Melissa J. reviewed on
I'll admit, when I finished reading Among Others, I threw it. Yes, threw it. I threw it to the foot of the bed where I was curled up reading on a Sunday, and sighed with frustration. The pages bent up on themselves and tangled with my comforter. âThe fuck?â I exclaimed.
It's not that I hated Among Others. After all, I did managed to slog through all 304 pages without abandoning it for the other fantasy and science fiction in my queue, like Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam series or the Wool omnibus or a shelf-full of other interesting things.
In fact, Among Others *did* started out interestingly enough. In short, Among Others the story of Mori - the surviving half of a set of twins - who finds herself at boarding school in rural England. There's a witchy mother, a lovable but neglectful father figure, boarding school intrigues, and, of course, magic and fairies.
The book is written like a memoir, which I enjoyed; I like being able to see the world from a character's perspective, inner monologue and all. It's written like a journal. Trite? Maybe, but as a diarist myself, I can't knock it.
I also dig the way Walton talks about magic, describing her fairies and supernatural events as being âdeniable.â That is, one doesn't really know if magic is working because it works in mysterious ways. Are things coincidence, or truly the outcome of mystical meddling? One can never know, and that's the beauty of it.
Other than that, Among Others get a 3/5 stars from me, a solid meh rating. It reads like a love letter to Ursula LeGuin or Roger Zelazny, and even this LeGuin lover started to roll her eyes after the fifth or sixth enthusiastic reference to The Dispossessed or Earthsea. The characters are forgettable, Mori herself seems unreasonable or insane (or both?). Not the mention that the climax comes 12 pages or so out from the end and leaves the reader entirely let down, thinking: that's it?
Mori complains of one science fiction author's stories as being entirely too âpatâ and unfortunately that is exactly what Among Others is: unconvincing and too neatly wrapped.
It's not that I hated Among Others. After all, I did managed to slog through all 304 pages without abandoning it for the other fantasy and science fiction in my queue, like Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam series or the Wool omnibus or a shelf-full of other interesting things.
In fact, Among Others *did* started out interestingly enough. In short, Among Others the story of Mori - the surviving half of a set of twins - who finds herself at boarding school in rural England. There's a witchy mother, a lovable but neglectful father figure, boarding school intrigues, and, of course, magic and fairies.
The book is written like a memoir, which I enjoyed; I like being able to see the world from a character's perspective, inner monologue and all. It's written like a journal. Trite? Maybe, but as a diarist myself, I can't knock it.
I also dig the way Walton talks about magic, describing her fairies and supernatural events as being âdeniable.â That is, one doesn't really know if magic is working because it works in mysterious ways. Are things coincidence, or truly the outcome of mystical meddling? One can never know, and that's the beauty of it.
Other than that, Among Others get a 3/5 stars from me, a solid meh rating. It reads like a love letter to Ursula LeGuin or Roger Zelazny, and even this LeGuin lover started to roll her eyes after the fifth or sixth enthusiastic reference to The Dispossessed or Earthsea. The characters are forgettable, Mori herself seems unreasonable or insane (or both?). Not the mention that the climax comes 12 pages or so out from the end and leaves the reader entirely let down, thinking: that's it?
Mori complains of one science fiction author's stories as being entirely too âpatâ and unfortunately that is exactly what Among Others is: unconvincing and too neatly wrapped.
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