Many Waters (Time, Book 4)

Many Waters (Time #4)

3.98 of 5 stars 3.98  ·  rating details  ·  19,416 ratings  ·  640 reviews
The fifteen-year-old Murry twins, Sandy and Dennys, are accidentally sent back to a strange Biblical time period, in which mythical beasts roam the desert and a man named Noah is building a boat in preparation for a great flood.



We've all done it. In the frigid depths of winter we've wished we could be magically transported to someplace warm and sunny. But most people don't

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Paperback, 310 pages
Published by Turtleback Books (first published 1985)
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Matt
Just barely edged out as my favorite book in the series (right behind "A swiftly Tilting Planet"). Tells a story less concerned with love and justice and all about the hard choices that people (and deities) make in a flawed world.

An out and out retelling of the Biblical Deluge from the point of view of two modern teenagers. Unique in that it makes no apology for all the fantastical stuff the Bible referred to in antediluvian times. Angels getting it own with the village girls, men who live for c...more
Mayra
No one seems to acknowledge these books as much as A Wrinkle in Time, but this one was by far my favorite. And maybe this is an overreaction, but I thought this one story was really beautiful. I really liked the Biblical time that the twins Sandy and Dennys went back to, and how in that time, angels were on the earth with humans. It was interesting that they could take the form of an animal, and it was clear that the Seraphim were good and the Nephilim evil. There were so many characters in this...more
BurningYourBooks
It always amuses me when people say "coming of age story" when what they really mean is "sexual awakening". And don't be confused, there *is* a difference. Take for instance Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 film Spirited Away, this is a great example of a coming of age film. Yes, the protagonist Chihiro does meet a certain dragon/boy she may like more than a friend but this is not what pushes the character development, what pushes her to "grow up" are the lessons she learns about hard work, sacrifice and c...more
Alexis
so... this was the first of all the books which made me realize while i was reading it that it was all christian imagery. i mean, the arc and all - noah... hard to miss, right? and that's what people say about aslan - just a jesus allegory - but i didn't have any christian education as a child, so i missed all of that. and most people say the same "when i was a kid i didn't realize it had all that christian metaphor." which i think means that in effect, it didn't. if we don't know the correspond...more
Heather
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Amanda
This is the other contender for my favorite Madeleine L'Engle book. I especially love this book because of its version of the biblical story of Noah and the flood, a story that I've heard often and that loses its luster since I spent my entire childhood in Sunday School. L'Engle blends biblical ideas and stories with her own imaginative renderings of that time, like her interpretations of the seraphim and nephilim, mythical creatures like manticores, and her explanation of Noah's daughters' cons...more
Jacqueline
I first read Many Waters as a young adult many years ago. I have been re-reading many L'Engle books the past couple of years, and this one has been hard to get ahold of. (Our large library system only has one copy, and it has had a long hold list.) I finally got my chance and enjoyed revisiting the story.

Many Waters is basically a fictionalized account of the Noah's Ark story from the Bible. Sandy and Dennys Murphy inadvertently disturb one of their father's science projects and find themselves...more
Gloria
My nine year old daughter read this series of books she received for Christmas. She's a fast reader and read through them with out me despite having read the books prior to this one together. This month we sat down and read this book together. We enjoyed the book very much. But it is a mature subject for a nine year old. Its protagonists are the Murray twins who are almost sixteen. They are rapidly maturing and this is where I feel uncomfortable that my nine year read this book by herself. There...more
Ardy Ardy
Just reread this book. Read it as a kid and really liked it. Only had a couple of problems with it, but none of them had to do with the story or the writing. There were a few problems with the timeline and the preflood society as described in the book compared to what was stated in the Bible. The only real quibble, and only someone who has actually taken out a calculator and figured out the preflood timeline would notice (no, I do not have too much time on my hands. I did it for research on a bo...more
Andy
A starring role for the heretofore underutilized Murry twins, Sandy and Dennys. As you progress through the Time series, L'Engle's writing appears to attempt to take on more serious topics. This is actually often unsuccessful, and my favorite book of the series is far and away the first. But I think this book does a better job than the other sequels. I don't want to say it's by accident, but I think it is because the topics for thought appear as incidentals and accompaniments to the plot, a regu...more
Majid Nobles
I gave it 5 stars, rated it as awesome for the simple fact that IT IS! It's one of my all-time favorite books, written by none other than the impressive Madeleine L'Engle. I love how L'Engle blended the story of the Murray twins into the world of Noah, an old-testament Bible story. It's amazing how she incorporates her genius creativity to an old, drab and spiritless Bible story and comes up with a totally colorful and unique adventure. I love how she depicted the evil angels (the Nephilim) as b...more
Wei Cho
What I appreciate most of Madeleine L'Engle is her natural ability to take our history, science, culture, etc. and turn it into a very plausible and beautiful story involving fantasy. Of course, it's not entirely real, but it's based on something that is real, which gives it a bit more of a likely chance to be real. Amazing, just amazing. Quantum leaps, virtual unicorns, small mammoths? Awesome!

Anyway, I'm glad Meg did not play a HUGE role in this book. For some reason I find her quite annoying....more
Lisa Marie
I read this book in what seems like a lifetime ago. I used to love reading Madeleine L'Engle books as a youth - and I remember this one being a favourite.

Now as an adult, I decided to re:read this book to see if it was as good as I'd remembered. I wasn't disappointed.

The world on the brink of the Flood, with Noah and his family, and all the mess that the nephilim have caused living among the humans. The struggle of following and understanding God's will when it doesn't seem to make sense. Wond...more
Zarah
This has always been my favorite of the Time Quintet (better known, perhaps, as the Wrinkle in Time series). I read it again just now because – while it’s true that I’ve been wanting to reread it for quite some time – I was cold, and the vast majority of the story is set in a desert. I don’t think it made me any warmer, but oh well.

I hadn’t read Many Waters in such a long time that I couldn’t remember much of anything about it other than what I’ve written above, which is really unusual for me. I...more
Nenia Campbell
This book is bizarre. Sandy and Dennys accidentally teleport back in time when they jokingly write "take me someplace warm" on one of their father's unfinished experiments. Suddenly, the twins find themselves in antediluvian times, in a place where they are giants, mythical beasts like the manticore and the unicorn are commonplace, people keep tiny dog-sized mammals as pets, and angels walk freely among man.

I know that sounds like it has the potential to be quite bad, which is definitely what my...more
Rachel
This story, the fourth in Madeleine L'Engle's Time quintet, focuses primarily on Dennys and Sandy, the Murphy twins and siblings of Meg and Charles Wallace (characters from A Wrinkle in Time and L'Engle's other stories in this series). After inadvertently messing around with one of their parents' many intricate scientific experiments, the twins find themselves transported instantaneously to a distant location. To explain more would be to give away secrets of the plot, so suffice it to say the tw...more
John
In a departure from the main characters of the first three books, Madeleine L'Engle's Many Waters follows Sandy and Dennys Murry, the twin brothers of the Murry family that had little to do in the first three novels. While this was unexpected, L'Engle recaptures a great deal of the mythic tone in this novel that was so clearly present in the first of her Time novels.

And it is precisely because of that mythic quality that I like this novel so much. L'Engle, who sends her protagonists back to the...more
Max Anadon
Three or four stars...I wish they had halves...does it matter? Well, I've had this book for many years but never read it. I bought it who knows when because it is part of the series of 'A Wrinkle in Time'. I still remember the wonder I had when I read 'Wrinkle', and plan to read it and the others of the series again some day.

'Waters' was enjoyable, and not dependent on the previous books to understand. The twins, Sandy and Dennys, are now 15, and were known to be doers and the pragmatists in the...more
Evelyn
I'd read this book many years ago, so distant that it felt as though I was reading it for the first time. Madeleine L'Engle is a very good author, but there is something about her books that makes it difficult to imagine yourself reading them. Maybe it's the science that weighs just as heavy as the fantasy. Whatever it is, once you get started finishing is the easy part. The description of antediluvian life was fascinating, as all things from distant history are. Differences between the nephilim...more
Johan Haneveld
I just discovered Madeleine L'Engle last year, but I'm glad I did. I see now why she is sometimes put next to C.S. Lewis as a fantasist from the Christian tradition, but her stories are not to be compared with his Narnia-tales. They are as enjoyable, though, in my humble opinion.
A curious mix of sciencefiction, fantasy and biblical speculation. In this book alone there's quantum physics, unicorns that only appear when they are believed in, angels walking among people and dwarf mammoths. All this...more
Eric
Wow. Of the four L'Engle novels I've read, this was by far the best. It's a fascinating story, filled with the strength and peace of God. It gave me warmth and satisfaction, and I leave it with a bright smile on my face.

The first three novels focused on Meg and Charles Wallace, the oldest and youngest of the Murry children. The twins Sandy and Dennys were always just there, the stable pair to ground all the spiritual adventures. Suddenly, this book throws the twins into their own adventure compl...more
Shing
oh damn the twins -- FINALLY a story about them. i was kind of waiting for something like this. hey, meg and charles wallace can't have all the spotlight right?

to be honest, i liked this book because it stretched out my imagination. i mean, when i honestly found out what was happening all i could think of was 'oh... OH' and it all made sense. i think an idea like this is seriously hard to pull off without confusing readers, but it was written really well and despite all the detail that was said...more
Marilag
Probably one of my favorite of the series. Many Waters was L'Engle taking a rather different approach to telling the story of the Murrys, and even did it in the perspective of Sandy and Dennys as opposed to Meg and Charles Wallace. I had been looking forward to the book because it would involve the twins much more than the books usually did.

The twins weren't the only differences in the book, however. Even with the two instances of a tesseracting occurrence, the traveling didn't get very far. For...more
Qt
This is the third book in the Wrinkle in Time quartet, and, like the others, it has an unusual and intriguing mix of spirituality, quantum mechanics, philosophy, and fantasy. It's not your typical novel--no slam-bang action, no climactic ending--it's more of a "thinking" book. Some of the parts were sad or a bit unsettling to me, but that's a shortcoming of my own--not the book's, as it was really well-written and beautifully done :-)
Marie
I have read this book numerous times from adolescence through adulthood. As much as I love Meg and Charles Murray, it is this book, which focuses on the secondary characters of their twin brothers Sandy and Dennys, that I find myself returning to again and again. It is one of my favorites from Madeleine L'Engle. I think it is because of the theme of growing up and experiencing deep love and romance (the love triangle with the twins and Yalith) that I love it so much. I had a huge crush on the tw...more
Dreamybee
I don't really have too much to say about this book. I liked it a lot better than #3 in the series, < a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77... Swiftly Tilting Planet, but I still didn't love it. I understand why L'Engle's books endure-I think she does a great job of bringing sophisticated science to young readers in a way that is interesting-I can see how some kid might decide she wants to be a physicist or a mathematician after reading some of L'Engle's books, and I think that's grea...more
Ali M.
Still reflecting on this one. It's so lyrical, thoughtful, and strange. Nothing like the other Time books. Though L'Engle uses simple language and descriptions, the world she paints has so much contrast and so many unexpected elements that I was wholly immersed, thinking about it even when I wasn't reading - and it's been awhile since that happened.

If you're anticipating this to be a piece of preachy historical Bible-fiction because of the subject matter, you'll be surprised, as I was. It never...more
Zoey
This story has always been compelling, with it's strange blend of myth, science, realism, and theology. I've been wanting to reread it for some time. Still as fascinating as it was when I was younger, although a few elements of the storytelling seemed sort of awkward. There's a repetitive anxiousness about the flood, whether El is good, and what will happen to Yalith. Maybe deriving from the nature of YA fiction from the 80s, the whole treatment of the twins and Yalith is awkward and dissatisfyi...more
Valerie
If I had to come up with a one word review for this book, I think that word would be 'incoherent'. It reminds me of the Prophet of Confusion from Monty Python's Life of Brian. (You know, the one who says: "...and in that time there shall be rumors of things going astray. And there will be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth those little things with the sort of raffia-work base, that has an attachment...they will not be there".) Nobody in this...more
Leah
If you ever heard the story of Noah’s ark in Sunday school you will love this book. Fans of A Wrinkle in Time will appreciate this opportunity to get to know the twins, and become acquainted with the personalities of the bible characters many readers have known since early childhood. Like the rest of the stories in Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quartet, Many Waters involves themes of skepticism that can be enjoyed by adults, alongside fantasy characters such as unicorns that will capture the imaginat...more
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Many Waters (Time, #4)
Many Waters (Time, #4)
Many Waters (Time, #4)
Many Waters (Mass Market Paperback)
Many Waters (Time, Book 4)

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Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her Young Adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters. Her works reflect her strong interest in modern science: tesseracts, for example, are featured prominently in A Wrinkle in Time, mitochondrial DNA in A Wind in the Door, organ regener...more
More about Madeleine L'Engle...
A Wrinkle in Time (Time, #1) A Wind in the Door (Time, #2) A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time, #3) A Ring of Endless Light (Austin Family, #5) An Acceptable Time (Time, #5)

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