Tag: Amal El-Mohtar

Review – Seasons of Glass and Iron

Posted June 11, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Seasons of Glass and Iron

Seasons of Glass & Iron

by Amal El-Mohtar

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories
Pages: 196
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales, and lyrical prose.

Full of Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Hugo Award-winning and nominated stories, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories includes "Seasons of Glass and Iron," "The Green Book," "Madeleine," "The Lonely Sea in the Sky," "And Their Lips Rang with the Sun," "The Truth About Owls," "A Hollow Play," "Anabasis," "To Follow the Waves," "John Hollowback and the Witch," "Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers," "Pockets," and more.

Seasons of Glass & Iron is a collection from various different times in Amal El-Mohtar’s writing career, and it’s surprising that they all fit pretty well together in light of that. Of course you don’t expect short stories to all be about the same thing, anyway, so that helps — but sometimes in collections like this that come from different times/were written for different purposes, you can really feel the disjointedness. That isn’t the case here.

I do enjoy El-Mohtar’s writing style, which helps, and knew I wanted to read this from a preview in the advance copy of The River Has Roots; it was nice to settle in and read the full collection, and there were several stories I really liked; ‘John Hollowback and the Witch’ is a fun one, and ‘Their Lips Rang With The Sun’. I was also interested in the story based on the Welsh story of Blodeuwedd, and would’ve loved some commentary on that and what provoked it, why Blodeuwedd felt like the right mythical source to use, etc.

I admit some of the other stories interested me less (like the one about pockets, since it didn’t quite feel like it really went anywhere?) and I wasn’t thaaat interested in the poems (at least in this context; it feels weird swapping between forms like that, for me!) — but overall, a good collection and one I enjoyed.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – The River Has Roots

Posted January 13, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – The River Has Roots

The River Has Roots

by Amal El-Mohtar

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 144
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

For whatever reason, Amal El-Mohtar’s work with Max Gladestone (This Is How You Lose The Time War) left me rather cold, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from The River Has Roots. Still, a solo work is quite different to a joint one, and I was curious, so I snagged this one to give it a shot — and really liked it. Mohtar’s style works well in this fairytale retelling (which I ID’d fairly quickly), and the narrative works well with the fairytale style. There’s a touch of the Valente/McGuire-style commentary on fairytales (heck, even C.S. Lewis), which never dips into condescension. Just… storytelling, explaining the world, as fairytale narrators can do in a way which adds to the worldbuilding and tone of the story.

Fairytale retellings can sometimes fall down by sticking too close to their origins, but Mohtar is careful to flesh out the two sisters, Esther and Ysabel, and their needs and wants. It stops short of explaining too much (despite the helpful narrator): Rin remains a little bit of a mystery, as does Agnes Crow — but there’s more than enough to tantalise.

I was a bit worried about the pacing given my progress through the book, but all made sense when I realised the review copy also came with a teaser for an upcoming book of short stories. The River Has Roots was the perfect length, I think, with the ending leaving enough questions to leave the reader some work to do with the imagination.

Rating: 4/5

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