Among Others by Jo Walton

Jo Walton's Nebula award winning and Hugo nominated novel Among Others is not the sort of book I would generally read. It came to my attention because it was nominated for the Hugo and as someone who is eligible to vote for the award I thought I should read all the nominated novels.

It's a very personal story and it's hard to classify. The inclusion of the fairies and the magic makes it fantasy, but their existence is rather ambiguous and the reader is left at the end of the book wondering if in fact they do exist or they were something that the story's protagonist; Morwenna Phelps, came up with as some sort of coping mechanism in order to deal with the loss of her twin sister, her mother's descent into insanity and the rather joyless existence she has at her strict and anachronistic boarding school.

Among Others is extraordinary for a fantasy novel, it doesn't concern any great quest or really have a conventional plot, there are no heroes or heroines as such. The book is presented as Mor's diary written  between September 1979 and February 1980 (with the exception of the prologue which is set in May 1975).

Mor is a precocious, bookish girl, she's highly intelligent and reads voraciously, almost exclusively science fiction and fantasy. During the period the diary covers Mor tries to deal with the loss of her twin sister Morganna, an injury which leaves her lame in one leg and the life at her school, which she hates. Most of the students don't much like her and those that she is close with she really only tolerates because they're outsiders like her.

Aside from the fairies, which only Mor can see, and the magic that only Mor knows how to perform, she escapes into books, largely classic science fiction and fantasy. I saw a lot of myself in Mor, which may be why I connected so much with Among Others. I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy at her age. It was weird enough for me to read unassigned work for pleasure, but to compound it by reading SFF, well that just made me into an oddball. Even my parents; keen readers themselves, always referred to SFF as 'that stuff you read.' Mor's in a very similar situation, although her estranged father, with whom she is trying to build a relationship, is also a fan and understand's his daughter's interest.

When the town library tells Mor that they have a Tuesday night book club, and that they discuss SF work, the girl's life changes and for the better.

Among Others is a love letter to classic SF and to the libraries and librarians that stock it and recommend it to people. It is a book written by a reader for readers. I hadn't read a lot of the books that Mor had and talked about in rapturous tones, but I understood where she was coming from and her love of reading and books.

This is one for the fans and I encourage anyone who likes reading, and especially SFF fans, to read this and fall in love with it as I did.

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

The J’s have been good to me, admittedly there were only 3 of them, but they were still a good letter. I’d read two and liked them both after multiple rereads, and although I hadn’t read Howl’s Moving Castle, I had seen the film and enjoyed it, so the book stood a fair chance of getting a thumbs up, which it did.

I first picked up Robert Jordan’s Eye of the World (the opening volume to his immense The Wheel of Time saga) not long after it was originally published. I didn’t love it, but it did grab me enough to hook me into the series for about 8 or 9 books until I lost interest, but determined to read it all once the final volume had come out. The book coming up where it did in the list is fairly good timing, as the Wheel of Time’s finale is due out later this year, so by the time I read through the whole saga at the rate of a book a month the last one will be well and truly out.

I’ve read The Eye of the World about 7 or 8 times (I used to read it every time a new book in The Wheel of Time was published), and it’s always entertained. I hadn’t read it in many years, so I was interested to see how it would hold up this time. Surprisingly well is the verdict.

The first book is at times rather Tolkienesque, with some elements very obviously influenced by Professor Tolkien’s masterpiece. The world has echoes of that, too, but the idea that it is built on the remnants of a technologically advanced society that was wiped out by some cataclysmic event had echoes of Terry Brooks The Sword of Shannara.

The story is very typical of epic fantasy. Young farmboy finds out that he has a mysterious destiny, gathers a band of like minded individuals with various skills or personality types around him and leaves his home to have an adventure and fulfil said destiny. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. The band will be split, have adventures on their own and discover things about themselves, they’ll be reunited and ultimately fight the good fight against the bad guy, in this case he goes by multiple names and guises, but is most commonly known as the Dark One. They’re reluctant to give him his true name, which made me think of Harry Potter and Voldemort, but Jordan predates Rowling, and I doubt she ever read any of his work.

It’s a long book, and it’s going to clock in at a staggering 14 books when it’s done, all of a similar length to The Eye of the World, it may actually be a little on the short side compared to some of the others. It takes a bit of work to read, and it had been so long for me that I had the order of things and what happens in which book rather jumbled up in my head. I did enjoy returning to Randland and reacquainting myself with him and his friends. I know Mat was always my favourite character, but now I kind of like Nynaeve more.

It’s become one of the classics and is considered a bit of a must read for anyone wanting to get into epic fantasy. It’s got me all keyed up for The Great Hunt next month.

Similar works to explore are of course the sequels, the last 3 being written by Brandon Sanderson, after Jordan tragically passed away after a battle with a particularly virulent blood disease. The Lord of the Rings, which clearly inspired some of The Eye of the World. Tad Williams’ Tolkien homage: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. George R.R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is often mentioned along with The Wheel of Time, but I don’t see many similarities, other than scope and the fact that fans worry George Martin may also not be able to see his project finish. There’s also Steven Erikson’s Malazan Books of the Fallen, but despite length and size there aren’t a lot of similarities. If you wanted something lighter and not as well written you could also look at Terry Brooks The Sword of Shannara.             

Flashman in the Great Game Chapter 11

The 11^th chapter of Flashman in the Great Game is relatively short, and I think it probably could have been fitted into other chapters or left out altogether without much fuss.

Most of it is devoted to the wholesale looting of Indian palaces once the British forces gained control. This was very common for the time, although it was becoming more frowned upon, and the correspondent Billy Russell certainly disapproved of it. Flashman did say that although Russell may not have liked it, but he suspects this was largely driven by the fact that he didn’t have enough money on him to buy things off the looting soldiers. Flashman himself had a couple of enlisted men getting items for him, they actually paid for his Leceistershire estate; Gandamack Lodge.

There’s another passage where Flashman shoots the breeze with a number of other notables from the conflict, dropping names like only Flashman can. Of most interest is Sam Browne, he of the belt fame. Harry doesn’t think a lot of Browne as a soldier, yet he’s the best remembered and Flashman muses that the best way to ensure your legend as a fighting man lives on is to get an item of clothing name after yourself: Cardigan, Raglan, Browne. One does wonder what item would best suit Harry Flashman, the buttons or zipper of a pair of trousers perhaps?  

The end of the chapter sees Harry being posted back to Jhansi to complete the mission he came to India for, get the Rani on the British side. Flashman knew this was going to happen, and he’s resigned to it, in fact even knowing how dangerous it may be he’s rather looking forward to it, as he is besotted with Lakshmibai, no doubt about it.

Flashman in the Great Game Chapter 10

The 10^th chapter of Flashman in the Great Game gives readers and the hero a brief break from all the bloodshed.

Despite the above words no book about the Mutiny is complete without mention of what happened at Cawnpore after the original massacre. The remaining women and children were taken in custody by Nana Sahib and his cohorts and imprisoned under harsh conditions. They were then slaughtered when the tide turned against Sahib and the British forces came in. What they found when they arrived sickened them and reprisals were equally dreadful. History has deservedly condemned both sides.

Harry and his fellow escapees were rescued and sheltered by an Indian maharajah who had remained sympathetic to the British. When it was safe they were returned to Cawnpore.

Harry actually seemed to enjoy his time helping the women and children get back to some sort of normality. He knew that he could very well be sent back to his original mission of trying to bring Lakshimbai onside, and despite his infatuation with the woman, he was not looking forward to it, and as he so often does during his adventures, he really just wanted to return to home and Elspeth. It was not to be.

As part of his enjoyment in telling stories to the ladies, he’d played at being Makarram Khan for a laugh. This put the seed of an idea into the mind of Havelock; a grave faced British commander Flashman had first encountered in Flashman. This chapter would also reunite Harry with the gruff Scottish commander Colin Campbell, one of the few celebrated soldiers of the Victorian age that Harry Flashman had any respect for.

Flashman in the Great Game Chapter 9

The 9^th chapter of Flashman in the Great Game is an action packed one, maybe a little too action packed.

Just when things looked dire for the besieged defenders they received a note from the Indian leader; Nana Sahib, offering to treat with them. Flashman was sent along with another officer to meet and assess the offer. Attending Sahib were his chief general Tantia Tope, who although Flashman made very little reference to, was a tough proposition for the British forces, the other person was one of this extraordinary characters who seemed to pop up in the sub continent back during the days of the Raj, his name was Azeemoolah Khan. He spoke French and English, had spent time in Britain, knew all about Harry and his reputation and even seemed to be acquainted with one of Flashman’s friends; the journalist Billy Russell. Russell and Khan were actually enemies, but Harry was unaware of that at the time.

The offer seems genuine and even without Flashman’s histrionics, as he plays the noble hero card to the hilt, the British forces had little choice, but to accept it. The alternative is to be overwhelmed where they are. At least this way, even if they are betrayed, they may get the women and children to safety.

As it turns out they are played by Nana Sahib and his forces do massacre the surrendered British. They’re indiscriminate about it too. They kill soldiers, defenceless women and children. Very few escaped. Harry believes that he and a handful of men were possibly the only ones.

Prior to Harry fleeing for his life two incidents occur. Harry’s present at one and hears about the other. Before the actual betrayal some British officers and their retinue which consisted of some loyal native officers, one being Ilderim Khan, were murdered. Ilderim had been given the opportunity to leave and had refused, largely due to his concept of honour. When Flashman is told that Ilderim was shot and left to die in a ditch by the side of the road he can’t initially believe it. Ilderim had always been so indestructible, even when Harry first met him as a teenager. He does appear to be quite angry with Ilderim, because all his honour bought him was an ignominious death by the side of the road. This is probably yet another incident in Flashman’s career that forms his lowly opinion of concepts like courage and honour. The other incident is that East is stabbed in the back during the massacre and dies. His last thoughts and words are about a doctor, the other officers think he’s asking for the doctor. Flashman knows he means Arnold. Flashman never showed anything but contempt for East and his friends, but he is moved by the death of someone he’s known since they were a child and I think angered in the manner of it.

Once he and his fellows escape from the mutineers they are set upon by savages, stirred up by the madness engulfing the country and in running from them find themselves fighting crocodiles in the Ganges. There is some musing by Flashman that the crocodiles may have been a species known as gharials, but that’s unlikely as the notes explain that gharials only hunt fish.

As with many of Harry’s escapades it’s pretty hard to believe that this could all happen to the one group of people and they’d still come out of it alive, but there is documented proof from some of the actual survivors that it did all happen as related by Flashman in his memoirs. Of course the historical people who this happened to weren’t dealing with the twin blows of losing long time friends, although it’s reasonable to assume that some of them did lose people they were close with during the massacre.

Ilderim’s death affected me, and I wished that the news was incorrect and he survived somehow, but he didn’t. I liked the character and was sad to see him go and to have it happen in such a way only rubbed salt into the wound.

Halfway

After I finished Howl's Moving Castle I had a look at the list in the book that started me doing this and it was the 50th book, so I'm halfway to my original goal of reading 100 Must-Read Fantasy Novels. I have actually read more than 50, because I reread A Game of Thrones last year in preparation for the release of A Dance with Dragons, and A Game of Thrones is on the list under the M's.

So halfway there, have I learned anything? How do I feel about the list in general? Some of this stuff I never would have touched, some of it I'm glad I never did, but I would have also missed on reading some excellent work, and it has given me an all around better grounding in the genre.

I do occasionally question the selections and the fantasy credentials of some of the books. Some of the older more classic works seems to suffer from age and the improvements later writers have made on them.

Up to this point the list seems to be heavily skewed to work predominantly aimed at younger readers, that may change as I read through the latter half of the alphabet.

I hope to read the second half of the list a little quicker than the first. I do think this far in that the project has been well worth doing, and I am for the most part, enjoying the reads. There are a few notable exceptions, but then there's others thai I wouldn't have read otherwise and I would have missed out. Plus some of the rereads have proven to be really fun, and in one case forced me to reassess my original view of the book.

50 down! 50 still to come!

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

I was pleased to see Diana Wynne Jones' name pop up on the list, because I haven't read anywhere near enough of this wonderful writer. I read at least one of the Dalemark series when I was a kid (Cart and Cwidder, spent ages trying to work out exactly what a cwidder was too), and then I read The Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin, followed by the work that inspired them; The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.

I'd seen the film of Howl's Moving Castle, but not read the book. I don't remember the film particularly well, mostly Billy Crystal's performance as the fire demon; Calcifer, although I do remember liking it. I had been told the book was very different.

What Diana Wynne Jones has done in Howl's Moving Castle is take many of the elements from a classic fairytale (rather idealised medieval setting, an evil witch, a good wizard, a plucky heroine, a magical assistant and various magical items including seven league boots and a moving castle), mixed them up and added in some elements of her own, then bound them all in to a totally delightful and thoroughly enjoyable confection of a story.

One of Jones' strengths is her heroines; and Sophie Hatter is a great one. She's a practical and intelligent young woman who strangely enough seems more at home in the appearance of a crotchety old lady than she ever was as the young woman who ran her late father's hat shop, in the process raising her younger sisters and ensuring that her stepmother had a decent life. She goes from doing that to finding herself in the company of the fearsome wizard Howl, who despite his power and reputation is really rather like a teenage boy that never properly grew up. In the course of the book Sophie will have to sort out Howl's love life and that of his young apprentice Michael, lift curses from Calcifer, a dog who is an enchanted man, and herself, all while trying to defeat the Witch of the Waste and restore order to the fairytale kingdoms in which Howl lives and operates in.

The idea of making the castle itself a sort of inter dimensional portal which enables Howl to easily move between kingdoms on Sophie's world, that are really many miles apart and in between that world and our own. Howl is actually a young Welshman, and while this was never covered in the film I really wish it had been, because it was one of the most enchanting parts of the book.

Howl's Moving Castle, like all good fairytales, has a happy ending, but there were a couple of sequels written. I don't believe they're necessary to read, but Jones was a wonderful writer and any of her work is hugely readable by all ages. Classic fairytales, if you hadn't already read them are in a very similar vein, and part of the fun of reading Howl's Moving Castle is trying to work out where Diana Wynne Jones got many of the elements in the book from. The aforementioned Tough Guide to Fantasyland, The Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin also deal with the concept of people from this world going to a magical world. Frank L. Baum's classic Oz series has the same idea at it's heart, too. Some of Enid Blyton's work (The Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair series) also does this, although for much younger readers.