Tag Archives: madeleine l’engle

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle (unabridged audiobook read by the author; 7 hrs 19 min on 6 discs): Years have passed since the last books; now Charles Wallace is in high school and Meg is married and pregnant. When the President calls with concerns about nuclear war with the (fictional) South American country of Vespugia, Meg’s mother-in-law gives Charles Wallace an ancient rune that seems to control weather, and charges him to stop the war. Charles ends up traveling through time, following the lineage of ancient Welsh settlers. This was probably my favorite of the series so far. I got a little sick of hearing the rune over and over, but all in all I enjoyed the unweaving of the legend. Recommended for fans of time travel fiction, and I don’t think one needs to have read the previous books to appreciate this one.

A note on the audio: L’Engle has a strange way of pronouncing “nothing.” She separates the syllables: nuth-thing. It’s just a little odd.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle

A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle (unabridged audiobook read by the author; 5 hrs on 4 discs): Charles Wallace has fallen deathly ill, and so Meg and Calvin must journey inside his mitochondria to combat the evil that is making him ill. It’s terribly strange, and honestly not all that interesting. I mean, the cherubim was kind of neat-sounding, but the farandolae was obnoxious and the Eckthroi were too nebulous to be truly menacing. Too much of the book was taken up with “what do I do” and “what’s going on” and not enough actual plot. And, of course, the solution was visible from a mile off. But maybe I’d have appreciated this more as a child.

A note on the audio: I am always wary of books read by the author, but L’Engle was fine. My only real complaint was that the recording was poor quality (or maybe just old), making all the S sounds loud and lispy. Then again, perhaps L’Engle really has a lisp, in which case never mind. :)

(I have a lisp too.)

Also posted on BookCrossing.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (unabridged audiobook read by Hope Davis; 6 hrs on 5 discs): Meg Murry is an ordinary girl in an extraordinary family: her parents are scientists, her baby brother is a prodigy. One day they are visited by the mysterious Mrs. Whatsit, who takes them on an amazing adventure to combat evil personified. I read this before, back in college, and I’d forgotten how overtly religious it is. Sure, there’s plenty of science, but also quite a bit of talk about faith and god. Which is fine, as it manages not to be too preachy. As with the first time I read it, I wasn’t all that excited about it. I mean, sure, it was fine, and maybe I would have loved it as a child, but as an adult it came across as just kind of strange. That said, I still intend to read the rest of the Time Quintet, which I haven’t read before, to see what further adventures lie in store for the Murry family.

Also posted on BookCrossing.

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