The Ill-Made Mute

The Bitterbynde Trilogy, Book 1

By: Cecilia Dart-Thornton

Narrated by: Kim Bretton

Dive into worlds as captivating as Tolkien's Middle-earth with 'The Ill-Made Mute'. Experience the same immersive awe you felt reading 'The Lord of the Rings' through tales rich in wonder and adventure. Embrace the journey into extraordinary realms. Feel the magic anew. Your escape begins as soon as you press play.

The stormriders land their winged stallions on the airy battlements of Isse Tower. Far below, the superstitious servants who dwell in the fortress's lower depths tell tales of wicked creatures inhabiting the world outside - a world they have only glimpsed. Yet it is the least of the lowly, a mute, scarred, and utterly despised foundling, who dares to scale the tower, sneak aboard a windship and then dive from the sky.

But the hearth-side tails are all true. Unhuman wights are real in all their legions. They haunt every pool, every turn in the road, threatening and tormenting travelers. A perilous journey begins.

The Ill-made Mute Special Edition is revised and extended with extras, including Dart-Thornton's introduction and fragments of her early writing.

"Not since Tolkien's 'The Fellowship of the Ring' fell into my hands have I been so impressed by a beautifully spun fantasy."

~Andre Norton, Grand Master of Science Fiction.

©2001 Cecilia Dart-Thornton (P)2024 Cecilia Dart-Thornton

Astounding narration of one of my favorite books

If you haven't read this book and you love fantasy fiction get this now, as it's one of - if not THE best - fantasy novels I have ever come across. It's a game changer. And the narration brings it to life in a way I never thought possible. I loved reading it but listening to Kim Bretton's narration has taken it to another level. Cannot recommend this enough. You won't be disappointed! Thank you Cecilia and thank you Kim!

Shaky Plot and Overwritten, Last 1:4 was Good

This book needed a better editor and an author less driven to prove how many SAT vocab words they remembered.
The superfluous itemization and descriptions of every little thing as well as having to give each blunt sentence a winding metaphoric companion, made this book twice as long as it needed to be.
It’s not that I don’t enjoy writing that leans towards poetic but there’s a setting and this story wasn’t it.
It took me out of the story constantly to try to reconcile a main character with no memory of language with the highbrow nonstop prose of every item in the settings.
If the author had approached descriptions from the lens of the main character it would’ve felt more authentic. It would have been more fun to have them discover all of the things in their surroundings vs having them described by the narrator who oftentimes reads them off like a gourmet shopping list.
As someone who isn’t an expert in medieval clothes, sailing, or horse rearing, the use of technical terms (again as seen by a person only just learning to speak whatsoever) was another thing that ejects you from the story.
There is so much focus on the pretentious description of clouds and sky and clothing that it feels a bit like trying to watch an episode of something only to have a person next to you talking over the character. Over 100 pages in and this book still felt like I was reading a first chapter.
The book began to have more of an actual plot and regular characters towards the middle. By the end it actually held my attention enough to want to continue.
Had I not been pressed by friend to keep going this would be been a DNF for me.
I am hoping book two keeps the same momentum as the end of book one.