The Beach Reader reviewed Among Others by Jo Walton
Review of 'Among Others' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I don't like books that fawn all over their genre's fans, telling them how smart and discerning they are. That's one of the reasons Niven et al.'s Fallen Angels is the worst novel I've ever read, and the same dynamic hurts this book too. BUT, this is a much better book than Fallen Angels, even if the end was unsatisfying.
The story kept me reading, and Walton's prose is wonderful. This book also serves as a reminder and reading list of the best SF of the mid-20th century. It just doesn't cohere ... you keep thinking it's going to be a modern fantasy, then you think it's a psychological thriller, and then it settles uneasily and finally into a faint magical realism.
This book won both the Nebula and the Hugo. It's certainly a GOOD book, and I'm not going to say it didn't deserve those, but with all the fandom pandering, I'm betting the award runner-ups might deserve a second look.