I’ve been meaning to read a Jo Walton novel for ages, pretty much ever since she caught my attention by winning the Mythopoeic Award (Adult) for her novel Lifelode in 2010.

“But that’s almost five years ago now,” you may be thinking, in which case you are quite right. It has been a while—but  a while filled up by writing books, and blogging, and earthquakes et al, which means that getting around to all the books I’ve wanted to read hasn’t quite happened.

But with the edit of Daughter of Blood completed, I promised myself a summer break of reading and so went hunting for some of those long-awaited authors.

I couldn’t readily find Lifelode, although I’m still keen to read it at some stage, but Among Others won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012 so I imagine it will be a pretty good starting place.

What I’ve gleaned about the book from all that 2012 discussion is that effectively Among Others is a praise-song to SFF fiction, and by extension fandom, and the main character of Mori may be semi-autobiographical, in the same way that the boy in Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean At The End Of The Lane is semi-autobiographical. Nonetheless, this is what the official synopsis says:

“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…”

It does sound intriguing—so now onwards, into the reading!