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annathepiperJust to give you an idea of how behind I am on getting my To Read shelf cleared out, Jane Yolen's The One-Armed Queen--the followup to Sister Light, Sister Dark and White Jenna--has been on the queue for NINE YEARS. The thing came out in 1998. It has taken me until now to actually read it.
Was it worth my wait? Eh, it was a decent enough novel. It didn't particularly blow me away, and the interspersing of snippets of myth, legend, song, and "historical" research through the story sometimes struck me as annoyingly distracting and sometimes as a rather cool meta-level interpretation of the story... which, I suppose, is a sign of it not quite working for me. The same for the title character, Scillia, adopted daughter of the Jenna who was the heroine of the previous two books. She starts the story off as an angsty child who mostly annoys the tar out of me, and finishes as more of a catalyst for others to act rather than someone really driving the action herself. While I can see why this was in character and appropriate for her, it was still unsatisfying for me as a reader.
So. All in all, kind of ambivalent about this one. Yolen's way with a word is solid, and I do like the songs that were leavened all over the novel, but ultimately I could have taken or left this one. Two and a half stars.
Was it worth my wait? Eh, it was a decent enough novel. It didn't particularly blow me away, and the interspersing of snippets of myth, legend, song, and "historical" research through the story sometimes struck me as annoyingly distracting and sometimes as a rather cool meta-level interpretation of the story... which, I suppose, is a sign of it not quite working for me. The same for the title character, Scillia, adopted daughter of the Jenna who was the heroine of the previous two books. She starts the story off as an angsty child who mostly annoys the tar out of me, and finishes as more of a catalyst for others to act rather than someone really driving the action herself. While I can see why this was in character and appropriate for her, it was still unsatisfying for me as a reader.
So. All in all, kind of ambivalent about this one. Yolen's way with a word is solid, and I do like the songs that were leavened all over the novel, but ultimately I could have taken or left this one. Two and a half stars.
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Date: 2007-08-17 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-18 06:54 pm (UTC)