Rating: 
Summary: Great Fantasy
Review: This book was great. She went very indepth on creating a world with its own language and unique events. The author did pull from some popular and lesser known fairy tales, but presented it in such as way that made them uniquely new and interesting. She did a great job on this first book.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome, captivating, one of the best I have read
Review: For all the Fantasy readers out there this trilogy is the one for you. Cecilia paints a vivid picture on your minds eye. The characters seem to be right there with you. As the mute makes their way through the world you are there with them taking on the pain and the heartache. The world seems realistic like as if it can happen. If you have read the Lord of the Rings you will love this series of books. to get the full affect you must read all three you can't miss a single one. Plus don't skip to the back because it ruins the whole story, for she captures you and you can't put the book down even to eat!!!
Rating:
Summary: Very fine.
Review: I wasn't bothered at all by any of the complaints that other readers have had. I was so sorry when the book ended that I'm afraid that I wasn't able to see any flaws at all. Although I'm sure that it must have had them, as books do.This was really my kind of fantasy novel, with all the elements that make me particularly happy. Dart-Thornton took a fairy world and gave a whole new meaning to it-- it will be hard to think about Seelie and unSeelie in the same way ever again after hearing her description of Redcap. It's hard to write any kind of plot description without involving spoilers-- but it's something about an ugly foundling, something about some perilous journies, and something about very human emotions. Okay, so there were some minor flaws-- it strikes me as I write this that she was a little bit precious in the way she introduced so much of fairy lore, but that's really a tiny complaint. I was genuinely sorry when the book was over, and was very happy to learn that there's already a sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: Great? Maybe; at any rate very good and very different.
Review: There are familiar elements in this story, but it is really more different from mainstream fantasy than many books that may seem to have more distinctive ingredients. Its world is full of the supernatural creatures of real old British folk tales, and these bugbears of oral tradition are mostly a lot homier than the solemn literary spectres that have proliferated since The Lord of the Rings. The more intimate nastiness of these wights is at least as frightening, though; and they are much less predictable. In fact this whole book is a bit like those old folk tales. For example, its plot consists of three rather arbitrarily linked sub-stories, with only one character in common, rather than the elaboration of some grand conspiracy with a consistent cast. Perhaps stronger links may appear in retrospect -- I haven't read the next two books. But even within each section of the tale, events proceed more in the manner of "then the next day, another thing happened" than in the "A led to B led to C which revealed the true meaning of A" style. Is this a weakness or a strength? My rating of only 4 stars, rather than 5, represents my uncertainty. The prose is quite beautiful, and there are interesting characters, some appealing and some repulsive, all with believably human strengths and weaknesses. Exciting things happen in marvelous places. If you judge it by the standards of typical fantasy epics, you'd have to call "The Ill-Made Mute" good but flawed. But if somebody piped up with this tale while you were huddled around the hearth on a stormy night, you would feel rarely blessed. If you can get into that frame of mind while reading it, it is probably worth five stars instead of four.
Rating:
Summary: Inventive, Weird, enthralling.
Review: This book is so complex I can't even begin to describe it. All I can say is, after an initially slow start, the magic reached out from the pages and grabbed me. 100%. I was drawn in to the story, totally, in the best possible way - ie I didn't think about eating, sleeping etc, and time just whizzed past while I was reading.
What I loved were the amazing landscapes, the fairy-lore and of course the characters. I've never read any fantasy like this and it was so refreshing to read something original and beautifully written.
This book and its sequel, The Lady of the Sorrows, have now become my top reads of the century.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but with flaws
Review: I must admit it is a good book, for a new author. Her descriptions are beautiful, and she seems to know what she is doing. The name itself already catches attention.
But the descriptions do tend to get a bit too wordy, or in other words, too long. Sometimes, the poetic lines get a bit difficult to comprehend and the strange new phrases that pop up( the languages) and I don't get a single thing.
I look forward to reading book 2, but I hope it contains a strong plot.
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't live up to the hype
Review: I was recommended this book by a number of people, and was disappointed that it was not nearly as good as I expected. The storyline and the characters were interesting enough to make me finish the book, and I liked the way familiar fairy tales were threaded through the book (there were a lot of "Oh, I know that one!" moments). It was just so damned WORDY. Every change of scene was accompanied by exhaustively detailed descpriptions, and there were many changes of scene. I admit to being a reader who prefers action and conversation to description, so if you don't share that bias you might really love it. If you do share my bias, be prepared!
Rating:
Summary: Simply Beautiful
Review: The Ill Made Mute was simply one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. It was as if the author had rummaged around in my head and written down exactly how I envisaged the land of my dreams.
Absolutely gorgeous!!
Rating:
Summary: More - please!
Review: I cannot express my disappointment when I reached the conclusion of The Ill-Made Mute. I just wanted the story to go on and on forever, taking me with it through Ms. Dart-Thornton's enchanted world. The only thing that saved me from desperation was knowing I would soon get a copy of Book #2, "The Lady of the Sorrows".
The Ill-Made Mute is the most wonderful book I have read since Lord of the Rings, It's breathtaking in style and imagination. I just want more of the same!
Rating:
Summary: Unseelie wights & things that go bump in the night.
Review: A blend of Dark Age ignorance, Renaissance inventiveness and the buckle-my-swash of the heyday of Sail combine to make a great read, but it's not that simple .. Imagine a combination of Gormenghast, Jabberwocky and the Tales of the Brothers Grimm, with a dash of Deepwoods and a touch of Lord Dunsany - these are the ingredients of a lushly-described tale, the likes of which I haven't enjoyed since I first started reading fantasy.
AND - it has a map - I don't think any book that contains a map has ever disappointed me. A horribly disfigured youth with no memory or power of speech is at the bottom of the pecking order in Isse Tower. However, hidden talents and a desire to be cured of the ugliness take him on a fantastic journey, where the old wive's fairy tales are proven to be true, and where he finds a friend who teaches him to communicate and incidentally discovers an amazinq revelation. The delicious inventiveness of the prose conjures up visions far more tangible than any common words could (as any reader of Lewis Carroll will attest), and the undercurrent of Gothic darkness and spookiness serves to heighten the subtle tension that slowly builds during the first few chapters.
The author has an amazing grasp of folk-lore and also knows her ships and rigging - the descriptions of life and work on board a pirate ship surpass many books in the mainstream nautical genre. As a first novel, plunging straight in at the start of a trilogy, this is an exceptionally fine read - please let the succeeding books be as good! *****
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