Monday 12 May 2008

The Bitterbynde Trilogy - Book Three - The Battle of Evernight by Cecilia Dart-Thornton

Synopsis
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 Faˆran, 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.

My View
I won't rave on about Cecilia's artistic writing as if you read my previous 2 reviews you will probably know that I find her fantastic and needless to say it continues here. Now I have finished the trilogy its quite sad and I rally hope that one day she returns to write about this world she created.

Again Imrhien/Rohain has a name change seems confusing on the outset but, it isn't at all and you soon get drawn into the story. The ending however, could be disappointing but, hopefully it is set up for a return to Erith (a much nicer place than the Erith in Kent I might add - LOL!) The main character I liked a lot, which always helps I find.

Apparently her next series is set in the same world with different characters so look forward to reading that. The final book was possibly the weakest of the three but, by no means a weak book at all, The Ill Made Mute really stood out for me and is one of my all time favourite fantasy books of all time. Wanting to pick up the books at every spare moment I had is always a good sign that these are fantastic books.

I would say this is not a series for every fantasy fan as it is possibly a little out of the norm and some may read them and not be as enthusiastic as me.

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