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Jul. 20th, 2009 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI'd been hearing good things about D.M. Cornish's Monster Blood Tattoo books from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cupenny and daniidebrabant, so I picked up the first one, Foundling.
And Star and Danii were right - there is some very cool steampunky worldbuilding in these books! (The indexes are fabulous.) I am very intrigued by a lot of the stuff going on, especially all the creepy machines made entirely out of living muscles (SO CREEPY) and the full-body inner-organ replacements for MAXIMUM SUPERPOWERS and so forth. It seems like the kind of world that would be a whole lot of fun to play in, basically.
However, the book itself focuses on Our Naive Young Protagonist Rossamund, and . . . I'm sorry, guys, but I find Rossamund really boring. Probably it is just I have seen too many naive young lads going through Coming of Age Adventures and I am a bit jaded on them by now, but - okay, Rossamund's character, as far as I can tell, is composed of three elements:
1. He is an orphan boy . . . with a GIRL'S NAME! So he got picked at school! BACKSTORY ANGST, poor Rossamund. :( (Why is this such a social stigma in this world, by the way? It seems to be intended as a relatively equal society - no one goes 'zomg a female monster hunter!' - so you wouldn't think "YOU'RE SUCH A GIRL" would be so scarring.)
2. However, he is composed of so much innate awesomeness that every non-evil adult he encounters (all of whom are at least five times as interesting as he is) immediately recognizes it and becomes strongly attached to him.
3. Because he Has a Kind Heart. Said heart also instantly allows him to overcome years of ingrained social prejudices, because he's JUST THAT GOOD.
I think he is called clever a couple of times too, but as I did not see any evidence of intelligence in any of his choices, and outright lack thereof in several, I am going to regard this with skepticism. If he has a single personality flaw that we are supposed to notice, on the other hand, the narration does not mention it.
It is an extra shame, because there were a lot of characters I would have loved to follow through this world - most significantly, Europe! Badass and morally ambiguous surgically altered lightning-throwing monster-hunter! Words cannot convey HOW MUCH MORE INTERESTING she is than Rossamund! - but instead it seems we are stuck with Rossamund's coming-of-age for the length of the books, because That's What You Do In YA. Someone please tell me he gets more interesting in the next book? Or at least develops a sense of humor or shred of self-preservation instinct?
(And yes, I did pick up on the monumental hints that he is secretly a half-monster baby or something, but I do not count that as 'more interesting', since I suspect I can predict exactly the kind of angst it will lead to and I do not care.)
cupenny and daniidebrabant, so I picked up the first one, Foundling.And Star and Danii were right - there is some very cool steampunky worldbuilding in these books! (The indexes are fabulous.) I am very intrigued by a lot of the stuff going on, especially all the creepy machines made entirely out of living muscles (SO CREEPY) and the full-body inner-organ replacements for MAXIMUM SUPERPOWERS and so forth. It seems like the kind of world that would be a whole lot of fun to play in, basically.
However, the book itself focuses on Our Naive Young Protagonist Rossamund, and . . . I'm sorry, guys, but I find Rossamund really boring. Probably it is just I have seen too many naive young lads going through Coming of Age Adventures and I am a bit jaded on them by now, but - okay, Rossamund's character, as far as I can tell, is composed of three elements:
1. He is an orphan boy . . . with a GIRL'S NAME! So he got picked at school! BACKSTORY ANGST, poor Rossamund. :( (Why is this such a social stigma in this world, by the way? It seems to be intended as a relatively equal society - no one goes 'zomg a female monster hunter!' - so you wouldn't think "YOU'RE SUCH A GIRL" would be so scarring.)
2. However, he is composed of so much innate awesomeness that every non-evil adult he encounters (all of whom are at least five times as interesting as he is) immediately recognizes it and becomes strongly attached to him.
3. Because he Has a Kind Heart. Said heart also instantly allows him to overcome years of ingrained social prejudices, because he's JUST THAT GOOD.
I think he is called clever a couple of times too, but as I did not see any evidence of intelligence in any of his choices, and outright lack thereof in several, I am going to regard this with skepticism. If he has a single personality flaw that we are supposed to notice, on the other hand, the narration does not mention it.
It is an extra shame, because there were a lot of characters I would have loved to follow through this world - most significantly, Europe! Badass and morally ambiguous surgically altered lightning-throwing monster-hunter! Words cannot convey HOW MUCH MORE INTERESTING she is than Rossamund! - but instead it seems we are stuck with Rossamund's coming-of-age for the length of the books, because That's What You Do In YA. Someone please tell me he gets more interesting in the next book? Or at least develops a sense of humor or shred of self-preservation instinct?
(And yes, I did pick up on the monumental hints that he is secretly a half-monster baby or something, but I do not count that as 'more interesting', since I suspect I can predict exactly the kind of angst it will lead to and I do not care.)
