The Bitterbynde Trilogy: The Ill-Made Mute, The Lady of the Sorrows, and The Battle of Evernight

The Bitterbynde #1-3

by Cecilia Dart-Thornton

Three complete An epic fantasy of love, war, rebirth, and magical destiny, based on the haunting folklore of England, Ireland, and Scotland.

In  The Ill-Made Mute , a wretched, nameless mute awakens without a memory in a lofty tower upon whose battlements winged horses and flying ships make landfall. The amnesiac longs to escape and roam the wild landscape in search of a past, a name, and a destiny. But the tales the servants whisper by the hearth all turn out to be The legendary creatures that plague the world beyond the castle walls are real and innumerable. Travelers in this beautiful, eerie wilderness must beware. . . .
 
The Lady of the Sorrows  begins with a newly minted lady carrying important tidings to the King-Emperor of Caermelor. In her heart, she longs to encounter the king’s ranger Thorn, but upon reaching the royal court she learns that the ruler and his men have gone to war against the forces of wickedness that are threatening the realms of mortals. As the maiden awaits their return, a dreadful suspicion The brutal Lord Huon and his monstrous Wild Hunt are attacking again and again—is she the target they seek?
 
In  The Battle of Evernight , the Lady of the Sorrows must save her loved ones from catastrophe by uncovering the secrets of her past. She journeys to the terrible fortress of the Raven Prince in Evernight, despite the Bitterbynde curse that is distorting her memories and the onset of a debilitating malady for which a cure may never be found. As a battle for the destiny of the world begins, the lady must make a fateful decision. If she reveals what she knows, she will liberate 2 worlds—or incite the downfall of everything she loves.
 

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction

1432 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 25, 2015

About the author

Join Cecilia's blog: https://ceciliadartthornton.substack....

Cecilia Dart-Thornton became a full-time writer in 2000 after her work was 'discovered' on the Internet and published by Time Warner (New York).

She is a lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and has been a judge of the World Fantasy Awards.

Her books are published around the world and have been translated into several languages.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

THE BITTERBYNDE TRILOGY
'This series follows the journey of a mute, amnesiac foundling through a world of beauty and peril, teeming with faerie creatures.'
The Ill-Made Mute (2001)
The Lady of the Sorrows (2002)
The Battle of Evernight (2003)

THE CROWTHISTLE CHRONICLES
'A four-part epic fantasy describing the adventures that befall a cursed and gifted family.'
The Iron Tree (2004)
The Well of Tears (2005)
Weatherwitch (2006)
Fallowblade (2007)

SHORT STORIES
Long the Clouds are Over me Tonight (Published in the anthology Emerald Magic: Great Tales of Irish Fantasy; Tor Books, 2004)
The Stolen Swanmaiden (Published in Australian Women's Weekly September 2005)
The Lanes of Camberwell (Published by Harper Collins in the anthology DREAMING AGAIN, 2008)
The Enchanted (Published by Harper Collins in the anthology LEGENDS OF AUSTRALIAN FANTASY, 2010)

Reviews

[Claudia Putnam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as impressed as others. Maybe a 2.5. Way too much description of clothing... who cares? Makes the characters seem shallow and disrespects the readers. I liked the ambivalence/ambiguity of Morragan, but Ashalind kept doing a lot of stupid stuff. And why didn't the ring work to dispel the glamour of the ships when they came ashore at the King's Isle? Also, I don't understand some of the fundamental assumptions regarding the Faeran. WHY do they have the rights they do? Why doesn't she question?

And doesn't the whole thing seem racist? The Faeran love golden hair and fair skinned people, for instance. One presumes they would not prefer the darker races... Blah blah. The more evil unseelie people have broad noses and slanting eyes.

Edit: forgot to mention the tediousness of the language: prithee this, and I would fain that. And how many forests full of ill-intentioned beings we have to wander through. If you love fantasy novels based on the trope of wandering across the four corners of the landscape, here you go. Not to mention the inevitable underground tunnels and caverns. And multiple times for each... I also couldn't understand why the gate she emerges from seems to be right next to the Huntingtowers at first but then requires an extremely boring quest through one of these interminable forests on the return trip....

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Impressive pastiche of all the folklore from everywhere, and then some, written by someone who seems to have memorized the OED and Roget’s thesaurus. And yet, while the basic plot and characters of this trilogy provide a strong framework, the excessive descriptions (beautiful though they were) and baroque wanderings of that plot made getting to the end, ultimately, a chore. Fantasy should never be a chore, Cecilia Dart-Thornton.

[Clea Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so into this story once it got going. Loved the main character and the love interest (while his perfection bothered other commenters, I did not have a problem with it). Yes, her language is unbearably flowery most of the time; I frankly just tuned the author out when she got too worked up over the dictionary. The weaving of fairy and folk legend into the story was brilliant and I was properly transported (when I skimmed the fluff and stayed in the action)

[Pep · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wrote a long review but unfortunately it didn't save.

This book is one that you need to sample before you buy. It is not the type of book I enjoy. It seems to be more about the words that were used rather than the story that they were telling. I think the quote "never use a ten cent word when a penny word will do", sums this up.

This book is full of FIVE dollar words. Some so archaic that even the three dictionaries that Kindle provides could not find meaning for them.

I will not waste my time trying to pick through that kind of story.

It made me think of this example. Let's say that someone is telling you a story. And in the middle of a intense battle that could be life and death, suddenly the narrator goes off on a tangent and begins to tell you about the food preparation for a wedding in the future. And in telling you about this food, they start using words from old European languages that have been dead for centuries. This would probably make you look at that person with a confused expression and say, "wait what?".

This book is full of "wait, what?". This was not my first attempt of reading something by this author. And it it was not a good investment of my time.

Just know what you're getting into.

[Amber&Silver · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, interesting, and original first book that sadly develops into a story full of cliches and useless romance.

[katsn52 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave up on this series years ago but decided to give it another try, and I'm glad I did. A lot of interesting concepts in the story (I LOVE the idea of the shang storms!) mixed in with a ton of mythical beasties from various cultural legends. A deeply dramatic story with great complexity. The only criticism I have is it's overblown with physical description, pages and pages. I mean, please, two whole lonnng paragraphs describing the clothing of a character who walks in accompanying the main character of the scene, says nothing, and walks out without participating or having anything to do with the scene. Easily a thousand pages or so could be cut out of the series. As for the discussion of the epilogue and subsequent "alternate" ending...the alternate is entirely unnecessary, in addition to having all the overblown description. It's like a movie where the real story is finished but they take another 20 minutes to show all the follow-up details that can simply be taken for granted (in a murder mystery, once they find definitive, incontrovertible evidence against the murderer, do they really need to go into the boring details of the trial? Just say "Aha! We've got him!" and be done with it, because FINDING the murderer is what the story is all about.) Some people felt the epilogue was ambiguous. Ha! Only if you didn't know how you wanted the story to end. Actually, both parts of the epilogue were true, so skip the alternate ending...frankly, it was boring.

[Debyi Kucera (Book&BuJo) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is really slow, lyrical, with its own world and language and no explanation of what any of the words mean so you are left guessing what she is talking about. You can get the gist of it, but it keeps you from getting immersed in the story. I was ready to DNF only 7% of the way through the book. I set it down and read something else before coming back to it, but don’t give up, it gets better. The pacing is slow to medium throughout the book, but the action is good. The character relationships are decent but I feel they could be developed better although I understand why they weren’t. I’m sure the second book will have more character development and relationship building.

The second book continues with the faster pace at the beginning but still has some of the slower-paced sections which could probably be omitted without hurting the story at all. It’s hard to tell much of what is going on without spoilers. We are still following Imhrein on her trek to find out who she is and what her forgotten past contains as the missing time seems to become more and more important!

The third book starts out at a good pace, then the slow pace and lyrical writing comes back in strong. I had a hard time pushing through. The ending was good though. I was able to switch to the audiobook for the last half of the third book and that really saved me and helped me to finish the book. The narrator for the audiobook was amazing and I was so impressed with the different voices and accents that she used and how easily all the languages flowed from her. If you can get your hands on the audiobooks, I highly recommend reading physically while listening, it’s the best way to go.

Overall this was a really good series, but not really for me. I can see that the author was inspired by The Lord of The Rings and did a great job capturing the spirit of the series. But, her writing style was just not for me, too lyrical and long-winded for my taste. If you are into that style of writing, you will absolutely love this series!!

”The measure of happiness is merely the difference between expectations & outcomes. It is not concerned with what one possesses - it is concerned with how content one is with what one possesses.”

”’True choices’, said Caitri sagely, ‘are made all the time - the small decisions. If we have no say in where the road takes us, at least we can decide how to place our feet and what to look at along the way.’”

[Jett Wyatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It doesn't seem a really good idea for the introduction to a book to detail how the author became a writer. It seems rather pretentious to me. After I got over that, I rather enjoyed these books. The plot kept my attention and I did want to see how it ended, though I also got bogged down a couple of times. The world is quite inventive. The protagonist is interesting. The other characters are well written and relevant.

On the not so positive side, the author likes to use big, flowery, obscure words and she uses them a lot. Paragraphs of descriptions. It is also a personal irritant when the main characters fall in love because they are just SO PERFECTLY BEAUTIFUL. But that's just me.

I would recommend this book if you like fantasy and you like (or can tolerate) a lot of words! I keep wishing I could give half stars because this one deserves more than 3 but I didn't like it quite enough for 4.

[Pauline O'Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the basic story, but I have to admit that toward the end of the second volume and throughout the third, I would skim quite a bit of the descriptions of clothes and landscapes. I wanted to get back to what was happening with the characters instead.

I did think it odd that the books began with a narrative about the author herself. In any case, I liked the story itself and the characters a lot. I also appreciated having source material provided so that I can find out more about the myths and creatures that are part of the books.

[Nancy Fay-Muzar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admire the author's wonderful imagination and original story. This is the reason it rates 3 stars. It is written like the goal is to use as many descriptive and ambiguous words as possible. Portrayal could have been made beautifully, with far, far fewer words. I normally read a book in a week. This took me 1 yr., 1 mo. I kept putting it down. If you want to get through the book, scan through most of the page and pick up on the points. This should have been done in editing, but it clearly wasn't.

[Gerard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story line was good. The use of the English language is impressive although I found it to be over done. Her descriptions of everything went on and on and took away from the story line. The author did not know how to end the series so it dragged on and became a cloying romance novel. I gave it a 3 star just for the wonderful use of language and the research and knowledge of the subject matter.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Educational in myths and vocabulary

I really like the first book. Liked it better the second time. Some things are so involved they take more than once around. Got bogged down in the third book. My fault because by then I knew how much information flowed throughout. These are better if you take them slowly and don't rush.

[Cheli · Rating 1 out of 5]

The summary of the story gave me such hope that this would be an interesting book. Beautiful writing at first but the plot moved at a such glacial pace, the writing became annoying. The whole point of writing a story is so your readers can lose themselves in the story. Nothing was lost here except the couple of hours invested in trying to give this story a chance.

Disappointing....

[Arwe Thereyet · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of Faerie

A bit wordy at times, and many side trips into many of the tales of the Faerie realm. Many things did happen of importance on this long journey of discovery however, and I enjoyed it immensely.

There be an old saying in Finvarna, ‘Inna shai tithen elion—We have lived the days.”

[W.B. Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have finished The Ill-Made Mute and just begun the second book. Mute wasn't an easy read, and for awhile I wondered if I'd get through it. But the characters and the land are so alive that you find yourself caring for them and for what will happen to them...in short, not since GOT and Tolkien have I become so immersed in a Fantasy World. If you like Fantasy give yourself a treat and jump in!

[Jay Moriarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very simple: This would be LotR if it didn't already exist. The length, depth, characters, the world the world slowly opens up to us, then refolds on itself, then explains itself (and I'm still 3 chapters from the actual END of it all, I don't want it to end) is gorgeous. The immensity of it all feels bigger than LotR.

A series I will never forget and don't want to end.

[saira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plenty of reviews speak about the stylistic choices made by the author; and while the plot and characters save the overworked and under-edited for the first book and half of the second, boy howdy do I have a bone to pick with the final, horrifying slog that is the conclusion of this trilogy.

I'd like to disclose that I am, mortifyingly, rather fond of these books, on account of reading them as a wee lass for the first time, and these things do have a way of staying with you when you're young and impressionable and at 14 do, in fact, dream of Adventure™ and think that the High King of Faerie is hot shit.

But rereading these in their entirety at my crotchety old age, I am compelled to vent my not inconsiderable rage in the aftermath of consuming the literary equivalent of about-to-go-bad skim milk. These books' many (numerous, abounding, frequent, innumerable, legion, lousy with, manifold, multitudinous, myriad, numberless, numerous, plentiful) shortcomings could be forgiven were it not for the author's insistence on discarding any semblance story for the sake of espousing the virtues of whiteness, thinness, blondness, beauty, and, imperatively, devotion to a man who you glimpsed through a window.

Fantasy thinspo has never been quite as masturbatory as it is in this series, but when your protagonist's only value is seemingly her hair and her waist and her magically enhanced beauty... Girl, we gotta talk. You can't just tell me that immortal royalty (hot men) be tripping over themselves for a teenager with the personality of a wet napkin. The whole "but she's just sooooooo pure and good and the Faeran just!!! know!!! that!!! about her!!!" had me rolling my eyes to Faerie and back; on account of the fact that in over 1500 pages, we're never given the opportunity to see her make any choices or act in ways which would indicate to us, the readers, that she isn't just flopping about from set piece to set piece in aid of a story which ultimately goes nowhere.

I, unlike many, don't take issue with the ending. It is appropriately stupid (and the two page epilogue only goes to indicate the author's unwillingness to actually stand by the "unhappy" ending she'd planned all along; I do not consider it to be the "real" ending) conclusion to a story which started out with so much promise. Banger world building, a fun implementation of Celtic lore and folk tales, something that was gritty without being grimdark. All of it to go out with a slow, uninspired fart.

This post is 18 years in the making. If you've made it this far, thanks -- hit me up if you're looking to add to your support group.

[Janice Baldwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fantasy world was very creative especially with her use of seelie and unseelie characters from the folk tales of the Britiish Isles. The descriptions did tend to get way too wordy which unnecessarily lengthened the series.

[Lora Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's so difficult to write folkloric fantasy and have it feel...actually folkloric. The pacing is slower than modern tastes, but that just adds to the olden-time feel. I read and reread this series as it was being released. I come back to it now and then. It still haunts me.

[Shan Shann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a tough ask. Flowery language with words that couldn't always be found in a dictionary, other...made up? words that the brain stumbles over and a story that could've been dealt with in one book and not three. I persevered. It wasn't worth it for that ending.

[Bette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting weave of folk tales

I liked this story, but someone needs to take the author’s thesaurus away from her. Simple words are always better.

[Dan Speziale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads like a lush painting

Not only is it a satisfying story, but its language is rich and characters are full of life. Portions of this book feel like a painting.

[Know-It-Nothing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the twist and turns... Almost like a very very descriptive lord of the rings but more intriguing.

[Jennifer Hallmark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the books, especially The Ill-Made Mute. Hated the ending.

[Tina Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite trilogy. I absolutely loved this .

[Melissa Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful

If you desire to know every detail of the world of Fairy, this is the story for you. Expansive, verbose, lush, and lovely.

[chris o'donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story, overdesciptive at times to the point of lengthening the story by 50%.

[Norah Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! Every bit as good as (if not better than) the Lord of the Rings!

[Marena · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like plots within plots and tales within tales this trilogy is for you. A little wordy but held my interest. I thoughly enjoyed it.

[Diane Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding Fantasy

These books are well researched, well written and difficult to put down. Much is based on old lore so it's almost believable. Please write more!!!