The Books of Great Alta (Sister Light, Sister Dark / White Jenna)

Jane Yolen - a prolific writer who crosses age groupings without a hitch. She can write simple children's books, slightly more complex juvenile works and full-blown YA and straight fantasy. I've most recently been captivated by her Great Alta series: a religion formed around groups of warrior and priestess women who were raised by other women who were either left to die of exposure on the hillsides, or who sought out a sanctuary away from men. Each sister is partnered by a dark sister, pulled from the shadow world to share the earth when there is moonlight, candlelight and firelight. The pairings are sexual as well, though some women welcome the contact with village men and soldiers. Her tales are amusing in that they are presented show more first with the "archeological" reports and scholarly studies of these "Hames" followed by the local myths and stories that are told, ending with the action of the story itself. To add more credence to her tales, she partnered with a musician who scored the teaching songs and legends sung throughout the county. I will be buying these books to have to reread! show less

It seems like I'm hitting a lot of books that have a new take on the 'Wizard's familiar' concept. His Dark Materials had daemons for everyone, and it was done in a very cool way. In the world of Great Alta that Jane Yolen created, there is a group of women who have figured out how to gain a familiar even when the rest of the population have not.

It's an interesting take on the idea (if I may explore it for just a few sentences here). The link seems to be mostly one-way, from the main character to her 'dark sister'. We kind of learn about how it works through the eyes of Jenna, our protagonist. Her dark twin (Skada) has to teach her how things work, and even still Jenna is not nearly aware of Skada's thoughts and feelings. Conversely, show more everything Jenna experiences, even when her twin is not present, Skada automatically knows. It's a curious relationship.

As a book (or a pair of short books, actually), the story is unevenly told. We start off learning about the sisterhood, and Jenna's role as the heroine. She's confined to her little village along with her peers and then, fairly suddenly when she comes of age, she's tossed out into the outside world to fend for herself. Unfortunately, it's handled in a way that it's hard to *care* about this new outside world. So much detail and attention is given to the insular world of the sisterhood that, once the story opens up, it's as if we're reading a separate book. And this is before we've reached the second book of the combined novel. Jenna finds one person to care about, and so we can care indirectly that way, but the politics of the kingdom in which she finds herself are ill-defined and reach only the level of caricature.

On the plus side, the books have a world-building aspect that is interesting: poems, myths, and legends are presented to us, and then the story is told that underlies those three elements. I found that aspect of it very well done. The relationship between Jenna and Pynt, one of the girls that Jenna grew up with, is also handled very well and was one of the more enjoyable aspects of the books. The story of how the sisterhood came to be, and Jenna's role within it, was far more interesting than the mustache-twirling villain she ends up fighting against. show less

Evidentially this was supposed to have lesbian undertones. I totally missed that when I read it.