Among Others

De: Jo Walton

Narrado por: Katherine Kellgren

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.

©2010 Jo Walton (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

• Hugo Award, Best Novel, 2012
• Nebula Award, Best Novel, 2011

“Walton succeeds admirably. Her novel is a wonder and a joy.” (The New York Times)

"Katherine Kellgren’s Welsh accent, with its lyrical cadences, suggests that audio may be the most authentic way to experience this 2011 winner of the Nebula Award." ( Audiofile)

A Must Listen

The story is interesting and fun. The performance, however, is wonderful. Katherine Kellgran makes this book a great listen.

Starts in the middle and ends in the middle

This book sort of caught my interest because of the accents and colloquialisms but that is about it.

It starts with little or no explanation how the girl got there accept a few vague crazy mother observations by only the girl and ends with a crazy mother and the mother does what????

Seems like reading a paragraph out of a long book without the context and expecting folks to enjoy it.

Great tone and voice, mediocre ending.

Don't want to get spoilery so I'll just say that I loved the narrator and thought the coming of age story was interesting, but the plot was not very satisfying. I guess I was hoping there was something more interesting going on than the actual story. The reader is amazingly good, I'm not a native but the accents seemed spot on and shifted over time as the characters changed. Still recommend it as a listen.

Good Performance, okay book

I read this book because it is the 2011 Hugo award winner for best SCI-FI novel. Now my assessment is based on the fact that I expected SCI-FI. What I got was a pretty good story told from the first person via a diary about a teenage girl with an odd past. There is mention of magic and some use of magic, alot of discussion about fairies and even more discussion about SCI-FI authors. But very little actual SCI-FI.

That being said, the story is compelling and the performance is great. The setting is the late 1970s in england and the reader brings off the various accents very well. I loved the reading and the story is pretty good. It is just not SCI-FI (at least from my background).

Preferred Others

I'm a bit disappointed with this book, being that it won both Hugo & Nebula Awards. I think that's because it's so genre self-referential that it gives the voters goosebumps (much like 'The Artist' in 2012's Oscars).