As any reader of Jo Walton's Among Others might guess, Walton is both an inveterate reader of SF and fantasy, and a chronic re-reader of books. In 2008, then-new science-fiction mega-site Tor.com asked Walton to blog regularly about her re-reading―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 volumes 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 an immensely readable, engaging collection of provocative, opinionated thoughts about past and present-day fantasy and science fiction, from one of our best writers.

Product Description: Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards 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...read more

Product Description: As any reader of Jo Walton's Among Others might guess, Walton is both an inveterate reader of SF and fantasy, and a chronic re-reader of books. In 2008, then-new science-fiction mega-site Tor.com asked Walton to blog regularly about her re-reading―about all kinds of older fantasy and SF, ranging from acknowledged classics, to guilty pleasures, to forgotten oddities and gems...read more

Product Description: "Story Behind the Book : Volume 1" collects nearly 40 non-fiction essays on writing and editing speculative fiction written by some of the most exciting authors and editors. Essays cover everything from getting an initial creative burst, worldbuilding, tackling writer's block, to the final process of publication...read more

Product Description: For the first time in paperback, the culminating novel of Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Jo Walton's stunning Small Change trilogy. Following the award-winning Farthing and its sequel Ha'penny, Half a Crown is an amazing alternate-world noir tale of resistance to encroaching fascism, from the author of Among Others...read more

Set in an alternate post-World War II London in which an upper-crust political group has overthrown Churchill and negotiated peace with Hitler, Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard is sent to investigate conspiracy against the country's fascist dictatorship.

In an alternate post-World War II London in which an upper-crust political group has overthrown Churchill and negotiated peace with Hitler, Lucy, ostracized since her marriage to a Jewish man, is unexpectedly invited to a family gathering only to find her husband framed for a ritualistic murder.

Love, money, and power become the forces that threaten to separate five siblings as they struggle to deal with their individual lives in the wake of their father's death, in a fantasy set in a world populated entiredly by dragons.

As civil war threatens to destroy the hard-won peace of Tir Tanagiri, warrior Sulien ap Gwien must take up arms once again in a conflict that tears her country, family, and friendships apart.

When a friendly competition results in the death of a favorite horse and incurs the wrath of the Horse Goddess, four friends--Conal, Emer, Darag, and Ferdia--find themselves pursued by the goddess's curse as they struggle to prevent their respective countries from engulfing the island of Tir Isarnagiri in a war that could destroy them all. Reprint.

Sulian ap Gwien, a powerful woman warrior, joins King Urdo, the legendary lord of Caer Tanaga, in order to help him unite the realm, and quickly finds herself becoming one of the King's most trusted allies.