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The Barnes & Noble Review
The Ill-Made Mute: The Bitterbynde Book One is a first novel from Australian author Cecilia Dart-Thornton. She has created a world whose human inhabitants are both aided and tormented by magical creatures called "wights." To avoid coming into contact with malicious, or "unseelie" wights, the people exchange trade goods on windships that sail through the air. The ships travel between, and dock at, tremendously tall towers that are inhabited by a few privileged families and the hundreds of servants who toil for them.
The central character is a mute, hideously scarred foundling who stows away on a windship to search for something that will trigger a memory of who it is, or where it is from. Along its journey, it encounters pirates, monsters, treasure hunts, treks through wight-haunted forests, true friendship, and its first stirrings of love.
Once I had enough information to form a mental image of the mute's world, I found the tale thoroughly engrossing and entertaining. (Kim Corradini)
Don D'Ammassa
For fans of mainstream fantasy, this is likely to be one of the high marks of the year.
— Science Fiction Chronicle
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
The world of Erith, a strange, wild land filled with humans and fey creatures called wights, has its charms, but unfortunately a lack of underlying depth weakens this first novel from Australian Dart-Thornton. To Erith comes a poor unidentified soul who cannot speak and has lost all sense of self, including all memories of a past. This creature without a life has also become shunned by all after being horribly disfigured by an encounter with a poisonous plant. As the plot slowly, disjointedly spins out, the creature acquires a name Imrhien and a new identity as a girl. Her story is full of little adventures and unrelated incidents, but the author provides almost no foreshadowing or any real idea why Imrhien has lost her voice and her looks. The girl's travels, which carry her from one end of Erith to the other, include encounters with wights, which can be "seelie" (mostly not harmful) and "unseelie" (evil), and with Sianadh, a friendly man who gives her not only her name but the chance to seek pirate treasure. Later Imrhien and Sianadh's niece try to find Maeve One-Eye, a carlin who might help her recover her memory. Nasty folk try to thwart her, but their motives are never explained. Hopefully future installments will supply more background, but this initial volume makes a decidedly shallow start. (May 23) Forecast: With a blurb from Andre Norton likening this book to Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, as well as a plug from Elizabeth Hand, this novel may attract a lot of initial attention, but the sequel is going to have to be stronger to sustain interest. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
A misshapen girl, unable to speak and scorned by those who dwell in Isse Tower, makes her escape into the world and seeks a destiny beyond her allotted fate. As the mute Imrhien learns to speak with her hands, she also discovers a deep love for the ranger Thorn even as she plunges into a deadly war against forces of evil. Dart-Thornton's first novel depicts a world that borrows from Celtic mythology but adds a few unique and refreshing twists. Featuring a courageous and unusual heroine, this series opener belongs in most fantasy collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Into Isse Tower stumbles a youth with no memory, unable to speak, wearing a face horribly disfigured from exposure to poisonous plants. Becoming a lowly, abused drudge, the youth learns about windships (they sail through the air, thanks to "sildron," the antigravity metal), the "unstorms" of eerie magic blown in on the shang winds, the flying horses called Eotaurs, and the servants' incessant tales of wights both seelie and unseelie. Unfortunately, the youth comes to the attention of Mortier, Master at Swords, who requires a servant. The youth, aware of Mortier's terror of the unstorms and consequent involvement with horrid magic, and previously flogged by him for an imaginary infraction, stows away on a windship despite knowing a stowaway's usual, grim, fate. Unearthed, the youth must toil as a deckhand-until pirates attack the ship. To avoid capture, the youth jumps into the sky, only to be saved by Sianadh, not a pirate but a treasure-seeker with a map and a sildron belt. Sianadh names the youth Imrhien and instructs the mute in sign language. Together, they survive cruel hardships and dreadful creatures to reach Waterstair. Believed by Sianadh to be a sildron mine, Waterstair turns out to be far more wonderful. Buoyed by their discovery, the two travel to Sianadh's home, whence Imrhien, resolving to recover face, speech, and memory, sets off for a whole new set of adventures. With deep roots in folklore and myth: tirelessly inventive, fascinating, affecting, and profoundly satisfying-and Dart-Thornton has plenty in reserve for sequels. A stunning, dazzling debut.
OCT/ NOV 07 - AudioFile
This first book in the Bitterbynde series introduces the world of Erith, an untamed place in which humans must face “wights,” some good and some evil. Imrhein has no memory of her immediate past, cannot speak, and has been disfigured by poison. In her travels she faces many difficult challenges and finds some mighty protectors. Kris Faulkner draws on a strong store of accents and tones. Her engagement in the plot and its unlikely heroine are maintained throughout. Although the plot is a little hard to follow at times, Faulkner is a good guide. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
