The One-Armed Queen (Tor Fantasy) [Mass Market Paperback]

Jane Yolen (Author)

Book Description

Series: Tor Fantasy | Publication Date: August 15, 1999

In the twilight of a lost age of high mages, the great warrior Queen called White Jenna found a frail, one-armed child on the field of battle. In the way of the Hames of the Dales, she adopted the child, named her Scillia, and made the girl her heir, destined to rule as Queen at Jenna's passing.

But Jenna's natural son Jem, younger than Scillia, has been raised in the kingdom of their enemies as a hostage and foster son. He had been taught to resent his foster sister's power and covet the throne for himself and his Garun masters, unleashing a terrible time of bloodshed and betrayal.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

From Publishers Weekly

Following the format of the two earlier books in the White Jenna oeuvre (Sister Light, Sister Dark and White Jenna), the third shows how myth, legend, song, history and story interweave to create a magical tale that is neither wholly truth nor simply fancy. Focusing primarily on the adopted and natural children of Queen Jenna and King Carum, the narrative details the trials and tribulations of the royal family, who are trying to maintain an unstable peace more than a decade after the Gender Wars. Disturbing the royals' harmony is the need of Scillia, oldest daughter and heir to the throne, to find her path by traveling the "mother road" and learning more about her natural parents. More dangerous to the kingdom are eldest son Jemson's desires after he is exchanged for another prince in a land where women are lower than peasants, and peasants have no rights at all. Trying to keep everyone happy is good-natured middle child Corrie, who loves life, fancy clothes and his family. Far less prominent in this novel than in its predecessors are the dark sisters, mystical twins brought forth by trained women who appear only during appropriate conditions of light and shadow. Indeed, readers looking for the fantasy element nurtured in the previous books primarily by the twins would do well to reread those novels, since this one concentrates on the interactions of more mundane family members. But those who want to see the story of Jenna continued to what is probably its logical end will find that Yolen spins a mean yarn here. Also included are music and lyrics for 10 songs by Yolen's son Adam Stemple.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Tor Fantasy; 1st edition (August 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812564790
• ISBN-13: 978-0812564792
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,223,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born and raised in New York City, Jane Yolen now lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts. She attended Smith College and received her master's degree in education from the University of Massachusetts. The distinguished author of more than 170 books, Jane Yolen is a person of many talents. When she is not writing, Yolen composes songs, is a professional storyteller on the stage, and is the busy wife of a university professor, the mother of three grown children, and a grandmother. Active in several organizations, Yolen has been on the Board of Directors of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, was president of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1986 to 1988, is on the editorial board of several magazines, and was a founding member of the Western New England Storytellers Guild, the Western Massachusetts Illustrators Guild, and the Bay State Writers Guild. For twenty years, she ran a monthly writer's workshop for new children's book authors. In 1980, when Yolen was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree by Our Lady of the Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts, the citation recognized that "throughout her writing career she has remained true to her primary source of inspiration--folk culture." Folklore is the "perfect second skin," writes Yolen. "From under its hide, we can see all the shimmering, shadowy uncertainties of the world." Folklore, she believes, is the universal human language, a language that children instinctively feel in their hearts. All of Yolen's stories and poems are somehow rooted in her sense of family and self. The Emperor and the Kite, which was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1983 for its intricate papercut illustrations by Ed Young, was based on Yolen's relationship with her late father, who was an international kite-flying champion. Owl Moon, winner of the 1988 Caldecott Medal for John Schoenherr's exquisite watercolors, was inspired by her husband's interest in birding. Yolen's graceful rhythms and outrageous rhymes have been gathered in numerous collections. She has earned many awards over the years: the Regina Medal, the Kerlan Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Society of Children's Book Writers Award, the Mythopoetic Society's Aslan Award, the Christopher Medal, the Boy's Club Jr. Book Award, the Garden State Children's Book Award, the Daedalus Award, a number of Parents' Choice Magazine Awards, and many more. Her books and stories have been translated into Japanese, French, Spanish, Chinese, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Afrikaans, !Xhosa, Portuguese, and Braille. With a versatility that has led her to be called "America's Hans Christian Andersen," Yolen, the child of two writers, is a gifted and natural storyteller. Perhaps the best explanation for her outstanding accomplishments comes from Jane Yolen herself: "I don't care whether the story is real or fantastical. I tell the story that needs to be told."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The queen lives!, August 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The One-Armed Queen (Tor Fantasy) (Mass Market Paperback)

Okay. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But I have to ask . . . *what's the matter with you people???* This was a truly great book ! The plot was fascinating, and the set-up itself was wonderful. The concept of a Dark Sister is a little confusing if you've never read any of the other books in the series (which I haven't but now mean to), but Jane Yolen makes it clear as the book progresses. She didn't bore me with lengthy descriptions of the Dales in the beginning of the book; she showed, rather than told. The little inserts of history and letters that were written years after the story (so to speak) were great, adding a new dimension to the story. And the characters were amazing. Jenna, the White Queen, and her sister Skada. Uncertain of herself, yet brave in her actions, she has become a hero of mine. The brothers Jemsen and Corum----Corum was one of my favorite charaters, so real that he seems a real person. And of course Scillia, the one-armed warrior queen. What a great concept. But perhaps the best part of Scillia was that she did _not_ like war. Killing repulsed her. An original respite to the usual, kill-and-make-jokes-at-the-same-time method that most fantasy books use, thank you very much. And more than that, Scillia was the first true KID in a fantasy book I've seen so far. A moody thirteen-year-old, she found herself angry with her mother or a situation without knowing why. I can relate. In fact, reading this story gave me courage in knowing that I am not the only teen to be discouraged by things in life. And relating to Jenna for awhile helped me to see my mother's point of view as a parent. This is something you rarely see in books. -------- The plot, characters, setting . . . EVERYthing was original. And the songs in the back of the book were gorgeous. I sing "The Two Kings" and "The Dark Sister Lullaby" all the time. The music is simple but beautiful. So please, give this book a chance. It made me smile, it made me cry (and I don't cry when I read books), it made me proud to be a woman. The queen lives.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Third-half syndrome..., November 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: One-armed Queen (Hardcover)

I first read "Sister Light, Sister Dark" when I was nine years old and spent five fervent years searching for its out-of-print sequel, "White Jenna." (Needless to say, now that the two have been reprinted as "The Books of Great Alta," I'm ecstatic.) Together the two books were a perfect pair, complementary halves as befitted a story set in a world whose major system deals with opposites and complements. I loved them.

This said, my problem with "The One-Armed Queen" has nothing to do with its characters, its setting, its pace, or its description. Admittedly, all aspects of the story pale slightly in comparison with the preceding two books, which are phenomenal, but on its own it is a fine, beautifully written, intriguing fantasy. I love the world of the Dales and the Continent, which feels a bit like some alternate British Isles; the societies are well-constructed, and the mythology and folklore are so solid as to be real. I enjoy the interweaving of story, song, and myth with historical interludes-most of the history rather inaccurate, as the pragmatic historian is trying to give concrete, realistic explanations of events that did in fact involve the supernatural (more evident in "The Books of Great Alta" than in "The One-Armed Queen")-and while I was a bit sorry to hear that the anonymous skeptic of the earlier books had died, I was quite pleased to see his daughter take over his work and be just as wrong as he was about what really happened. Story aside, all three books are a fascinating exercise in what happens to a story over time--how it evolves, what forms it takes in song and legend, and how it is reconstructed by historians a thousand years later. "The One-Armed Queen" is ten times better than much of the work out there, and definitely deserves to be read.

So what was the problem? As I mentioned earlier, "Sister Light, Sister Dark" and "White Jenna" are beautifully self-contained, complementary, and complete. The story, which finishes so fittingly at the end of "White Jenna," does not really need to be extended. Of course something happened afterward-something happens after the finish of every story-but the story of Scillia, daughter of Carum and Jenna, and her brothers Corrine and Jemson, the story of the War of Deeds and Succession ("a rather long name for a rather short period in our history"), really does not need to be told. I am glad that it was told, I enjoyed reading "The One-Armed Queen," but the story still feels faintly unnecessary in the wake of its predecessors. "Sister Light, Sister Dark" and "White Jenna" were powerful books. "The One-Armed Queen" is a good, thoughtful read. There's a difference.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars War and retribution, February 10, 2000

By 

Sara Laren - See all my reviews

This review is from: One-armed Queen (Hardcover)

The One-Armed Queen was better than White Jenna yet nowhere near as good as Sister Light, Sister Dark. Like WJ, it lacked the mystical quality and bardic flavour of SL, SD but it was made up by the characterization of the two brother princes and the excellent plotting when Jemson was sent overseas. Jemson and Corrine are both amazing characters, surprising in their depth.