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A review by kieralesley
Foundling by D.M. Cornish
4.0
I have a confession to make. This book has been sitting on my shelf for years. I've picked it up and put it down before. Twice. It was in my donation pile for a while until I friend who had read it begged me to pull it out and give it another go.
I'm glad I was convinced.
The opening of Foundling is slow and cliched, let's just get that out of the way. The reason I didn't succeed with this book in previous attempts is the horribly cliched opening. Spoiler: it got better.
Once I'd pushed through the opening and realised I didn't need to consult the extensive glossary at the back of the edition I read to understand what was going on this book was a rare thing. It's original! The world and the magic are very cool and very different. The play on morality that went throughout was really well-done, too, I loved seeing the shades of grey through Rossamund's eyes.
While nothing seemed to *happen* in this book I don't think it lacked for it. Some books need a plot and double-crosses and a driving pace to keep everything hanging together, this book didn't. It was a beautifully easy to read, fascinating introduction to the world, the magic and the concepts Cornish is playing with in this series.
I'm fascinated as to where he's going with it and expect to be thoroughly rewarded with an excellent opening up of the sort of dark can of worms that only really good fantasy can pull off.
I'm glad I was convinced.
The opening of Foundling is slow and cliched, let's just get that out of the way. The reason I didn't succeed with this book in previous attempts is the horribly cliched opening. Spoiler: it got better.
Once I'd pushed through the opening and realised I didn't need to consult the extensive glossary at the back of the edition I read to understand what was going on this book was a rare thing. It's original! The world and the magic are very cool and very different. The play on morality that went throughout was really well-done, too, I loved seeing the shades of grey through Rossamund's eyes.
While nothing seemed to *happen* in this book I don't think it lacked for it. Some books need a plot and double-crosses and a driving pace to keep everything hanging together, this book didn't. It was a beautifully easy to read, fascinating introduction to the world, the magic and the concepts Cornish is playing with in this series.
I'm fascinated as to where he's going with it and expect to be thoroughly rewarded with an excellent opening up of the sort of dark can of worms that only really good fantasy can pull off.