Customer Reviews
What an Author! 
2008-05-21
Rossamund has made it to Winstermill where he will train to become a lamplighter. Shortly after his arrival an attack comes from the nickers and Rossamund and his crew are rescued by a group of calendar girls. One of the girls, a young lady named Threnody, wants to become a lamplighter. The lamplighters have never trained a woman for that position before, but after some serious pressure put on the empire because of who Threnody's mother is they decide to accept her into their ranks.
The two train together, both viewed as outcasts because of Rossamund's late arrival to Winstermill and Threnody's sex, and they form a kind of kinship. Threnody is a wit and has to drink many different things to keep her foreign organs in check. Rossamund entrenches himself in his duties and discovers some awful things going un under the empire's nose.
Wow, what a book. What a tremendous author. The Monster Blood Tattoo books are simply a feat on Cornish's part. He is a master storyteller, inventive and brilliant. His books are superbly detailed and peppered throughout with little imaginative nuggets of dialogue, many that make the reader laugh out loud. I am in awe of this author's work. I hope he writes his final book in the trilogy soon.
(For the record I am predicting now that he titles the last book "Factotum")
The story only gets better and better 2008-05-11
After reading Foundling I was eager to see what happened in the next installment, but nothing prepared me for this. I tore through this book as quickly as I could....my only regret is that I did not read it slower and savor every word, for now I must suffer through a couple years until book three comes out.
This is a great story with stunningly deep and developed characters, their motivations and feelings are perfectly captured by the author. I won't lie, at times it can prove to be a difficult read with all the Latin-based terms and accents presented in the book, but all that is well worth the depth and detail it provides the reader on the world. It has action from the get-go, and more monsters than the previous book (as well as more people dying), a few twists and a couple of mysteries...all adding up to a wonderful world in which to find yourself.
I cannot put into words how much I recommend this book, Mr Cornish has certainly lived up to our hopes in this one. I often chuckle at people who compare a young new author to a master of literature, in this case I think all these comparisons to Tolkien are not only well founded, but exactly on point.
Fair Rossaumund and the nasty bogles 2008-05-06
You can like the first book in a new fantasy series. You can love a first book in a new fantasy series. You can compare that book to the works and worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien or Philip Pullman, if you've half a mind to do so. But no matter how much you love a book, when you see that its sequel is a whopping 711 pages long you may find yourself somewhat reluctant to pick it up. I'm a busy reviewer. I get sent a lot of books to read and I'm only able to review a tiny portion of them. If a book is 711 pages long then it better earn my trust. I'd better be sure that there isn't any needless information there. For all its length this had better be one heckuva lean, exciting, entrancing read. So I hefted this tome (there's no other word for it) around with me and found pretty quickly that not only is Lamplighter, the second book in the Monster Blood Tattoo series, good, it happens to be even better than its predecessor. If Cornish tackled the idea of creating an original world and laying down the foundations in his first book, the second speaks to human prejudice, ignorance perpetuated, and maybe even the author's Australian roots in this remarkable middle book in an increasingly multilayered world.
When last we saw of young Rossamund Bookchild he had successfully arrived at Winstermill, the fortress of the lamplighters. The boy is to learn the dangerous job of keeping the Empire's roads lit at all times, despite the omnipresent fear of monsters on all sides. Because he has arrived a little late Rossamund is considered a bit of a laggard by his fellows. His status changes substantially, however, after a young noblewoman by the name of Threnody also arrives to become a lamplighter (the first female ever, perhaps). She and Rossamund strike up an uneasy friendship and good thing too. Dark machinations are afoot at Winstermill. The Master-of-Clerks has taken over in the Lamplighter-Marshal's sudden absence. Rossamund finds a creature of despicable origins in the bowls of the fortress. And suddenly he and Threnody are bundled off to serve their first posts, but in a place as dark and dangerous as any in the Empire. Between parsing his own thoughts on monsters and trying to keep alive, Rossamund soon finds that the strange secrets from the past have a way of coming to light.
Generally the second book/film in any trilogy is going to be your weakest part. What percentage of people can honestly say that The Two Towers is their favorite book or The Empire Strikes Back their favorite Star Wars movie? But Lamplighter is surprisingly strong and engaging for all that it's a stepping stone to a conclusion. Maybe Cornish is helped by the fact that you never quite know where the storyline is headed until you're almost to the end of the book. If Rossamund was a mild sedorner (monster lover) at the end of the first book, he's made leaps and strides in that direction by the finale of the second. True, Lamplighter ends on a very "To Be Continued" note, which I usually despise. But in spite of this cliffhanger the book stands tall on its own two feet. Villains have been fleshed out and identified properly. Heroes are also named, though Rossamund is increasingly anxious over the moral complexities of people like Europe. And he finds himself wondering about his friend Sebastipole, "Could he be what Rossamund considered a good man and still do this? Could a man be wrong for doing what he thought was right?" And on top all of this, the book's theme has been polished and defined.
It took me a little while to realize it, but D.M. Cornish shares much in common with his fellow Australian writers. As I read this book I was reminded of John Marsden's remarkable "picture book" The Rabbits, as illustrated by Shaun Tan. In that book, a group of native animals are colonized violently by an invading species. Now look at the Monster Blood Tattoo books. Cornish has given us a set of assumptions and then turned them slowly on their head. In the first book you acquired Rossamund's own "learned suspicions" as pertaining to the "fact" that all monsters are evil and must be destroyed else they will destroy you. Now in the second book we get a glimpse of the true stakes of the battle. Humans, it seems, have been encroaching on the monsters' land for years. They destroy them regularly, even creating disgusting zombie-like creatures to fight them, and the monsters respond violently to this. As the book continues, you even got a glimpse of how little the humans even know about monsters. Their ideas about monster birth is a kind of spontaneous regeneration involving mud or maybe the buds on trees. These people know so little about their foes that they would rather kill them than learn anything about them, and it has been this way for centuries upon centuries.
You would think that this would mean that Rossamund was destined to do something to end all of this conflict. I'd like to think he could bring monster and man together in peace, but in truth I'm not sure if Cornish is really aiming that high. It seems like it will be enough for him to simply have Rossamund defeat the villains of the piece in the end. Then again, maybe it's all connected. Hard to say. I guess we'll just have to see what Cornish has up his sleeve in the last installment. One thing I will say (and this may be a tad spoilerish so avoid the rest of this paragraph if you care) is that I made a mistake in reviewing Lamplighter's predecessor Foundling. In that review I said something along the lines of "never have I had such a clear sense that a character's parentage is not the point of the series." I might have as well have said, "I believe the next novel in this series will be written with Cheerios rather than words", since that's roundabout how off-base I was with that assumption. It's not immediately apparent at the start, but Rossamund's parentage may be the sticking point on which this entire series hinges.
Second novels have the luxury of getting to begin with an already well-informed bang. Lamplighter begins with excitement, heroism, blood, and women kicking monster-butt. Because the book assumes that you've read Foundling, it brings up multiple references to the occurrences in the previous book. A word to the wise then, do not begin this series with this book. It may be stronger than the first novel, but you need to understand this world completely from the first book to get anything at all out of the second. As for the new characters you meet, they're fun. You can't help but love poor sweet Numps, the seltzerman who is no longer quite right in the head but turns out to be a good friend to Rossamund. Or Threnody, the young noblewoman who wishes to be a lamplighter and who has such a crush on Rossamund that it shows itself in biting remarks, snipes, and a lot of pouting (which he never catches on to, sweet boy). What's more, characters from the previous book are better fleshed out, which is helpful.
As in the second, Lamplighter retains Cornish's ear for a well-turned phrase in his world's particular vernacular. "Move your ashes, scrub!" sounds like a real enough sentence to me. Descriptions too remain sparkling and bright. Cornish isn't afraid to use delightful words in average sentences as with, "A susurrus of deep displeasure stirred about the boys." And then the names have multiplied here and become delicious. There's Sourdoor, Epitome Bile, Bellicos, and more.
It has been said many many times before regarding other series, but I don't think one more time is going to hurt anyone. Having finished this book at long last my sole regret is that I don't have the third. Perhaps Mr. Cornish will be kind enough to make the final book in the trilogy a good 1,000 pages at least so that I don't have abandon Rossamund and his world quite so soon. Someday I like to think that children's literary scholars will take some time to pick apart Cornish's histories and theories regarding conflict and how it is perpetuated by a society that would perhaps prefer peace if they considered the matter. Until then, you'll just have to enjoy the books on their own. It's a brilliant little number and hopefully will garner the fan base it so desperately deserves.
WOW!!! 2008-05-02
Just as I was getting a little tired of the Fantasy genre.....This book hit like a TON of bricks!! I could not put it down, and I'm a 45 year old woman!! Excellent!! Needless to say, I ran right out and purchased Foundling.
Another good book 2008-06-18
D.M. Cornish has created a really interesting world for his Monster Blood Tattoo series. It is familiar yet really different from ours with it s monsters and vinegar seas. The action is very well written and in the long periods of inaction keep up a good pace in the story. The mystery of the book is not hard to figure out, though it is not really the focus of the book. The characters are just fascinating and all are fascinating for different reasons. I was disappointed that Fouracres was not in this installment, but I have hope that we will see him again. No small part of the fun is the very excellent illustrations depicting many of the important characters.
Too Long to Hold My Interest 
2008-06-10
The Monster Blood Tattoo series continues with this next installment. Lamplighter is twice as thick as its preceding story, Foundling, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is twice as good.
For those of you who haven't read the first in the series, main character Rossamünd is a foundling who embarks on an adventure to reach a city called High Vesting in order to begin training as a lamplighter. On this journey, he encounters a wide cast of characters including leers, massacars, lahzars, and even monsters.
The second book continues immediately after the first left off. Rossamünd makes it to High Vesting in the nick of time to begin his training. The first time he goes out to practice his lamplighting with the other prentices, they are set upon by a large monster, a horn-ed nicker to be specific, and two others. With the aid of a group of calendars, they manage to destroy the monsters. However, with that, they also learn that there is to be a female prentice named Threnody.
Rossamünd and Threnody become unexpected allies as they train and work together. Many characters from the first book come back into play, such as Europe the lahzar, Master Sebastipole, Master Fransitart, Master Craumpalin, and Freckles the glamgorn bogle. New characters include Mister Numps, and numerous others employed as lamplighters or related services. I found that it was very hard to keep track of all the different names.
I found Lamplighter harder to read than Foundling for several reasons, but mostly because of sheer size. The second story was about twice the size of the first. The wording was strange at times, the descriptions repetitive or drawn out and boring. The new terms used made the story hard to understand, especially where the new monetary system and months were concerned. There were a lot of subplots within the story that were hard to keep track of, and unlike the first book, there wasn't a clear goal of the story. It merely followed Rossamünd's journeys, but I couldn't really find a point to those journeys. I also felt that this story was a bit too much like Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and Eragon, although fans of those stories would probably like this one.
What also bothered me was that Rossamünd was also called clever, but to me, he never seemed to be. I figured out many unsolved problems of his before he did. Rossamünd also seemed to contradict himself a lot and could never seem to make up his mind unless it was done for him. His relationship with Threnody was awkward at best and very repetitive. Reading this second book almost discouraged me from wanting to read the rest of the story when it comes out.
However, I did like the ending of the story. The last hundred pages or so redeem the story's other faults. If the books are named after Rossamünd's occupations during them, then there is good reason to believe the third book will be called Factotum. Despite the length of this book, I am looking forward to the next installment in the series, and I hope the sheer size of this book will not daunt others from reading it.
[..]
Story moved very slowly 2008-06-02
Reviewed by Maya Landers (age 10) for Reader Views (5/08)
"Lamplighter," book two in the Monster Blood Tattoo series, by D.M. Cornish, was not one of my favorite books because at some points the story moved very slowly, while at other points it moved along so quickly that the reader had trouble keeping up with it. The story begins when the main character, Rossamund, is on an excursion with all the other prentice lantern-lighters to light and douse the lamps along the road that went from Winstermill to Wellnigh house. He never wanted to be a lantern-lighter and had done so only to escape Madame Opera's Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls. At first, this excursion proves to just as boring as his last one, until the clatter of horses' hooves are heard down the road. As the carriage is sighted, one of the other prentices realizes that the horses have no coachman. The horses are running out of sheer terror. Behind the carriage comes a monstrous being with gigantic horns and wicked slits for eyes.
So begins the book with one of the more fast-paced sections. The action begins quickly, on page seven. I thought that this didn't give the reader enough time to comprehend what was going on. Alternately, later on in the book, the pace is much slower, with so little action that the reader soon forgets what he or she has just learned. This is book two in the "Monster Blood Tattoo" series so that may explain why some things didn't make sense to me. I could understand most things well, but there were some unexplained things that I assumed were clarified in the first book. However, I could mostly understand what was going on, and I was able to grasp a basic idea of the characters and plot.
At the beginning of each chapter, there was a "dictionary" definition of a different character, object, or action that was used or preformed in that chapter. I found this very useful, and the definitions were also very interesting.
I would not recommend "Lamplighter" to my friends because I did not think that it did a very good job making an equal balance between the parts of the book that were filled with action and the more slow-paced sections.
superb complex epic fantasy 2008-06-01
In Winstermill, Lamplighter trainees are learning on the job their prime duties of lighting and dousing when Master Rossamund's group comes across bogles attacking a carriage of females. They ally with the women to defeat the bogles, but Rossamund who observed the battle as he held the lamp-lighting alchemy accessories also noticed that one of the coach occupants could not control her talent; that one Threnody tells him she wants to become a lamplighter and she joins his troupe of rookies.
Rossamund is kind to the acrimonious temperamental Threnody, and his patience with her crankiness slowly turns Threnody around. A monster attacks people just outside Wintersmill; Rossamund and Threnody team up to battle the dark one enabling those still there to flee. He recognizes the odor of the "dark trades" behind this assault and other subsequent vicious attacks. The Lamplighter Marshal is accused of failing at his duty and shockingly removed from office, which angers his subordinates who trust him as they have seen him fight monsters; worse the incompetent pretentious but never get dirty Master of Clerks Podious and his sycophant surgeon Swill take over the Lamplighter legion. They demote Rossamund to novice and exile him to a dangerous isolated outpost; having accused him of lying about a fight against a monster; Threnody accompanies him. Bogles attack their new outpost with the duo as the only survivors which subject them to an official inquiry.
The second Monster Blood Tattoo epic fantasy (see FOUNDLING) is a superb complex thriller starring a strong case starting with Rossamund and Threnody. The story line is fast-paced and the etchings throughout enhance the saga. Also adding depth is the glossary that packs additional information about the world of Cornish; set aside some time as this addition to the first novel is worth reading. The support cast is solid, but the tale belongs to the heroic Rossamund and his friend-student Threnody, as they are at the epicenter battling against the increase dark trade monster activity. This is a fascinating strong entry in a wonderfully refreshing series.
Harriet Klausner
A good read to pass the time 
2008-05-30
The first book Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling was a good read that left me longing for more and waiting for the next book. And waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Finally, after two years the second book came out. When I received it I was glad to see that my wait was rewarded with twice the story. Of course, with two years between I was worried I would not really remember what had happened. As I started reading it became a non-issue. Enough action, mystery and good feelings to make it a well written book. It is the ongoing story of an orphan out to right the world of monsters, but coming against his own questions of who the monsters really are. It is not War & Peace, but it is a novel for all ages of readers.
