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Summary and Reviews of Foundling by D Cornish

Foundling by D M. Cornish

Foundling

Monster Blood Tattoo Book 1

by D M. Cornish
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Readers' Rating (2):
  • First Published:
  • May 18, 2006, 404 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Sep 2007, 448 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

Set in the world of the Half-Continent—a land of tri-corner hats and flintlock pistols—the Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy is a world of predatory monsters, chemical potions and surgically altered people. For ages 12+

Set in the world of the Half-Continent—a land of tri-corner hats and flintlock pistols—the Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy is a world of predatory monsters, chemical potions and surgically altered people. Foundling begins the journey of Rossamund, a boy with a girl’s name, who is just about to begin a dangerous life in the service of the Emperor. What starts as a simple journey is threatened by encounters with monsters—and people, who may be worse. Learning who to trust and who to fear is neither easy nor without its perils, and Rossamund must choose his path carefully.

Complete with appendices, maps, illustrations, and a glossary, Monster Blood Tattoo grabs readers from the first sentence and immerses them in an entirely original fantasy world with its own language and lore.

1

IT BEGAN WITH A FIGHT

foundling (noun) also wastrel. Stray people, usually children, found without a home or shelter on the streets of cities or even, amazingly, wandering exposed in the wilds. The usual destinations for such orphaned children are workhouses, mills or the mines, although a fortunate few may find their way to a foundlingery. Such a place can care for a small number of foundlings and wastrels, fitting them for a more productive life and sparing them the agonies of harder labor.

ROSSAMÜND was a boy with a girl’s name. All the other children of Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls teased and tormented him almost daily because of his name. And this day Rossamünd would have to fight his worst tormentor, Gosling—a boy who had caused him more misery than any other, a boy he worked hard to avoid. Unfortunately, when it was time to practice harundo, there was no escaping him.

At Rossamünd&...

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Foundling, the first in the planned Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy, sucked our then twelve-year-old son in on the first page and spat him back out a couple of days later only after he'd read the book cover to cover (including the glossary and the 100 page appendix which particularly fascinated him) and pored over the maps and illustrations In the intervening period we did see him from time to time - for meals and breathless plot updates - but in essence, although his body was with us, his mind was somewhere in the Half-Continent! With illustrations reminiscent of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy this is a book to kindle the imagination of any child who revels in fantastic worlds filled with fantastic creatures...continued

Full Review (521 words)

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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

Media Reviews

Booklist - Cindy Dobrez
Starred Review. .... enough secrets, promises, and mystery to create impatient demand for part two.

Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. From the pre-industrial English feel to the sprawling setting and backstory, this book feels every bit as substantial as its heft implies.

School Library Journal
Starred review. A delightful, refreshing standout in a sea of cookie-cutter fantasy worlds.

Kirkus Review
This epic fantasy, though solidly based in classic form ....., flounders under cluttered writing.

Author Blurb Lloyd Alexander, Newbery-winning author of The Chronicles of Prydain
..A remarkable new world, complete in every detail, totally convincing.

Author Blurb Michael Cart, writer, professor, expert in children's and YA literature
Meticulously plotted, prodigiously imagined, and richly realized.

Author Blurb Tamora Pierce, author of the quartets Song of the Lioness and Circle of Magic
I felt constantly at the edge of a gasp.

Reader Reviews

Sam R

Gasp
I have been reading the Redwall series, and i love that series but this book took me out of it and was not going to let me go I read the book in a week and instantly wanted the next book to come out. This book is great for children and adults who ...   Read More
Forrestt

Monster blood Tatoo
This book was the best book i had read for quite a while!I have read many good books and i would put this book as one of my top 5 books!

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Beyond the Book



D.M. Cornish was born in time to see the first Star Wars movie. He was five. It made him realize that worlds beyond his own were possible, and he failed to eat his popcorn. Experiences with C.S. Lewis, and later J.R.R. Tolkien, completely convinced him that other worlds existed, and that writers had a key to these worlds. But words were not his earliest tools for storytelling. Drawings were.

He spent most of his childhood drawing, as well as most of his teenage and adult years as well. And by age eleven he had made his first book, called "Attack from Mars." It featured Jupitans and lots and lots of drawings of space battles. (It has never been published and world rights are still available!)

He studied illustration ...

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Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

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