365 Days of Drabbles: Day Twenty-One

For ankewehner: "Ghost deer"

He ran through the woods, feet pounding along the wet leaves of the path, praying he didn't slip and fall. If he could get back to his truck he'd be fine, if he could escape the woods...

Panicking, he'd lost the path and never saw the edge of the small quarry before he fell over it, arms flailing for an endless second before he landed in the large pond at the bottom. He came to the surface and struggled to find the shore in the darkness.

As the white deer approached, he realized shooting that doe had been a mistake.

My tweets

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Review: Among Others, Jo Walton (spoilers)

Summary: Morwenna Phelps, a Welsh teenager who sees fairies, finds herself fleeing her evil mother's influence after thwarting her attempt to take over the world with Fairy magic, at the cost of her twin sister Mor's life and herself getting a crippled leg. She's taken in by Daniel, a father she's never met, who lives under the control of his three witch sisters, and who promptly sends her off to a cold English boarding school where Fairy magic is hard to find.

Summary: Morwenna Phelps, a Welsh teenager fascinated by fantasy and science fiction, finds herself in the legal custody of Daniel, the father she's never met, a weak willed man living with his three sisters, after she flees her insane mother a year after her twin sister was killed and she was crippled in a hit and run accident. Sent to an English boarding school, she coolly observes her surroundings while delving into her world of books, using the buffer of her belief in fairies to process the pain of her crippled leg and the loss of her sister.

Summary: Jo Walton, a middle-aged Welsh science fiction writer, uses her experience of being a handicapped teen-aged sci-fi fan in the late seventies to cheerily name check her influences under the guise of writing a fantasy boarding school novel.


Review: If you're wondering which summary is correct, the answer is "Yes".

This is my first Jo Walton book, though I'm in love with her Tor columns, so I'm probably approaching it form the wrong angle to start with. That said, this is less a fantasy novel in the traditional sfnal sense than Magical Realism. Or in other words, it's the sort of book that makes sfnal folks tear their hair out, as critics assure readers it's actually literature and not that pulpy sci-fi stuff.

Is Mor really seeing fairies? Is she just as delusional (though not as mad) as her mother? Does it matter?

Nope. What's really going on is she's on the cusp of Growing Up (or at least Out, as she hilariously has to consult distant aunts for assistance in figuring out her bra size). And she's making connections to the world of adults even as she hangs onto her sensawunda, finding herself being taken seriously as she ventures into a book club, works on her A Levels, and tentatively forms a relationship with her father.

Oh, and she snogs a boy and sends her sister's ghost to the Great Beyond with a magical fairy staff too.

Brill.