That pretty much sums up my response to this book.
I thought Cornish had written a fantastic book with Foundling, the first in his Monster Blood tattoo series, but I think he has surpassed it with Lamplighter. This book continues the story of young Rossamund, the orphan living in a world where people are continually at war with monsters. Rossamund spent book 1 being called from his home at an orphanage to begin his work as a lamplighter. In this book he begins that work. Lamplighters are the brave souls who venture out near sundown to light the lamps along the great roads of the empire. The lights help protect travelers against monsters, but of course lamplighting is a dangerous job itself. They venture out again in the early morning to dowse the lamps.
A story about a kid lighting lamps might not sound all that exciting, but Cornish kept me enthralled through 600 pages of Rossamund’s encounters with monsters, good and bad people, and the politics of power within the lamplighters’ ranks. The world Cornish created is a fascinating one. People live in walled or fortified towns and cities with much of their energies focused on protecting themselves from the monsters who live in the wild. The name of the series comes form the practice of being tattooed with monsters blood when someone manages to destroy one of the beasts. The writing is detailed and the author goes to great effort to describe the world in which the stories are set. Lamplighter is actually just over 700 pages long. 600 pages of story, and 100 pages of “Explicarium” which contains a detailed glossary along with labelled images, a calendar and other information about the world.
Lamplighter is a wonderfully written book. It is long and heavy with detail, but never failed to have me wondering what would come next. The characters are well developed and of course the ending left me hanging out for book 3. If you read and liked Foundling, then I would be surprised if you don’t like Lamplighter. If you haven’t read Foundling then I would suggest you grab that one first.
love thsi book, a must have!