Rossamnd Bookchild stands accused of not truly being a human at all, but of being a monster. Even the protection of Europe, the Branden Rosethe most feared and renowned monster-hunter in all the Half-Continent might not be enough to save him. Powerful forces move against them both, intent on capturing Rossamnd whose existence some believe may hold the secret to perpetual youth.
Orphan Rossamünd Bookchild has been sworn into the Emperor’s service as a lamplighter—his duty to light the lamps along the Emperor’s highways and protect travelers from the ferocious bogles that live in the wild. But he’s found it no easier to fit in with the lamplighters than he ever has—always too small and too meek. His loneliness continues no matter how hard he tries to succeed.
But when a haughty young girl, a member of a suspiciously regarded society of women teratologists—monster hunters—is forced upon the lamplighters for training, Rossamünd may no longer be the most despised soul around. As Rossamünd begins to make new friends in the dangerous world of the Half-Continent, he also seems to make more enemies, finding himself pushed toward a terrible destiny, a fate beyond anything he could ever have imagined.
Growing up at Madam Opera’s Estimable Marine Society for Foundling Boys and Girls, Rossamünd Bookchild–a boy with an unfortunate name–has led a life sheltered from the dangers of the world. But this all changes the day the man with the strange red-and-pale-blue eyes recruits him into the service of the Emperor. Rossamünd has been drafted into the ranks of the Half-Continent’s “lamplighters”–soldiers who protect the empire’s roads from all evil.
Now Rossamünd must begin the journey of his life, traveling the Half-Continent, a world full of people who can be as predatory as any monster he can imagine. And when he falls in with the mysterious and talented Europe, who can shoot electricity out of her body and call lightning down from the sky, he learns that some people can truly be lethal....
