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Published in USA
May 2008
400 pages
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Alternate History
Publication Information
Rossamund Bookchild is finally becoming a lamplighter. Sworn into the Emperor's service, his duty is to light the lamps along the Emperor's highways, and protect all travelers from the ferocious bogles that live in the wild. But he's found it no easier to fit in with the lamplighters than he ever has - always too small and too meek, his loneliness continues no matter how hard he tries to succeed. But when a haughty young girl, a member of a suspiciously-regarded society of all-women teratologists is forced upon the lamplighters for training, Rossamund might no longer be the most despised soul around.
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"Starred Review. A most fitting sequel that will leave readers eagerly waiting for the third book." - Booklist.
"Fans of high fantasy will delight in detailed maps, the lengthy "explicarium" of terms, and the delightfully wicked idea of commemorating victories with a tattoo from the blood of the vanquished monster." - VOYA.
"Libraries with Foundling in their collections really must purchase this title; as for those who do not own the first book, purchase of both titles is strongly recommended." - KLIATT.
"Devout fantasy fans will welcome the return to the socially and morally complex world of the Half-Continent and eagerly anticipate the concluding installment." - School Library Journal.
"Cornish again buries a likable protagonist and perfectly viable plot under a mountain of obscure words and pretentious prose in this overweight sequel. Ages 10-14." - Kirkus Reviews.
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D.M. Cornish studied illustration at the University of South Australia, where he began to compile a series of notebooks, beginning with #1 in 1993. He had read Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels, The Iliad, and Paul Gallico's Love of Seven Dolls. Classical ideas as well as the great desire to continue what Mervyn Peake had begun but not finished led him to delineate his own world. Hermann Hesse, Kafka and other writers convinced him there were ways to be fantastical without conforming to the generally accepted notions of fantasy. Over the next ten years he filled 23 journals with his pictures, definitions, ideas and histories of his world, the Half-Continent.
It was not until 2003 that a chance encounter with a children's publisher gave him an opportunity to develop these ideas further. ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to D. M. Cornish's Website
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