Review: In Other Lands

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars




Ah, this book... I first read this book in March, after Seanan McGuire started recommending it shortly before the deadline for Hugo Award nominations for works published in 2017. (I ended up nominating it for Best YA Novel, which isn't a Hugo category yet, but it will be next year, right? Right!) Anyway, I blazed through the book in two days, and felt after reading so much to finalize my nominations, like I was reading at the speed of a Japanese bullet train. I enjoyed it; it made me laugh. A lot. But I felt like I'd skimmed it! And so, in the week I lost my best-beloved boycat, I decided to listen to the audiobook version because I sorely needed something that could make me laugh. I was not disappointed.

Our protagonist, Elliott, is probably the snarkiest character I have read about in years, although Brennan has somehow managed still to make him quite endearing. Elliott has reasons to be snarky. We meet him at age thirteen at the start of the book. He is called out of class to go on a field trip with several other students. To, quite literally, a field. There only Elliott sees the massive wall. And that's it! Entry exam passed! Elliott has won entry to the Borderlands training camp. The Borderlands are the region between our world and the Other Lands. A region with no electricity, no indoor plumbing, quill pens instead of ballpoints and lead pencils and lots of interesting possibilities. For instance, Elliott's interest is piqued when he finds out that the Other Lands have mermaids. Given a choice between staying in the Borderlands and going home, Elliott feels it's a no-brainer choice. At home, Elliott lives a dreary with his father, who barely notices him. His mother took off, leaving Elliot with his father, and he has no idea where she is. His life is loveless, friendless and lacking in the magic that mermaids could supply. (Honestly, the existence of mermaids in this Otherworld are something of a metaphor for everything Elliott craves most- so many possibilities for communication, love, and friendship.)

Elliott trains in the Borderlands, which has two academic paths, military or counseling/diplomacy, from the age of thirteen until his eighteenth birthday. Of course, book-loving, pacifist Elliott chooses the counseling track, but somehow always manages to insert himself into adventurous (to put it mildly) situations. Along the way, he makes several good friends. I mean, I guess they are his friends. Elliott is so snarky it's hard to know with him. But they take their meals with him still, so we can assume they are still his friends. In spite of everything.

In Other Lands is about as LGBTQ-friendly as a YA book can be, and is refreshingly free of "orientation angst." All the angst we see is about actually relating, and how hard it is for adolescents to figure out who they are and how they want to be that person. Elliott and his friends manage it with flying colors. I also enjoyed the gender reversal aspect of elven culture woven into the story. It provides very pointed comedy/satire in this respect. I really hope that guys read this book. And that makes me look at the book cover and shake my head. It would have been more accurate to put a bloodthirsty unicorn on the cover, with Luke and Serene aiming arrows at it, than a mermaid. There is plenty of adventure here, guys. So you should just sit your delicate sensibilities down and read. Trust me.

An excellent book that you can read again and again. Really. I did.

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