Jane Yolen is one of America's most acclaimed authors. As an editor and poet, and an author of nonfiction and of children's, young-adult, and adult novels and stories, she has published more than 150 books and has won the Caldecott Medal, the World Fantasy Award, the Rhysling Award, the Kerlan Award, and the Academy of American Poets Prize. She is widely considered the 20th-century Hans Christian Andersen. Yolen has also created one of the greatest and most important high fantasy series, the Chronicles of Great Alta, which in its breadth and depth achieves not only the status of literature, but like Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, the stature and endurance of myth. In the late 1980s, Yolen produced the first and second volumes of the Chronicles of Great Alta, Sister Light, Sister Dark and White Jenna (also available in the single-volume The Books of Great Alta). Now she has written a self-contained sequel, The One-Armed Queen, which can be enjoyed by both fans and newcomers, by both its intended adult audience and by young-adult readers.
The One-Armed Queen returns to the world of the Dales many years after the warrior queen Jenna has defeated the Dales's great enemy, the kingdom of Garun. Queen Jenna's consort, King Carum, may be dying. Jenna's heir, her adopted daughter Scillia, is in constant conflict with her mother and her role. Jenna's first-born son, the ambitious prince Jemson, believes himself the rightful ruler. And the Garunians will exploit every weakness when they return, bent on conquest of the Dales and destruction of the hated Queen and Goddess. --Cynthia Ward
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Yolen resumes the saga of Queen Jenna and Prince Carum of the Dales that began in Sister Light, Sister Dark (1988) and continued in White Jenna (1989). The couple's children are growing. According to custom, Jenna's adopted daughter, Scillia, will be her heir. First-born son Jemson, however, is ambitious and unruly, and he falls under the influence of the schemes of the Garunites, whose former occupation of the Dales has not been forgotten and whose desire to reconquer them has not diminished. When Jemson is sent to Garun as a hostage, his unruliness turns into open rebellion. As has come to be usual for the hyperprolific Yolen, the tale is well told in all particulars, including historiographical interludes that satirize academic fashions and politics as well as 10 songs in Celtic style, collaborations by Yolen and her musician son, Adam Stemple, that appear in score, with tablature, in an appendix. Demanding but excellent fantasy fare. Roland Green --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Third of Yolen's fantasies (White Jenna, 1989, etc.) about the matriarchal land of the Dales, where women trained in mirror-magic can call forth dark twins who appear by moonlight or candlelight. This one, however, has turned into a family saga in more ways than one. The text includes ten songs co-written by Yolen's son Adam Stemple, and otherwise is cluttered with annoying sections headed ``The Myth,'' ``The Legend,'' ``The Ballad,'' ``The History,'' and so forth. The story, when we finally get to it, mostly concerns the children of Jenna, the White Queen. Her adoptive daughter and heir, the one-armed warrior Scillia, is rebelling against Jenna's strictures and training. Meanwhile, King Kras of the Garuns, the Dales' patriarchal rival, is fervently attempting to persuade Jenna's sons Jemson and Corrie to challenge their sister for the monarchy. The expected complications ensue. An all-singing entry in this waterlogged and insipid series. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“The tale is well told in all particulars. . . . Excellent fantasy fare.” —Booklist
“Yolen spins a mean yarn here.” —Publishers Weekly
Praise for Jane Yolen
“Yolen belongs on the same shelf as Ursula K. Le Guin.” —Marion Zimmer Bradley
About the Author
Jane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lives in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.
