A Woman of the Iron People

This book is another interesting take on first contact by Arnason. It's sort of similar to her Ring of Swords in that you get the perspective of the aliens trying to determine if the humans are people. It also shares the theme of separation of the sexes due to the aggression of the males. In this book, there are two narrators, Nia of the alien, or more appropriately, the native people, and Lixia of the humans from Earth. Nia's narration opens and closes the book while Lixia's is everything in between. It really brings in both sides of the issue of recognizing the Other as equal and important as themselves. This book won the 1992 Mythopoeic Award and the 1991 Otherwise Award.

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