Cecilia Dart-Thornton's interests include playing music, oil painting, computer-image making, travel and clay sculpture. She lives in Australia.
In the strong conclusion to her Bitterbynde trilogy (The Ill-Made Mute; The Lady of the Sorrows), set in the Irish-tinged land of Erith, Dart-Thornton beguiles with poetic, songlike prose that at times lapses into verbosity and odd neologisms. "It was the second of Duileagmis, the Leafmonth, viminal last month of Spring." Viminal? Rohain, now named Tahquil-Ashalind, and her companions, Caitri and Viviana, set out for the Gate of Oblivion's Kiss, where they hope to discover a way to set aright what has been wrong for a thousand years. In their travels, the three young maids encounter a variety of wights, both seelie (good) and unseelie (bad, very bad and truly nasty), each falling prey to some harrowing wight-inflicted ailment. Rohain/Tahquil also seeks to free her true love, Thorn, aka King Angavar of the Faran, who's trapped in Erith. Heart heavy and duty torn, she feels that her quest to reach the Gate outweighs her need to find Thorn. Those who esteem the Irish and Scottish myths of faerie folk will be delighted by the magic folklore and tales within tales that fill the book. Those looking for straightforward fantasy adventure, however, may be disappointed. (Apr. 18) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Her memories unlocked and the knowledge of her identity revealed to her, the woman once known as Rohain and now called Tahquil, realizes that she possesses the key to the Gate of Oblivion's Kiss. To stop a disastrous war between brother kings of the Faran, she must cross the land of Erith and open the gate to make a way for the brothers to return to their rightful home, even at the cost of her own freedom. Bringing to a satisfying conclusion the story begun in The Ill-Made Mute and continued in The Lady of Sorrows, Dart-Thornton's epic fantasy features a courageous heroine determined to fulfill her destiny. Celtic lore and legend add to the mythical atmosphere of this standout series, which belongs in most libraries. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
This is the third and final part of the `Bitterbynde' trilogy, concluding the epic journey begun in The Illmade Mute. The finale of the second book, The Lady of the Sorrows, revealed to the heroine of the series not only her lost memory, but a quest she must fulfil to save her world and her life. The Celtic motif has been heavily used in fantasy recently, but this series goes beyond the occasional Celtic name and mythological reference. The `Bitterbynde' series has attempted to capture the lyrical nature of the Celtic people, both in the speech of characters and in the marvellous stories they tell. Just like Celtic folklore, `Erith' (the world of the series) is populated by a myriad of magical creatures; some malignant, some benign and some too weak to be either, but all wrought with an attention to detail and a respect for the folklore that inspired them. As a series, `Bitterbynde' manages to surprise the reader regularly with unexpected twists and revelations. The Battle of Evernight is no exception; indeed the best has been saved until last. All is revealed and resolved and the reader is offered a choice of endings in best folklore style. Stefen Brazulaitis is a Bookseller at Dymocks Carousel and winner of this year's ABA/D W Thorpe career development award. C. 2002 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors
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