Glass Into Steel

Quick & Intriguing

Glass Into Steel is a short story which packs a ton of entertainment, emotion, and intrigue into just a few, quickly-read pages. It is at once a tale of hopeless despair and poetic justice, though I hesitate to say more because this story is best experienced without foreknowledge. Everything you need to know about the plot is in the summary, and I strongly recommend giving it a chance if you're into science fiction or fantasy. (Perhaps even those into DnD will find intrigue in how this is basically a story of the power of bards.)

I flew through this 19-page story quickly, choosing to put off being a Responsible Adult for a few extra minutes just to see what happened. Never once did I get bored, and a couple times I was legitimately surprised by the turns the tale took. I'd dare say I enjoyed this far more than most of the Kindle shorts I've read.

This book is a great example of why I don't let the price tag of ‘free' influence my expectations. There is nothing ‘cheap' or lesser in quality about it, and in fact it is of the same quality as many expensive books I've read recently.

That says a lot, since the foreword mentions the author uses short stories like these as practice to become comfortable writing in English. I'm sure that explains a few of the grammatical oddities - which I've highlighted on goodreads - but overall I think Amitrani has an impressive grasp on writing in the language. I've seen similar quirks in the writing of native English speakers, because honestly grammar can be weird and confusing no matter what and sometimes what sounds better isn't always what goes by the rules. And, most importantly: I only ran into one sentence which was hard to understand. Everything else worked wonderfully and painted vivid mental pictures with even just a few, succinct sentences.

The one criticism I might offer is that sometimes the impact of emotions falls slightly flat. We're told the main character feels a certain way, and that comes through in the events and actions described, but occasionally it feels hollow and distant. For this particular story, however, it works because it's framed as a tale of the past presented by the narrating character and not something happening in real time. It makes perfect sense for someone to be guarded and not elaborate too much on vulnerable emotions when recalling a dark piece of their past.

Between this story and Lord of Time, I can safely say I eagerly await everything Michele Amitrani releases in English, now. (Alas, I'm monolingual myself.)