What Makes This Book So Great, Jo Walton
What Makes This Book So Great, Jo Walton
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What Makes This Book So Great
Re-Reading the Classics of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Author: Jo Walton

Narrator: Nicole Poole

Unabridged: 12 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/14/2024


Synopsis

As any fan of Jo Walton's Among Others might guess, Walton is both an inveterate reader of SF and fantasy, and a chronic rereader of books. In 2008, then-new science fiction mega-site Tor.com asked Walton to blog regularly about her rereading—about all kinds of older fantasy and SF, ranging from acknowledged classics, to guilty pleasures, to forgotten oddities and gems. These posts have consistently been among the most popular features of Tor.com. Now this volume presents a selection of the best of them, ranging from short essays to long reassessments of some of the field's most ambitious series.

Among Walton's many subjects here are the Zones of Thought novels of Vernor Vinge; the question of what genre readers mean by "mainstream"; the underappreciated SF adventures of C. J. Cherryh; the field's many approaches to time travel; the masterful science fiction of Samuel R. Delany; Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children; the early Hainish novels of Ursula K. Le Guin; and a Robert A. Heinlein novel you have most certainly never read.

Over 130 essays in all, What Makes This Book So Great is a must-listen, engaging collection of provocative, opinionated thoughts about past and present-day fantasy and science fiction, from one of our best writers.

About Jo Walton

Jo Walton is a Welsh-Canadian author of science fiction, fantasy, and poetry. She has published thirteen novels, three poetry collections, and an essay collection. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002, the World Fantasy Award for Tooth and Claw in 2004, the Hugo and Nebula awards for Among Others in 2012, and in 2014, both the Tiptree Award for My Real Children and the Locus Award for What Makes This Book So Great. Walton comes from Wales, has lived in England, and now lives in Montreal, where the food and books are much better.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bradley

I can say without blushing that I felt like I was in a long drawn-out conversation about books and reading with a long-time friend. It might not be true, but it certainly felt true, and it was a continued conversation with whom I spent some truly memorable moments as I walked through the fantasy that......more

Goodreads review by Nicky

If you're looking for SF must-read novels, I would say to start here (or by exploring the original posts on Tor.com) rather than with something like the "100 Must Read" books I've been reviewing recently. They barely scrape above the level of a list: while they include a bit about each book and why......more

Goodreads review by Craig

This is a collection of short essays about science fiction and fantasy books that were first published on the Tor.com site ten to fifteen years ago. What makes What Makes This Book So Great so great (added edit: I thought this was a very clever original line on my part and then was surprised to see......more

Goodreads review by verbava

це книжка радості: джо волтон перечитує улюблені тексти (здебільшого sci-fi, менше фентезі, зовсім трохи іншого, типу «мідлмарча») і розповідає, навіщо до них повертається і чому вони наповнюють її втіхою. перетворювати захват у зв'язні речення — не найпростіше мистецтво, але волтон це робить так до......more