The Ill-Made Mute | ||||||||
Cecilia Dart-Thornton | ||||||||
Macmillan UK / Warner Aspect, 437 pages | ||||||||
|
A review by John Berlyne
A foundling with no name, no memories and no voice awakes in the lowest servant's quarters of a grand palace. Horribly
disfigured, the foundling ekes out an existence at the bottom of the food chain, but shows talent and application in menial
work that allows exploration of other levels of the palace. Wit and opportunism eventually bring about an opportunity for
escape. Early on Dart-Thornton imbues her story with two themes that become prevalent throughout. By handicapping her
protagonist with a hideous outward appearance and also (initially at least) no adequate way to express thought or feeling,
and by counterbalancing this with a narrative that shows this protagonist to be inquisitive and bright, the reader is
(willingly) snared and the story brims with pathos throughout (though this is never allowed to become
overly sentimental). Alongside this, the structure of this novel is broken down into ten chapters, and each varies in
terms of setting -- chapter one is set in a Gormanghast-like great palace, chapter two aboard a wind-ship, three
in a forest etc. -- and Dart-Thornton is at home in all of these, displaying a brilliant eye for both detail and atmosphere.
The language of this novel is rich and erudite and, more than once, I found myself reaching for my dictionary (how nice
to see words like "subfusc," "aumbries," and "panegyrics" come up) but what is perhaps
most impressive in this first book of The Bitterbynde is the bedrock of myth and folklore employed by
Dart-Thornton and upon which she builds her fantasy. (In the back of her book she openly acknowledges her inspirations
and influences.) This land of Erith is inhabited by wights of both seelie (good) and unseelie (ill) natures and
these are more than just stories told to children. They are a very real part of the fabric of the place and if you go
down to the woods in Erith today, you're sure of a big surprise! The cautionary nature of fairy tale is present all
through this novel and when our protagonist is adrift in the forest, you get a sense of how vast and how dangerous
this wilderness is -- a clear parallel to the Australian outback. Only under the guidance of an experienced Ranger
can there be any hope of survival in the wilds.
For all her deft turns of phrase -- and there is some beautiful use of language in this work -- it is a plot point
that snagged my attention in The Ill-Made Mute. I can't really say too much about it without giving it away
(the reviewer's eternal dilemma!) but I will say that I didn't quite buy the climactic moment of realization that
our protagonist undergoes. It boils down to the old argument of nature versus nurture and I would have gone with it a lot
easier had Cecilia Dart-Thornton laid some subtle clues along the way.
I don't feel it hugely necessary to give you a detailed plot run-down here -- partly because this book is more than just
a summery of the events it describes, but also because it seems more fitting that you get the events from reading the
book rather than reading a review. Besides this, The Ill-Made Mute is very much open-ended and so little of
the plot is actually concluded by the end of the book. It is highly enjoyable read from a very talented
new writer. I am very much looking forward to book two.
John Berlyne is a book junkie with a serious habit. He is the long time UK editor of Sfrevu.com and is widely acknowledged to be the leading expert on the works of Tim Powers. John's extensive Powers Bibliography "Secret Histories" will be published in April 2009 by PS Publishing. When not consuming genre fiction, John owns and runs North Star Delicatessen, a gourmet food outlet in Chorlton, Manchester. |
If you find any errors, typos or anything else worth mentioning,
please send it to editor@sfsite.com.
Copyright © 1996-2014 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide