Rarely does a novel spark my imagination with such ferocity. Foundling seemed a cross between Oliver Twist and Harry Potter. The characters in this children's fantasy were interesting, distinctive in voice, nuanced, and mostly grey.

In fact, the lack of absolutes, the freedom from good and evil dogma, enriched the world and made it more believable. True, there were some characters with which one would not care to have tea, but the “monsters” turned out to be not necessarily more evil than the humans fighting them.

In my own fantasy writing, I try to keep the made-up words to a minimum, but DM Cornish seeks every opportunity to invent playful words that drew me farther into the world. I loved them, from fulgars to factotems (listened to the audio so I'm not sure how they were spelled). Then again, I also loved A Clockwork Orange.

I even did a dance review to this book. Impossible, you say? Prepare to be proven wrong: http://youtu.be/nwy_kYp6d6g