Factotum

Factotum continues the adventures of Rossamund from the novels Foundling and Lamplighter by D. M. Cornish. It seeks to give Rossamund's story a sense of completion or resolution by bringing him to a part of self-actualisation, a theme that had bubbled beneath the surface of the previous two novels like a driving undercurrent. Cornish succeeds in this aim by rounding off Rossamund's trilogy in a satisfying if abrupt manner, however the fantastic setting of these three novels - the dark and intriguing Half-Continent - means that the reader is left wanting much, much more.

The previous novel saw Rossamund shift careers from lamplighter to factotum. A factotum is a personal aide to a teratologist (a monster-slayer/expert), and Rossamund's skills with potives and his taboo-breaking empathy for monsters makes him a unique sidekick for the legendary teratologist Europe. In Factotum Rossamund must adjust to life in the big city of Brandenbrass, where he makes newfound enemies after stumbling on an illicit monster-fighting ring, and questions his own existence after encountering one of the mythical monster-lords.

The level of detail that Cornish has built up for these novels suggests such a depth of richness that each chapter, character or throwaway remark lets the reader know that the Half-Continent and its history already exists in the author's mind; fully-formed and as near-infinite as the real world. I would like to know so much more about characters like Four Feathers or the Rabbit Lord. I look at the map at the novel's beginning and after these three novels I feel like it's a real place that I've only just started to get to know.

The care and development that Cornish has invested in Factotum means that the pace of the adventure sometimes gets a little bogged down in arcane language and pesudo-historical minutiae. My fascination with the novel's striking originality never leaves me bored thugh, I just had to read on to find out more and more, but I'm not sure if the bulk of the novels' supposed readership (young adults/teenagers) would latch onto it in the way that I did. I do appreciate the lengths that Cornish has gone to in order to carve out a self-sufficient niche in an oversaturated fantasy market though - especially when the end result is just do damn cool.

Luckily, despite this being the last in the trilogy, Cornish plans to continue exploring the Half-Continent in other stories that don't feature Rossamund. I just hope we don't have to wait too long to read them!