≡ Descargar The Iron Tree Book One of The Crowthistle Chronicles Cecilia DartThornton 9780765350541 Books

The Iron Tree Book One of The Crowthistle Chronicles Cecilia DartThornton 9780765350541 Books

Download As PDF : The Iron Tree Book One of The Crowthistle Chronicles Cecilia DartThornton 9780765350541 Books

The Iron Tree Book One of The Crowthistle Chronicles Cecilia DartThornton 9780765350541 Books

I bought this book after reading the Bitterbynde trilogy by Thornton. Expecting the same quality level of English mythology and original storytelling, I was very disappointed. The plot was trite, scenery and characters transparent. What's so interesting about two "most beautiful" characters meeting, falling in love, and then... well, I won't spoil the ending. But for fans of Thornton's previous books, I would not recommend this one.


Tags : The Iron Tree: Book One of The Crowthistle Chronicles [Cecilia Dart-Thornton] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div>Jarred is a young boy who has grown up among his mother's peaceful desert people. While Jarred loves his mother,Cecilia Dart-Thornton,The Iron Tree: Book One of The Crowthistle Chronicles,Tor Fantasy,0765350548,Boys;Fiction.,Fathers and sons;Fiction.,Missing persons;Fiction.,Boys,English Science Fiction And Fantasy,Fantasy,Fantasy - Epic,Fathers and sons,Fiction,Fiction - Fantasy,Fiction Fantasy Epic,Missing persons

The Iron Tree Book One of The Crowthistle Chronicles Cecilia DartThornton 9780765350541 Books Reviews

This is a novel of contrast between the original desert setting and the marshland where it concludes.
The fantasy shows Jarred, a young man from a desert town, who travels with friends to see the world. He meets a lovely girl called Lilith in a marsh environment and the people there come to accept him as one of them.
Lilith is afraid to marry because of a curse on her family. Through a couple of generations now, one of a couple has died early and the other has become paranoid about pursuit by invisible beings. She can't inflict that fate on Jarred and it takes a lot to convince her that Jarred just might be immune.

The language in this book is lovely, with lyrical descriptions of environments from the plants and creatures to the seelie (benevolent) or unseelie (malevolent) wights and brownies who live there alongside the people, kept at bay by charms. The author has delved into British folk history and Irish speech patterns and names for her world.

The only thing that made me hesitate about giving this unusual story top rating is that we do not see more of the environments and peoples on this clearly varied world. However as The Iron Tree is the first in a trilogy the later books must explore the wider reaches, and the end of this one is clearly setting up for such a tale in the second book. I did enjoy the read and it will stay on my keeper shelves while I find the next in the series.
I love Cecilia Dart-Thornton's other work The Bitterbynde Trilogy. The Crowthistle Chronicles are not as good, but I still greatly enjoy them (except book 3). The thing you need to understand about Dart-Thornton is that she loves poetic prose. She REALLY loves it. She will describe everything in exquisite (for me, others may find it tedious) detail. The descriptive nature of her writing is immersive and on occasions overwhelming. If you don't like highly descriptive fantasy, you will not enjoy her books.

The story itself is more unique than it may appear at first glance--two lovers and a curse of madness. The main characters are perfect beings, they are not flawed in any way. If that annoys you, you will not enjoy her books. Her characters are always the smartest, prettiest, kindest, most superlative in every way. Their perfection is unmitigated. I think this mimics the simplicity of fairy tales in many ways, but again, it's not for everyone.

There are frequently folk tales and fairy tales told within the story by various characters. The story itself is not straight forward, and as I said before, immersive. SO, if you enjoy highly descriptive fantasy, perfect characters, and stories within stories, then you will probably enjoy these books.
I found this in my local library before...just to reject it. when I read the line about the protagonist's uniqueness. I just thought that he was going to be like any other young male lead in Young Adult fiction. However, I ended up giving in because, I wanted to check out a couple of books.

That's why I continued to lower my expectations with the glossary. Don't get me wrong. I was glad at first because, I've read some books that have in the back. However, that changed when I realized most of the terms were in Irish. (I wrote down the word máthair somewhere several years ago.) That made me wonder what average reader knows that language or has the inclination to care about the correct pronunciation. (To be honest, I sure didn't after a while. Not out of disrespect for the language; I just wanted to finish this.)

That aside, it's time to move onto the characters. First up is Jarred. I didn't like him at first because, I thought he was a bit annoying. It didn't help that he a fellcat just for hunting then killed the next one for being there. That and this guy complained about them. However, I kept reading and found out that fellcats are an invasive species. I then excused it because, I've learned about those over the years and found out that's few methods of handling them. Still, he turned out to be a great husband and father, despite not being the best breadwinner.

In addition, his mother, Sayareh, deserved a mention because, she was fine, even nice. That was until the point she started preaching. She first claimed that a mother's love is the strongest emotion, even though that's impossible to prove. She went onto compare it with lovers...just to call it superior. It doesn't help that her logic is quite flawed. First off, not every mother is a loving individual. (A case in point is a narcissistic mother.) That and mothers go too since, death and disownment happen.

I also thought some of his friends deserved a moment because, a couple of them tried to use their slingshot when the animal wasn't even near them! Those scenes both infuriated me and made me hard-pressed to believe they're decent people.

Furthermore, I found Lilith a little annoying. At first, it was just when she insulted Jarred and Eoin then walked away. She also shot down a piece of criticism, which made her look like an irritating child. And to make it worse, it wasn't even directed at her.

However, what's more important is the writing style. At first, the novel just lacked description at times and it became hard to visualize. That and the author did a little telling, not showing. (Just in case you didn't know, that's a big no-no in storytelling.) However, the writing was still lackluster. That was until the characters starting preaching while attempting to sound 'wise'. Granted, Lilith gave good advice when she told her daughter to choose a man who respects both man and animal. I've learned over the years that it says a lot about someone when they pick and choose who or what to be nice to. However, it worsened with the introduction of Jewel because, she always speaks like an adult. In fact, she even did at age 3, even though that's impossible. Still, that wasn't the worst case. That dishonor belongs to Jarred's death scene because, even with the short prologue and a vague answer, I saw no legitimate reason for his invulnerability to fail. In fact, the only thing I could think of was the author being way too eager to focus on the daughter.

On the other hand, I didn't hate every bit of it. I didn't mind the only romantic relationship despite it progressing too fast to be regret-free. That's because, the author didn't have Lilith turn abusive then expect us to be okay with that.

In addition, I was a bit upset upon learning that the amulet was useless because, I wanted to praise the author for that. That was until I learned Jarred's invulnerable due to his grandfather. I then figured that's better than his powers coming out of nowhere.

Furthermore, I enjoyed reading the tale behind Lilith's family's curse. I thought it was interesting to see how the older brothers failed. I also thought it was picking up. Still, I couldn't help wondering if it was too hard for someone to find out that hand wounds wouldn't cause you to bleed out.
Lyrical read.
I bought this book because I loved the Bitterbynde series but has fallen far short in comparrison. Long time to get going with little climax.
The descriptions of the Four Kingdoms of Tir, the people, the vegetation, the mythological creatures are lush and beautiful. However, the plot and characterizations are very thin. The two main characters, Jarred and Lilith, are not engaging, and the limited conflict that they failed to resolve was not worth an entire book. As I came toward the end of the Iron Tree, it was clear that they were only there to set up a further story in which their daughter would be the main character.
I bought this book after reading the Bitterbynde trilogy by Thornton. Expecting the same quality level of English mythology and original storytelling, I was very disappointed. The plot was trite, scenery and characters transparent. What's so interesting about two "most beautiful" characters meeting, falling in love, and then... well, I won't spoil the ending. But for fans of Thornton's previous books, I would not recommend this one.