Name: A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Rating: 4 (86 reviews)
ISBN: 0440401585

Madeleine L'Engle

The youngest of the Murry children must travel through time and space in a battle against an evil dictator who would destroy the entire universe.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Colleen

5 Stars
 
*A insightful adventure that explores the big impact of little actions*
 
 
I have always listed the The Wrinkle in Time series as a major influence in my life. But it wasn’t until I reread them as an adult that I realized that they had a far bigger impact on me that I’d realized. It was so wonderful to illuminate that influence. Reading really is a powerful thing! Meg and her mother had a profound effect on my younger self. They helped me get through some very tough times.
 
I knew the big effects this series had on me. What I didn’t realize were the many smaller things I absorbed from this book. There were several things that I’d been paraphrasing from this book without consciously remembering where I’d picked them up. That just made revisiting these books even more special.
 
When I read A Swiftly Tilting Planet the first time, my biggest emotion was joy that Meg was older and still involved in adventures. At the age I first read this, I was coming to the depressing realization that most people view becoming an adult as a total end to all adventure and whimsy. And having spent all of my life up to that point devouring and dreaming of every sort of quest and journey, the knowledge that society viewed adulthood as an unequivocal death sentence for those dreams was, frankly, soul crushing. So when I found out that A Swiftly Tilting Planet takes placed several years after the previous books, and that Meg was still saving the world as an adult, well I was over the moon! It was a sliver of hope that adulthood might not be an overwhelming drudgery. (My younger self would not have been as pleased to know that holding on to dreams as an adult is a never-ending battle against the soul-crushing drones of society who try with all their might to extinguish anyone who wants something other than a mindless life of mommy-martyrdom, mortgages, and monotony. But my younger self would also tell my adult self to never let the duffers win.)
 
I can sort of see why some people don’t like A Swiftly Tilting Planet as much as the previous books. The set up of the story is odd because it involves traveling into other people’s minds and seeing through their eyes. Much of the story is also fairly bleak. There is a strong Cold War influence as well as topics such as abuse, misogyny, physical and mental handicaps, PTSD, and depression. There were a lot more tough topics than I remembered. But I loved the exploration of how small acts of good or bad can have such huge and far-reaching consequences. It’s a lesson on which everyone could use a refresher.
 
This series is intelligent and insightful and inspiring. It’s quirky and memorable. Although many things have changed, I love these books just as much now as I did as a teenager. They will always have a special place in my heart.
 

RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 5 Stars
Writing Style: 5 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 5 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 4 Stars
Level of Captivation: 5 Stars
Originality: 5 Stars

Meredith Boster

Quite good. 
So far in reading this series I have fully enjoyed a total of one (1) book - A Wrinkle in Time. Don't get me wrong, I love this series and I love Madeleine L'Engle, but something about the past two books has seemed "off". In this book, I had a hard time keeping all the descendants and ancestors straight and I ended up getting a sheet of paper and writing each person's name and place in the giant family line up on it. I did 'enjoy' this book, but it was a bit confusing and not something I would recommended to the faint of heart.
This book reminded me a little of Saving Lucas Biggs by Marisa de Los Santos - which I personally love - because it had a lot of the same "time travel" type elements in it.

Fraser Simons

The story hinging on like good = positive genetic traits felt super regressive and just poorly executed so that it was far more boring of a story compared to the previous two books. Though the prose are better overall. Still... you could see where she was going with it, value wise, and I think maybe where science was at at the time didn’t help her arguments. The ending feels all the more contrived because of it.

Samiha Tasnim

Interdependence. Not just one thing leading to another in a straight line, but everything and everyone everywhere intersecting. 

 



Has the world lost its joy? Is that why we're in such a mess? 




Unicorns find it embarrassing to be thanked. Please desist. 

 



Stories are like children. They grow in their own way.

Jeni Enjaian

A review from my old blog...

The series that I jumped into with this book begins (I believe) with A Wrinkle in Time. One thing that I enjoy about L'Engle's style is her lack of recapping of previous stories. Yes, it does take a little longer to become oriented to the characters and their situation but I enjoy having to pay attention to subtle clues in order to gain my information. This book though messed with my mind. I had to reread sections in order to understand what was going on. In the end Meg and Charles Wallace saved the earth from nuclear destruction but some of the things they did in the mean time I don't understand.

One other thing I noticed is L'Engle's worldview. I enjoy fantasy and exploring the realms of possibilities but there is something somewhat depressing about fantasy that comes from a secular worldview. These writers have to design ultimate purposes and powers in order for their worlds but of course whatever man's creates is ultimately so much less than God's original design.

Dani

Realmente muy flojo respecto a los dos primeros. Por "complicar" la trama se vuelve demasiado absurdo, a mi parecer. 
La verdad que dudo que vaya a leer los que faltan. :/

Heather Killeen

This book is so creative and wonderful. Can you imagine trying to pitch a children's book today that pretty much entirely happens inside a boys head? While he shares his thoughts and experiences with his sister, and travels through time with the help of wind and a unicorn? It's absolutely nuts, but somehow it actually makes sense and isn't confusing. Yes, all the names sound too similar (makes sense why in the story though) which is confusing, but it pretty much doesn't matter if you have all the brothers and wives and family names right because the message is the same in every generation Charles Wallace visits, and it's a beautiful message of light, love, acceptance and peace.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet

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