", so make no assumptions. The glossary is followed by a guide to the 16-month calendar of the half-continent, detailed drawings of different occupations and what they wear, every boat from a gun-drudge to a main-sovereign, and enlargements of the Half-Continent terrain that is the most frightening and magnificent map I've ever seen in a work of fiction. Stranger still, all the pictures in this book (and there are many) were drawn by the author himself. Aye, me.

The age level is an interesting question here. Our hero is about fourteen, which puts this book squarely in the middle grade/YA realm. There is some violence (one nasty fellow meets his end by getting eaten alive) but it tends to go quickly. For the most part, I'd say that any kid who could handle the Harry Potter books, the The Amulet of Samarkand series, or any of the The Lord of the Rings would definitely enjoy this series and get into it.

But who thinks of these things? Who imagines a world where people bathe their eyes in chemicals to gain unnatural powers? Or who undergo dangerous surgeries to get superhuman abilities? Who imagines something as tiny and delicate as a spoor, a small shape that is blue or white and burned into the skin to denote a person's occupation? D.M. Cornish, obviously. Basically I just recommend this to anyone who wants something wholly new and never seen before. Cornish's imagination will fuel fans for decades to come, should they find this book. Consider it a little-known gem that you'll end up sucked into. Amazing stuff.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Tale, June 8, 2006

By	G.A. (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Foundling (Monster Blood Tattoo, Book 1) (Hardcover)

This is the book I've been waiting for. Extremely fun and entertaining. Scary and exciting. A coming of age tale with high adventure, lessons and some great action sequences. I enjoyed this book more then the Harry Potters. The characters are well thought out and very well detailed. The best part is the author detailed the world with maps, pictures and a lexicon at the end of the book. I'm hooked! Can't wait till the second installment of this amazing new series!