Customer Reviews

The Battle of Evernight (The Bitterbynde Trilogy)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Although the series got off to a promising start, this final book is a washout. Earlier, the series offers engaging ideas and characters. However as the series progresses, the author has become increasingly enamored with her own descriptive prose, losing sight of any larger purposes with which she began.

The Battle of Evernight comprises interminable accounts of pointless meanderings - and lurid fables that are largely irrelevant to the overall themes, the story or the characters. After an eternity of fragmentary "adventures", almost as an afterthought, a few of the many threads are hastily tied up in the closing pages.

Sadly, the ending is lame and all the seeming passion and intensity of the earlier books dissolves into a whimper. After grabbing our attention in book one, the author has strung us along through two subsequent books before finally revealing that she really had little of consequence to say and no grand insight or resolution to offer.

Overall, I'm afraid I felt cheated on reading this title. It revealed the whole series (a substantial invesment of reading time!) to have been mostly form (flowery prose) with little of substance. Mostly an excuse for eloquent (even loquacious) prose and interminable episodes/fragments of fantasy.

Even if you've invested your time and mindshare in the previous two books in the "Bitterbynde Trilogy", my advice would be to cut your losses and spare yourself the disappointmemt. I'm afraid I cannot recommend this book to anyone.

When I read "Ill Made Mute", book one in the trilogy, I was in hopes of a very engrossing series. I am a huge fan of the darker, old-world faery tales, set in the primal world where capricious nature spirits are both friend and foe. Unfortunately, by book 2, Dart Thornton seems to have lost her grasp of the simple premise required to keep a reader interested in a story - that an interesting character is one that succeeds in the face of obstacles despite their flaws. Dart Thornton's multi-monikered heroine is perfect and infallible, and it's hard to empathize with a perfect character. Beyond this, she faces no real danger throughout, being nothing more than a damsel-somewhat-inconvenienced, rather than a damsel-in-distress. The struggling, imperfect mute in book one was MUCH more interesting.

The really sad fact is that Dart Thornton is just brimming with talent. It oozes from every page. Her command of the English language is superb, and she weaves such evocative prose from her words that one's mind cannot help but vividly imagine the images she creates. Her ability to instill interesting twists is genius (the givers of the kisses which brought on the amnesia in both Book 2 and 3 is unexpected and unique). However, her inability to develop a character that holds ones interest beyond the first few pages of Book 2 is a substantial handicap.

In Book 3, the heroine wanders through the wilderness with the two dead-weight ladies in waiting, saving them from all dangers and generally sorting out all problems on her own before the two dim witted women can come to her aid. She becomes a captive in the fortress of the Dark lord of the Faery, but, again, sits as a pampered songbird and suffers no inconvenience during this captivity. She spends her days reading and pining away for her lover, the King of Faery, and generally wasting away since she cannot get back to Faery and remove the curse placed upon her. Her patly portrayed brilliant intellect and the fact that all who view her fall in love with her seems to save her from any hardship, along with the fact that she has what amounts to an invincible bodyguard in the form of three faery companions in the first place, followed by the king of faery in latter parts of the book.

The trilogy is really bizarre, in that from Book 2 through the very ending of Book 3, the heroine is always being showered with favors, protected from harm, and generally pampered by the very villains we, the readers, should be encouraged by the author to fear. Only in the end does she fall to a tragic end. The tragic way in which the series ends, and the injustice of it all, perhaps reflects the fact that Dart Thornton realized her perfectly happy heroine was not sympathetic, but wouldn't it have been better to re-write the full trilogy rather than end it in a manner so obviously contrived? Then again, perhaps Dart Thornton is merely trying to play out the almost overlooked prophesy of the club-foot in Book 2, where, despite appearances, Faery and mortal cannot find happiness together? The long and short of it is that the reader, sufficiently annoyed by the ending, probably isn't inclined to ponder the point too much!

Dart Thornton is clearly trying to show the reader a heroine who succeeds despite her femininity. The sad thing is that it is those purely superficial aspects of her femininity that enable her to succeed: infinite beauty and delicacy, and the role of a woman as an object next to her husband. It's quite a betrayal of her sex as an author.

The incorporation of Faery tales is indeed novel, and makes for fascinating reading. Some of these I didn't even know of. The visual imagery is superb. The author definitely has superb potential. But a story of a perfect princess rescued at every turn by her perfect prince really isn't that interesting.

I was hugely disappointed by this book. After really quite enjoying the "Lady of the Sorrows" I wanted to read more and felt a true connection to the plot. I have to admit that I struggled with the "Ill made Mute " (the first book), but was glad I persevered as the second was much much better, though Ms Dart-Thornton still spends far too much time reeling off long lists of things which server only to pad out her already prolix style. The plot in the second book was actually very good, and the action reasonably paced. Coming from that straight into "The battle of Evernight" was like suddenly running into treacle after 300 meters of a 400 meter race. The characters wander around the country side with an aimlessness which did not do justice to their strength in earlier books. The major plot themes from the first two books don't really develop into any real denouement, but mostly peter out into nothing. I continued to read in the hope that the plot would eventually reappear, but instead there seemed to be a confusion in the mind of the author as to where to go next. The title implied an ending of some magnitude, but the actual battle refered to is barely mentioned, and is of no real moment, the action going off like a damp squib. Perhaps this is just a personal thing, but I dislike the overuse of song/poetry in books, it rarely serves to advance the plot, and usually is just an excuse for the author to pad a few pages with their poetic styling. Unfortunately , the Bitterbynde series is full of such devices, and this may have somewhat coloured my view. I also did not really like the (almost word for word) retelling of some famous fairy tales. It often seemed like the author was lost for an idea so stuck in a bit from some famous tale. Sometimes this worked quite effectivlely, particularly in the second book, but mostly it was just annoying.
The greatest disapointment was the ending. I am always concerned when I can feel that there are only a few pages left in a book and many threads have been left hanging - you can be sure that the author is going to have to cop out and leave the reader dissatisfied - but never have I come across such a limp and weak ending . All the wonderful ideas of the books are abandoned and we are left disappointed with the lamest of devices to tie up the book. It seems that many new writers are heralded with the "Tolkein " epithet, but if CDT is to ever gain that height she must do much much better. (and maybe borrow less from other ideas). If you want to read truly great writers of epic fantasy, then I strongly recommend Robin Hobb, whose work is nothing short of wonderful, and George R. R. Martin, who is going to cause me a nervous breakdown if he doesn't produce his next book soon!

I loved The Ill-Made Mute, the first book in this series. I loved it so much that if you had told me that I would someday give a book by the same author two stars, then I would have at the least been very surprised. Yet, here I am.

To be honest with you, I had gotten worried about the series after The Lady of Sorrows. The complex and strange fantasy world had started to look rather unfortunately like a novelization of the graphic book Faeries and the character of Tahquil was beginning to irritate me. Unfortunately, The Battle of Evernight takes almost everything that I disliked about The Lady of Sorrows and multiplies the offense.

The biggest problem in the book can be summed up in two words: plot and character. There is never any real tension about the outcome of the story. The main character is never in any real danger or doubt. Everything is pretty much predictable and foreshadowed to death. I also liked the character much better as a deformed mute than as a pampered and protected fairy princess. Furthermore, the lush description that served the series so well in the beginning is overdone nearly to the point of self-parody in The Battle of Evernight. When everything is described with superlatives, it is as tiresome as though it were not described at all.

As a final note about the book's flaws, I will only say that if a novel has to have an afterword to explain its own ending, there is something terribly wrong.

I am going to take the unusual step of saying that fans of The Ill-Made Mute may want to think twice before finishing the series. At the very least, they should seriously consider taking this book out from the library and buying it used. Shame, really. Dart-Thornton is clearly a talented writer. I hope that she can find a fresh start with something less ambitious.

I had such high hopes for this trilogy! I had a hard time starting the first book, then got hooked when it began involving the "wights" old world scottish faery tales and thought it might be going somewhere. After three books i believe readers deserved more than a P.S. at the end of the book implying a rumor of a happy ending. If you chose to view it that way of course. Since the eagle does fly away with a seabird linked with a CHAIN it may very well have meant her perfect faery king wasnt terribly happy that she hadnt trusted him to protect her and was simply retreiving her. ah well good or bad the ending was extremely dissapointing.

I was rolling right along with the book, liking the rich description, enjoying the strong female protagonist who doesn't use a sword, breezing through all the half-familiar folklore Dart-Thornton has woven into her story, and BAM! I hit the ending, and it's like a blow to the gut.
Not in the sense of an unhappy ending, but instead a wrenchingly clumsy ending that feels bolted on to the rest of the narrative. Some of the main characters make some staggeringly stupid decisions, which seems standard for fairy tales, and a stunning betrayal comes around that throws Tahquil back to square one and should have been the beginning of another book. Instead, the reader is torn away from Tahquil's POV and slam-dunked through the rest of her life, as told in three pages. The paperback version has a postscript from the author that clarifies the ending and makes it much happier, but it feels like a bone tossed to the fans. The average reader will be able to think up half a dozen more graceful ways to end the book before breakfast.
The rest of the book, though, is pretty good. I particularly enjoyed the swan-maiden and Tahquil's other companions, and it never bogged down like the second book did. There are some sappy parts, and some great characters from previous books never really get a chance to shine, but it's all right. The author's penchant for overdescription, as with the food at the coronation feast or what Tahquil wears on a daily basis, breaks through, but again, not as bad as in the second book.

After totalling looking forward to reading the 3rd & final book in this trilogy I felt really let down by this book. I found the heroine became annoyingly perfect and put on a pedestal, her great love who always was portrayed as perfect continued to be so until right at the end when suddenly he makes stupid yet significant bad decisions, and the fact that it was becoming evident that this love story wasn't going to be what one expects was unfulfilling. In addition, many of the great characters in the earlier books are underutilized by either dropping out altogether or make cameo appearances. It made wading through all the long long journeys she found herself making which were arduously described accompanied by not very interesting or useful companions, albeit in beautiful language, not really worth getting through.

The end is just a big let down. Instead of having a fabulous indepth story written in first class language and style, it becomes a tragic folk story that one wades through 3 volumes to find out.

Overall Dart-Thornton is a fabulous writer and I love her use of language/prose and descriptive script, but the end of this story was unfulfilling. I really hope she perseveres to write more great stories.

I loved the first two books in this series and being somewhat of a soppy romantic I had fallen in love with the unErithly beauty of "Thorn". I finished reading 'The Battle of Evernight' about an hour ago and I am still reeling from the putrid, pathetic ending. The ending is so unsatisfying and utterly hateful that I wish I had never starting reading the series. I have given it two stars in memory of my love of the first two books. Don't bother with it folks. Read Lord of the Rings again instead.

The first book in the "Bitterbynde" series, THE ILL-MADE MUTE, was quite good. In the second and third volumes, Cecilia Dart-Thornton seems to progressively lose the thread of her story until it altogether unravels at the end.

The first half of this third volume is mere fluff, as the heroine (whose name keeps changing throughout the books) and her two friends wander around the landscape of "Erith". They encounter strange people and strange places, but nothing happens that has any significance to the plot. For example, what is the point of the prolonged stay in the town of Appleton Thorn, and the exhaustive description of the peculiar festivals and customs of the inhabitants? One can only suppose that Ms. Dart-Thornton hates to throw away research notes, and feels that she must use every item in her notebook.

As the story languishes, the idiosyncracies of the author's style become more grating. Ms. Dart-Thornton is given to relentless over-writing. She indulges in florid similes and metaphors without stint--and often without listening to what she is writing. At one point, she likens a sunset to a bouquet of wax roses that have been dipped in gilt and then partially melted. Please.

The story does become interesting in the second half of the book, and revelations are made that drastically re-cast our perceptions of what happened in the second volume. Unfortunately, the ending is an absolute disaster. I can well accept an author's decision that things do not Work Out and that the amorous couple does not live happily ever after. But if we are to have a sad ending, then it should be...well..._sad_. As it is, the denouement is puzzling more than moving. Suddenly it turns out that everything was for nought, and our poor heroine is prettier than she was at the beginning of the trilogy, but no wiser. Say what?

On her web-site, Ms. Dart-Thornton announces that a new work is in progress. It will be a trilogy, but she doesn't know why, except that perhaps this is due to the influence of Tolkien. Bingo. Ms. Dart-Thornton should think about this statement. Why was Bytterbynde a trilogy? Might it have been better as a tightly written single novel or--at most--a duology?

I think "The Bitterbynde Trilogy" had the potential to be a great fantasy trilogy. While many of the plot points are cliched and predictable (to be expected considering the fairy tale conventions), the twists were real twists and the surprises were real surprises.

Having said that, there are some major flaws in this last book. While there is a plot-related reason for Via's change of character, she is "on stage' for too long after the encounter and becomes so unpleasant that I wanted to throw her to some unseelie wight and have done with her attitude. Dart-Thornton never spends much time on this character after the climax of the book, so the character is never rehabiliated, and I am left feeling annoyed that I had to spend so much time reading about her. Prince Edward also has changes in behavior, which, although foreshadowed, still somehow don't ring true to me.

I would have rather liked the original ending had Dart-Thornton either developed it less or developed it more. If it had simply ended with Edward's kiss, that could have been a beautiful, bitter, ironic ending and left it to the reader to decide what happened next. Instead, she chose to describe what happened afterward in only a few pages. At this point, Ashalind displays none of the insight, pluck, nerve, or intelligence that got her where she is. Even as a mute with no memory she had more personality. I cared very little about the "real" ending since I no longer cared about the shell of Ashalind.

Finally, I have to confess to very mixed feelings about Imrhien/Rohain/Tahquil/Ashalind. Although I was interested in would what happen next to her, I didn't really care what the outcome would be. It seemed that she was just so perfect that she would overcome her trials through simple perfection. It's a good thing the book ended when it did, because if one more person fell in love with her, I was going to have to throw the book out the window.

Overall, it's a good series that goes on too long.

BTW, I bought this in paperback at Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks ago. I don't know why Amazon isn't carrying it yet.