The Ill-Made Mute [Import] [Unbound]

Cecilia Dart-Thornton (Author)

Product Details

• Unbound
• Publisher: iPublish.com (May 2001)
• ISBN-10: 0759563314
• ISBN-13: 978-0759563315
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (165 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Cecilia was discovered, as a baby, in a wooden lifeboat that washed ashore on the rugged coastline of a remote isle in the southern oceans, between Australia and Antarctica. She spent her early years on Si-Sique Island, raised with the family of the lighthouse-keeper, Albert Ross, who found and adopted her.
Her origins could not be traced. Who were her parents? Had they been drowned in a boating accident? Where had she come from? Was she of noble blood? Alas, no answers could be found.
Cecilia flourished like a rare orchid, even on that windswept isle,in the rough-and-tumble company of her seven stepbrothers. They taught her fencing, archery and equestrian skills, at which she excelled. Her favourite hobby, however, was writing stories.
Recently, at the age of sixteen, she was 'discovered' on the Internet when she posted some of her work to an Online Writing Workshop. An editor contacted her by email, and within a few weeks Time Warner U.S.A. had signed Cecilia in a six-figure deal. They published her first trilogy, THE BITTERBYNDE, in hardcover - the first time they have ever done so with a new author.
Cecilia packed her mascara and departed from Si-Sique isle - to the sorrow of her seven handsome stepbrothers, who were all achingly in love with her.
THE BITTERBYNDE series has now been translated into four languages and is distributed throughout more than seventy countries.
Cecilia's life alternates between seen and unseen worlds of vivid strangeness, beauty, peril and passion.
It is a little-known fact that most authors actually write their own biographies. Some might say that for Cecilia the boundaries between virtuality and reality are blurred. It is for the reader to decide whether this is a completely implausible fairytale or whether it contains a grain of truth...

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of all the high praise, June 24, 2001

By 

Ian Nguyen (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ill-Made Mute (The Bitterbynde, Book 1) (Hardcover)

Sometimes when a book gets a lot of very good reviews, your expectations get so high that you are disappointed when you finally get to read it. This was not the case when I read The Ill-Made Mute. It exceeded my expectations.

I have read a lot of fantasy and never have I come across a writer who can create a whole nother world with so much detail, as well as a complicated plot, believeable characters and a style that blew me away.

It's kind of hard to review a book when it's the first of three, and you know the story is far from complete. I get the feeling there are a lot of questions raised in this book which the author has deliberately left unanswered until the next two, so I don't want to make any assumptions about the plot. I can only say, I'm hanging out for the sequels. I've had a long thirst for a real Tolkien-style story and this book slaked it.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book for intelligent readers., June 23, 2001

By 

Jason Jackson (Tennessee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ill-Made Mute (The Bitterbynde, Book 1) (Hardcover)

It is so refreshing to read a story that does not hammer along at a fast Gameboy-style pace on the premise that the reader's attention span is too short to be otherwise held. This story moves along in a manner suited to the historical feel of the setting. I also enjoyed the use of words outside the usual vocabulary we get on TV and in popular literature. At last, a fantasy author who treats readers like intelligent people!

The inclusion of British folklore is another refreshing change. Instead of the usual (now boring) weapons, slayings, etc. we are shown a myriad other, more subtle ways to deal with supernatural forces.

Never does the author fall for the trap of many fantasy authors, which is to make mention of Fate or Prophecy as the reason why events occur. I felt confident that there were good reasons behind every character's behaviour. Whether those reasons are made clear in this book or in the follow-up Book 2, remains to be seen.

I liked the ending because it did not tell us whether the heroine's face was beautiful or not. It hinted at beauty, but while reading this book I learned that the author often has a "twist" up her sleeve, so readers should not necessarily take hints as facts.

I recommend this book to anyone who would like to read something that is far removed from the usual "modern action adventure in medieval costume" style. The language is beautiful, the imagery is extraordinary, the characters are real, and (thank the gods) the story is not the same old Good versus Evil. It is original, amazing and totally addictive.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A refreashing change of pace, May 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ill-Made Mute (The Bitterbynde, Book 1) (Hardcover)

I work at a bookstore, so I get the chance to discover authors and books that I normally wouldn't notice. I have never been more thankful for this than when I found this book. The beautiful writing appealed to the poet in me, at the same time completely engrossing me in a new and intriguing world. I highly recommend this book and am impatiently waiting for the sequal!