Previous Missive | Next Missive
If one does a little supplemental reading, one learns the New Zealand author/illustrator[1] has been working on this story for upwards of ten years. When it comes to the world-building; it shows. The author has provided an Explicarium; an appendix ala Renninson's Georgia Nicholson books[3], which is as much a collection of fic-lets as an glossary. There is even a hidden joke for the reader who gets that far (I suspect most will). From competing Navies which fund their own orphanages (Rossamund's is Madam Opera's Estimable Marine Society For Foundling Boys And Girls), to specialized lightning-throwing monster-hunters who tattoo themselves with the caustic blood of their kills, to smugglers who specialize in monster-parts for re-animators; science Fiction and fantasy fans will want to explore this world with its young protagonist, and beg impatiently for more.
Although billed as a series, and clearly ending with the expectation that further adventures await, the novel stands alone as the story of an orphan boy (Rossamund[4]) who must leave his Dickensian-but-familiar orphanage; venture out into the wide (and exceedingly strange) world, coping with misadventures galore; until he finds his way to his new place as a contributing citizen of his society. Most teens (no surprise) enjoy well-told stories of this sort, and Monster Blood Tattoo adds a world full of monsters; one where the human civilization holds merely a tentative, and quite probably failing place.
And yet what constitutes a "monster" is just as likely to be nominally human. A character might be monstrous not only in terms of his moral character (Poundinch, the smuggler) but in terms of the bio-engineered changes she has made to her body (The Brandon Rose, a famous lahzar); what makes a character "human" may apply as well to monsters (Freckle, the bogle, and perhaps Rossamund himself...)
One never knows from one moment to the next who is human and who isn't; who's a villain, and who wears a white hat. All the while, the world is unfolding and Rossamond has exciting adventures en route to what may be his destiny. The author's skillful black-and-white portraits of the characters and monsters one meets in the course of the story only add to its charm. This is one of those rare books, that, after finishing my review copy; I went to the store to buy my own.
The Foundling, Book One of Monster Blood Tattoo by D. M. Cornish (Puffin, 2007)
Highly recommended.
[1] Subtitled: Part 212 of "What are they putting in the Antipodean water, these days?"
[2] And I'm writing this in March because that's when the review is due.
[3] That title never fails to make me giggle.
[4] And yes, he gets beat up just about as often as you might expect, growing up with that name. Even after Rossamund has left the Marine Society, the name is played for laughs, for plot device, (Rossamund is, after all, still young enough to be mistaken for a girl) and for mystery: Why was the note "Rossa Mund" left pinned onto the abandoned infant's wrappings? So much love for this book....
- Text::Without Warning: Ellen's Story
Profile
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1)
carbonelle- Eglantine Brandybuck
- I know, I know, but I swear, I LIVE by this thing
Comments