Another trip to Canberra, another audio book listened to. The Library is fantastic if you want to try out some audio books but don't want to pay for them not knowing if you like them. Before every long trip I always make sure I visit to see what takes my fancy. This time, I found this: Monster Blood Tattoo. It had been recommended to me very strongly and I was going to have to wait until I was able to borrow it, but then I happened upon it in the library and my wait was over. My choosing also taking considerably less time than usual.
So what did I think?
First and foremost, I think I needed to say that Humphrey Bower reads brilliantly. his accents and voices are completely believable and not at all affected. There wasn't any characters that made me wince as in some audio books. My only issue with this recording is more of an editing problem. At times the pauses were unnecessarily long making me lose the flow of the story, and at other times, such as at the end of the chapters, there wasn't enough pause. ChapterthreewouldendFourTitleofchapterfour. But that aside, This is a great series.
When it was recommended to me, it was described as 'more like The Hobbit than Harry Potter' and I would have to agree. The reason Harry Potter had come up is because when this book was first released, I heard a rumour that it would be the "New Harry Potter". I think that was said about a lot of books, and still is because so many people (particularly publishers) want books to be the next Harry. Who wouldn't? No-one can argue with those sales. But as far as this series is concern, the likeness extends as far as 'Unpopular orphan boy goes on adventure in the vague direction of his destiny'.
While part of the charm of Harry Potter's world is learning all the ways wizards fit/hide within the world we know, Cornish has constructed a world from the ground up. Each chapter begins with a pseudo dictionary definition of some part of that world. He paints a picture of the harsh life humans live, constantly assaulted by the ruthless and bloodthirsty monsters and how those that slay them are revered as heroes and monster sympathisers are scorned or even hanged.
I very much enjoyed learning the way of this world only to have our little boy hero with a girl's name come to wonder if all monsters deserve death.
The story, simply put, is the journey of Rossamund from the orphanage he grew up in, to a distant city where he is to take up the post of a lamp lighter. The only trouble is, the journey does not go as planned from the very beginning and he had quite an Adventure on the way.
The way of life and countryside is well realised without being over-laboured. This is a great fantasy adventure!
