SOLVED. maybe YA scifi/fantasy a girl who goes on a quest, I believe it was to find her mother. There was a evil woman involved in the story too. (possibly witch) It had a fantasy old time setting. [s]

[ybKaren]

So I read this book sometime around 2001-2004, and I can't remember much of the plot, but it involved a girl who goes on a quest, I believe it was to find her mother. There was a evil woman involved in the story too. (possibly witch) It had a fantasy old time setting.

The big reveal at the end of the book *spoiler* is that when she confronts the witch, she is told that her mother came from earth, and that's where she had gone. When the girl asks if she could go after her, she is told that she cant, because she was born on the moon, and she couldn't survive living on earth due to her mass (something like that).

I'm not sure how much I'm remembering correctly, but it seems throughout the book we get a sense that the story takes place in the past, and that it's like a fantasy setting, but in the end it's more sci-fi, and it's actually taking place in a distant future.

I had thought the author was Christopher Pike, but I can't find a similar plot in his book collection. I was reading his books a lot at the time which is why I think this book must have been YA.

I really hope someone here knows recognizes this book with my vague description. It's annoying the heck out of me that I can't remember!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

YbKaren, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[ybKaren]

Still looking. No one seems to know it!

[Jamie]

This seems to have SOME elements similar to "The Pearl of the Soul of the World" by Meredith Anne Pierce, the 3rd book in the Darkangel Trilogy. Similar in that it feels like an older setting, but is actually in the future. There is a girl on a quest, there's a witch-like woman, and there are moon/Earth travel issues.

Here's a bit of the plot summary from Wiki:

"In this volume, Aeriel stumbles through a cavern, nameless, voiceless and with no memory. A pin in her skull, placed there by an agent of the Witch, forces her to avoid thinking, which causes extreme pain...Aeriel is then called to the deserted City of Crystalglass (a.k.a. NuRavennna), a stronghold of the Ancients where the mage Ravenna still lives. Ravenna heals Aeriel, who remembers how she was overpowered by the Witch's bird, who put the pin in her head. ....Ravenna gives Aeriel the third part of the rhyme and the final portion of her quest begins.

Ravenna tells Aeriel the truth about her world: it was merely a playground of the Ancient ones, who treated her people as slaves. The Ancients created weather machines, which are slowly running down. They abandoned the world to return to their own (Oceanus/Earth), but war and plague have since destroyed all life on Oceanus. Ravenna stayed in Aeriel's world to try to save it. She is old, and hopes to pass all her knowledge and sorcery to a successor, who will take care of the world. Her daughter is the White Witch, who turned to evil when she found out she was a "halfling" and could not go to Oceanus. Ravenna charges Aeriel with carrying a pearl filled with all her knowledge to the Witch. She must persuade the Witch to turn from evil and take up the task of saving the world. After creating the pearl, Ravenna dies...."

[Jamie]

I messaged the OP and confirmed that this is SOLVED.