Weatherwitch: Book Three of The Crowthistle Chronicles [Paperback]

Cecilia Dart-Thornton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy; New Ed edition (2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1405047151
• ISBN-13: 978-1405047159
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,507,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Preachy and Pretentious, July 29, 2007

By 

LemurKat "LemurKat" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weatherwitch: Book Three of The Crowthistle Chronicles (Paperback)

I'm very fond of Cecilia Dart-Thornton and find her descriptive prose most evocative and lyrical. However, I also appreciate that she is not entirely to everyone's tastes. Her language is very eloquent and flowery - she never uses a plain word when she can use something more elaborate. Whilst this makes her world a rich and engaging place to visit, it does mean that you may be required to keep a dictionary near by! I have enjoyed this, and her detail-rich folklore in previous books and enjoyed it in this one. However, because of the nature of the language, the speeches of the characters come across as particularly pretentious and stilted, not quite ringing true.

What I did not enjoy, however, was the fact that Dart-Thornton was clearly using this particular book to try and force her views of animal rights down the reader's throat. Now, please understand, I myself are an avid supporter of animal rights, believing that they should be treated humanely and with compassion. It just felt very much to me like this book was acting more as a soapbox for the author to preach to her audience. I prefer such preaching to be rather more subtle, but was instead left feeling guilty for not being a vegetarian. This rather darkened my enjoyment. Perhaps this is what the author is seeking to achieve.

Still, save for this little bugbear, I found this a rich and enticing read, with colourful characters (particularly the urisk) and whilst it does act somewhat as a "bridge" style novel (obviously spanning the way to something more), it still proved a pleasurable read.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars coming of age fantasy, November 17, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Weatherwitch: Book Three of The Crowthistle Chronicles (Hardcover)

Asrathiel was born into a family that has known much tragedy. As a young girl, her mother slipped into an enchanted sleep unable to awaken. Her father left her in the care of his father to journey to the uncharted lands to find a way to break the spell. Rich in weather magic known as bri, Asrathiel is the youngest at nineteen to become a weathermage. She feels set apart from the rest of humanity because she is immortal and invulnerable. She wants to travel to distant lands and wield the pure magic sword Fallowblade that is her birthright though not all of its properties are known.

She accepts a posting as a weathermage at King's Winterboune where weathermasters are still respected. The king of Slievmordhu Uabhar wants to be high king of Tir and he sees the weather masters as an impediment to his ambition. He has several people spreading lies about them to the population and many turn against him. When Asrathiel meets with him she doesn't trust him but she has no idea that he is about to plunge the world into civil war or has an ultimate plan for her and her colleagues.

WEATHERWITCH feels likes an in betweeners book that is setting the stage for the last novel in the Crowthistle Chronicles. In many ways it is a coming of age tale as the heroine must decide what she wants as she outgrows her girlhood dreams yet yearns for something even she isn't sure of what it is. There are some cute scenes between the protagonist and the urisk, a seelie being of magic that attaches himself to her and vexes her as he well as amuses her and shares her immortality. There are many sub-plots left dangling which will hopefully be answered in Fallowblade.

Harriet Klausner

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful read, August 26, 2008

By 

T. Cantrell "Traci" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Weatherwitch: Book Three of The Crowthistle Chronicles (Hardcover)

This is a GREAT book and so poetic, I am so glad I read it! She is a wonderful author who pulls your right in.