Or What You Will
core novel 2020 Or What You Will
Record
| First published | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.75 (1,226 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 320 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781250308993 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Or What You Will, published by Jo Walton in 2020, is a metafictional fantasy novel about creativity, mortality, and the strange half-life of invented characters. Sylvia Harrison, an aging novelist who has spent decades writing fantasy set in the Italian-inspired city of Illyria, is nearing the end of her life, and with her will go the nameless imaginary companion who has lived inside her mind since childhood, quietly shaping her stories and conversing with her across the decades. Aware that his own existence depends entirely on hers, this companion begins devising a plan to escape her death and achieve something like immortality, drawing on the fictional world of Illyria itself, and on the layered history of the real Florence that inspired it, as the means by which he might continue to exist after Sylvia is gone.
Where it sits
- Universe: Or What You Will
- Series: Or What You Will core; position 1 of 1 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Jo Walton
Awards (verified)
- Mythopoeic Award (Adult Literature), 2022: won
Notes
- From the series record (Or What You Will): Standalone novel; a metafictional narrative told by an aging author's imaginary companion/muse, moving between the invented Shakespeare-adjacent city of Thalia and real-world Florence. Jo Walton's 3rd, unrelated universe in this canon, alongside Tooth and Claw (a Victorian pastiche cast with dragons) and Among Others (contemporary-set fantasy in 1970s Wales); confirmed to share no characters, setting, or continuity with either.
Sources
← Or What You Will dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.