Page 1 of 1

Monster Blood Tattoo

PostPosted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 12:13 am
by Chris Johnstone
Hi everyone,

So I met Dave Cornish at the WorldCon in Melbourne (very nice chap) over the weekend and it occurred to me to wonder to what degree the fantasy readers and RPG community outside of Australia are familiar with this rather amazing series of books. Looking around the web it seems that in particular US readers haven't discovered MBT.

The series is pitched at YA in Australia, but has more detail and impressive worldbuilding than your average adult work. It is available in the US at least, though I'm unsure how it is being pitched, adult, YA or children. If you can get hold of the amazingly beautiful illustrated Australian Omnibus Books hardbacks, you must do so (I have an advanced pre-release copy of Book Three, Factotum in cloth binding, happy happy happy me...)

The world itself is amazing, weird and (to my mind at least) perfectly suited to an RPG campaign. Now, obviously, producing something commercial would need Mr Cornish's permission, but if you just want to pillage a world for stunning ideas, this is a series to read. There are a lot of cookies for serious fantasy buffs. See if you can spot the reference to a homage to Lovecraft's elder gods in Foundling...

There is a trailer online, but it's frankly not so great. Dave has a more informative site here: http://www.dmcornish.com/

So, go check it out. Isn't that a stunning map?

You may find that you need to read through the first four or five chapters of book one (Foundling) before getting a grip on the world (there is a lot of worldbuilding to come to terms with. There is a modest learning curve in places...). Also, the further you read into the books the more obvious it is that these are not yet another big fat fantasy with a map. The way I summarize the series to people who haven't read it is: Reads as if Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson and Mervyn Peake had a three-way bastard lovechild.

Hm. So, I meant to ask everyone: who's read MBT and have you done anything roleplayey with the ideas? But actually, what I seem to be doing is just gushing about how fantastic the books are and telling you to go out and feed your imagination. Seems to me that the series is woefully under-read in the US, so if you read it and like it, tell a friend.

When I have time I must put up some sort of link or review on mythopoetic games.

C.