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Among Others

Jo Walton

Start date: June 15, 2011

Finish date: July 15, 2011

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What Members Thought

Jan 12, 2011 Nicky rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fairytales, queer, fantasy, welsh-writing

I tried to write this review without spoilers, but it depends on what you consider to be spoilers. I think it's a book based more on characters than events, and I don't think knowing some of the events will spoil the whole, but you might want to exercise a bit of caution...

Among Others feels like a book written just for me. The protagonist, Mori, is Welsh, disabled, synaesthetic, listens to folk music, reads SF and fantasy (reads anything and everything)... She says, early in the books, that, "I I tried to write this review without spoilers, but it depends on what you consider to be spoilers. I think it's a book based more on characters than events, and I don't think knowing some of the events will spoil the whole, but you might want to exercise a bit of caution...

Among Others feels like a book written just for me. The protagonist, Mori, is Welsh, disabled, synaesthetic, listens to folk music, reads SF and fantasy (reads anything and everything)... She says, early in the books, that, "It doesn't matter. I have books, new books, and I can bear anything as long as there are books." She speaks casually and without bigotry about LGBT people, thinks about religion, and thinks positively -- at least mostly so -- about sex. She's at an English school, a private school with traditions and expectations and such a very middle class air. And her world is a world with room for all of this, for everything we know in our everyday lives, and also for magic.

It's a book written after the climax of the story, really. Mori's fantastical adventures have come to their climax, and now she has to live with the consequences. She says that it's like life after the Scouring of the Shire. And she does have huge consequences to live with: she has her own injury, and the death of her twin sister, to come to terms with.

It's a book about an ordinary girl, in many ways, and most definitely about an ordinary world. Magic comes through the cracks, but most of the time Mori has to live with things just the way we all do, catching buses and trains, and being excited about the latest books by her favourite authors coming out. And about being attracted to boys, too -- though in many ways this book is as much a love story about a girl and the interlibrary loan system as it is about a girl and a boy. It's a book about books, as much as anything else, maybe more than anything else. Mori talks about everything she's reading, often with astute comments about it all. I want to find and read some of these books, and try to find the same magic in them as the protagonist of Among Others does.

There were two things I didn't connect with as well, and they don't detract from it enough to deduct a star, even though they seem to be the things I have the most to say about. One is that the final confrontations feel very abrupt. Part of that is Mori's matter of fact narration, and part of it is that it does come up very suddenly, after a lot of "real world" concerns and preoccupations -- it seems to jar against the rest, there. I would almost prefer the book without closure, without climax, because it is a story written after the world didn't end, and Mori is living with the consequences.

The other thing, which I think is well articulated by this review, is that Mori's mother is a complete stereotype of a neglectful, mentally ill mother. As I said to that reviewer, part of that could be that Mori is only just learning about shades of grey -- it is in the last fifty pages or so that she says that children are better tools for fairies because they don't see in shades of grey; for most of the book, she doesn't see in shades of grey, she is in the process of learning to do so. Mori sees the world in the way it might be seen in children's fantasy -- a point she makes for herself about Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising (although she is somewhat wrong: there are shades of grey in that sequence, too) -- where things are black and white, and there is a definite bad guy. She's fifteen years old, not an adult yet, and she is just growing toward a more nuanced view of the world. So I think it is partially that which informs the portrayal of her mother, and there are some subtle things, maybe that you only see when you know them from the inside, that hint at Mori's fears and the things her mother has done to her. The ones that I mentioned to the other reviewer are what particularly struck me: the way she disguises taking a book from the shelf, fearful of her mother's knowing, and also the way she says that she makes sure not to give anything away (at school), because it will be used against her. Those are thought patterns you get from being bullied/abused, in my experience.

At the same time, it takes work to see the potential subtleties in the portrayal of Mori's mother -- it's all too easy to just take Mori at her word, and it is discomforting to wonder about how much of that is intentional and how much is just internalised by the author.

Overall, though, I loved the book. I read it with my teddy, Helen, at all times, because it felt somehow wrong to read something that spoke to my teenage self without her -- this book really felt written for me, and I could talk about it for hours, if given the chance. One of my favourite things, though, was the very last line -- it feels almost bathetic, and yet at the same time, so perfect for Mori, so perfect for the story, and so perfect for me. The whole book was immensely easy to read, and I wish I'd been able to just set aside a few hours and blast right through it -- most of what happens in it is just ordinary life, but Mori's voice is well done and it's all quite magical, even the parts that aren't meant to be, because there's magic in reading and talking about reading and reading about reading. ...more

97 likes · Like · see review

Apr 24, 2011 Brooke rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2011, fantasy

I keep going back and forth between 2 and 3 stars. I should have really loved this book, but I found myself more annoyed than charmed. Although it appears we're supposed to take the main character's story at face value and believe that the magic and fairies and her evil mother are real, I found myself writing it all off as her way of coping with a more mundane unstable mother and car accident. I think what pushed me over the edge into disbelief was the scene with the aunts and the earrings. I me ...more

71 likes · Like · see review

May 03, 2012 Danielle The Book Huntress rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, faerie, epistolary-narrative, character-grieving-loved-one, yearly-reading-challenge-2013, hero-or-heroine-limps-disabled, metafiction, 2013-200s-club-challenge, irish-welsh-or-gaelic-heroine, witch-sorcereress-healer

Among Others is kind of like a love letter to bibliophiles, especially those who fell in love with books as a youngster, finding solace and comfort between the pages of so many different stories. In some ways, Mor's character tapped me on the shoulder, reminding me of myself as a preteen. I went through some physical problems that made life very difficult for me. In fact, (view spoiler) Among Others is kind of like a love letter to bibliophiles, especially those who fell in love with books as a youngster, finding solace and comfort between the pages of so many different stories. In some ways, Mor's character tapped me on the shoulder, reminding me of myself as a preteen. I went through some physical problems that made life very difficult for me. In fact, (view spoiler) I also identified with how Mor saw her life through the lens of fiction. I think that people who spend so much time reading do tend to analyze life and books in that manner.

I found myself wanting to write down all the book titles, and even looked some up on my Kindle Fire as I read. I am not a heavy science fiction reader, but I did read tons of fantasy and some sci-fi when I was younger. This book makes me want to investigate sci-fi with a renewed interest. It seems to have much to offer Mor, and perhaps I will find the same appeal with further reading. As Mor did, I read all the ones my library had, and then some of the adult books at that point. I remember that joy, which I still have, of going to the library and bookstores and finding what new books I could read. There never seemed to be enough books. The identification factor was very strong with Mor in this regard. Also having divorced parents, and how that opens a wound inside you that doesn't ever seem to heal. Lastly, a sister I love dearly. Now, my mom wasn't an evil witch. Nor was I gifted with magic powers and the abilities to see fairies (although I would love to see fairies, to be honest. I guess I'm on the wrong side of the ocean for that).

In some ways, this book has a surreal flavor. Many times I wondered how much of Mor's magic-sensing abilities and magical frame of reference was just part of her imagination's way of dealing with some events that a young person doesn't know how to handle. But, then, I think that there is too much reality to the magic here to come to that conclusion, ultimately. At any rate, I liked how at times you couldn't tell.

This lovely book is a piece of fiction that feels so intimate and personal to me. I can only believe that the author poured her own love of books and some of her own experiences with books into this book. That kind of intense realness cannot be faked. Books are such a pleasure, one that never pales. You can find so much joy and pathos in a book that it literally is like opening a door to another world, where you can escape from your own little problems enough to gain courage to face another day. Whether that's a school full of mean girls, or parents who fight more than they show affection. Or physical problems, loss, loneliness, you name it. As an adult, that allure of books hasn't palled for me. I like to think that a grown up Mor finds just as much joy and solace in her books. And I can't fault her for it. I'm the same way.

Overall rating: 4.5/5.0 stars

...more

46 likes · Like · see review

Jul 14, 2012 Kevin Xu rated it it was ok

There are few problems I had with the book. First, as far as fantasy goes, I'm not really a big fan of the magical realism type of fantasy like this book is, I like to be transported into a new world with great world building. Second, I'm also not a big fan of geek nostalgia like this or Ready Player One. Third, I thought there could have been more to the book than basically about discovering the genre.

The book is about a fifteen year old girl who gets send to boarding school after the death of ...more

37 likes · Like · see review

Jun 25, 2011 Ryandake rated it liked it

meh.

this books rambles along for a couple hundred pages, and then things happen on the last few. for me, by the time i got to the last few pages, i was pretty much just hoping to finish this book and be done with it so i could go on to the next book (a new collection of Thurber James.

the book is written in the form of an adolescent bibliophile's diary. that form gives it a plus: the narrator's voice, unadulterated. in this case the narrator's voice is very clear, distinctive, with an unusual and ...more

34 likes · Like · see review

Jan 25, 2010 Wealhtheow rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, historical, disabled-character

One of Amy Poehler's rules for improvisation is "Don't start a scene where two people are talking about jumping out of a plane. Start the scene having already jumped."

Morwenna Phelps has already jumped. Her mother tried to take over the world, but she and her twin sister, Morgana prevented her. And it's only now, in the midst of the aftermath of their magical quest and all that they sacrificed to save the world, that the book begins. Mor has always been an imaginative, independent child; her chi ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Nov 19, 2009 Kara Babcock rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, fantasy, nebula-winner, 2012-read, hugo-nominee

I read this book on a plane over the Atlantic as I travelled to England for job interviews. It even tickled me to see the place where I would be staying (Bury St Edmunds) mentioned in passing. Jo Walton’s familiarity with England, Wales, and presumably girls’ boarding schools all comes through clearly in these diary pages. As Morwenna unspools the story of her recovery after the accident that claimed her twin sister’s life, we learn about her and her struggle to reconcile the real and the fantas ...more

16 likes · Like · see review

Dec 30, 2010 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction

I enjoyed everything about this book, but I felt like it was missing something. It felt a little slight. I'm not sure that's a fair demand of a book about a damaged teenager trying to make her way in the world, but I was surprised when I realized I was only a few pages from the end.
That said, I appreciated Morwenna's love of books and SF, and her logic and her heart. I loved the sense of discovery that came with every book that was recommended to her or that she found on a thrift store shelf. T ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

May 01, 2011 Marlee Pinsker rated it really liked it

Ever so often a book comes along that treats magic as something real in the world. I read this book as a book in which the magic is real. I accepted that Mori sees fairies and deals with them in her life. Many people have reviewed this book as one in which magic is used as a metaphor for psychological states, but I did not do that. It makes too many of the very concrete descriptions fall right away. Therefore, I wanted to know what the mother did that was so witch like. As it happens, that is th ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

May 19, 2012 This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, nebula-award, fiction, hugo-award, urban-fantasy, faeries

A strange book, Among Others is a story about dealing with loss, growing up, and loving Science Fiction and Fantasy. It's told as diary entries of the main character, Mor, with most of the story taking place over about a five month period in late 1979/early 1980.

There were aspects of the story which I really liked. Others became tedious, particularly the never-ending litany of the latest SFF books Mor had read, a who's-who travelogue of the genre as it stood around 1980. After awhile the constan ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 08, 2011 Tamara added it

Shelves: fantasy, author-female, female-protagonist, europe, britain, fairy-tale, you-cant-choose-your-family, you-can-choose-your-friends, books, wales

Difficult for me not to compare with Ready Player One, though I suppose neither book really deserves it.

Predictably, I like Among Others much more. Part is that it's more relevant to my experience - books and libraries rather than games and arcades, British rather than American - but part is the attitude towards all that stuff that you read and see as an adolescent geek. In RPO, its an escape, a retreat, a thing to hide from the world in. AO has that too, but it also about how reading - and rea ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 01, 2011 Michelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, magical-realism, book_club, dtb-own, faerie, witches_wizards

4.5 stars, in fact.

the book blurb makes this sound like an action/adventure tale, a battle against evil enchantments and grim boarding schools.

it's not.

'among others' is a 300-page love letter to books, most specifically, the books that defined your youth and shaped your worldview. Mor/Mori/Morwenna is an utterly voracious reader (mostly sci-fi, with a dash of fantasy), and this is her diary. she's opinionated and questioning, and her criticisms about what she's reading occupy a good chunk of t ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 02, 2012 Suz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, book-club, award-winner, re-read, non-men-sff-authors, favorites, gentext

This book is gentle and flowing. Filled with magic and conflict that's not overly magical or directly confrontational. It's about a girl, working her way through life and escaping into the books she's reading both for entertainment and to learn, decipher, and cope with the world around her.

So they tell you not to judge a book by its cover, but on the back of my jacket for Among Others there's a quote that reads "It speaks directly and intimately to anyone who has ever loved book sand used them t ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 03, 2012 Andy rated it really liked it

I would have to say that I liked this book mostly because I was at a similar age when the book took place and loved science fiction and fantasy then. So it was a great blast from the past (1979-1980) in experiencing the school library limited collection and going to the book store each week to get the latest releases.

As for the rest of the book. It was a good story and told in an interesting way i.e. it is an aftermath story told after the main event has taken place.

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 08, 2011 andrea rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-time-favorites

First off: "I'll belong to libraries wherever I go." Yes!

This book is remarkable. Sounds silly to use that word, but really nothing else fits. I can't think of the last time I read a novel and used Wikipedia/Goodreads/Google so much... and I have a lovely list of sci-fi books to read now too. That might not sound like much of a endorsement for a book, but for me it is, as in I like and trust the author/narrator that much.

Mor has such a great voice - very distinct, very honest (surprisingly so First off: "I'll belong to libraries wherever I go." Yes!

This book is remarkable. Sounds silly to use that word, but really nothing else fits. I can't think of the last time I read a novel and used Wikipedia/Goodreads/Google so much... and I have a lovely list of sci-fi books to read now too. That might not sound like much of a endorsement for a book, but for me it is, as in I like and trust the author/narrator that much.

Mor has such a great voice - very distinct, very honest (surprisingly so at times, but boy I didn't realize how much I was looking for a character like this for so long), and I loved how independent she was. Partially of course that's due to her sad circumstances, but partially it's just her. She doesn't feel sorry for herself, even though she clearly feels like an outsider, an observer, in a lot of ways. It was almost hard to believe she was 15, but then I remember at 15 feeling a lot stronger than I did at the weary age of 18, ha.

I loved that the book started where it did - and that it didn't involve any typical jumping-back-in-time scenes. In fact, it's not clear what happened really even at the end of the book, though somewhere around the middle-ish it became a bit clearer that what I was ready was what happens to the heroines after they save the world, after their quest is done, or whatever.

Oh, and her book club! It's like the dream book club. Engaging, committed members, lots of discussion, everyone has read the book!, and even better they discuss all the books an author has written. Wow. Like probably a lot of readers, I recognized many names, but many were new to me as well. As much as I love (and it's one of my earliest reading loves, and it doesn't waver) Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, I did find it a little hard to believe they were discussing it at the same level as Heinlein and LeGuin and so on. Not that I've read enough of either of those two authors, but what I have, and what I've gathered from what others have said, McCaffrey is pretty darn light-weight in comparison. But oh I loved hearing others say they want to Impress a dragon too. Couldn't help but sigh in comprehension at that. Ah! and I agree, I would never ever want to forget my adventures, or be like Susan in Narnia at the end. Bah!

This makes me want to find all the Jo Walton books and have a major glomfest, as they say.

...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 07, 2012 Daniel Roy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, fantasy

I love this book so much. It's clever and inventive and filled with the kind of literary truth that leaves you breathless. Among Others received the Nebula Award, and even beat Miéville's Embassytown to the Hugo. And you know what? Jo Walton totally deserved it.

Among Others is something new in a genre already known for invention: it's what I like to call "speculative autofiction". It features the strengths of both SF and autofiction, and each genre adds to the other to transcend either genre int I love this book so much. It's clever and inventive and filled with the kind of literary truth that leaves you breathless. Among Others received the Nebula Award, and even beat Miéville's Embassytown to the Hugo. And you know what? Jo Walton totally deserved it.

Among Others is something new in a genre already known for invention: it's what I like to call "speculative autofiction". It features the strengths of both SF and autofiction, and each genre adds to the other to transcend either genre into something refreshing and exciting. Among Others is the story of Welsh-born Morwenna, who ends up in a boarding school in England following mysterious tragic events involving her mother and twin sister. The story is told in the form of Morwenna's diary, as she chronicles her life in this strange new environment. But Morwenna happens to see faeries, and knows how to use magic spells.

The ambiguity surrounding Morwenna's magic is a piece of intricate, subtle, and clever world-building. It's not the kind of magic that allows you to throw fireballs; as a matter of fact, it's so subtle that if you stop believing in it, it might suddenly seem like a series of fortunate coincidences. Likewise, it's not clear whether the faeries are real, or if they're the product of a hyperactive child's imagination. Yet as a fantasy system, the faeries and their magic work perfectly. They're clever and inventive, and they work on many levels. Ultimately, the title of the novel itself is a piece of similar ambiguity: it's not clear if the "others" in the title refers to faeries, or to the mundane world in which Morwenna struggles to survive.

But even without magic and faeries, Morwenna is a fascinating character. Ms. Walton wrote her with a clear, enchanting voice. She's a clever teenager, very bright but socially unwise, who doesn't grasp as much as we do about the subtleties of the world around her. Writing a believable, naive character is hard, even moreso in realistic autofiction, but here Jo Walton pulls it off perfectly. I have very little in common with Morwenna as a character, yet I felt a sense of intimacy and kinship as I read about her life. I exulted when she managed to make friends, felt a pang of sorrow when she felt sad.

A central and fascinating aspect of Among Others is the SF books that Morwenna reads. Morwenna reads a lot; at fifteen, she has read more classic SF than I have at 38. The novel is peppered with her observations on books ranging from Le Guin to Heinlein, including a few non-SF books along the way. It would have been easy for Ms. Walton to have written Morwenna's SF addiction as mere escapism from her life, but that's not the vibe I got from her. I see how SF is a huge part of how she articulates her inner world, and it helps her understand the outside world as well. It's not escape as much as a way to grasp the world and make sense of it. It's a delightful dimension of the book, and I even got a few great recommendations out of it.

Some people have criticized the book for being unrealistic in a number of character depictions, but I think those readers have missed the deeper subtleties at play. (view spoiler)

But no matter your final interpretation of the story, it's an enthralling one told in a unique voice. Walton had the courage to write words that ring true, rather than just writing clever turns of phrase. When the writing is clever, it's Morwenna's own entirely, instead of a way for Walton to show off. The result is a triumph for SF, and a work of greater subtlety than many non-genre stories with similar themes. ...more

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May 07, 2011 Lori rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 04, 2011 Jaimie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: bibliofiction

I just finished this last night and had a real hard time deciding how I felt about this. For me, I found myself unable to believe that the fairies and the magic were nothing more than a young girl's imagination. I love fantasy and magical realism and I should have loved this but something was missing. I felt that with the way the book was going that there would be a huge climactic ending that would finally make me believe what she was seeing was real but that was not to be. ...more

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May 09, 2011 Maree rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, books-to-buy-if-i-ever-have-money

Really liked this one. I think I actually liked her daily discussions of her life and books she is reading a lot more than the magic issues going on. They seem too far into different worlds to me to work, but I like the attempt.

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