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

by D M Cornish

[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.