Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories – Amal El-Mohtar

The stories are very-well crafted, but I found myself admiring the craft more than enjoying the stories. The author’s introduction suggests that if there’s a thread that connects the works in this collection, it’s women interacting with women. If I hadn’t read the introduction, I would have said that the most-pervasive theme is alienation - being caught between two cultures and not comfortably a member of either.

The title story, and one of the best in the collection, is surely more about women interacting with women than about alienation. It portrays two women who have gotten the short end of the fairy-tale stick. It is, one of the two notes in passing, common: The men get to wear seven-league boots; the women get to wear glass slippers, or worse. The men get the king’s daughter and half the kingdom. Presumably the king’s daughter gets a surprise.

Another story with a similar feel was “Florilegia; or, Some Lies About Flowers”. The hero gets around a curse by receiving a bride made of flowers. How do we suppose the bride feels about this? Especially if she was happy being flowers?

The alienation is handled with a lighter touch. “My name is A-NEE-sa actually”, she replies…