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Library | Collection | Collection | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Beale Memorial Library (Kern Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Adult Fiction | FIC WALTON JO Among | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Fig Garden Branch (Fresno Co.) | Searching... Unknown | Science Fiction Area | WALTON JO Among | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Winner of the 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winner of the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel
Startling, unusual, and yet irresistably readable, Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and SF, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment.
Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom and promise in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. Then her mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, and Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled--and her twin sister dead.
Fleeing to her father whom she barely knew, Mori was sent to boarding school in England-a place all but devoid of true magic. There, outcast and alone, she tempted fate by doing magic herself, in an attempt to find a circle of like-minded friends. But her magic also drew the attention of her mother, bringing about a reckoning that could no longer be put off...
Combining elements of autobiography with flights of imagination in the manner of novels like Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude , this is potentially a breakout book for an author whose genius has already been hailed by peers like Kelly Link, Sarah Weinman, and Ursula K. Le Guin.
One of School Library Journal 's Best Adult Books 4 Teens titles of 2011 One of io9's best Science Fiction & Fantasy books of the year 2011Author Notes
Jo Walton won a Locus Award 2015 for science fiction and fantasy in the non-fiction category with her title What Makes This Book So Great. She is best known for her fantasy novel Among Others, which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
World Fantasy Award-winner Walton (Tooth and Claw) turns the magical boarding school story inside out in this compelling coming-of-age tale. Welsh teen Morwenna was badly hurt, and her twin sister killed, when the two foiled their abusive mother's spell work. Seeking refuge with a father she barely knows in England, Mori is shunted off to a grim boarding school. Mori works a spell to find kindred souls and soon meets a welcoming group of science fiction readers, but she can feel her mother looking for her, and this time Mori won't be able to escape. Walton beautifully captures the outsider's yearning in Mori's earthy and thoughtful journal entries: "It doesn't matter. I have books, new books, and I can bear anything as long as there are books." Never deigning to transcend the genre to which it is clearly a love letter, this outstanding (and entirely teen-appropriate) tale draws its strength from a solid foundation of sense-of-wonder and what-if. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
With a deft hand and a blazing imagination, fantasy writer Walton mixes genres to great effect. Elements of fantasy, science fiction, and coming-of-age novels combine into one superlative literary package that will appeal to a variety of readers across age levels. After engaging in a classic good-magic-versus-bad-magic battle with her mother that fatally wounds her twin sister, 15-year-old Morwenna leaves Wales and attempts to reconnect with her estranged father. She was sent to boarding school in England, and her riveting backstory unfolds gradually as she records her thoughts, feelings, and experiences in a series of journal entries. An ominous sense of disquiet permeates the nonlinear plot as Morwenna attempts to avoid a final clash with her mother. In addition to casting an irresistible narrative spell, Walton also pays tribute to a host of science-fiction masters as she peppers Morwenna's journal with the titles of the novels she devours in her book-fueled quest for self-discovery.--Flanagan, Margaret Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
"Among Others" purports to be the diary entries of 15-year-old Morwenna Phelps, but it is really a strong argument for the importance of books and reading. Set in the late 1970s in Wales and England, the novel follows Morwenna's adventures at boarding school after a car accident has left her with chronic injuries. Reunited with a father she barely knows, the solitary teenager discovers the joys of a weekly book club, acquires a boyfriend and is sent sinister photographs by a mother who blames her for the death of her twin sister. This may seem the stuff of routine teenage melodrama - but Morwenna can see fairies, her mother is really an evil witch, and the car accident that injured her and killed her sister was part of a magical conflict. At one point a fairy tells her, cryptically, "Doing is doing." Echoing the novel's synthesis of the realistic and the supernatural, Morwenna takes him to mean that "it doesn't matter if it's magic or not, anything you do has power and consequences and affects other people." As she tries to come to terms with her sister's death through both books and fairy magic, the novel assumes true emotional resonance. A late confrontation with the mother, who disappears as a threat for many pages, seems anticlimactic by comparison. The real key to appreciating this novel can be found in an earlier passage, about the way our favorite writers become touchstones and guides as we navigate through life: "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 it doesn't care about me any more than the Shire cared about Frodo." It's a brave act to write a novel that is in essence all aftermath, but Walton succeeds admirably. Her novel is a wonder and a joy. Jeff VanderMeer's latest books are "Monstrous Creatures," a nonfiction collection, and "The Steampunk Bible," an illustrated guide to the subculture.
School Library Journal Review
As she recovers from the confrontation with her mother that killed her twin sister, Mori keeps a journal permeated by a love of reading in this mesmerizing fantasy novel. Sent to a boarding school where she is desperately lonely and abandoned by the fairies who once kept her safe, Mori finds refuge in books, which are her instruction manuals and her joy. (Jan.) (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Library Journal Review
World Fantasy Award winner Walton (Tooth and Claw) spins an enchanting tale filled with libraries and magic through the pages of a young woman's diary. Morwenna and her twin, Morganna, spent their childhood sur-rounded by Welsh ruins and fairies. Torn from her sister and hiding from her crazy mother, Morwenna finds herself in the care of her estranged father and his eerily controlling sisters. Surrounded by things strange and unfamiliar, she struggles to find safety and balance through protective magic, enigmatic fairies, and the pages of sf and fantasy novels. Interlibrary loan privileges, a book club at the public library, and the handsome and disreputable Wim help Morwenna manage the cruelty of classmates and evade her mother's sorcerous clutches. But even protective magic leaves a trail, and Morwenna ends up fighting for her life and everything she's come to believe. Verdict A delightful reminder of the wonder and power of books and the libraries that keep them.-Jennifer Anderson, Texas A&M Univ.-Corpus Christi (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.