Among Others, Jo Walton

Most books written as a diary leave me cold.  This diary is engaging, enchanting and pretty much enthralling.  There is in fact a distinct, and purposeful lack of action in the prose that makes you engage slowly with the main character, Morwenna, who has lost a twin, been moved away from her childhood home and is just trying to connect as she figures herself and others out.  The action that comes later, while still almost diffuse is more powerful for the build up.

Now this is a fantasy, and it has magic in it.  Unlike pretty much every book that has magic in a modern setting (almost modern setting, late seventies in the UK) the magic is believable.  So believable that you start wondering if there might not be something to the idea of it.  I personally would love it if magic were real, if I could connect to the universe that way it would be mind blowing and I have always wanted it to be real, so much so that the lack of magic, real magic, is a crushing disappointment to me on a daily basis.

If you haven't guessed yet I loved this book.  Loved it.  Another thing she did that just made it for me was have the main character, Mor, be totally into SF and fantasy, reading constantly, which is what I would do it I did not have to work for a living and look after a family.  The book is in essence filled with book reviews and recommendations I aim to follow up on. Thank you Jo Walton. This book is beautiful.