★★★★+
Synopsis: This novella is the coming-of-age story of the girl Jalila in the far future on the planet Habara where the people mostly live in an all female society and males are extremely rare. Her childhood is in the high plains where only the titular spore breathmoss enable them to breath the thin air. Her three mothers are moving her family down to the coast to the city Al Janb which contrasts the highlands in climate, people, rocket ships, and aliens. Jalila doesn’t know how to live there and doesn’t like it. One day she sees the strangest thing of all and befriends the boy Kalal.
Review: The visual prose in this story makes me feel serene and calm like only Ursula Le Guin manages. There is not that much action or dialogue, but the characterization and literary narration are powerful, and though its not one of these page turners, I couldn’t get away from it and read it in one session. The culture is extrapolated and different but recognizable derived from Middle Eastern with all the unexplained neologisms describing her home (dreamtent), technology (hayawans like horses), plants etc. Like Le Guin, the author manages to introduce a foreign taste combined with a feministic message. The core of the story remains melancholical, sometimes comical, never melodramatic, ever interesting.
Meta: isfdb. It won the Asimov’s Reader award.
Reißwolf 