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2.0 out of 5 stars
Barely able to make it through this one...., Jun 7 2004
When I read "Ill Made Mute", book one in the trilogy, I was in hopes of a very engrossing series. I am a huge fan of the darker, old-world faery tales, set in the primal world where capricious nature spirits are both friend and foe. Unfortunately, by book 2, Dart Thornton seems to have lost her grasp of the simple premise required to keep a reader interested in a story - that an interesting character is one that succeeds in the face of obstacles despite their flaws. Dart Thornton's multi-monikered heroine is perfect and infallible, and it's hard to empathize with a perfect character. Beyond this, she faces no real danger throughout, being nothing more than a damsel-somewhat-inconvenienced, rather than a damsel-in-distress. The struggling, imperfect mute in book one was MUCH more interesting. The really sad fact is that Dart Thornton is just brimming with talent. It oozes from every page. Her command of the English language is superb, and she weaves such evocative prose from her words that one's mind cannot help but vividly imagine the images she creates. Her ability to instill interesting twists is genius (the givers of the kisses which brought on the amnesia in both Book 2 and 3 is unexpected and unique). However, her inability to develop a character that holds ones interest beyond the first few pages of Book 2 is a substantial handicap. In Book 3, the heroine wanders through the wilderness with the two dead-weight ladies in waiting, saving them from all dangers and generally sorting out all problems on her own before the two dim witted women can come to her aid. She becomes a captive in the fortress of the Dark lord of the Faery, but, again, sits as a pampered songbird and suffers no inconvenience during this captivity. She spends her days reading and pining away for her lover, the King of Faery, and generally wasting away since she cannot get back to Faery and remove the curse placed upon her. Her patly portrayed brilliant intellect and the fact that all who view her fall in love with her seems to save her from any hardship, along with the fact that she has what amounts to an invincible bodyguard in the form of three faery companions in the first place, followed by the king of faery in latter parts of the book. The trilogy is really bizarre, in that from Book 2 through the very ending of Book 3, the heroine is always being showered with favors, protected from harm, and generally pampered by the very villains we, the readers, should be encouraged by the author to fear. Only in the end does she fall to a tragic end. The tragic way in which the series ends, and the injustice of it all, perhaps reflects the fact that Dart Thornton realized her perfectly happy heroine was not sympathetic, but wouldn't it have been better to re-write the full trilogy rather than end it in a manner so obviously contrived? Then again, perhaps Dart Thornton is merely trying to play out the almost overlooked prophesy of the club-foot in Book 2, where, despite appearances, Faery and mortal cannot find happiness together? The long and short of it is that the reader, sufficiently annoyed by the ending, probably isn't inclined to ponder the point too much! Dart Thornton is clearly trying to show the reader a heroine who succeeds despite her femininity. The sad thing is that it is those purely superficial aspects of her femininity that enable her to succeed: infinite beauty and delicacy, and the role of a woman as an object next to her husband. It's quite a betrayal of her sex as an author. The incorporation of Faery tales is indeed novel, and makes for fascinating reading. Some of these I didn't even know of. The visual imagery is superb. The author definitely has superb potential. But a story of a perfect princess rescued at every turn by her perfect prince really isn't that interesting.
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