Foundling is D.M. Cornish’s first book in the series Monster Blood Tattoo. The story follows the adventure of a young boy with a girl’s name, Rossamund. The orphan’s tale begins at Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls. Rossamund spends most of his days tortured by the other children and reading pamphlets about the adventures of heroes who battle the wandering monsters outside the safety of the major cities.
Dreaming about an adventurous life as a sailor, Rossamund awaits the hiring season for agencies such as the army, navy, mathematicians, and many other guildhalls and professions. As the season passes, Rossamund finds himself called into the service of the Empire as a Lamplighter. His first task is to leave the city he has known all his life and travel far south to High Vesting where he will be taken to Winstermill to learn his trade.
His safe and peaceful boat ride to the city is lost early on as the boy finds himself the victim of a kidnapper. Breaking free of their grasp, Rossamund finds himself stranded in the middle of a land full of monsters, with his food and traveling papers all but ruined. His adventures continue when he encounters a powerful fulgar (a monster hunter who has an artificial organ surgically inserted to allow him or her to channel and release charges of electricity) and her servant leer (people who soak their eyes in chemicals that discolor them and grant them increased abilities in such things as tracking and sensing dishonesty). Rossamund must accompany his new traveling companions to High Vesting in order to arrive in time for his new position, but he may find more to fear of them than in the roaming monsters.
His encounters with monsters along the road to High Vesting test Rossamund’s courage and his compassion. He must help protect those he is with from the evil nickers and bogles (both words for various monster groups) that plaque the path to the south, but along the way he finds that at times it is the monsters that need to be protected from humans. Fearing being labeled a sedorner or monster-lover, Rossamund tries to keep his sympathies with the nickers and bogles to himself. The addition of Fouracres, a postman, to his traveling group shows Rossamund that a peaceful existence with monsters is possible if attempted. Fouracres, who knows much about a life in service to the empire, also assures the young foundling that a life as a lamplighter is dangerous and full of adventures as any profession. Rossamund’s tale is filled with mishaps, twists and turns, and plenty of life-lessons for the young foundling.
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