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 mon...
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reviews
Oct 26, 2011
Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress"
rated it: 
Found this one at the library and picked it up for a listen. I found it quite good. The worldbuilding was thorough, including a lexicon of terms especially adapted to the storyline. It's not quite steampunk (no steam tech), but that's probably as close a designation as I can use. There is some advanced tech, including enhanced humans, and primitive gadgetry, and some mad science type elements that bring to mind the steampunk aesthetic, so there you have it. Rossamund was a really great kid--q
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Dec 23, 2011
Jennifer
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Reviewed by K. Osborn Sullivan for TeensReadToo.com
MONSTER BLOOD TATTOO is an unusual book. Even before I delved into it, I was struck by some of the ways that it's different from other young adult fantasy novels. For one thing, more than a quarter of the book is taken up with an extensive glossary and other appendices. It is also sprinkled with art - typically sketches of characters in the novel. So even before reading a word of the story, I was curious. Surely such an unusual book More...
MONSTER BLOOD TATTOO is an unusual book. Even before I delved into it, I was struck by some of the ways that it's different from other young adult fantasy novels. For one thing, more than a quarter of the book is taken up with an extensive glossary and other appendices. It is also sprinkled with art - typically sketches of characters in the novel. So even before reading a word of the story, I was curious. Surely such an unusual book More...
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Apr 15, 2008
Elizabeth
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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 t
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(22 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Tama
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Although the beginning of this book felt a little kiddish in it's language, what evolved was a rather sophisticated tale of fantasy and horror, in perhaps one of the most unique worlds I've seen a book set. Rather than going with English medieval flavors so common in fantasy settings, Foundling is set in a world German medieval in tone.
This book reminded me of the sense of exploration that comes with a good fantasy book, helped by how easy it was to immerse oneself in it. Perhaps one More...
This book reminded me of the sense of exploration that comes with a good fantasy book, helped by how easy it was to immerse oneself in it. Perhaps one More...
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(4 people liked it)
Apr 03, 2008
Nathan
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This is what "young adult" fiction should be, by all rights. The vocabulary was rich and liberally sprinkled with neologisms that tickled my etymologist's fancy, and the writing was lucid and flowing, keeping me involved with ease.
I was particularly enchanted by the world details that slipped into place; the complex, quasi-magical chemistry; the "vinegar seas" whose acidic waters gave sailors their rugged, pit-faced appearance; the boats powered by "gastrines More...
I was particularly enchanted by the world details that slipped into place; the complex, quasi-magical chemistry; the "vinegar seas" whose acidic waters gave sailors their rugged, pit-faced appearance; the boats powered by "gastrines More...
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Oct 12, 2010
Robin
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Tolkien loved inventing languages, and designed Middle Earth, and wrote Lord of the Rings to have someplace to put those languages.
DM Cornish is an illustrator, and has been drawing characters, creatures and maps for years, and wrote this book to have someplace to put them.
The world, called the Half Continent - is GINORMOUS. The map is roughly 8 x 10, and the book covers about a square inch...of the world, and this is the first book. Lots of potential here.
W More...
DM Cornish is an illustrator, and has been drawing characters, creatures and maps for years, and wrote this book to have someplace to put them.
The world, called the Half Continent - is GINORMOUS. The map is roughly 8 x 10, and the book covers about a square inch...of the world, and this is the first book. Lots of potential here.
W More...
Apr 22, 2011
± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ±
rated it: 
I'm not really sure waht to say about this book. It wasn't bad, really, but it wasn't very good, either. I think some of the ideas and people were interesting enough that it could've been better - even though there were some times where I was rolling my eyes because the conveniences and stupidity at times sort of strained credulity.
One of the things I liked most about the book was <spoiler>the budding complexity of the nature of the monsters. In the beginning, it's a very ba More...
One of the things I liked most about the book was <spoiler>the budding complexity of the nature of the monsters. In the beginning, it's a very ba More...
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May 06, 2008
Carter
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So the first book was fantastic. I can see why so many think this will be a classic. The only thing I thought (well, not the only thing) is that for a book in a series, it doesn't seem to stand on its own. Isn't it the rule of thumb that the first book in a series needs to stand on its own, whereas sequels can be read as such? Either way, so very good. I even bought the second book today when I went to buy the new Percy Jackson book by Rick Riordin.
I was at the bookstore the other d More...
I was at the bookstore the other d More...
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Jul 03, 2010
Merrilee
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I was actually more than a little disappointed by this book. Cornish has built a wonderful world, full of fascinating people and places. Unfortunately he felt the need to share every detail with the reader. This book was not so much a novel as a prologue, and for two-thirds of the book, the main character Rossamund just wanders around, having things happen to him.
When he finally gets a little gumption and the story starts moving, the novel ends. And the last 120 pages are gloss More...
When he finally gets a little gumption and the story starts moving, the novel ends. And the last 120 pages are gloss More...
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Jan 26, 2012
Caleb
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This book is phenomenal. The writing is deep and perhaps ridiculously detailed. The characters are fresh and fascinating. And most interestingly, at the center of the series, the lore is extraordinarily detailed. The creation of this fictional world was a massive undertaking, and its author had began to create far before he ever started writing about it through the eyes of the protagonist, the young boy Rossamund, in a cohesive story. Rossamund grows up in an orphanage, with no real known p
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Jan 17, 2012
Cindy
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The Foundling is a must read if you like books such as the Harry Potter series or Lord Of The Rings. I was just amazed at D. M. Cornish's world as his hero, an orphan named, Rossamund, travels from the safety of his home to his new job as a lamplighter in the city of High Vesting. This book is full of great and memorable characters with lots of adventure and new twists that I think most people will enjoy. Monsters lurk in the lands outside of sprawling cities and there are a lot of them some of
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Aug 01, 2011
Mlle.
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FOUNDLING is a delight - strange and gnarly, with a vaguely steampunk mentality. The characters are incredibly vivid, physically and as personalities, and the worldbuilding is astonishingly deep. Cornish takes a real delight in words - his language is fussy, prickly, onomateopoeic, as absorbing and tangled as his tale.
The twist in Cornish's world, the half-continent, is that it is on the eve of a technical revolution - but while ours was mechanical, theirs is biological. It's an oddly More...
The twist in Cornish's world, the half-continent, is that it is on the eve of a technical revolution - but while ours was mechanical, theirs is biological. It's an oddly More...
Jun 02, 2011
Loren
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From ISawLightningFall.com
Every once in a blue moon you happen across a novel that pulls everything together, bundling interesting characters, big themes, an engaging plot and a winning style into a single package. But such books are rare. Even an extremely talented author has a hard time producing more than one in a career. Still, efforts that fall short of that Platonic ideal often excel in a narrower range, making up for their deficiencies with depth in other areas. One such examp More...
Every once in a blue moon you happen across a novel that pulls everything together, bundling interesting characters, big themes, an engaging plot and a winning style into a single package. But such books are rare. Even an extremely talented author has a hard time producing more than one in a career. Still, efforts that fall short of that Platonic ideal often excel in a narrower range, making up for their deficiencies with depth in other areas. One such examp More...
May 02, 2011
Theresa
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Feb 27, 2011
Ren
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This book was a great read. I had seen it in the library months ago and thought I might like it, had it for weeks but never got to read it. Months later I picked it up again thinking "oh yeah... maybe I'll actually read it this time. Well it didn't happen once again. Finally about a month ago I picked up the first 2 books on tape, ( I like listening before bed) and I saw this one in new release that looked cool. I brought them home along with countless others and pulled out the new release
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Jan 07, 2011
Sheenab
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Book Review
Foundling; the first book in the Monster Blood Tattoo Series by M.D. Cornish
Content
It took me about 3 to 4 chapters to really get into this book as this sometimes happens with books that are the first in a series. There were several action scenes in the beginning that I felt did not pull me in as I would have liked. However, I greatly enjoyed how the author used biology mixed with technology in creating such items as the "sthencion."
Writing Ability
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Foundling; the first book in the Monster Blood Tattoo Series by M.D. Cornish
Content
It took me about 3 to 4 chapters to really get into this book as this sometimes happens with books that are the first in a series. There were several action scenes in the beginning that I felt did not pull me in as I would have liked. However, I greatly enjoyed how the author used biology mixed with technology in creating such items as the "sthencion."
Writing Ability
More...
Mar 23, 2010
Zohora
rated it:
After finishing this book I thought "Wow, I need to reed the sequel!"
But how can the sequel be any better than the first? Well I'm going to have to find out. This book is really sophisticated (it even has it's own mini-dictionary in the back!), So whoever hates to go back to a translation every few pages shouldn't read this book.
The language in this book isn't very simple either. It's like study-English-hard-to-know-the-meaning kind of talk. Which really wo More...
But how can the sequel be any better than the first? Well I'm going to have to find out. This book is really sophisticated (it even has it's own mini-dictionary in the back!), So whoever hates to go back to a translation every few pages shouldn't read this book.
The language in this book isn't very simple either. It's like study-English-hard-to-know-the-meaning kind of talk. Which really wo More...
Nov 08, 2009
Donna
rated it:
Well that sounds interesting, doesn’t it? I certainly thought it did! And it's the best place to start because that blurb drew me in pretty quickly. Unfortunately that piece is a bit misleading. I don’t know about you but from reading that, I thought those would be adventures he’d be taking while working as a lamplighter. It certainly insinuates that, don’t you think?
But that would have to be a no. The whole book, all 311 (not including the 121 pages of reference) pages, is about Ros More...
But that would have to be a no. The whole book, all 311 (not including the 121 pages of reference) pages, is about Ros More...
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Aug 28, 2009
Cindy
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There are very few teen fantasy titles that come along that I find myself raving to all my co-workers about. And I mean ALL of my co-workers. I don't care if you haven't read a teen novel in years, I'm throwing this one at you.
The unfortunately named Rossamund (yes, he's a boy and we'll call him Rosie for short) is a foundling, raised in an orphanage where he has little hope of any real future but dreams of a life at sea. Fate, however, has other things in store for him--Rosie has More...
The unfortunately named Rossamund (yes, he's a boy and we'll call him Rosie for short) is a foundling, raised in an orphanage where he has little hope of any real future but dreams of a life at sea. Fate, however, has other things in store for him--Rosie has More...
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Jul 27, 2009
Olgy
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I loved reading FOUNDLING. The following book review was originally posted to the CCF website and is reposted here with permission.
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I just finished reading a wonderful fantasy novel for the second time: "Foundling (Monster Blood Tattoo book I)," by first time author D.M. Cornish. The book was sent to CCF as a review copy by a Senior Editor at G.P. Putnam's Sons. The paperback edition [ISBN: 0142409138] came out September 6, 2007. This is a young boy's s More...
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I just finished reading a wonderful fantasy novel for the second time: "Foundling (Monster Blood Tattoo book I)," by first time author D.M. Cornish. The book was sent to CCF as a review copy by a Senior Editor at G.P. Putnam's Sons. The paperback edition [ISBN: 0142409138] came out September 6, 2007. This is a young boy's s More...
Jul 24, 2009
Randy
rated it:
Got this on sale for the library at school. It was a bit slow staring, but it caught my attention so I kept turning the pages. about 60 pages in, it picked up and ended a page-turner. In a world filled with numerous monsters in conflict with humanity we enter the life of a young orphan,Rossamund. He is saddled with a girl's name and has to survive the abuse in the orphanage where he is trained for the sea. After being passed over a number of times he is finally chosen to enter a profession, but
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Jan 03, 2012
Sandra
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Another beginning of another YA fantasy series aimed at junior high readers and above, this one is a little too self conscious for me. It starts a bit slowly because it has so much exposition to get through (a bit imitative of Tolkien with all kinds of vocabulary and cultural references to explain, in fact the "glossary" at the back is about 1/5 of the book). Once the plot really gets going, the adventures of the boy with a girl's name who is raised in a foundling home and sets out t
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Feb 24, 2009
Michelle
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This book was more amazing than I thought it would be, and judging by the covers alone I was like "wow, this looks pretty amazing!" The premise is more than familiar: a young orphan boy's coming of age story. The story is occasionally predictable and the main character perhaps a little milquetoast, but the wonderful little details put into everything made this whole book feel fresh and exciting. Not to mention the other characters (particularly Europe, of course) are totally hardcor
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Apr 01, 2011
Marshmellow
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The world building is incredible. The author's put an amazing amount of work into making a world in intricate details that's both exotic and familiar, it's like Victorian England, but with monsters. The glossary/encyclopaedia/appendix with illustration at the back is roughly 120 pages long. I've read every entry, it gives additional interesting information that's not in the book. The author is an illustrator himself, so the illustrations are also good. It's a very interesting world he's created,
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Jul 25, 2011
Bonanza
rated it:
The story is so good, I fell right into it. Deep, tense, rich... and listening to every word intently, enjoyably... then it was over... NO!
I will tell you in truth and with experience... *If* you start this book and devour it, which is more than just to read and enjoy it as an original and interesting, action-filled story (as it simply put, is)... but if you find yourself devouring it, you will not be able to suppress the addicted need to immediatly begin the 2nd book.
'Foundling' i More...
I will tell you in truth and with experience... *If* you start this book and devour it, which is more than just to read and enjoy it as an original and interesting, action-filled story (as it simply put, is)... but if you find yourself devouring it, you will not be able to suppress the addicted need to immediatly begin the 2nd book.
'Foundling' i More...
Apr 18, 2011
Ryan
rated it:
I am really happy I ended up getting this from the library - it was a last minute impulse selection. Though my interest in the story was waning at the beginning, I was soon hooked. I actually yearn to know more about this world that Cornish has created and wished the book was a little more dense with the history, lore, and explanations of the cultures, peoples, and monsters. I quickly found myself enthralled with Rossamund - yearning for adventure like he does and rooting for him during his e
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Sep 08, 2009
Kim (magicsandwiches)
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I don't like monsters, I don't like blood, and I definitely don't like tattoos, but I really enjoyed this book. The Monster Blood Tattoo series is high fantasy at its best. Awesome world building, awesome characters, and a staggering story-line...eventually. The first book is about poor little Rossamund Bookchild, a boy with a girl's name, who was abandoned as a child and given a place at the Bookchild orphanage. Once he comes of age, he is sent out into the world to be trained as a lampligh
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Jun 11, 2008
MJ
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I tried so hard to read this fantasy but it was just a little too "precious." D.M. Cornish had his own illustration--very nice. Boy with a girl's name is raised in Madam Opera's Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls. Lots of made up vocabulary and I just couldn't get into it. This is the first book of several and I think that children of 9-11 with the patience to read "clever" writing might like it a lot more than I did.
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Jun 27, 2011
Caitlin
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This the story of Rossamünd a boy with an unfortunate name, with which the other children at the Orphanage tease him with. But when he finally leaves the orphanage to become a lamp lighter, his who way of looking at the world and his plans are flipped upside down.
This book I'm giving 2.5 stars, for a couple of reasons:
#1- It took me forever to get into this book, it just didn't click with me.
#2- It (and I hate doing this and I already did it once today) reminded me More...
This book I'm giving 2.5 stars, for a couple of reasons:
#1- It took me forever to get into this book, it just didn't click with me.
#2- It (and I hate doing this and I already did it once today) reminded me More...
Oct 27, 2009
Alex
rated it:
As soon as I began reading, I was endulged into this amazing world. D.M. Cornish took 13 years to come up with this story, and you can see the results for yourself.
Set in the truely amazing Half Continent which is haunted by bogles, nickers and other nasties, Rossomund, the boy with the girls name, is rather safe at the foundlingry (well, he's still in danger of that bully Gosling.) Then he meets the man with the red eyes who offers him a possition as a lamplighter. He hops onto a bo More...
Set in the truely amazing Half Continent which is haunted by bogles, nickers and other nasties, Rossomund, the boy with the girls name, is rather safe at the foundlingry (well, he's still in danger of that bully Gosling.) Then he meets the man with the red eyes who offers him a possition as a lamplighter. He hops onto a bo More...
