The Iron Tree (The Crowthistle Chronicles book 1) by Cecilia Dart-Thornton
01/07/2005 . Source: Jennifer Howell 
pub: TOR-UK. 425 page hardback. Price: £17.99 (UK). ISBN: 1-4050-4710-0. pub: TOR. 399 page hardback. Price: $24.95 (US), $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-765-31205-0. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out websites: www.toruk.com, www.tor.com and www.dartthornton.com
Cecilia Dart-Thornton's writing could be described a bit of an acquired taste at the best of times, which is something of a shame. Used within the confines of a relatively traditional fantasy like her previous 'Bitterbynde Trilogy', it provides a decorative and diverting framework with lots and lots and lots of long, pretty words that might have you reaching for a dictionary every five minutes if you could be bothered. Mostly, it's just best to let it wash over you in a kind of attractive, verbose white noise while you get on with the story. Which was actually pretty good in 'Bitterbynde'...
The one thing that becomes quite clear first off with new trilogy 'The Crowthistle Chronicles' is that the flowery style is not going to let up anytime soon. The plot, however, starts to flounder under the weight of the language the moment you realise it's really not going anywhere fast. While it's intentionally unhurried, there comes a point when it needs something more than just romantic tragedy to keep the pace up.
It's a mite unconventional these days to tell your reader that your main characters are going to die on the first page of the (mainly unnecessary) prologue but hey, the book as a whole is not about building up tension. It's a quest narrative that gets mainly unfulfilled because it's made pretty clear the two protagonists aren't going to survive book one.
Yes, they get pretty trees planted over their graves that grow entwined and produce wonderful fruit that lets you 'dwell in happiness forever' but still, not much compensation for kicking the bucket, sadly.
The trouble with trying to describe the plot, of course, is that it makes you sit down and actually realise quite how little happens in the course of a hefty 400ish page hardback. I think it's only aiming to be a harmless enough little fantasy - mainly consisting of a romance as done via a Tolkienesque reliance on existing mythology and language - and you can't argue with the fact that you get exactly that.
Revolving around all-round nice guy hero Jarred (it took me a full two pages to realise this was pronounced 'Jar-red' and not the jarringly strange 'Jard' - obviously didn't have my brain in gear that day) who leaves his desert home and protective mother to see the world, only to run into the ridiculously beautiful Lilith in some strangely Irish marshlands. True love at first sight, yada yada yada - except that Lilith seems to have inherited a particularly nasty familial curse should she marry that likes to send her mad and her spouse to an early grave. Considering we first meet Lilith the day her own mother dies after several years of, well, being mad, things aren't looking good.
There's a couple of twists and turns in the plot ('Ah, they can get married after all!' 'Oops, no, shouldn't have done that!' kinda thing) but it all hinges on the fact that everyone has mysterious and significant parentage and has been brought together by some gigantic twists of fate. Which would make it all a bit of a cliché but hey, this is a fantasy romance we're talking about, these things are practically plot building blocks.
What you're supposed to do is sit back and enjoy the minimal, vaguely melodramatic, plot whilst being regaled with the fruits of CDT's in-depth research into English/Celtic folk mythology (we have references included and everything) and her deep and abiding love of describing things with long and obscure words. Actually, they have to be long, obscure and pretty words.
If that sounds like a criticism, it's really not. It's quite pleasant meandering through nice scenery with pretty people and being told about mythology and fairy stories. You're not going anywhere fast and you know how it's going to end (badly yet romantically - thanks for that prologue!) and even my English Lit degree bows down in the face of understanding Cecelia Dart-Thornton's vast and terrifying grasp of adverbs in the English language, so it's best just to enjoy the ride.
What bugged me was relatively minor - the pilfering of cultures feels distinctly odd when we're presented with a country quartered into Middle Eastern style desert, Irish bogs, Scandinavian fisherman and, um, something out of 'Lord Of The Rings'. Not quite sure what, though. Having somewhere called 'Wuthering Moors' on the map is seriously pushing it on the literary front.
What worries me about this book is who it's actually going to appeal to. From the looks of Amazon.com, it's not going down particularly well with fans of 'Bitterbynde' and I'm wondering if the highly stylised language is going to put off those who would actually enjoy it purely for being a fantasy romance. I was surprised to find it as readable as it was but it's a huge case of expectations being fulfilled after her first trilogy and it certainly doesn't build on what's gone before. If you didn't think there was enough warm and fuzzy romance in LOTR (book, not film) this may well be your thing after all.
Jennifer Howell |
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