Factotum: Book Three (Foundling's Tale, #3) (Monster Blood Tattoo, #3)

by D M Cornish

Not all monsters look like monsters. Some everyday folk are the worst monsters of all ...Rossamund Bookchild's lamplighting career has been brought to a dramatic close. Now he is faced with a new life as personal servant to Europe, an elegant and powerful monster-hunter. As Rossamund settles into his new home, he finally discovers the true story of his origins, a story that must remain hidden if he is to survive in a land divided by the conflict between men and monsters. But now that he knows the truth about where he comes from, how can Rossamund play his role as assistant to a professional monster-hater? Only his loyalty to Europe keeps him by her side as they embark on a dangerous monster-hunting tour that can only end in tragedy...

• ISBN10: 0385611978
• ISBN13: 9780385611978
• Publish Date: 28 October 2010
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 17 March 2015
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: David Fickling Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 720
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

It's a world something like ours but not and the author is determined to fill it with words, some old some new but overall I came away feeling like the author was trying to hard and having too much fun with words, and the words were driving out the plot.

Rossamund Bookchild is now Europe's Factotum and his secret is about to become public knowledge. He's trying to find a place in the world for himself but he has problems finding where he belongs, he's a gentle person who doesn't like conflict but he's finding that conflict is being thrust upon him and he's also finding that while he's strong and able to fight, he doesn't like it.

It falls victim to what I call the Coffee flavoured Coffee issue; why come up with a tonne of new words that you explain are the equivalent of a regular earth word in the "explicarium", including Caffene for Coffee. My surprise was that he called Rabbits Rabbits and not Smeerps. The story could have fit into a smaller space and I would have been less distracted by the words. Yes the words are interesting and the world Cornish has created is interesting but I came away feeling vaguely dissatisfied. Maybe they should read more of O S Card's advice on writing and less of Urusula K Le Guin.