Sister Light, Sister Dark
core novel 1988 Great Alta
Record
| First published | 1988 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.88 (2,728 ratings, collected 2026-11-01) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780312930912 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Jenna is raised on a mountainside by the women of Seldan Hame, a community of women living apart from the wider world. They teach her warrior skills and old magic, and her white hair marks her as a child of prophecy, destined to reunite the broken kingdom of the Dales. The women of the Hames share a rare gift: each can call forth a dark sister from a mirror, the other half that makes her whole. Jenna's is Skada, who can appear only in shadow. As invaders press on the land and old divisions harden, the two sisters take up a long-overdue uprising. The novel mixes narrative with ballad, history and tale.
Where it sits
- Universe: Great Alta
- Series: Great Alta core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Jane Yolen
Notes
- Expanded from a shorter story of the same name first published in the 1983 anthology Heroic Visions.
- From the series record (Great Alta): Three novels about Jenna, her shadow sister Skada and the next generation of the Dales.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Great Alta: position 1 of 3: next White Jenna (1989)
Sources
- Jane Yolen official site (Sister Light, Sister Dark)
- Rising Shadow
- Author site (Tor hardcover 0-312-93091-7) and AbeBooks listing
- TV Tropes (Tropedia)
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