Most Popular Books by Jo Walton

Winner of the 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novel Winner of the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel Startling, unusual, and yet irresistibly readable, Jo Walton''s Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and SF, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment. Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins. But her mind found freedom and promise in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. Then her mother tried to bend the spirits to dark ends, and Mori was forced to confront her in a magical battle that left her crippled--and her twin sister dead. Fleeing to her father whom she barely knew, Mori was sent to boarding school in England-a place all but devoid of true magic. There, outcast and alone, she tempted fate by doing magic herself, in an attempt to find a circle of like-minded friends. But her magic also drew the attention of her mother, bringing about a reckoning that could no longer be put off... Combining elements of autobiography with flights of imagination in the manner of novels like Jonathan Lethem''s The Fortress of Solitude, this is potentially a breakout book for an author whose genius has already been hailed by peers like Kelly Link, Sarah Weinman, and Ursula K. Le Guin. One of School Library Journal''s Best Adult Books 4 Teens titles of 2011 One of io9''s best Science Fiction & Fantasy books of the year 2011 At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

From the acclaimed, award-winning author of AMONG OTHERS, a tale of gods and humans, and the surprising things they have to learn from one another. Created as an experiment by the time-travelling goddess Pallas Athene, the Just City is a planned community, populated by over 10,000 children and a few hundred adult teachers from all eras of history, along with some handy robots from the far human future - all set down together on a Mediterranean island in the distant past. What happens next is a tale only the brilliant Jo Walton could tell.

Engaged, passionate, and consistently entertaining, this is a book for those who enjoyed Walton''s previous collection of essays from Tor.com, the Locus Award-winning What Makes This Book So Great.The Hugo Awards, named after pioneer science fiction publisher Hugo Gernsback, and voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Society, have been given out since 1953. They are widely considered the most prestigious award in science fiction.Between 2010 and 2013, Jo Walton wrote a series of posts for Tor.com, surveying the Hugo finalists and winners from the award''s inception up to the year 2000. Her contention was that each year''s full set of finalists generally tells a meaningful story about the state of science fiction at that time.Walton''s cheerfully opinionated and vastly well-informed posts provoked valuable conversation among the field''s historians. Now these posts, lightly revised, have been gathered into this book, along with a small selection of the comments posted by SF luminaries such as Rich Horton, Gardner Dozois, and the late David G. Hartwell.

Piranesi meets Swordspoint in an elegant relay race through fantasy Venice from Hugo award-winning author Jo Walton The Serenissima is built from mist and belief, a mythical shadow sister to Venice and crossroads of the nine worlds. When a laborer called Tiry has a dream that Serenissima will have a doge, and that they will marry the sea, he tells it to a fortune teller named Khadsha. She tells her apprentice, a gondolier called Taddeo, who tells a cop named Gom, who''s heard it from five people this morning already. And by that point, it''s already settled into the bones of the Serenissima, more than half-fated. Everybody''s Perfect is a gentle, shifting, structurally inventive narrative of startling beauty that will make you rethink everything you think you know about fantasy. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The warrior Sulien ap Gwien and her lord King Urdo have finally united the land of Tir Tanagiri into a kingdom ruled by justice under a single code of law. But where many see a hopeful future for the land, others believe they sense the seeds of a new tyranny. Soon Tir Tanagiri faces the blight of civil war, and Sulien ap Gwien must take up arms against former comrades and loved ones, fighting harder and harder to hold on to Urdo''s shining dream. Continuing the epic begun in The King''s Peace, this new novel brings the story of Sulien ap Gwien to a rousing and moving conclusion.

"Re-reading the classics of science fiction and fantasy"--Jacket.

"Two period dramas . . . told through the science fictional conceit of alternate realities . . . All of this is rendered with Walton''s usual power and beauty." — The New York Times Book Review It''s 2015, and Patricia Cowan is very old. "Confused today," read the notes clipped to the end of her bed. She forgets things she should know—what year it is, major events in the lives of her children. But she remembers things that don''t seem possible. She remembers marrying Mark and having four children. And she remembers not marrying Mark and raising three children with Bee instead. She remembers the bomb that killed President Kennedy in 1963, and she remembers Kennedy in 1964, declining to run again after the nuclear exchange that took out Miami and Kiev. Her childhood, her years at Oxford during the Second World War—those were solid things. But after that, did she marry Mark or not? Did her friends all call her Trish, or Pat? Had she been a housewife who escaped a terrible marriage after her children were grown, or a successful travel writer with homes in Britain and Italy? And the moon outside her window: does it host a benign research station, or a command post bristling with nuclear missiles? Two lives, two worlds, two versions of modern history; each with their loves and losses, their sorrows and triumphs. Jo Walton''s My Real Children is the tale of both of Patricia Cowan''s lives...and of how every life means the entire world "A quiet triumph." ― Publishers Weekly "A daring tour de force." ―Ursula K. Le Guin, award-winning author of The Left Hand of Darkness

Reader produced for use in Special Schools of N.T.; material originally appeared as series in The W.A. School Paper Animal Stories; cover illustration is an x-ray picture of kangaroo, but no Indigenous content.

The Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award–winning author delivers a magical re-imagining of the man who remade fifteenth-century Florence. Young Girolamo''s life is a series of miracles. It''s a miracle that he can see demons, plain as day, and that he can cast them out with the force of his will. It''s a miracle that he''s friends with Pico della Mirandola, the Count of Concordia. When Charles VIII of France invades northern Italy, Girolamo meets him in the field, and—miraculously—convinces him to not only spare Florence but also protect it. Now, whenever Girolamo preaches, crowds swoon. Despite the Pope''s determination to bring young Girolamo to heel, he''s still on the loose . . . and running Florence in all but name. And that''s only the beginning. Because Girolamo Savanarola is not who —or what —he thinks he is. He will discover the truth about himself at the most startling time. And this will be only the first of his many lives.

From two of the most acclaimed writers in the field today, a groundbreaking look at how SF and fantasy writing—and reading!—work. Jo Walton and Ada Palmer are two of the most innovative and insightful writers to emerge in the SF and fantasy genres in this century. As writers of fiction they’ve each won multiple awards. As commenters on SF and fantasy in print and in visual media, they’ve both sparked new conversations that expanded our imaginations and understanding of how SF and fantasy work, and what more it could be doing. Now, in Trace Elements, Walton and Palmer have come together to write a book-length and supremely entertaining look at modern science fiction and fantasy, at how our genre is written and how it is read, that will join nonfiction works like Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Language of the Night, Samuel R. Delany’s The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, and Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud on the short shelf of titles essential to all readers of our genre. Subjects covered include the nature of genre itself, the history of SF publishing, the implicit contract between author and reader, the ways SF and fantasy disguise themselves as one another, what SF&F can learn from outside influences ranging from Shakespeare to Diderot to anime, the role of complicity in reading, the need to expand our “sphere of empathy”, and finally the need for optimism, the importance of rejecting “purity” culture, and the fact that the human story for centuries to come will be composed of hard work. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A stunning "what-if" in the manner of Fatherland and The Plot Against America

World Fantasy Award winner Jo Walton continues her alternate history of resistance in an England darkened by triumphant Fascism

With "understated prose and deft characterizations" a Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author''s imagines post-WWII England as a fascist regime ( Publishers Weekly). In 1941 the European war ended in the Farthing Peace, a rapprochement between Britain and Nazi Germany. The balls and banquets of Britain''s upper class never faltered, while British ships ferried "undesirables" across the Channel to board the cattle cars headed east. Peter Carmichael is commander of the Watch, Britain''s distinctly British secret police. It''s his job to warn the Prime Minister of treason, to arrest plotters, and to discover Jews. The midnight knock of a Watchman is the most dreaded sound in the realm. Now, in 1960, a global peace conference is convening in London, where Britain, Germany, and Japan will oversee the final partition of the world. Hitler is once again on British soil. So is the long exiled Duke of Windsor—and the rising gangs of "British Power" streetfighters, who consider the Government "soft," may be the former king''s bid to stage a coup d''état. Amidst all this, two of the most unlikely persons in the realm will join forces to oppose the fascists: a debutante whose greatest worry until now has been where to find the right string of pearls, and the Watch Commander himself.

Tor.com''s science fiction and fantasy flash fiction collection originally published in 2017 inspired by the now-iconic statement, now available in e-book format. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted. Three short lines, fired over social media in response to questions of why Senator Elizabeth Warren was silenced on the floor of the United States Senate, for daring to read aloud the words of Coretta Scott King. As this message was transmitted across the globe, it has become a galvanizing cry for people of all genders in recognition of the struggles that women have faced throughout history. Three short lines, which read as if they are the opening passage to an epic and ageless tale. We have assembled this flash fiction collection featuring several of the best writers in SF/F today, including Seanan McGuire, Charlie Jane Anders, Maria Dahvana Headley, Jo Walton, Amal El-Mohtar, Catherynne M. Valente, Brooke Bolander, Alyssa Wong, Kameron Hurley, Nisi Shawl and Carrie Vaughn. Together these authors share unique visions of women inventing, playing, loving, surviving, and – of course – dreaming of themselves beyond their circumstances. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The sequel to The Just City and The Philosopher Kings: "A glorious kitchen sink of genre, combining philosophy, time travel, aliens, and the gods." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Sunburst Award for Adult Fiction Finalist More than sixty-five years ago, Pallas Athena founded the Just City on an island in the eastern Mediterranean, placing it centuries before the Trojan War, populating it with teachers and children from throughout human history, and committing it to building a society based on the principles of Plato''s Republic. Among the City''s children was Pytheas, secretly the god Apollo in human form. Sixty years ago, the Just City schismed into five cities, each devoted to a different version of the original vision. Forty years ago, the five cities managed to bring their squabbles to a close. But in consequence of their struggle, their existence finally came to the attention of Zeus, who can''t allow them to remain in deep antiquity, changing the course of human history. Convinced by Apollo to spare the Cities, Zeus instead moved everything on the island to the planet Plato, circling its own distant sun. Now, more than a generation has passed. The Cities are flourishing on Plato, and even trading with multiple alien species. Then, on the same day, two things happen. Pytheas dies as a human, returning immediately as Apollo in his full glory. And there''s suddenly a human ship in orbit around Plato—a ship from Earth. "As before, Walton has done a superb job of world building and character development, giving readers a novel that both stimulates and satisfies." — Booklist (starred review)

In the summer of 2019, novelist Jo Walton went on a trip around France and Northern Italy visiting the homes of Voltaire, Diderot, Petrarch, and Pico della Mirandola. This is the account of where and why she went, what she ate, thought, and experienced on the way. This novella-length account was composed on the equivalent days of 2020.

Or What You Will is an utterly original novel about how stories are brought forth from Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning author Jo Walton. He has been too many things to count. He has been a dragon with a boy on his back. He has been a scholar, a warrior, a lover, and a thief. He has been dream and dreamer. He has been a god. But "he" is in fact nothing more than a spark of idea, a character in the mind of Sylvia Harrison, 73, award-winning author of thirty novels over forty years. He has played a part in most of those novels, and in the recesses of her mind, Sylvia has conversed with him for years. But Sylvia won''t live forever, any more than any human does. And he''s trapped inside her cave of bone, her hollow of skull. When she dies, so will he. Now Sylvia is starting a new novel, a fantasy for adult readers, set in Thalia, the Florence-resembling imaginary city that was the setting for a successful YA trilogy she published decades before. Of course he''s got a part in it. But he also has a notion. He thinks he knows how he and Sylvia can step off the wheel of mortality altogether. All he has to do is convince her. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Sulian ap Gwien was only 17 when the Jarnish raiders came. Had she been armed, she could have defeated them. It took six to subdue her--and she will never forgive them. Thus begins the tale of a woman who rises to become the strong right hand to the great king who will reunite his people. (August)

It''s 1960, and the Axis powers dominate the world. Life goes on, because, as we see in "Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction," history is driven both by big events and by small temptations... Following the appearance of her first two novels, The King''s Peace and The King''s Name, Jo Walton won the 2002 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Two years later she won the World Fantasy Award for Tooth and Claw. Her Small Change trilogy, comprising Farthing, Ha''penny, and Half A Crown, is set in a world in which Britain struck an early truce with Hitler in 1941; "Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction" is set in the America of that world. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

When four friends participate in a competition that leads to the death of a horse and enrages the Horse Goddess, the friends must evade the godess''s curse and save their countries from destruction.