March 24, 2003
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 Faêran, 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.