Speculative Fiction Junkie

D.M. Cornish

Monster Blood Tattoo. I'll say it again: Monster Blood Tattoo. Doesn't it sound weird and slightly frightening? If you asked me whether or not I wanted to read something called Monster Blood Tattoo without knowing anything else about it, I'd say no and probably give you a funny look. Nevertheless, that's the name of Australian author D.M Cornish's debut young adult trilogy and I recently found myself with a copy of the first book, entitled Foundling.

A number of things lead me to crack this one open almost as soon as I received it. In addition to a promising premise, the book also contains a number of quality illustrations on the cover and throughout the work itself. These, it turns out, were done by the author himself, which intrigued me. But what really convinced me to dive in right away was the story of how this book came into existence. It turns out that over the course of ten years Mr. Cornish filled 23 journals with pictures, definitions, and histories of the world in which the Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy takes place, which he calls the Half-Continent. Eventually, these efforts led to Foundling. The book was, therefore, a labor of love more than a decade in the making. All of these things combined to convince me to give the book a try.

The premise of Foundling is solid: Rossamünd Bookchild has spent his entire life in what amounts to an orphanage, hoping one day to be summoned by the Navy to live a life of adventure on the high seas. He is, therefore, somewhat disappointed when he is instead asked to travel to a somewhat distant city and join the Lamplighters, whose job it is to keep the roads of the Half-Continent safe from the monsters that have more or less always been at war with humans. Foundling follows Rossamünd's journey to this city to meet his Lamplighter contact. Along the way, he meets crooks, monsters, and more.

Foundling's most salient triumph is as a completely original work of imagination. The world of the Half-Continent is full of wonders of every sort imaginable. There are people with boxes for faces, there are people who have enhanced their physical abilities with surgery, there are monsters of all types and temperament, the seas are filled with caustic vinegar, the relationship between monsters and humans is dangerous and complex, and every manner of human activity and wickedness is found on the Half-Continent. Both the content of Cornish's imaginings as well as the skill with which he conveys them to the reader repeatedly reminded me of Miéville. I can't do it justice here, but suffice it to say that Cornish's vision is felt at every level of this book, from macro worldbuilding aspects to the minutest microdetails. That this is the product of a gifted imagination left free to roam for more than ten years is abundantly clear.

No less impressive, however, are Cornish's skills as a writer. The plot is perfectly paced; the character development of the highest caliber. The prose flows very well despite the many quirks of the languages and accents one encounters in the Half-Continent. And while the quality of the story itself may not quite match that of The Name of the Wind, it felt similar in many ways and was absolutely excellent. In short, Cornish already appears to be a master of his craft.

There is only one thing that keeps Foundling from receiving a rating of 10 [Edit: I've since reconsidered and have to give this book a 10], and that is the fact that while the story is fantastic, when I was finished with it I couldn't help but think that it's main purpose had been to set up the next two books in the trilogy. While this is obviously true to some extent for any first in a trilogy, I felt it was especially true in this case. I'll be reading the second book in the trilogy, Lamplighter, shortly and post a review of it when I'm done. As far as the third book, Factotum, is concerned, we're going to have to somehow wait until the Spring of 2010 for it.

Don't let this trilogy's odd name scare you away, after reading Foundling, I'm fairly certain that these books will eventually become classics. The fact that they aren't already can at least in part be attributed, I suspect, to the odd fit they make in the categories in which books are pigeonholed: if Foundling is any indication, then these books are just as much adult fiction as The Name of the Wind is. In any event, the fact that they are called young adult books may have made them fly beneath the radar of many who might otherwise be interested in them.

Rating: 10/10

The True First

Foundling was first published in Australia by the Omnibus Books imprint of Scholastic Australia in 2006.

[This review was based on a review copy]