Rating: 
Summary: Creativity with Borrowed Ingenuity
Review: No matter how many times you remake a beatles song, it never holds the same genius of the first... or perhaps it holds a completely different kind of genius... Thornton has the uncanny ability to weave many different tales from the rich stock of celtic folklore into her own original, fascinating world tapestry. The land of the novel is enthralling, a bumpy surface over deep-laid rifts and secrets. The characters themselves aren't one-dimensional, although they are not fleshed-out as they could be. The issues they deal with are all external, so the story lacks the internal battles which reveal a character's soul. Thornton has an annoying habit of overly describing things. ("On the table lay...."...whole paragraph ensues...) This style may appeal to some, though I found it distracted from a wonderful plot. I couldn't put this book down, and I was depressed when I finished it.. luckily the sequel is just as intoxicating, and exposes more twists than i could have predicted... well crafted in that respect. The main character has lost her identity, and is horrifically scarred all over her face. The story begins as she escapes from the bitter drudgery of a low-ranking servant, and continues as she travels about the country meeting colorful friends and a romantic interest who is somewhat too good to be true... needless to say i don't mind reading a good romance even if it is rose-tinted. Overall an enjoyable, addictive series that you can't be without reading due to its story-line, even though the author could perfect a bit more...
Rating: 
Summary: Verbose
Review: I wanted to love this book becaue the author can write so beautifully at times. That said, she seems to be in love with describing every tiny little detail of in a scene. This is not always a sin, but reading three to four paragraph descriptions of every room, kitchen, kitchen utensil, and dress is dull. An example is the wedding scene, and four paragraphs were spent describing the dress of the bride, who speaks no lines and doesn't appear anywhere else in the book (the bride was really only there as a hanger for the overly-described dress). This is troublesome because it doesn't add anything to the story except slow it down. As a result, I started skimming these descriptions after about page 200.
The main character, Imrhien, is introduced too slowly. We learn little of her inner thoughts, just her reactions to external stimuli, especially in the first 100 pages (which are driven solely by descriptions and are quite tedious). I never developed a sense of who Imrhien was throughout the entire book. It was only toward the end that a glimmer of a personality stood out amidst all the excess adjectives. In addition, there is hardly any dialogue in those first 100 pages and again, this along with the excess descriptions, slows the pace down.
A slow pace isn't bad, but in the beginning you have a benighted character that wants to escape her bonds and later much action. However, the combo. of overly described everything, lack of dialogue, and poor character development lead to minimal tension. In areas where the book might be fast and furious, it isn't because of all the above problems. In parts where it should be slow and sedate, I was annoyed by lack of character insight and dialogue. In some places it was actually jarring to "hear" Imrhien's thoughts because it had been so long since we had last read what she was thinking.
I didn't know if Thorn was a caricature or meant to be a believable character. He seemed ridiculous with his stilted manner of speaking and his physical perfection. The waist length braid of hair seemed especially campy. Isn't this man supposed to glide through forests without leaving a trace, including even a strand of hair? How is that possible with a mop of long hair trailing after you?
I think Dart-Thornton has a fabulous ability to describe a scene, but she uses it as a cudgel and the work thereby suffers. I don't know if I will try the second book in this series because of these problems, but I might since the first book resolved nothing and no further info was ever given about Imrhien's past or why she lost her memory.
Rating:
Summary: good start, but fades towards the end
Review: This book starts out pretty well, although it tends to suffer a bit from melodramatic and convoluted prose which tends to distract somewhat, lending a feeling that at times Dart-Thornton is attempting to improve the reader's vocabulary, rather than telling a story - a feeling that lasts right through to the end of the book, which is unfortunate.
The plot itself concerns a young mute who escapes a life of servitude to wander through the wight-haunted lands of Erith. Without giving too much away, what results is a long and fairly interesting journey through fairy lore, either through direct meetings with various wights (fairies/Sidhe/what-have-you), or through the retellings of tales through characters within the book.
What the book does conjure up very well is the atmosphere of magic and unknown that pervades the original tales, and solid characterisation combined with a dreamy, fairy-filled vista can work effectively to place the reader within a world of Dart-Thornton's making that weaves together threads of ancient Celtic Britain.
Where the Ill-Made Mute falls a little flat is in the afore-mentioned verbosity, combined with what seems like an over-eagerness to refer to as many old tales as possible; the characters seem to stumble through encounter after encounter of members of the Sidhe making cameo appearances. While this is not entirely a bad thing, it occasionally gives the feeling that one is reading a textbook, especially combined with the use of prose as mentioned above. The way Dart-Thornton deals with emotion, mainly of that of Imrhien, the main character, can also be a bit ham-handed, repeating a point over and over in a bid to make its point (eg. character is unhappy, charcter is unhappy...). Rather than helping the reader empathise with a character, it can make the prose seem wooden instead.
So the end result? A good book, a very good book in fact, and definitely one to read if you're interested in Celtic lore, but a few issues prevent this tale from being a truly great one.
Rating: 
Summary: Thank you, Cecilia Dart-Thornton!
Review: I fell so in love with this book. I wrote my library to thank them for providing this intensely pleasurable reading experience and then I went out and bought it in hardcover. It is difficult to describe what is so amazing about this book, but the atmosphere sucks you right in, if you let it. I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: read at your risk...
Review: ...of an overwritten and superficial story. After trudging through more than 300 pages of this convoluted, pronoun-rich book which claims to be a masterpiece, I have no idea what could have ever inspired those glowing reviews on the back cover. It was so boring! The only reason I read it was because I had NO books to read at the time and this had an interesting cover. The book's only purpose, it seems, is to show off the author's extensive vocabulary, and to indulge the author's personal fantasies. Want me to show you what I mean? Well, a glaring example of the EXTREMELY overwritten nature of the text could be found in the second book in this series, The Lady of the Sorrows, (in it the author is describing an arm. Yep, you heard me, an ARM): "His arm, a tawny mellifluity of waterworn driftwood's smoothly contoured undulations, was vastly different from his opponent's." Let me tell you something, in writing, the aim is to be able to describe as richly as possibly as EFFICIENTLY as possible. As for the author's indulging in her own personal fantasies, consider this: the main character (Imrhien) is a lost, mute, and amnesiac waif who has a mangled face but a very beautiful body. Imrhien falls in love (spoiler coming up) with Thorn, and at the end of the book, gets her face healed, and guess what she looks like? She's the most stunning little creature in the world! This is clearly one of the author's personal fantasies: to be seen as "exquisite in every measure". THe author is injecting herself into her fantasy land. This wouldn't bother me so much if Imrhien had any worth besides her exquisite countenance. There is nothing to keep the reader tied to the character, to keep us caring about what happens to Imrhien. Why? Because Ms. Dart-Thornton never lets us into Imrhien's head. Pronouns galore keep us away from the characters. We are watching Imrhien from a distance, too far away to allow us to get close to Imrhien. It is a pity. The world in which Imrhien lives, is quite original. Most new worlds in fantasy are spinoffs of Middle-Earth, and everyone KNOWS how tiresome those are. Ms. Dart-Thornton uses a lot of Celtic mythos and folklore which are really cool, but unfortunately the story that is set in this world, ruins it.Hopefully Ms. Dart-Thornton could hire a better editor and write another book in this world, because Erith does not deserve to die like this, burdened by a tiresome story. ANother thing: the book completely ripped off the entire Irish language and people! THis book could have been so much better... No offense to anyone who happens to like this story. To each his own.
Rating:
Summary: An inventive, well-written new fantasy
Review: In a genre plagued by stories that bear a remarkable resemblance to the world and plot of Tolkein, Dart-Thornton creates a unique, creative world and story. Though it draws heavily from Celtic mythology, Dart-Thornton's world is something completely different. In the world of Erith, spirits known as seelies(friendly to humans) and unseelies(unfriendly to humans) roam, and the humans try to protect themselves using various charms and devices. The nobility of Erith maintains power by mastering the art of Skyriding and controlling sildron, a mysterious metal that allows things to fly. The Ill-Made Mute is the story of a nameless, disfigured mute who has forgotten all about it's history and identity. The story is it's quest to find a name, a face, and a history. Though the book started out a bit slow, it quickly picks up and I wasn't able to put it down. It is well-written, with rich prose. And keep a dictionary close at hand, because Dart-Thornton's vocabulary is quite extensive. My only suggestion is you wait until the final book in the trilogy comes out to start reading, because once you start, you're not going to want to put them down. I read the Ill-Made Mute and it's sequel in a few days and am eagerly awaiting the third to find out what happens to the characters(who are well-developed and intruiging) and to find out the answers to all the questions brought up in the plot. It is a trilogy that will keep you interested and wanting to find out what happens!
Rating: 
Summary: Yawn!
Review: After reading tons of great reviews for this book, I finally picked it up from my local book store. Big mistake. Though the author has a rich imagination and a great vocabulary, she can't seem to pull it all together. It feels like she is writing not to tell a story, but to show off her word skills. It's extremely annoying, and not because I didn't understand all the words (I used to be an English teacher) but because it detracts from the plot. Of course, there isn't much of a plot to detract from. It seems like Dart-Thorton is just having her characters run around from one place to another so she can show off her world (much of which comes from Celtic folk tales). The characters could have been intersting, but instead of developing their personalities she spent her time describing, in minute detail, the garb of unnamed characters that were never seen again. Throughout most of the book she referred to her characters by descriptors instead of names (ie "the lad," "the would-be-spy," "the watcher"). This method kept the characters at bay and made it almost impossible to care about anything that they did. I really wish I would have liked this book. I think there was great potential, but Dart-Thorton needed a good editor to keep her on track. Also, the kiss of death seemed to be her tendency to tell instead of show. If we could have seen a little more action instead of hearing about it later it might have been worth the read. I won't be continuing on with this series and I wish I had never picked up this first book. It was a waste of both time and money.
Rating: 
Summary: This one's a keeper . . .
Review: After struggling through the first portion of this book, frustrated with all the sailing-vessel detail (I finally had to get the dictionary out to get through this section!) and lack of familiarity with the people and geography of this novel, I was just about ready to put the book down and admit this was one I wasn't going to be able to finish. However, I trudged on just a little further, and about one-third of the way through the book, with the main characters back on terra firma, the pace picked up quickly, and so did my interest. Yes, the author is wordy, and you may need a reference book if you REALLY want to understand some of her detailed descriptions of the windships and the characters' clothing, as well as the flora and fauna, but I found it to be an entertaining and enjoyable read in the long run. I have read several reviewers' comments comparing this to the Tolkien trilogy . . . I beg to differ. This was a good book, but come on, folks, Middle Earth was first and best, and there are no contenders! This one is worth the read, however, and I would definitely recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Most amazing fantasy I've ever read
Review: This is a first novel? The proficiency of the writer is incredible. She writes like a poet, a songstress, a scientist, a nature-lover, a soldier. Her prose is passionate, descriptive, evocative. And the plot is unpredictable - at last! An unpredictable plot!! Her landscapes are swarming with creatures I've never read about before, but which apparently are drawn from actual folklore. I just can't wait to read more.
Rating:
Summary: Would have been good if the plot went somewhere...
Review: I enjoyed the first chapter of this book. I was thrilled to have finally found a fantasy novel I thought I would thoroughly enjoy. But my expectations were disappointed. Like others have said below, the book simply meanders. It is full of description and stories that while are nice, don't really progress anywhere. I sometimes felt that the author simply imagined aspects of her world and decided to write them down instead of fully planning or outlining. This is unfortunate because I do think that the author has a lovely writing style. This is probably a book I could get through if I had plenty of free time and was bored. And I wish this were the case because I'd like to see where the novel heads. Hence I have given this novel two stars instead of one. But with my limited free time, I just can't see the point of reading pages and pages of material that is essentially irrelevant. I'd rather do something I enjoy more... The reviews suggest that Book 2 is a bit better? Maybe I'll give that a try.
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