Among Others
.jpg) Dust jacket of first edition | |
| Author | Jo Walton |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy literature |
| Publisher |
Tor Books Corsair (Constable & Robinson) |
Publication date | 18 January 2011 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 302 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 978-0-7653-2153-4 |
Among Others is a 2011 fantasy novel by Jo Walton, published originally by Tor Books.[1] It is published in the UK by Corsair (Constable & Robinson).[2] It won the 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the British Fantasy Award,[3] and was a nominee for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.[4]
Plot
The novel is presented as the diary of Mori, a 15-year-old Welsh science fiction and fantasy fan, in 1979 and 1980. She and her twin sister have magically stopped their mother from taking control of the fairies, but they suffered an accident in which her sister was killed and Mori's leg was injured. At the beginning of the book, as her mother is insane, she is sent to western England to live with her father and his three half-sisters, none of whom she has ever seen. They send her to a nearby girls' boarding school, which she finds unmagical and very uncongenial, losing all but one of the few friends she makes. She has considerable free time because she can do her schoolwork quickly and because her injury prevents her from participating in sports, and she spends all this time reading books provided by her father (also an SF fan), the school library, and the local public library. Throughout her diary she records her and other characters' reactions to these books with as much interest as any other events of her life.
Reception
Ursula K. Le Guin, in her review for The Guardian, called the book "a funny, thoughtful, acute and absorbing story all the way through".[5] Similarly, Elizabeth Bear, in her review for tor.com, stated that "The voice is sublime; the characters nuanced.… In any case, I think this is Walton's best book to date."[6]
Conversely, in her review for The Washington Post, Elizabeth Hand wrote that "More than anything else, Among Others is a love letter to the literature of the fantastic and to SF fandom. This is problematic as well as charming, because nothing much happens in the novel."[7]
References
- ↑ Among Others (Excerpt), by Jo Walton, at Tor.com; published 18 January 2011; retrieved 7 April 2012
- ↑ Among Others | Jo Walton - Constable & Robinson Retrieved 11 October 2012.
- ↑ Flood, Alison (1 October 2012). "Jo Walton wins British Fantasy award for Among Others". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
- ↑ "World Fantasy Award Ballot". World Fantasy Convention. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
- ↑ Le Guin, Ursula K. (March 30, 2013). "Among Others by Jo Walton – review". The Guardian. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
- ↑ Bear, Elizabeth (July 2, 2012). "Is it Magic or is it Mimetic? (Being a Review of Jo Walton’s Among Others". Retrieved August 6, 2013.
- ↑ Hand, Elizabeth (May 13, 2011). "Among Others by Jo Walton – review". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
External links
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