Factotum (Monster Blood Tattoo, book 3), by D. M. Cornish

December 13, 2010

Factotum is the third and final installment in D. M. Cornish’s fantastic Monster Blood Tattoo series (now called The foundling’s tale in USA). This is a series that you should definitely read in order so if you have not read books 1 and 2 yet, I suggest you give them a look. You can read what I thought of them here: The foundling; and Lamplighter. By way of warning, the following review will give away a couple of plot points that develop over the first two books, so feel free to stop reading here and go read those books first.

At the end of book 2, Rossamund took on the role of factotum to Europe, the monster slayer with whom his life had become connected. For those not already familiar with the series, Europe is a Fulgar, someone who has had extra organs surgically added to her body that allow her to generate something like lightning that she uses against monsters. Rossamund had also been accused of being a monster himself – one with a human form. These two developments provide the storyline for Factotum which begins with the final stages of the journey to the city of Brandenbass, including a battle with a sea monster on the way. Rossamund is then introduced to the lavish life Europe leads when not hunting monsters. He has little time however, to sit back and enjoy living in high society as influential people in the city, including some enemies of Europe become aware of the accusations against him. Rossamund also seems to find it hard to keep out of trouble and his curiosity and naivety lead him into a seedy establishment where his conscience forces him to act on what he sees there (sorry, that’s deliberately vague as I don’t want to give too much away).

Eventually Europe and Rossamund along with a couple of his old friends who are now also in her employ take on some commissions to track down and kill various monsters. While this may seem to take them away from the trouble brewing in Brandenbass, it manages to follow them. Throughout the various events in this book Rossamund is exposed to new aspects of the monster world and the ways the monsters and humans exist together as he tries to understand his place in the world.

As with the first two books, Factotum is a long and detailed book including extra information about the world in an Explicarium at the end of the book. If you have read and enjoyed the first two I expect you will want to read this and expect you will enjoy it. If not, then head back to the beginning and read Lamplighter. The series is set in a richly described fantasy world, the characters are interesting and well developed and it it not always clear who is on the side of good or evil. The story has also kept me curiously turning pages (over 1500 of them through three books).

[cross posted from about the books]

Dad

November 16, 2010

I happen to quite like my Dad. He’s ace. I happen to quite like my brother too, he has a way with words. Some of them are below. The rest are here and here.

We’re on a crusade. Every time we go shopping, we dive into a record store with Dad. We run to the Pink Floyd section, and see if there’s any more albums we’ve never heard of.

He went on this crazy collectionist adventure with us. He is and was awesome.

When I think back, I realise he had some awesome taste.

I’m sure when I get past 60, I’ll be all lovin’ on the Classical like he is now.

Speaking of liking Dad’s music, how good is Neil Diamond?

Oh dear, did I just admit to that? Just don’t get me started on Emerson, Lake & Palmer or The Moody Blues.

Wildflowers wordle

November 2, 2010

I decided to plug the text of the novel I am pretending to write into wordle, a tool that produces a word cloud making the most frequently appearing words bigger.

Here is my novel in progress:

I don’t claim to know much about writing, but I wonder if this might be a slightly useful editing tool. Obviously the two most commonly used words are character names, so I figure that’s alright. “Father” is up there too, but that sort of works as a character name as well. The next three are interesting: “just, “know”, and “like”. In particular “just” doesn’t seem like a word that should be used more than just about any other word in the story. When I get around to editing what is just a very rough first draft, I will just have to focus on removing that word just as much as I can. I suspect “know” and “like” may not be as much of an issue, but am willing to stand corrected.

NaNoFinMo

October 29, 2010

I recently posted about my decision to skip NaNoWriMo this year and embark on a modified version, National Novel Finishing Month instead. In short, instead of trying to write a new 50,000 word project, I will try to make a good chunk of progress toward finishing an existing project. I’ll also be setting a lower target than 50,000 with something in the vicinity of 15,000 being a more realistic target for me.

The project in question, with the increasingly inaccurate working title Wildflowers currently sits at 29,244 words. For the sake of a round figure for the total word count I’ll shoot for 15,766 words in November bringing the project to 45,000. That’s a breath over 525 word per day. I think I can manage that.

Wish me luck.

Where the wild things are on Better Book Titles

October 17, 2010

On Better Book Titles they make new cover images for books with titles that are more descriptive of the storyline. Here is their effort for Where the wild things are.

[found via @screwydecimal]

NaNoWriMo vs NaNoFinMo

October 14, 2010

Over the last few years I have made several attempts at NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. The basic idea is that you sign up and attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. This equates to 1,667 words per day. Every day. For the whole month.

I have never managed this. My best effort was 2 years ago when I wrote 16,000 words of a children’s story. Obviously this is nowhere near the target, but it felt great to get that far. I have continued writing that story in fits and starts since then and it is now approaching 30,000 words (has been for 6 months).

If you glance at your calendar you may notice that November is approaching. NaNoWriMo is approaching.

I think NaNoWriMo is a great idea and highly recommend anybody with the urge to write a book to consider attempting it.

I will not be attempting it.

I am sane enough to recognise that I have no hope of getting anywhere near 50,000 words this year. I also don’t want to sign on to another of the requirements – that you begin a new work for NaNoWriMo.

It is tempting to put aside my stalled story from 2 years ago and try something new, but I suspect this could become a dangerous habit. Write a story until it stalls. Start another story until it stalls. Start another story until it stalls. You get the picture.

So I am planning to take part in my own exercise: NaNoFinMo, or National Novel Finishing Month.

My target will be smaller. Probably 15,000 or 20,000 words. I’m yet to decide exactly, but that puts the daily quota in the vicinity of 500 to 700 words. I think I can manage that. I also suspect that will be enough words to carry my work in progress to it’s conclusion.

If you want to write a novel and can find the time and energy to write 1,667 words per day then I encourage you to have a good think about tackling NaNoWriMo. It can be rewarding even if you don’t finish.

Or if 50,000 words is too much and you have a half finished bestseller on your hard drive, why not join me in NaNoFinMo?

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