This wasn't bad, and it most certainly shows an abundance of interesting female characters, but the story was a bit thin and it was told rather slowly. The weird intermezzo's didn't help either. ( )

On the face of it this book should have appealed to me more: a community of women, including warriors, who worship a goddess and provide a safe haven for the abandoned girl babies of their local communities. It is a 'chosen one' type story which has become rather more of an overused trope than at the time of first publication, but all the same there should have been the opportunity to become involved with the characters and their problems.

Unfortunately, I found the same kind of distancing that I found in this authors Cards of Grief. This time it is accomplished by constant interruptions to the story to tell us what the mythical version of these real events was, what the legendary and often very distorted version was, and what various learned academics made of it a thousand or so years later, often rubbishing the very idea of women as warriors or the existence of the main character, Jenna, as a real person rather than an archetype. Unfortunately this interfered to a major extent with my ability to invest in the characters and also - especially the academic parts - came across as a Pseud's Corner type sendup (for anyone who doesn't know that is a column in the journal 'Private Eye' which sends up this type of academic language and analysis). So I didn't find the story or characters very engaging as a result. The end is also a bit abrupt as it sets up the situation for book 2 of the trilogy - having built up the unpleasant priestess in Jenna's community as a real threat to her mission, said threat is easily and quickly neutralised. So I can only rate this as 2 stars. ( )

I just could not get into this book. The many different sections (The Myth, The Legend, The Ballad, The History, etc) didn't add anything and just served as a constant distraction that kept me from engaging with the actual story. The story itself was so ponderous, the writing and characters distanced and difficult to break into. I liked the ideas, but the execution was all over the place and weak. ( )

I really liked this book, though the story did have its problems. I think my favorite part was seeing the difference between the happenings of the story and the later interpretations of historians, musicians, and poets of the society long after it took place. The religion of Jenna's people reminds me of the religion of the people in the Dragon Age games in that it has a vague, female Jesus feel to it, but it also has a hearty helping of reconstructed ancient European religion in there too. Unfortunately, even though I really enjoyed the sections about the future interpretations and the songs, I can see what other reviewers have said about them jarring the reader out of the plot. I did have a hard time keeping my attention on the story, though that may have also been because I have had a lot going on in my life to think about the past few weeks, or because the story was geared towards much younger readers. I was also a little thrown by the obvious subplot that the least academic historian writing about the subject was the one most right about what actually happened. While that may be true in this fantasy world, I'm leery of people taking that message back to our real world and doubting historians/archaeologists about their research. I've seen a little of what's on the real world side of that profession and I know that the pickiness of the field is there to ensure that no one is led astray and that spiritually or politically motivated ideologies are not warping the academic sources being produced, though that's happened in the past.

Tl;dr This book is beautiful, and I really enjoyed a look into a fantasy world that felt real because of the layers, but I would caution people not to take it to heart as a commentary on our world. This would be best for young readers and those who have good concentration skills. ( )

Yolen’s world building in this book is incredible. The story is interwoven with “historical analysis”, folklore, and even folk songs (the sheet music is an appendix). A product of 70s feminism, this tells the story of thrice-orphaned Jenna, the warrior woman foretold in prophecy by the worshippers of the mother Goddess, Alta. The followers of Alta are bonded to their “dark sisters” who are called to them by a scrying mirror and can only be corporeal in moonlight or lamplight. ( )