09-22-2012, 07:20 AM
Hey, another Hugo award winning novel.
Mor is a witch struggling with the aftermath of her mother trying to kill her. She runs away to her father. Meets her aunts. And goes to boarding school. It's an epistolary novel told via journal entries. It's a fantasy novel about science fiction novels. If you read any fantasy or fiction novels in the 80's, it probably gets a name drop in this book.
Hey, another Hugo novel I didn't think that was all that great.
Following in the steps of Connie Willis's 'Blackout', 'Among Others' is another Hugo winner that I wondered why it won the Hugo. It's very slow and all at the same tone. There is never really a sense of jeaopardy. And if there is jeopardy it's not clearly delineated. You read the scene and then realize, 'Oh, the heroine was almost killed in that sequence. I guess I should have been worried' The book also takes place after what is the main action of the book. Mor is horribly hurt and her twin killed in a traffic accident caused by her magic because they were interfering with her world domination plans. Wow. That would have been something to read about. But you only get the full story through inferences and coy bits as Mor explains she doesn't want to go into it.
Most of the book centers in the boarding school that Mor is sent to after running away from her mother and being found by her father. If you have read any books that had British boarding schools in them you know what happens in this one. There are bullies. There are problems with the teachers. The town kids look down on them. Etc. Etc.
A good majority of the book is Mor constantly reading and talking about the books shes has read. She goes to libraries to check out books. She goes to book shops to buy books. She goes to the junk shop to buy books. She gets books as presents. She share books with her father. And she gives snippets and opinions about all of them. I guess that is where the connection to the story happens by comparing your opinions of the books she has read to your own. For instance, she won't read Donaldson because the blurb on the book compares it to Tolkein which she considers anathema. She likes Zelazny and talk about the Amber books. There is big chunk on LeGuin and 'The Dispossessed' and her Earthsea novels. If there was big book in the seventies, she covers it. In one way, the book is a great way of getting a reading list of books you might have missed. But it is probably better to have read most of the novels referenced so you know what Walton is talking about.
Eventually, there is another climactic scene with Mor's mother that goes on for almost half page. Another dramatic moment glossed over.
Another thing that kept occurring to me in the book, was that maybe the magic and fairies in the book were just in her head. She never did magic that you could notice. The fairies were more of a cypher. She couldn't describe them. She couldn't tell you what they said or wanted. She couldn't describe the magic they did. So, it got me thinking there was eventually going to be a chapter where we learned that all this was just fantasy in Mor's head as a result of the car accident.
I keep wanting the Hugo's to be a sign post to great works that I should be reading. I keep getting disappointed.
Mor is a witch struggling with the aftermath of her mother trying to kill her. She runs away to her father. Meets her aunts. And goes to boarding school. It's an epistolary novel told via journal entries. It's a fantasy novel about science fiction novels. If you read any fantasy or fiction novels in the 80's, it probably gets a name drop in this book.
Hey, another Hugo novel I didn't think that was all that great.
Following in the steps of Connie Willis's 'Blackout', 'Among Others' is another Hugo winner that I wondered why it won the Hugo. It's very slow and all at the same tone. There is never really a sense of jeaopardy. And if there is jeopardy it's not clearly delineated. You read the scene and then realize, 'Oh, the heroine was almost killed in that sequence. I guess I should have been worried' The book also takes place after what is the main action of the book. Mor is horribly hurt and her twin killed in a traffic accident caused by her magic because they were interfering with her world domination plans. Wow. That would have been something to read about. But you only get the full story through inferences and coy bits as Mor explains she doesn't want to go into it.
Most of the book centers in the boarding school that Mor is sent to after running away from her mother and being found by her father. If you have read any books that had British boarding schools in them you know what happens in this one. There are bullies. There are problems with the teachers. The town kids look down on them. Etc. Etc.
A good majority of the book is Mor constantly reading and talking about the books shes has read. She goes to libraries to check out books. She goes to book shops to buy books. She goes to the junk shop to buy books. She gets books as presents. She share books with her father. And she gives snippets and opinions about all of them. I guess that is where the connection to the story happens by comparing your opinions of the books she has read to your own. For instance, she won't read Donaldson because the blurb on the book compares it to Tolkein which she considers anathema. She likes Zelazny and talk about the Amber books. There is big chunk on LeGuin and 'The Dispossessed' and her Earthsea novels. If there was big book in the seventies, she covers it. In one way, the book is a great way of getting a reading list of books you might have missed. But it is probably better to have read most of the novels referenced so you know what Walton is talking about.
Eventually, there is another climactic scene with Mor's mother that goes on for almost half page. Another dramatic moment glossed over.
Another thing that kept occurring to me in the book, was that maybe the magic and fairies in the book were just in her head. She never did magic that you could notice. The fairies were more of a cypher. She couldn't describe them. She couldn't tell you what they said or wanted. She couldn't describe the magic they did. So, it got me thinking there was eventually going to be a chapter where we learned that all this was just fantasy in Mor's head as a result of the car accident.
I keep wanting the Hugo's to be a sign post to great works that I should be reading. I keep getting disappointed.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit