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le_corbeau_romantique's review against another edition
5.0
This is truly a love letter to reading. If you were the girl in school who read all the time then you will love this book. I loved the fairy world. I loved the magic system and the debate on the ethics of magic. I loved Mor. I loved all the Tolkien and fantasy and sci-fi references. That in and of itself has made my TBR list a little bit bigger.
I loved the ending!!!! I'm so sad I have to return this copy.
I loved the ending!!!!
Spoiler
I mean, a forest erupts from a LOTR book!!!!!timna_wyckoff's review
2.0
I really wanted to like this, but.......I was just bored! Maybe just not in the mood for another teenager main character? I'm recommending it to my 8th grader to check out, actually.
nadine_booklover's review
4.0
I am out of words for this book. It's so what different from the books I usually read. And I kept asking myself while reading it, if I like it or if I hate it.
I can't remember reading a book written in the style of a diary and nothing really happens. I expected a book of typical sf action and sf magic, but it's just a normal girl - or so it seems - who needs to get things straight for herself, learning how to live with things that have happened.
It's great to see how a girl can dive into the world of sf books and how reading is her world, even if she seems a bit strange for others.
For me it was not easy to get along with Mori the main character to begin with but in the end I really liked her. I totally fell for Wim right away as well as for Sam.
Daniel was special, really special. Especially after the thing that almost happened at page 102.
However, I did not really like the ending. It seems a bit like a cut off, action almost out of nothing while no real action was there through the whole story and suddenly a bunch of magic which was missing so far.
After all I think this book is pretty lovely and worth to be read.
If I'd to sum up who I feel about this book I would qoute the qoute of Patrick Rothfuss on the back of the book: "A lovely story, unlike everything I've read before, funny, touching and gently magical."
This say's exactly what this book is! :-)
I can't remember reading a book written in the style of a diary and nothing really happens. I expected a book of typical sf action and sf magic, but it's just a normal girl - or so it seems - who needs to get things straight for herself, learning how to live with things that have happened.
It's great to see how a girl can dive into the world of sf books and how reading is her world, even if she seems a bit strange for others.
For me it was not easy to get along with Mori the main character to begin with but in the end I really liked her. I totally fell for Wim right away as well as for Sam.
Daniel was special, really special. Especially after the thing that almost happened at page 102.
However, I did not really like the ending. It seems a bit like a cut off, action almost out of nothing while no real action was there through the whole story and suddenly a bunch of magic which was missing so far.
After all I think this book is pretty lovely and worth to be read.
If I'd to sum up who I feel about this book I would qoute the qoute of Patrick Rothfuss on the back of the book: "A lovely story, unlike everything I've read before, funny, touching and gently magical."
This say's exactly what this book is! :-)
dapplezee's review
3.0
I picked this up because it was just awarded the 2012 Hugo award for best novel. It didn't really appeal to me, though I can tell it's well written.
But. If you're interested, do give it a look. The world Walton creates is complex, the characters are very human (and non-human), and it name-checks a host of classic SF and fantasy. I suppose it's just not my flavor right now.
But. If you're interested, do give it a look. The world Walton creates is complex, the characters are very human (and non-human), and it name-checks a host of classic SF and fantasy. I suppose it's just not my flavor right now.
songwind's review against another edition
4.0
This book was several kinds of wonderful.
It's several different things, as most good books are. It's a love letter to 70s-80s SF. It's a school and coming of age drama. It's a bit of romance. And it's a fantasy, about what happens after you defeat the Big Bad and have to live with the fallout.
Morwena's mother is a witch, and at least half-mad. She and her twin sister stopped her plots and protected the fairies of south Wales from her, at great cost. To get away from her, Morwena had to run away.
The story picks up after she's been placed with her father. Daniel had run away when the girls were just babies, and never met them. Mor doesn't blame him, really, but doesn't know him either. On top of that, he and his sisters are sending her away to an upper class boarding school. The only thing she has to bond with him over is their mutual love of science fiction and fantasy.
At school, she has to learn to fit in, to find her "karras" (she loves Vonnegut), and figure out who, exactly, she's going to be.
And her mother still isn't done with her.
It's several different things, as most good books are. It's a love letter to 70s-80s SF. It's a school and coming of age drama. It's a bit of romance. And it's a fantasy, about what happens after you defeat the Big Bad and have to live with the fallout.
Morwena's mother is a witch, and at least half-mad. She and her twin sister stopped her plots and protected the fairies of south Wales from her, at great cost. To get away from her, Morwena had to run away.
The story picks up after she's been placed with her father. Daniel had run away when the girls were just babies, and never met them. Mor doesn't blame him, really, but doesn't know him either. On top of that, he and his sisters are sending her away to an upper class boarding school. The only thing she has to bond with him over is their mutual love of science fiction and fantasy.
At school, she has to learn to fit in, to find her "karras" (she loves Vonnegut), and figure out who, exactly, she's going to be.
And her mother still isn't done with her.
bookeen_la_rouquine's review against another edition
4.0
Une magnifique découverte qui a allongée de beaucoup ma wish list.
Mori est absolument fascinante. Sa façon de voir le monde, d'évoluer, d'interagir avec le monde est complètement géniale. Elle est forte, indépendante et droite. Une héroïne telle que je les aime.
La seule qui m'a manquee, c'est que l'univers des fées soit un peu plus approfondi.
A lire absolument pour les fans de SFFF.
Mori est absolument fascinante. Sa façon de voir le monde, d'évoluer, d'interagir avec le monde est complètement géniale. Elle est forte, indépendante et droite. Une héroïne telle que je les aime.
La seule qui m'a manquee, c'est que l'univers des fées soit un peu plus approfondi.
A lire absolument pour les fans de SFFF.
tonyleachsf's review against another edition
3.0
A love letter to science fiction. I ordered quite a few more books to add to my list after reading this.
stephxsu's review
4.0
You don’t need to be an SF fan—or know much at all about SF history, really—to love Mori and AMONG OTHERS. This is a book that everyone who has been or is still a bookworm can relate to and delight in.
Mori represents the kind of bookish teenager you want to be, your best friend to be, your teenage daughter to be. She drinks up books like water and then writes about them in her journal—not in-depth academic analyses, but the kind of meandering way that most bookworms do naturally. I admit to knowing hopelessly little about SF, but I could definitely relate to Mori’s somewhat scattered comments on the books she’s finished. She’s not trying to write a SF novel or be a SF expert; she’s just enjoying herself wholeheartedly as an avid reader, and you can’t help but love that.
Due to its diary format, AMONG OTHERS is filled with bits and pieces of the sort of things that teenage girls wonder about: sex, their sexuality, people they meet, their future. It makes the book so genuine that there is no one primary plotline. Because it’s like life in that way: we have many interests and thoughts and curiosities, and they all make up a part of who we are.
I loved the bookish aspect of AMONG OTHERS so much that I was rather put off by its fantastical element, which I felt was almost unnecessary. The main plot, if you must name one, is Mori’s relationship with fairies and her crazy mother. I have no problem with how fairies work in Mori’s world: like other things that Mori writes about, the fairies are just a part of her life, just a part of her. But I do feel like the magical aspect was not the driving force of this novel, and so, in making it a significant part of the ending, I felt…unsatisfied.
AMONG OTHERS is classified as fantasy, and Mori loves SF, but it doesn’t mean that SFF fans should be its only readers—nor, perhaps, its most significant. AMONG OTHERS is, in my opinion, above all other plotlines, a love letter to books as salvation, and so if ever you love books, you should check this one out.
Mori represents the kind of bookish teenager you want to be, your best friend to be, your teenage daughter to be. She drinks up books like water and then writes about them in her journal—not in-depth academic analyses, but the kind of meandering way that most bookworms do naturally. I admit to knowing hopelessly little about SF, but I could definitely relate to Mori’s somewhat scattered comments on the books she’s finished. She’s not trying to write a SF novel or be a SF expert; she’s just enjoying herself wholeheartedly as an avid reader, and you can’t help but love that.
Due to its diary format, AMONG OTHERS is filled with bits and pieces of the sort of things that teenage girls wonder about: sex, their sexuality, people they meet, their future. It makes the book so genuine that there is no one primary plotline. Because it’s like life in that way: we have many interests and thoughts and curiosities, and they all make up a part of who we are.
I loved the bookish aspect of AMONG OTHERS so much that I was rather put off by its fantastical element, which I felt was almost unnecessary. The main plot, if you must name one, is Mori’s relationship with fairies and her crazy mother. I have no problem with how fairies work in Mori’s world: like other things that Mori writes about, the fairies are just a part of her life, just a part of her. But I do feel like the magical aspect was not the driving force of this novel, and so, in making it a significant part of the ending, I felt…unsatisfied.
AMONG OTHERS is classified as fantasy, and Mori loves SF, but it doesn’t mean that SFF fans should be its only readers—nor, perhaps, its most significant. AMONG OTHERS is, in my opinion, above all other plotlines, a love letter to books as salvation, and so if ever you love books, you should check this one out.