Staff Pick

Serious readers spend half their lives consumed by what they are reading. I haven't seen a novel that so vividly illustrates this as Among Others does. I've been reading science fiction and fantasy since a young age, and I loved how Walton, a constant reader herself, makes what the main character is reading so central to the story. A rich and satisfying tale that has stayed with me long after the last page.
Recommended by Mary Jo, Powells.com

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Lisa Combs, May 24, 2012 (view all comments by Lisa Combs)
Okay, confessions here... I have been a science fiction reader since childhood (eons ago). I avoided the fantasy aspect for various reasons. Jo Walton came to my reading shelf via Patrick Rothfuss actually. Now, I admit I am a fan of Walton and the fantasy aspect of the science fiction genre. In Among Others I rediscovered the child like wonder of how reading came to be a passion. Gobbling up her other stories only enriched my senses of good storytelling, good connection with characters that live among other characters from other reading experiences in my head if I am caught between books! A fellow Welsh-ite at that....
Jo Walton gives a vivid in-the-action moment kind of reading I love. The benefit of coming to the science fiction fantasy genre a little later than many others is I have so many wonderful books to look forward to reading, when I have read all of Walton's.

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Pam in CA, January 30, 2012 (view all comments by Pam in CA)
Full of wonder,delight and erie danger. A coming of age for a girl who loves books and is coping with the death of her twin, the madness of her mother, coming to know her father and his family, and having an injured leg. She learns to deal with a new school, a new boyfriend, and most of all - the proper use of magic and becoming her own self. It is a story about coping with the world we live in, learning who we are and how we want to to live our lives. All of this is not just thought and feeling, but has action and danger too. This book is written with a delightful love of books which brings back memories of how we first discovered our favorite authors - the mystery writers, science fiction and non fiction writers. This book is not just another teen fantasy book, but is a thoughtful book for adults too.

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Melody Murray, January 23, 2012 (view all comments by Melody Murray)
Every now and then, there's a book that's written to one like a letter. This book was one of those, addressed to me at the address I had when I was fifteen. I loved it from the second I opened it. I was a little afraid after the first chapter that there was no way it could live up to my hopes, but it did.



The protagonist Mor is not a reader, rather she lives for and through and in books while also having an interesting real life. She's got some large and perplexing issues with which to deal while trying to recover from a horrible accident and its aftermath. Her worldview is very much shaped by her reading, and though she's a perspicacious fifteen-year-old, she is still a fifteen-year-old. Her voice rings true, and her reading list is very familiar indeed.



I loved the litany of books. I loved meeting old friends, and I adored the quotes and allusions and in-jokes, some of which I missed due to lacunae in my own reading. (F'rinstance, I've never finished anything by Vonnegut but perhaps it's time to give him another chance.) When I saw that Walton had Mor reading Zenna Henderson, I cheered. I loved how much Le Guin and Tiptree and Asimov and Tey and Dodie Smith and of course Heinlein and Zelazny and Silverberg were woven through the text. And McCaffery and Ellison and Sturgeon and Plato and Shakespeare and Renault. It was so lovely to see so many well-thumbed names from my own back pages.



I liked the storyline as well, though I never really grokked in fullness the evil mother or her motives. Didn't matter. Not a bit. There's a boarding school, a book club full of SF geeks, Narnia, several Good Librarians, magic, Susan Cooper, Spider Robinson, fairies, ghosts, Dutch Elm disease... aw, t'hell with it, I could go on listing and listing but I think I'll go re-read the book instead.



Oh, yes, highly recommended. Especially for SF lovers who adolesced in the late 70s. And those of us who have the deepest relationships with fictional characters.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780765331724

Author:

Walton, Jo

Publisher:

Tor Books

Subject:

Fantasy - General

Subject:

Science Fiction and Fantasy-Fantasy

Subject:

Fantasy - Contemporary

Copyright:

2012

Publication Date:

20120131

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Language:

English

Pages:

304

Dimensions:

8.25 x 5.5 x 0.75 in 1 lb

Among Others New Trade Paper Jo Walton Product details 304 pages Tor Books - 2011-12-15 English 9780765331724 Reviews: