Among Others
by Jo Walton 
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Description
Fiction. Science Fiction. It doesn't matter. I have books, new books, and I can bear anything as long as there are books.' Fifteen-year-old Morwenna lives in Wales with her twin sister and a mother who spins dark magic for ill. One day, Mori and her mother fight a powerful, magical battle that kills her sister and leaves Mori crippled. Devastated, Mori flees to her long-lost father in England. Adrift, outcast at boarding school, Mori retreats into the worlds she knows best: her magic and her show more books. She works a spell to meet kindred souls and continues to devour every fantasy and science fiction novel she can lay her hands on. But danger lurks... She knows her mother is looking for her and that when she finds her, there will be no escape. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
norabelle414 A young, bookish kid in 1970s England gets tangled up in magical and scary events larger than they are.
110
anglemark Both books are about how reading shaped a child, although they are not both viewing it exactly the same way.
40
Jannes Both are fantasy or fantasy-sih books about fantasy readers and how the stories you read hape you and affect your sense of the world.
63
Herenya Both stories have a heroine dealing with grief and the sometimes-loneliness of being 15.
20
aulsmith Both works have a hint of Faerie, without being clear whether it's real or not. Also bad parents and their struggling offspring.
10
susanbooks Both are realistic novels in which the worlds of magic and fairy may be real and/or function as coping mechanisms for the narrators. Beautiful PTSD novels.
Cecrow Mo references several works in 'Among Us', but the terminology of 'Cat's Cradle' is especially important.
Member Reviews
The first few chapters of this novel triggered an astonishing cascade of thoughts, memories and sensations. Growing up in the seventies/eighties, reading Tolkien, Lewis, Garner, and any and all science fiction and fantasy I could get my hands on, the chord struck was, presumably, the intended one. My reading would not have been anywhere near the breadth or vigour of Mori's, nor would my responses have been as astute or thoughtful, but the effect on my imagination of reading The Lord Of The Rings was like hooking up a Christmas tree to a nuclear power plant. And a few years ago that might have been enough to make me fall in love with this book, just to see it being recreated, reimagined like this. I cherish my memories of being a bookish show more boy who half preferred to live in fantasy or way out in the galaxy somewhere than the real world, but I'm also perfectly aware of the drawbacks to such a life, the seclusion, the ant-social avoidance of other people and the tendency towards solipsism. There was also the seductive lure of language and wish-fulfillment, as it seemed possible to achieve things just by describing them in a few pages or chapter. Learn magic or warrior skills in as long as it takes to describe it! Much easier than actually doing the hard physical graft.
So it's worth remembering that I didn't just live my life through books. I was extremely fond of climbing mountains, for one thing, and I climbed most of the mountains in Ireland at one time or another, which meant that I climbed them in the worst weather imaginable and had the skills, experience and strength to love every minute. I also hiked through Wales, twice, which is relevant.
What I mean to say is that I had the suspicion that I was being pandered to, being told that I was special and misunderstood, but that I wasn't alone. Well I wasn't really, they don't let you climb mountains alone at that age. Fortunately, Jo Walton seems to get this, too, but that initial rush was the most vivid response to a book I've had in a long time. Which is fine, but is it any good?
It really is better than it has a right to be. A confection of whimsical fantasy, realism and nostalgia, the three worlds co-exist separately, much as the fairies do, so it's like an odd triangle balancing on one point at any given time.
Mori Markova has saved the world from her insane mother's magic, resulting in a dreadful sacrifice, and this is what happens in the aftermath. Sent away from her childhood home and extended family in the valleys and mountains of Wales to a boarding school in England, bringing with her a voracious appetite for reading. Lonely and isolated, she tries to find her way back to a life, but can't quite escape her mother's dark influence and her own propensity for magic.
Thus the three sides of her life: her books - a barrage of names and titles most of which I'm not too proud to say I am familiar with (but if you're not, there's a particularly lovely section where Mori describes her family and its history, another barrage of names and details, and like the books you really don't need to keep close track of everyone and everything to follow along); her new life and all its complexities and difficulties; and the fairies - which she sees everywhere - and the magic, and somehow it all works. Beautifully written, perceptive, quirky and evocative, Walton keeps them all balanced and poised with perfection.
This has won the Nebula and the Hugo, and it's easy to see why this has won the hearts of pros and fans alike, but it does more than just pander, which is not to say that it isn't a kind of wish fulfillment. The life, the books, the magic. Mori gets to have all three. But she earns it and she deserves it, and it's not a happy ending, but a happy beginning. After that, anything could happen. It's called growing up.
Just to note the coincidence: the last book I read and reviewed here was The Magus, which is one of the books Mori reads and talks about, which brought me up short a bit. I mean, you can read hundreds and hundreds of books, and none of them mention The Magus, but then you go and read The Magus, and in the very next book you read, the protagonist reads and talks about The Magus. Is that not peculiar? I found it peculiar. VERY peculiar. show less
So it's worth remembering that I didn't just live my life through books. I was extremely fond of climbing mountains, for one thing, and I climbed most of the mountains in Ireland at one time or another, which meant that I climbed them in the worst weather imaginable and had the skills, experience and strength to love every minute. I also hiked through Wales, twice, which is relevant.
What I mean to say is that I had the suspicion that I was being pandered to, being told that I was special and misunderstood, but that I wasn't alone. Well I wasn't really, they don't let you climb mountains alone at that age. Fortunately, Jo Walton seems to get this, too, but that initial rush was the most vivid response to a book I've had in a long time. Which is fine, but is it any good?
It really is better than it has a right to be. A confection of whimsical fantasy, realism and nostalgia, the three worlds co-exist separately, much as the fairies do, so it's like an odd triangle balancing on one point at any given time.
Mori Markova has saved the world from her insane mother's magic, resulting in a dreadful sacrifice, and this is what happens in the aftermath. Sent away from her childhood home and extended family in the valleys and mountains of Wales to a boarding school in England, bringing with her a voracious appetite for reading. Lonely and isolated, she tries to find her way back to a life, but can't quite escape her mother's dark influence and her own propensity for magic.
Thus the three sides of her life: her books - a barrage of names and titles most of which I'm not too proud to say I am familiar with (but if you're not, there's a particularly lovely section where Mori describes her family and its history, another barrage of names and details, and like the books you really don't need to keep close track of everyone and everything to follow along); her new life and all its complexities and difficulties; and the fairies - which she sees everywhere - and the magic, and somehow it all works. Beautifully written, perceptive, quirky and evocative, Walton keeps them all balanced and poised with perfection.
This has won the Nebula and the Hugo, and it's easy to see why this has won the hearts of pros and fans alike, but it does more than just pander, which is not to say that it isn't a kind of wish fulfillment. The life, the books, the magic. Mori gets to have all three. But she earns it and she deserves it, and it's not a happy ending, but a happy beginning. After that, anything could happen. It's called growing up.
Just to note the coincidence: the last book I read and reviewed here was The Magus, which is one of the books Mori reads and talks about, which brought me up short a bit. I mean, you can read hundreds and hundreds of books, and none of them mention The Magus, but then you go and read The Magus, and in the very next book you read, the protagonist reads and talks about The Magus. Is that not peculiar? I found it peculiar. VERY peculiar. show less
There was an epic contest between good and evil. Twins Mor and Mori, with the help of the faeries, faced down their mother, the Evil Queen, as she made a bid for world domination. The consequences were tragic . . . but all of this is actually just back-story for the book Among Others by Jo Walton.
Mori ran away from home after her sister died. She ends up in the care of her father (a man she doesn't even remember) and his three controlling sisters, who send her to boarding school. At school, she is an outsider -- because she is Welsh, because she is crippled, because her mother's family is not wealthy -- and she longs for acceptance, not from her schoolmates, but from a group of like-minded individuals with whom she can discuss books and show more the other things that she finds meaningful in life. She longs for this so much that she uses a little bit of magic -- and though the results are all she could wish, she finds herself conflicted. Is she really any better than her mother, using magic for her own ends?
Written in diary format, this is first and foremost a paean to books -- the science fiction and fantasy stories that Mori reads incessantly, the books that keep her company in her loneliest times, that entertain and console and educate her, that make her think and question, that make her embrace life. Readers unfamiliar with classic sci-fi may not understand a lot of the references, but the heart of the story is more about loving books than about knowing science fiction.
And then there are the faeries -- the magical denizens of forests and ruins. The main plot of the story, interwoven into the tale of Mori's life at boarding school, her personal reflections on growing up, and her comments on her voracious reading, is of Mori and magic, Mori and the faeries, and the things that Mori must do if she is to work only on the side of goodness. Despite the fact that Mori believes implicitly in the faeries, the existence and prevalence of magic in Mori's world is ultimately left up to the reader. Is Mori's mother a witch, or just insane? Do Mori's aunts keep her father under their thumb with a little genteel magic, or has he just given up? Does Mori bring the book club into being with her spell, or was it there all along?
Personal anecdote time: when I was a few years younger than Mori is in the book, I attended a particularly heinous private school, and I survived by reading (in the halls, in class, on the bus, etc.) -- so much so that, in my yearbook, another student wrote, "I'll miss seeing you read books." I think any bookish outsider will immediately identify with Mori on that level, even if, as with me, sci-fi is only a peripheral interest. I might have loved this book more if I had read everything Mori does -- but even without sharing her tastes, I was completely absorbed in her story, and I highly recommend this book. show less
Mori ran away from home after her sister died. She ends up in the care of her father (a man she doesn't even remember) and his three controlling sisters, who send her to boarding school. At school, she is an outsider -- because she is Welsh, because she is crippled, because her mother's family is not wealthy -- and she longs for acceptance, not from her schoolmates, but from a group of like-minded individuals with whom she can discuss books and show more the other things that she finds meaningful in life. She longs for this so much that she uses a little bit of magic -- and though the results are all she could wish, she finds herself conflicted. Is she really any better than her mother, using magic for her own ends?
Written in diary format, this is first and foremost a paean to books -- the science fiction and fantasy stories that Mori reads incessantly, the books that keep her company in her loneliest times, that entertain and console and educate her, that make her think and question, that make her embrace life. Readers unfamiliar with classic sci-fi may not understand a lot of the references, but the heart of the story is more about loving books than about knowing science fiction.
And then there are the faeries -- the magical denizens of forests and ruins. The main plot of the story, interwoven into the tale of Mori's life at boarding school, her personal reflections on growing up, and her comments on her voracious reading, is of Mori and magic, Mori and the faeries, and the things that Mori must do if she is to work only on the side of goodness. Despite the fact that Mori believes implicitly in the faeries, the existence and prevalence of magic in Mori's world is ultimately left up to the reader. Is Mori's mother a witch, or just insane? Do Mori's aunts keep her father under their thumb with a little genteel magic, or has he just given up? Does Mori bring the book club into being with her spell, or was it there all along?
Personal anecdote time: when I was a few years younger than Mori is in the book, I attended a particularly heinous private school, and I survived by reading (in the halls, in class, on the bus, etc.) -- so much so that, in my yearbook, another student wrote, "I'll miss seeing you read books." I think any bookish outsider will immediately identify with Mori on that level, even if, as with me, sci-fi is only a peripheral interest. I might have loved this book more if I had read everything Mori does -- but even without sharing her tastes, I was completely absorbed in her story, and I highly recommend this book. show less
There are books one reads, and books one falls into; Mori, Jo Walton's 15-year-old protagonist in Among Others, knows this because almost the only way she can relate to other people, or life, or anything, is through the books she reads and falls into. LotR is her top example, of course, but she loves anything science-fictional or fantastical in particular, with historical drama not too far behind. Oh, and she can see and communicate with fairies. It's late 1979/early 1980, and Mori is adrift - her identical twin sister Mor is dead and she herself is crippled by the same cause, and she has been sent from her home in Wales to a girl's boarding school in England, where, knowing that she'll never fit in, she sensibly uses her otherness to show more make most of her classmates afraid of her, thereby most likely to leave her alone. But she's lonely, and misses her family back home (especially her dead sister), and she misses running and being whole. When she finds a small science fiction book-reading club in the small town in which her school is situated, she hopes she's found her karass, her group of true friends who share her passions. But there's still the threat of her mother, the witch who caused all this upheaval and pain....I fell into Among Others even as I was never certain, not until the very end, if Mori was truly the surviving half of a twinship, a girl who could see fairies and make magic (but a very special sort of magic, one with complete deniability) and a young woman threatened by an insane and evil mother, or if she was entirely delusional. Charles deLint, in his review of this novel in F&SF (Jan/Feb 2011 edition), describes it as having jumped onto his "short list of favorite books ever," and I agree - this is realistic YA fantasy, at its best. I want the world to be like this. Simply stunning. show less
A young girl who can see fairies is sent away to school after the death of her twin sister and reads a lot of science fiction.
This is a lovely coming-of-age novel that I think will resonate with any reader, especially those of us who felt on the outside growing up. Interestingly, the most important event in the story happens before the novel even opens. This event -- a showdown between twin sisters and their witch mother over some dark plot, resulting in tragedy -- could serve as the climax for any fantasy novel. That this part of the story was deliberately left untold, and that a good deal of the story is about the protagonist's love for reading sci -fi/fantasy books, highlights an interesting choice by the author. She chooses to tell show more the story of what happens after the big climax, after evil has been defeated and good has won. What are the consequences? How do the survivors live with them? How do they get on with their lives afterward? I don't think I've seen that particular story done before, at least not often.
I enjoyed many of the references to reading and books, although to be honest, reading does not make for an exciting plot. Mor at fifteen is more well-read than I am, at least when it comes to science fiction. However, if you are unfamiliar with the books she references -- and some of them were unknown to me -- the references can go right over your head, and leave you feeling a little disconnected from the story.
As for the fairies and the magic, it was unclear whether they were actually real, or whether Mor had fantasized them. There are no indications in the book that they are anything but real, so I assume that we readers are supposed to accept them at face value. Mor does explain how magic works in a way that it can be dismissed as coincidence or something that would happen anyway, making it difficult to pin down when it is actually working, and that rang true to me. But there is so much she doesn't tell us, particularly about her mother, that the actual climax seems a little hollow.
All in all, I enjoyed this book very much. The few flaws are easily overlooked. I would recommend this book to teen readers and anyone who loves genre fiction. show less
This is a lovely coming-of-age novel that I think will resonate with any reader, especially those of us who felt on the outside growing up. Interestingly, the most important event in the story happens before the novel even opens. This event -- a showdown between twin sisters and their witch mother over some dark plot, resulting in tragedy -- could serve as the climax for any fantasy novel. That this part of the story was deliberately left untold, and that a good deal of the story is about the protagonist's love for reading sci -fi/fantasy books, highlights an interesting choice by the author. She chooses to tell show more the story of what happens after the big climax, after evil has been defeated and good has won. What are the consequences? How do the survivors live with them? How do they get on with their lives afterward? I don't think I've seen that particular story done before, at least not often.
I enjoyed many of the references to reading and books, although to be honest, reading does not make for an exciting plot. Mor at fifteen is more well-read than I am, at least when it comes to science fiction. However, if you are unfamiliar with the books she references -- and some of them were unknown to me -- the references can go right over your head, and leave you feeling a little disconnected from the story.
As for the fairies and the magic, it was unclear whether they were actually real, or whether Mor had fantasized them. There are no indications in the book that they are anything but real, so I assume that we readers are supposed to accept them at face value. Mor does explain how magic works in a way that it can be dismissed as coincidence or something that would happen anyway, making it difficult to pin down when it is actually working, and that rang true to me. But there is so much she doesn't tell us, particularly about her mother, that the actual climax seems a little hollow.
All in all, I enjoyed this book very much. The few flaws are easily overlooked. I would recommend this book to teen readers and anyone who loves genre fiction. show less
Set in the 1970s, this is Mori’s story. She and her twin sister grew up in Wales with a mum who dabbled in magic. They could talk to fairies and had little magics of their own. But their mother seeks greater power and an accident leaves Mori crippled and her twin gone. So Mori makes the hard but necessary choice to track down a father she’s never met. He’s quite surprised but takes on the challenge of raising a teenage girl. Mori finds herself in England at a boarding school, which is a completely foreign experience for her. So she dives further into her reading, devouring SFF novels by the dozens each month.
This tale is told through a series of journal entries and sometimes letters to her father. It felt like such a personal show more tale, as if Mori was writing to her lost twin sister and I was eaves dropping on the conversation. The story twined three elements together – the discussion of SFF novels (always a bonus!), bits of magic, and historical fiction. It really worked for me and I was so caught up in this book. I felt like Mori was a good friend by the end of it.
We also have some touches of mystery. For instance, it takes quite some time to find out how Mori was crippled and what happened to her sister (though the latter is a bit vague on the details). Then we have a smaller and much more common mystery of her father and how he met her mother and what the fall out was over. Lastly, there are the fairies themselves. For much of the novel, I was wondering if Mori was still caught up in a childhood game or if she could really see fairies and that magic was a real, tangible thing in this book (at least for her). I loved trying to catch her in some circumstance that would tell me for a certainty one way or the other. That moment doesn’t come until late in the book and having that bit of tension for the majority of the novel was a delicious tease.
Life at the boarding school is full of the teasing just about any new crippled kid on the block could expect to get. She’s got so much new to figure out, having come from a small Welsh town where everyone knows everyone. There’s some bullies I wouldn’t mind giving a nose tweak to and then there are some cool kids that do what they can to make her feel welcomed. In between terms, she has her father, a paternal grandfather, and a few aunties to get to know. Life in England is definitely different and there’s plenty of blunderings to share around. I really resonated with these aspects of the novel as I often moved as a kid and shared several of the same feelings as Mori.
The wonder of science fiction and fantasy literature is on grand display in this story. I loved all the talk about what made a story good or didn’t in Mori’s succinct few sentences. While I was born in the late 1970s, I had access to my dad’s SFF library growing up, so I recognized perhaps 3/4 of the novels referred to in this story, however, I had only read perhaps 1/3 of them. Reading this book definitely added some classic SFF novels to my TBR list. Mori will travel on multiple buses, slogging through foul weather on her cane in order to get to the library, post, or local book shop. I could totally relate.
This is one of those novels that makes me wish really hard that magic was alive and well in our world. In fact, this book almost makes me believe that if I keep looking, I will find it. As a coming of age novel, it rang true in many ways – the teasing, having to make adult decisions, going through the awkwardness of puberty. Toss in the mystery, the magic, the love of SFF literature, and you have quite the worthy read!
The Narration: Katherine Kellgren did a great job. She was the perfect voice for Mori. I loved her Welsh accent overlayed with Mori’s humor and wit. Kellgren performed other regional accents as required, making it a great narration. Her male voices were distinct and believable as well. show less
This tale is told through a series of journal entries and sometimes letters to her father. It felt like such a personal show more tale, as if Mori was writing to her lost twin sister and I was eaves dropping on the conversation. The story twined three elements together – the discussion of SFF novels (always a bonus!), bits of magic, and historical fiction. It really worked for me and I was so caught up in this book. I felt like Mori was a good friend by the end of it.
We also have some touches of mystery. For instance, it takes quite some time to find out how Mori was crippled and what happened to her sister (though the latter is a bit vague on the details). Then we have a smaller and much more common mystery of her father and how he met her mother and what the fall out was over. Lastly, there are the fairies themselves. For much of the novel, I was wondering if Mori was still caught up in a childhood game or if she could really see fairies and that magic was a real, tangible thing in this book (at least for her). I loved trying to catch her in some circumstance that would tell me for a certainty one way or the other. That moment doesn’t come until late in the book and having that bit of tension for the majority of the novel was a delicious tease.
Life at the boarding school is full of the teasing just about any new crippled kid on the block could expect to get. She’s got so much new to figure out, having come from a small Welsh town where everyone knows everyone. There’s some bullies I wouldn’t mind giving a nose tweak to and then there are some cool kids that do what they can to make her feel welcomed. In between terms, she has her father, a paternal grandfather, and a few aunties to get to know. Life in England is definitely different and there’s plenty of blunderings to share around. I really resonated with these aspects of the novel as I often moved as a kid and shared several of the same feelings as Mori.
The wonder of science fiction and fantasy literature is on grand display in this story. I loved all the talk about what made a story good or didn’t in Mori’s succinct few sentences. While I was born in the late 1970s, I had access to my dad’s SFF library growing up, so I recognized perhaps 3/4 of the novels referred to in this story, however, I had only read perhaps 1/3 of them. Reading this book definitely added some classic SFF novels to my TBR list. Mori will travel on multiple buses, slogging through foul weather on her cane in order to get to the library, post, or local book shop. I could totally relate.
This is one of those novels that makes me wish really hard that magic was alive and well in our world. In fact, this book almost makes me believe that if I keep looking, I will find it. As a coming of age novel, it rang true in many ways – the teasing, having to make adult decisions, going through the awkwardness of puberty. Toss in the mystery, the magic, the love of SFF literature, and you have quite the worthy read!
The Narration: Katherine Kellgren did a great job. She was the perfect voice for Mori. I loved her Welsh accent overlayed with Mori’s humor and wit. Kellgren performed other regional accents as required, making it a great narration. Her male voices were distinct and believable as well. show less
"Fantasy" is the perfect descriptor for this story as, for the bulk of the narrative, you simply cannot tell if it's real or if the whole thing is a coping mechanism dreamed up by the protagonist. Written as a series of diary entries by a 15-year old girl who is either a witch or delusional, the pages of 'Among Others' simply ooze atmosphere and tension as you wonder if it's all real or imagined. The book is a page-turner despite the fact that not much really happens. Walton did a superb job of drawing me into Mori's world-view and in reminding me of why I love sci-fi as a genre.
“Tolkien understood about the things that happen after the end. Because this is after the end, this is all the Scouring of the Shire, this is figuring out how to live in the time that wasn’t supposed to happen after the glorious last stand. I saved the world, or I think I did, and look, the world is still here, with sunsets and interlibrary loans. And it doesn’t care about me any more than the Shire cared about Frodo.”
Short review:
A well written, quiet and thoughtful coming of age tale, framed in magic and drenched in the love of books.
Long Review:
1979 finds Morwenna forced to live with her estranged father and facing the horrid prospect of a posh English boarding school. It's also the aftermath of a magical battle with her show more cruel mother, one that left her crippled and her twin sister dead. The only thing keeping her together is her love of books.
It's a great setup but one that’s likely to confound your expectations. A tale that accepts fairies and magic as part of life but isn't about that. It's a coming of age tale but minus the teenage angst and pat homilies. It’s a story about books but about discovery through them not escapism and how they open our horizons, allow us to chew over new ideas. Ignore the blurb and sink right, this a quiet thoughtful award winning book.
“There are some awful things in the world, it's true, but there are also some great books.”
Walton can write (I was hooked from the 1st page) and she also has a deft touch with story. Morwenna is a hugely likeable character who we want to be with as she recovers from her ordeal(s) and starts finding her feet. The past is kept murky but slowly unfurls as she becomes stronger and the balancing by doing this is superb. It never falls into the trap of mawkish tragedy but stays truly touching. Bibliophiles will obviously fall in love, instantly empathising even if you haven’t been reading 70s SF/F and I can see why it is being raved about on LT. I am not in love with it because I am really not a fan of the genre but the fact I did enjoy it says a lot.
Highly recommend to all those who love fantasy, stories, gnarly fairies and childhood. show less
Short review:
A well written, quiet and thoughtful coming of age tale, framed in magic and drenched in the love of books.
Long Review:
1979 finds Morwenna forced to live with her estranged father and facing the horrid prospect of a posh English boarding school. It's also the aftermath of a magical battle with her show more cruel mother, one that left her crippled and her twin sister dead. The only thing keeping her together is her love of books.
It's a great setup but one that’s likely to confound your expectations. A tale that accepts fairies and magic as part of life but isn't about that. It's a coming of age tale but minus the teenage angst and pat homilies. It’s a story about books but about discovery through them not escapism and how they open our horizons, allow us to chew over new ideas. Ignore the blurb and sink right, this a quiet thoughtful award winning book.
“There are some awful things in the world, it's true, but there are also some great books.”
Walton can write (I was hooked from the 1st page) and she also has a deft touch with story. Morwenna is a hugely likeable character who we want to be with as she recovers from her ordeal(s) and starts finding her feet. The past is kept murky but slowly unfurls as she becomes stronger and the balancing by doing this is superb. It never falls into the trap of mawkish tragedy but stays truly touching. Bibliophiles will obviously fall in love, instantly empathising even if you haven’t been reading 70s SF/F and I can see why it is being raved about on LT. I am not in love with it because I am really not a fan of the genre but the fact I did enjoy it says a lot.
Highly recommend to all those who love fantasy, stories, gnarly fairies and childhood. show less
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Published Reviews
ThingScore 84
As [Mori] tries to come to terms with her sister’s death through both books and fairy magic, the novel assumes true emotional resonance.
added by PhoenixFalls
There are really two points where the success of the novel as what it is make it fail to connect with me. The first has to do with the books. It's written in the form of a diary, and the form and voice are spot-on. But part of getting the diary form right is that it doesn't provide much in the way of information about the many books that Mori reads in the course of the novel-- you wouldn't show more expect a teenager with a lot on her mind to do a detailed plot summary of everything she read, after all.
This is no big deal as long as you recognize the references to authors and titles. But if you don't-- and there are a lot of books mentioned that I know about but either haven't read or do not recall fondly-- a lot of significance is lost. The titles sort of flash by as blank spots in the narrative, a kind of "This Cultural Reference Intentionally Left Blank" effect that ends up being a little off-putting. show less
This is no big deal as long as you recognize the references to authors and titles. But if you don't-- and there are a lot of books mentioned that I know about but either haven't read or do not recall fondly-- a lot of significance is lost. The titles sort of flash by as blank spots in the narrative, a kind of "This Cultural Reference Intentionally Left Blank" effect that ends up being a little off-putting. show less
added by Passer_Invenit
Among Others is many things – a fully realized boarding-school tale, a literary memoir, a touching yet unsentimental portrait of a troubled family – but there’s something particularly appealing about a fantasy which not only celebrates the joy of reading, but in which the heroine must face the forces of doom not in order to return yet another ring to some mountain, but to plan a trip to show more the 1980 Glasgow Eastercon. That’s the sort of book you can love. show less
added by Passer_Invenit — edited by Charon07
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Female Author
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Female Protagonist
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Hugo Awards - Best Novel
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Best Contemporary Literary Fiction (Around the Last 30 Years)
388 works; 124 members
Books with Twins
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Favorite Books Published in 2011
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One Book, Many Authors
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Speculative Fiction to Read
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Recommended Speculative Fiction by Women and People of Color
298 works; 45 members
child hero ~ adult novel
60 works; 12 members
Top Five Books of 2016
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BingoDOG - Books With Mythical Creatures
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io9 Book Club
70 works; 4 members
Books Read in 2021
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Books Read in 2020
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Twins, fantasy -- children's/young adult fiction
62 works; 6 members
Books Tagged Magic
7 works; 2 members
Books Read in 2012
816 works; 34 members
Best books read in the first half of 2012
38 works; 6 members
Overdue Podcast
808 works; 9 members
Books Mentioned in the A+ Autostraddle Pop Up Discords Nov 2022 & Dec 2022
223 works; 3 members
Favorite Epistolary Fiction
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Mustich's 1000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life Changing List
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GraceCollection TBR/To Buy List
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Books We Discovered On LibraryThing
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Books Read in 2017
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Favorite Coming of Age Novels.
164 works; 51 members
Death of one twin -- adult fiction
7 works; 1 member
Unreliable Narrators
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Books Read in 2016
4,666 works; 199 members
Death of one twin -- children's/young adult fiction
59 works; 4 members
Top Five Books of 2015
811 works; 241 members
Nebula Award
111 works; 14 members
Books Read in 2015
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Geek Books
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Best Family Stories
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Five star books
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Top Five Books of 2012
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Shannon's Read-Alikes List
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Books Read in 2013
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Literature About Women and Girls
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all aboard for malory towers (grownups)
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The Five Books That Represent Us
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Talk Discussions
Past Discussions
Jo Walton's Among Others in Science Fiction Fans (August 2012)
Chat about... Among Others by Jo Walton in The SF&F Book Chat (June 2012)
Author Information
61+ Works 14,700 Members
Jo Walton is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Is abridged in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Morwenna
- Original title
- Among Others
- Original publication date
- 2011-01-18
- People/Characters
- Morwenna Rachel Phelps Markova; Daniel Markova; Sam Markova; Wim; Glorfindel (pseudonym); Morganna Phelps
- Important places
- Aberdare, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, UK; Oswestry, Shropshire, England, UK; London, England, UK
- Epigraph
- Er'perrhene.
—Ursula Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
What one piece of advice would you give to yourself at what younger age?
Any time between 10 and 25:
It's going to improve. Hon... (show all)est. There really are people out there that you will like and who will like you.
—Farah Mendelsohn, LiveJournal, 23rd May 2008 - Dedication
- This is for all the libraries in the world, and all the librarians who sit there day after day lending books to people.
- First words
- The Phurnacite factory in Abercwmboi killed all the trees for two miles around. We'd measured it on the mileometer.
- Quotations
- It doesn't matter. I have books, new books, and I can bear anything as long as there are books.
Interlibrary loans are a wonder of the world and a glory of civilization.
Libraries really are wonderful. They're better than bookshops, even. I mean bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts.
Tolkien understood about the things that happen after the end. Because this is after the end, this is all the Scouring of the Shire, this is figuring out how to live in the time that wasn’t supposed to happen after the glor... (show all)ious last stand. I saved the world, or I think I did, and look, the world is still here, with sunsets and interlibrary loans. And it doesn’t care about me any more than the Shire cared about Frodo.
You can almost always find chains of coincidence to disprove magic. That's because it doesn't happen the way it happens in books. It makes those chains of coincidence. That's what it is. It's like if you snapped your fingers ... (show all)and produced a rose but it was because someone on an aeroplane had dropped a rose at just the right time for it to land in your hand. There was a real person and a real aeroplane and a real rose, but that doesn't mean the reason you have the rose in your hand isn't because you did the magic.
What I mean is, when I look at other people, other girls in school, and see what they like and what they're happy with and what they want, I don't feel as if I'm part of their species. And sometimes--sometimes I don't care. I... (show all) care about so few people really. Sometimes it feels as if it's only books that make life worth living.
...everything is magic. Using things connects them to you, being in the world connects you to the world, the sun streams down magic and people and animals and plants grow from sunlight and the world turns and everything is ma... (show all)gic. Fairies are more in the magic than in the world, and people are more in the world than in the magic.
I'll belong to libraries wherever I go. Maybe eventually I'll belong to libraries on other planets.
There's a difference between being someone who knows they can really die at any time and someone who doesn't .... people think there are dangerous things that can kill you, and everything else is safe. That's just not the way... (show all) it works. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Gate of Ivrel turns out to be really brill.
- Publisher's editor
- Nielsen Hayden, Patrick
- Blurbers
- Hobb, Robin; Doctorow, Cory; Rothfuss, Patrick; Simner, Janni Lee; Bernobich, Beth; Hoffman, Nina Kirriki (show all 16); Lynn, Elizabeth; Kowal, Mary Robinette; Yolen, Jane; Goldstein, Lisa; Brust, Steven; Robins, Madeleine; Turtledove, Harry; Wilson, Robert Charles; Charnas, Suzy McKee; Kushner, Ellen
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 823.914
- Canonical LCC
- PR6073.A448
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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