The One-Armed Queen

For me this unsatisfactory trilogy limped to a close with a final unsatisfactory volume. Despite the story appearing to be wrapped up in an epilogue in volume two, in this we go back to when Jenna and Corum have been ruling for about twenty-five years after the war in book 2 - although that doesn't become clear until quite late on which caused confusion. I distinctly recalled the end of book 2 saying they ruled for 50 years before they departed to the fairyland under the hill, as Corum was dying and Jenna had been promised by the Alta - the goddess - that she could bring one person back when she returned. A line about half way through finally explains that this is a bit of folk exaggeration, hence their children are not middle aged when show more they finally depart, only in their mid to late twenties.

Anyway, the book commences when their adopted daughter Scilia is thirteen and a total and annoying brat, doing stupid things and generally being an idiot. Jenna's angst is added to by having to send her oldest son Jem abroad to an enemy country in exchange for a royal son of theirs to ensure peace. Finally Jenna manages to patch things up with her daughter and the action then moves to years later when Jem returns, having been indoctrinated in the other land's mysogny and Corum is dying. The situation is then set up for Jem's usurpation of the throne and subsequent atrocities.

I'm afraid I couldn't take this story seriously because of the way Jem descends into what you could call carpet chewing madness murdering his younger brother and then keeping his body around as it decays while believing him still alive. The story would have been much more effective if he was sane but just had repellent views especially about women. The over the top lunacy lacks conviction.

This is not helped by the usual interruptions by a scholar years later who casts doubt on the whole story we are reading as in the other volumes, though ironically the doubter's child has now taken over and seems to be accepting Jenna's historical reality rather than thinking her a mythical figure (the tack taken in these interludes in the previous books) while still getting just about everything else wrong. They serve again to jar the reader out of the story which, frankly, needs all the help it can get with maintaining suspension of disbelief, so that is the final straw. Consequently, this is another 2 star just OK read. show less

A better book than the second, but a lesser book than the first, The One-Armed Queen is still solidly entertaining. It benefits from a new cast of characters (it focuses primarily on Jenna's children), but sufferings from now living in a more traditional fantasy setting and story than the first book of the trilogy.

This story is the end of the circle, and as such it means the end of a great many things that I loved in the first book, which makes it intensely bittersweet. Otherwise it is a fairly standard fantasy romp through war and crowns and kings, set apart only by the continually-delightful histories, myths, legends, and songs.

One thread through the histories is a dismissal of Jenna (and her children) as a real historical figure, of show more the magic and mysteries as superstitious nonsense, and of everything from their customs to their native wildlife as 'unprovable'. Since a thread of the /legends/ holds that Jenna did not die, but instead went under the hill to wait until the Dales needed her again, I found myself longing for /that/ book - the book when Jenna returns to a world which seems quite modern (it includes cinema, at least), and in which these Dale historians are simultaneously incredibly important (for surely knowledge about the Dales would be needed for some reason) and incredibly erroneous (trust me, you want these men to meet the Warrior Queen and her dark sister. Badly.) I'm so sad that there doesn't appear to be such a book. show less

For the whole series: These books are fascinatingly written. The frame story is that there are legends, songs, and tales about the women of Great Alta, and that historians fight constantly about the meanings of these legends. Each chapter includes some “history”, some “legend” and then the “true story” of what really happened. The women of Great Alta (and their shadow sisters) have a complex and magical way of life, which is brought to life all the more fully through the layered way Yolen constructs the books. The books are a great commentary on what we do or do not know about past cultures.

Gripping, and surprising conclusion to the Great Alta trilogy.

When Queen Jenna chooses her adopted daughter to succeed her in fulfillment of prophecy, instead of her own son Jem, the fate of her people will hang in the balance when he decides to "take what is his."

Great adventure, strong dialog and memorable characters make this trilogy a complete pleasure to read!

I picked it up and thought the style was interesting with all the breaks in the story but really it was just incredibly annoying. They took me out of the story and I could hardly read them after a while. The story itself was all right but the ending was so weak. :/ I enjoyed reading it except for what I've just said but it was hard going.

While this still doesn't quite match the first book, I found this more engaging than the second. The third and last book in the Great Alta Saga, this one is just as full of exciting adventure as the first ones. Yolen's writing is once again brilliant as she effectively writes in different voices as she tells the story, the tale, the legend, the myth, the history, the song, the ballad, and all the rest. Excellent!

I have to admit I didn't finish this one. I LOVED the first two way back when, but I think that you have to be in a very specific mood to read this series.