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Title: White Jenna : Book Two of the Great Alta Saga by Jane Yolen ISBN: 0-7653-4358-4 Publisher: Tor Teen Pub. Date: 30 December, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.12 (8 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: The Heart is Quicker than the Eye
Comment: Although a sequel to Sister Light, Sister Dark, this shadowy fantasy weaves a complete tapestry of chiaroscuro. Prophecies on the slant, heroic female protagonists and cruel villains compete for the Dales--an unspecified island realm consisting of two uneasily mixed races. But supernatural folk intermingle with humans, as many women were born with dark sisters (fantasy twins.) Besides the Greena (Little People)who possess curious powers, there is the image of the Great Alta herself--mother goddess to many women of Earth, ruling through a succession of priestesses.
Young teenage Jenna--reluctant to consider herself the Anna of legend--undertakes a quest to warn her sisters in some 17 Hames about the rampages of the scourge of the Dales--perpetrated by brutal soldiers of the usurper. She is joined by a very young priestess named Petra, a middle-aged mentor Sister, Catrona, and ultimately by 3 youths who will become heralds of the true king. Who will emerge at the final coronation: the vicious Toad or one of the 2 rightful heirs?
Can a mere girl effect the ruin of the Hound, the Boar, the Bull and the Cat by her own, delicate hand? Privately seeking her young prince (from Book I), Jenna dedicates her will and her body to saving her sisters and restoring peace to the land. But why do so many insist that she is the legendary Anna?
Intermingling threads of various hues (myth, legend, "History" and the story itself), the author deftly spins a web of medieval intrigue in a supernatural sphere. The plot gradually tautens around the spindle of fate, to its dramatic denouement--interspersed with folk sayings of the Dalians. Jenna blushes with maidenly modesty at veiled sexual inuendoes, but few secrets escape the twinning knowledge of Skada, her dark sister.
Yolen occasionally inserts sly humor in the form of pseudo-scholarly debates among "Historians". Readers will enter a realm where the heart is quicker than the eye, where reality and fantasy inferface with sylvan grace. For ages 16 and up.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good, But Not Without Flaws
Comment: Jane Yolen is a superbly gifted artist. In _Sister Light, Sister Dark_, she introduced us to White Jenna, the Anna of prophecy and a young woman caught up in matters beyond her understanding; the end to Jenna's story is found in this sequel, _White Jenna_. Here we see a continuation of a very intriguing, original theme: the difference between myth, legend, history, and truth, where what really happened may strike historians as the incredible thing of all.
It's a shame, though, that the story itself isn't quite as mesmerizing as the theme behind it. The large role promised to Skada on the bookflap is never actually given; rather than sister, Dark Queen, and equal, she seems more like Jenna's convenient and helpful servant, showing up only in times of trouble. Large spans of time are skipped over; the fast-forwarding through the rest of Jenna's life was particularly irritating. Most of the characters either weren't developed as fully as they could have been or seemed like clones of earlier ones--there was remarkably little difference between Pynt and Petra, given that the latter originally seemed much more serious-minded. And despite what I said earlier about the main charm of the book being its comparison of history and truth, myth and reality, Jenna really did seem to accomplish amazingly little for a woman whose coming has been foretold for centuries and who was supposed to be a Goddess's good right hand.
Still, it's not at all a bad book. People who enjoyed the first in the series should likewise enjoy this one, for even with all its flaws, Jenna is as intriguing a heroine as ever, Carum as winsome, and Skada as entertaining. I probably wouldn't advise anyone to read this unless they've already read _Sister Light, Sister Dark_, though; whoever tries to do so is likely to end up very confused.
Rating: 3
Summary: Disappointing sequel
Comment: You know what they say... sequels are never as great as originals. I waited for what seems like forever for this book, and it was kinda disappointing. It didn't have the same magic Sister Light, Sister Dark had. The storytelling seemed kind of rushed and Skada's role was underplayed too much. All in all, a fizzling conclusion to a good beginning.
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Title: Sister Light, Sister Dark : Book One In The Great Alta Saga by Jane Yolen ISBN: 0765343576 Publisher: Tor Teen Pub. Date: 15 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The One-Armed Queen by Jane Yolen ISBN: 0812564790 Publisher: Tor Fantasy Pub. Date: 15 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Books of Great Alta : Comprising 'Sister Light, Sister Dark' and 'White Jenna' by Jane Yolen ISBN: 031286258X Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Suspicious by Nora Roberts ISBN: 0373218737 Publisher: Silhouette Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Eternity Code (Artemis Fowl, Book 3) by Eoin Colfer ISBN: 0786819146 Publisher: Miramax (Kids) Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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