Worlds of Books

Have you enjoyed a wonderful World Book Day? Found a book to enjoy or perhaps one that you are considering buying with your voucher? We have had a wonderful day, buzzing with books and ideas for stories as well as suggestions on how to use our vouchers. But all is not yet over for on Saturday the adults have World Book Night, this may have come under some criticism but it will be interesting to see how it goes. I don't think I will brave the cold and crowds in Trafalgar Square but I will be curled up at home with my next new book from the ever growing pile.

If you are looking for a book to read, having been inspired by World Book Day or in preparation for World Book Night then why not try Factotum by D M Cornish, published by David Fickling books? Reviewed here for you by Armadillo reviewer Simon Barrett it is the third in a brilliant trilogy that can actually be read on its own but why miss out on a great series?

Rossamund Bookchild: Founderling, Lamplighter and now Factorum or personal servant to Europe, the most feared monster-slayer in all the Half-Continent. Together they travel to her residence in the city of Branden-Brass, escaping the evils of Winstermill, only to find that scandals travel faster.

Here in the city Rossamund at last finds out his true identity. He is a rossamunderling: a manikin or monster in the form of a man. Rossamund however still needs to discover his true purpose in a life full of contradictions. He is a monster deeply loyal to a monster-slayer. Men call him a sedorner -- someone who sympathises with monsters – while monsters call him humbuggler, a hypocrite who acts the opposite of what he says. Somehow he must be himself in a world where men can be monsters too, such a man as Pater Maupin, who becomes Rossamund’s most deadly enemy.

Factotum continues the epic story of the half-continent in which men and monsters war and half-forgotten myths of monster-Lords come to life in the most unexpected places. The author, D M Cornish, continues to expand the horizons of the Half-Continent and the things that inhabit it, whilst delving deeper into its history and the origins of men and monsters through the footsteps of Rossamund. Along with the Branden Rose, Rossamund is joined by his once guardians and sea-salts, Craumpalin and Franistart. There is plenty of adventure and desperate to the death struggles as well as enjoyable sojourns in which Rossamund and his friends taste the delights of life. It all reaches a fierce and bloody end in which friends and foes lie dead or mortally wounded.

For young adult readers of fantasy the Monster Blood Tattoo series will continue to sate your appetitie and make you hungry for more.