Foundling: Monster-Blood Tattoo, Book One

The vast lands of the Half-Continent bear the scars of centuries of conflict between humans and monsters. Only the hardiest souls now travel the inland ways: merchants, Imperial messengers and - bravest of all - the monster-hunters. To be a hunter takes great cunning and extraordinary skill, for the creatures are as deadly as they are varied. Bogles, rever-men, grinnlings and nickers - any one can kill a human quicker than thought.

Not that Rossamünd Bookchild should worry. The orphan boy with the girl's name lives safe within the walls of Madam Opera's Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls. Safe, at least, until the day he is recruited into the service of the Empire by a strange man with wrong-coloured eyes. This is his story.

This edition includes the EXPLICARIUM, a complex illustrated guide to the Half-Continent, including over one hundred pages of classified data, appendices and maps revealing the peculiarities of the realm of MONSTERS, the true methodology of monster-hunters, and the many tricks of the DARK TRADES.

"Stories as vivid and inventive as Foundling are exceedingly rare. David Cornish has introduced us to something wonderful and new, and I look forward to enjoying the relationship for many years to come. Brilliant."

- Sean Williams