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A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time #3)

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 43,290 ratings · 860 reviews

In this companion volume to "A Wrinkle In Time" (Newbery Award winner) and "A Wind In The Door" fifteen-year-old Charles Wallace and the unicorn Gaudior undertake a perilous journey through time in a desperate attempt to stop the destruction of the world by the mad dictator Madog Branzillo. They are not alone in their quest. Charles Wallace's sister, Meg--grown and expecti...more

Mass Market Paperback, 256 pages

Published July 1979 by Laurel-Leaf Books (first published January 1st 1978)

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Nov 24, 2007 Qt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

This installment in the "Wrinkle in Time" quartet contains, as the others do, a wonderful and unusual mixture of ideas. It has spirituality and religion, fantasy, time and space travel, and philosophy, and nearly every page seems to celebrate life. While all the books in the quartet are very good, I think I liked this one and "Wrinkle in Time" the best. "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" was suspenseful, well-written, and beautifully done.

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Dec 15, 2007 Keith Mukai rated it 2 of 5 stars

Though L'Engle's storytelling improves after the dull previous outing of "A Wind in the Door", "Swiftly" fails in other more serious ways.

The biggest problem is her somewhat silly reliance on hereditary family names from generation to generation--names that endure for hundreds of years and somehow continue to intersect.

Madoc, Madog, Maddux, and Mad Dog; Gwydder, Gedder, and Gwen; Zyllie, Zyllah, Zylle; two Branwens and a Charles and a Chuck round out the cast. I think.

Something like four differe...more

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Aug 15, 2008 Michael Fitzgerald rated it 3 of 5 stars

This one is pretty weak. The name thing is especially stupid. It takes literally 150 pages (out of 278) for them to figure out "with a startled flash of comprehension" that there's - gosh! - a connection between various people named Madoc, Madog, Maddok, Maddox, Mad Dog, Branwen, Brandon, Bran, Zyll, Zylle, Zillo, Zillah, Zillie, Beezie (B.Z.), Branzillo. And then it's on p.195 that we get "Certainly the name Zillie must have some connection with Madoc's Zyll, and Ritchie Llawcae's Zylle..." Rea...more

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Mar 27, 2008 Morgan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Morgan by: Jenn

Shelves: magical-fiction, christian, children-s

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. At Tara in this fateful hour,
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And the fire with all the strength it hath,
And the lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness,
All these I place by God's almightly help and grace
Between myself and the powers of darkness!

This book was absolutely amazing, and an instant...more At Tara in this fateful hour,
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And the fire with all the strength it hath,
And the lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness,
All these I place by God's almightly help and grace
Between myself and the powers of darkness!

This book was absolutely amazing, and an instant classic in my mind. I now understand why everyone raved about these books. It was all because of this story here.

As the book begins, we find ourselves in the future. Charles Wallace is 15, the twins are finishing up grad school, and Meg and Calvin are not only married, but expecting their first child. It's Thanksgiving and the whole family, including Calvin's mom, Mrs. O'Keefe are gathered together to celebrate. But it's not long before trouble starts. Mr. Murry receives an urgent call from the President stating that we are on the verge of nuclear war with a small country, Vespugia, and their angry leader. As the family sits around the table discussing scenaries, quiet, distrusting Mrs. O'Keefe begins to recite this ancient rune. As she leaves, she turns to Charles Wallace and demands, "It's all up to Chuck. You have to save us all."

Each chapter is named after a line from the rune, and follows the general concept of what is presented there. So, in Chapter 2 "I place all Heaven with it's power", Charles Wallace receives his help from heaven, a Unicorn. On this Unicorn he travels through time to years and years past in an attempt to change the future.

This book really drew me in, and reminded me of a Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Mystery. It's done really intelligently, with wonderful back stories, and lovely characters. And that rune! Oh! It's my new favorite quote. Ever. And that same power is avaliable to us today (well, probably not a Unicorn, but you know what I mean). What an awesome God we serve, one that uses people in such wonderful ways, i.e. that by writing a children's novel, we discover a prayer for our spiritual battle! Amazing! (less)

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Sep 26, 2007 D rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: hard-core fans of L'Engle

Shelves: sci-fi, ya-lit

L'Engle's Time Quartet diminishes in cohesion with each installment. Whether from the author's own under-writing or her publishing house's imprudent hands-off editing after the wild success of A Wrinkle in Time, this book is a disappointment. L'Engle has shown herself capable of visionary writing, and the Wallace family is undeniably charming, so why such a half-baked result?

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Dec 05, 2011 Charles rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf

Just stick with A Wrinkle in Time.

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Sep 05, 2011 D.M. Dutcher rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: bad-novels, children-s, fantasy, classic

Wow. Out of all of the Time Trilogy novels, I had the fondest memories of this. I guess as a child I skipped over a lot of it.

We enter the Murray family, but about 9 years or so from the events of a Wind in the Door. Meg has married Calvin off-screen and is pregnant. Sandy and Denys are bankers, and Charles Williams is 15. I admit I wasn't crazy about that, seeing as Meg was the soul of the first two books, and I really wanted to see her interact with Calvin more. But I can understand.

It sets up...more

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Mar 25, 2008 Christopher rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People with infinite patience.

I hate to admit it, but getting through this book has been a bit of a chore. I'm not altogether certain if I want to finish this chapter of the "Wrinkle in Time" series, though I'm sure I'll press on because I bought the entire series and I want to get through it at least once. What is interesting about this book is that it introduces us to an adult (and very pregnant) Meg, and a teenaged Charles Wallace, who is the center of this book. After getting to know these two characters so well in the p...more

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Jan 01, 2009 Kerri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Charles Wallace, unicorns, telepathy and time travel. For me, there is very little not to like in this book. L'Engle again explores connections through space and time, and how the actions of just one person can alter history as we know it. One of the books I can read again and again and always enjoy.

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Feb 23, 2012 Janni added it

Shelves: comfort-reads, favorites

This book was deeply, deeply influential when I first read it. Years later, I can see it's flaws more clearly, but in many ways I don't care. L'Engle's overall sense of the universe having a fundamental all-rightness beneath its darkness, and this particular book's sense that until they do happen the awful things don't have to happen, have stayed with me through the years.

Just reread 2/11/12. Still magic. Still so deep a comfort read.

(Scattered thoughts about this book and The Arm of the Starfis...more

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May 18, 2013 Andree rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

Probably four stars, if I'm being honest, but I've again decided to weight the rating based on how I felt about this book when I first read it. It's not as good as A Wrinkle in Time on reread, but I feel like it still stands up.

The book has it's issues. There were a few sections in the first quarter that had the biologist in me side-eyeing. The first quarter is also more than a little heavy-handed. Also, the free will implications of going Within struck me more, reading this book when I'm older....more

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Apr 01, 2013 Jacqueline Nukaya rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult-literature-2-2

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 03, 2013 Pam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

I did not expect to like this book and it took me a while to get into the story, but once I did, "Wow!"

This is way, way better than the first two books in L'Engle's Time series. Now that I've read this book, I've figured out why I couldn't appreciate the first two. I think L'Engle tried too hard with the science in the first two books. Don't get me wrong, I liked the science. I just think she tried too hard with it that the story came out disjointed. Nothing fit right. But this book: "Wow!"

I lik...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Cait rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: theoretically-written-for-children, series

This is where this series entirely fell off the rails for me. (If you enjoyed this book, feel free to skip my rant! You are totally entitled to your own opinions!) I expected to enjoy this! It is a dear favorite of several of my friends. But no. I did not enjoy it. I loathed this book. Loathed.

Let us begin with the intro! The gang is assembled again! Dad is advising the president! Mom is science-ing! Sandy is in medical school! Denys is in law school! Charles Wallace is doing a lot better in sc...more This is where this series entirely fell off the rails for me. (If you enjoyed this book, feel free to skip my rant! You are totally entitled to your own opinions!) I expected to enjoy this! It is a dear favorite of several of my friends. But no. I did not enjoy it. I loathed this book. Loathed.

Let us begin with the intro! The gang is assembled again! Dad is advising the president! Mom is science-ing! Sandy is in medical school! Denys is in law school! Charles Wallace is doing a lot better in school and having exciting intellectual pursuits outside school! Calvin is presenting an important paper in England!

Meg is pregnant.
Seriously. This is the only thing we hear about her. I really appreciated, in the earlier books, that Meg is an intellectual equal in her family. She likes math! She's stubborn and has a tempter but she saves the day with her multiplication tables! In this book, the only mentions of what she is doing are that she is a) married to Calvin, and b) pregnant. AAAAAAAGH. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH.

Then, we get in to predestination bullshit, wherein we first learn that the native population of presumed!America was perfect and peaceful and wise-like-yoda before the white man came and spoiled all that. Thankfully we had TWO white dudes, and they have helpfully color coded eyes, so we can tell who is good and who is bad for the rest of the book. (Blue is good, guys!) Also, for all the bizarre fantasy native population in the first bit, as soon as the white guys arrive, we move right back to white only characters for the rest of the book. (White characters who have a hint of exotic ancestry!)

The plot hinges on which white guy is the ancestor of a crazy Latin American dictator- if it's the blue eyed guy, we're cool! If it's the brown eyed guy, nuclear holocaust! Events must be manipulated to ensure the correct lineage, so there is some time travel, some jumping thru space, a unicorn, etc.
Charles Wallace lives in the heads of generations of men who: write some books, see some visions, fall down some stairs, go to Patagonia.
Alongside these generations of men, there are some women! The women are pregnant. (Some see visions AND are pregnant! Some are stupid and pregnant! Some care for infirm male relatives AND are pregnant! Some marry abusive dudes and GET pregnant!) No female character is not explicitly a mother/pregnant as a plot point. (Mmm. Maybe Zillah- maybe she was only explicitly a fiancee/longed for, and her fertility didn't enter into it.)

Ugh. Also: we once again have a book where the fate of all of humanity rests on a single family tree.

Good things about the book: The idea of kything is pretty cool. (less)

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Susan Oh, I am SO with you about the ugly and gritty.

Relatedly, I have burned out the current trend on TV toward riveting character dramas with high body c...more
Feb 21, 2013 04:04am

Susan Oh yeah, and I'd say that while the BIG REVELATIONS about all of humanity are about what you'd expect from the time (i.e. we're all going to blow ours...more
Feb 21, 2013 07:14am

Feb 11, 2013 Tien rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, time-travel, science-fiction

It’s Thanksgiving and Meg Murry O’Keefe is back in the folds of her family for a celebration dinner when the president called with news of impending nuclear war. Mrs O’Keefe, Meg’s mother-in-law, was present (surprising them all with her acceptance of dinner invitation) and laid a charge on Charles Wallace to stop the end of the world. Therein, we follow Meg and Charles Wallace as they travel through what was and tweak events to change the Might-Have-Been.

It’s been awhile since I read book #2 bu...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Darla rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kids

Dear Reader,
I don't think any of this could be considered a spoiler but still.. Read at your own risk. :)

I recently re-read this book after finding it in my 17 year-old son's room. Got started reading the series when I was a girl when my Auntie Isabel suggested I give it a try. Glad I listened.

It's the Murray family again. Mom & Dad, Meg, Charles Wallace, the two younger brothers (whose names I always forget)... but it takes place later than any of the other stories in the series as they...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult

It's hard not to like L'Engle's books. They all have such poetry and imagination that you can really escape into them. And this one, a sequel to "A Wrinkle In Time" does that first book justice and continues the story of the Murry family who are all special in their own way.

It's Thanksgiving and Meg and her brothers are back at the family home to be together. Meg is heavily pregnant and resting while her husband is away and has even invited her strange mother in law to join them as well. But it...more It's hard not to like L'Engle's books. They all have such poetry and imagination that you can really escape into them. And this one, a sequel to "A Wrinkle In Time" does that first book justice and continues the story of the Murry family who are all special in their own way.

It's Thanksgiving and Meg and her brothers are back at the family home to be together. Meg is heavily pregnant and resting while her husband is away and has even invited her strange mother in law to join them as well. But it is at this dinner that her father gets a call from the President saying that a dictator in Vespugia is threatening war and bombing. Her younger brother Charles Wallace is set to a mission and using a verse that Meg's mother in law gives him, he must travel through time with the help of a unicorn to try to tweak the past and change the future.

I didn't feel as connected to the characters in this book as I did in Wrinkle of Time. I think its because everything bounces around so much and from time to time to different whens and wheres that it's hard to get a read on the characters. Meg is a constant, but she is just an observer telling Charles Wallace's story so we don't get much of a sense of her in this. Being that previously she was always a child, I had somewhat looked forward to learning of her as an adult, but alas, that is just not for this book. Charles Wallace is so many different people during his travels in time that he too is not described greatly aside from being brave in a unique sort of way. But the people he is in the past all have interesting stories, and there is a chain that ties them all together through history.

I liked the concept of the time travel and the tweaking of certain events to get a better future. I think L'Engle handled it excellently, as she does will all scientific and mythological combinations. She just has a way of weaving unlikely things together in a beautiful way. Combine that with the poetry and legend she incorporates into her book and it's hard to be disappointed when reading something of hers. There is a little bit of religion incorporated into her works as well, but it was actually pretty light in this book as compared to some of the others. And her version of Christianity is so peaceful that it doesn't come across preachy like so many other authors do. AS for this book tying in to the others of the quartet, it probably could be read alone. There isn't much mention of the other books and no important details are left out. In fact, reading it, it almost seems as if the other books didn't exist at all.

I beautifully written book with a lot of interesting topics and concepts, A Swiftly Tilting Planet is appropriate for all ages. With a little more character development, I think this could have been right there at the top of fiction.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Copyright 1978
278 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2012

More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com (less)

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Dec 18, 2012 Andy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: children, fiction, sci-fi-fantasy, series-should-be-read-in-order

Assassin's Creed: Charles Wallace. Or if you like a more flattering literary comparison, Cloud Atlas. Charles Wallace goes back in time into the minds of various figures in the history of his own family and that of a South American dictator threatening nuclear war on the world. Charles Wallace and his sister Meg and everything that happens in present day is really just scaffolding for telling small historical vignettes that are readable and casually enjoyable but a little predictable and not esp...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Mikayla rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book made my head hurt.
But, you know, in a good way. The best way.
Time travel.

I'll admit, there were times while I was reading this book where I was close to giving up trying to understand what was going on. There were parts I didn't understand until I read them twice.
And when I did?
This is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. Not many people can capture the intricacies of time travel so mind-blowingly well.

Madeleine brings back characters from the Murry family for the third instal...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Georgia Butler rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: juvenile-young-adult-fiction

I don't wish to sound irreverent, but unlike A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door--both intriguing adventures into time, space, and other dimensions--A Swiftly Tilting Planet confused more than intrigued me.

As a teenager, Charles Wallace is a less compelling personality than the child genius of a A Wrinkle in Time. Nor do we get to know him, for the story is not his but four different people throughout the span of human history whose actions will ultimately lead to the world's destruction th...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Millie Shumway rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1-12

The third book in L'Engle's Time series, this story follows Charles Wallace more than any of the previous two novels. He is more of the main character. Meg, his older sister, is married and pregnant now. A nuclear war is imminent, and the President of the US calls upon the Murray family to help prevent it. An ancient rune delivered to Charles from Calvin O'Keefe's otherwise reclusive and silent mother is the key to stopping the threatening war. Charles uses it to call upon the powers of the univ...more

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May 16, 2012 Becca rated it 5 of 5 stars

You know how a favorite books is a little like going home? I just needed something I know I was going to love and read quickly, so I am re-reading this entire series. I can't wait until my friend's kids are old enough to read these. I forgot about the religious element in these books (like Narnia, reading them as a child, I was more about the adventure than the theology). But still, what a beautiful world view.

This is my favorite of the "time quintent". There's something complex and meaningful...more

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Apr 11, 2012 Jacqie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book as a child, and probably much of this review will be my childhood experience of reading it. I've looked through some other reviews and been interested to see the viewpoints of those who don't like the book. There are certainly some race and gender reps that seem dated or not PC now, but I wonder how a child of 10 or 12 (my age when I first read it) would perceive it.

For myself, reading it about 1978 or 1980, it was an eye-opening experience. First, one thing I like about L'engl...more I loved this book as a child, and probably much of this review will be my childhood experience of reading it. I've looked through some other reviews and been interested to see the viewpoints of those who don't like the book. There are certainly some race and gender reps that seem dated or not PC now, but I wonder how a child of 10 or 12 (my age when I first read it) would perceive it.

For myself, reading it about 1978 or 1980, it was an eye-opening experience. First, one thing I like about L'engle's writing is that she isn't afraid to work more adult themes into her work. Time travel, the past affecting (even erasing) the future, possible sexual abuse, it's there, but not wallowed in. But they are interesting, challenging concepts upon which to ruminate. Next, I grew up in an evangelical household, with a very authoritative view Christianity, with parents who were sexist and bigoted. Reading about a woman who could be a scientist ( I know, she works from home) and about Indians who were more mature than the white colonists who feared them were both totally new perspectives. As was L'engle's philosophy, always gently there, of a kind and loving deity who makes beautiful music, in addition to her portraying those with belief as actually open-minded, likeable people (again, a first in my experience). Her philosophy of trying to be part of a greater pattern is not confrontational. There is no epic battle in this book. Charles Wallace saves the world by helping someone be with the person they love, at the expense of himself, but it's done without fireworks, hardly even acknowledged by anyone. There's no hero fantasy being played out here. Isn't that kind of an interesting idea? Meg saves him by asking for help instead of strapping on a sword and fighting for him- isn't the idea of asking for help instead of being entirely self-sufficient against the standard tropes of fantasy? There's no sidekick-hero dynamic here. Everyone does what they can do, and the least appealing character in the book is ultimately the one who placed herself, before anyone even knew what she was doing, between her family and the powers of darkness.

I'm not a Christian myself, but have more respect for this sort of philosophy than fire and brimstone. And maybe submission is an awkward trope to wrap one's head around, but you certainly don't read much like it in these days of spunky, sassy heroines who are simultaneously totally sexy and totally virginal in the popular teen books. I don't advocate submission as the answer to everything, but maybe butt-kicking isn't the answer to everything either.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes a good sassy butt-kicking is what I like to read about. But reading about community, hope and harmony again was a refreshing change. (less)

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Jan 31, 2012 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-children, fantasy, re-read

Charles Wallace saves the universe from the forces of evil. Dear Lord, I hated this book. I'm going with two stars because I do try to reserve a one-star rating for truly unreadable books. This wasn't necessarily bad; I just hated it. I hated the wooden dialogue. I hated the vaguely racist patina over the Native American portrayal. I hated the fact that everyone had the same flipping name. I hated that the author circumvented background exposition with awkward over-explaining conversations (or e...more Charles Wallace saves the universe from the forces of evil. Dear Lord, I hated this book. I'm going with two stars because I do try to reserve a one-star rating for truly unreadable books. This wasn't necessarily bad; I just hated it. I hated the wooden dialogue. I hated the vaguely racist patina over the Native American portrayal. I hated the fact that everyone had the same flipping name. I hated that the author circumvented background exposition with awkward over-explaining conversations (or exclamations to the dog!) and letters. Most of all, I hated that the characters were completely useless as carriers of any individual talent or strength. Literally everything in this puzzle was handed to Charles Wallace and Meg. It might as well have been any rando off the street doing these Missions because they certainly required no initiative, and explicitly discouraged independent thinking. And it had to be that way because that's the way it Was. So if it Was, then why did someone even have to do it? And why did someone special have to do it? The dog really tipped it for me. Really, a random magic dog shows up on this night to pick up the remaining slack between what the unicorn and the powers that Be have determined will happen? Ugh.

I came back to add more stuff I hated, because I hated it that much. I hated that it was apparently totally plausible for the President, 24 hours before nuclear meltdown, to call his occasional science advisor just to give him a heads-up about the end of the world. Like, how many people must be 2 or 3 degrees away from the President in this way? Did he literally sit and call every one of them? Maybe the world is about to end because he has a terrible hierarchy of priorities. I hated that NOTHING else in the world changed when Whatshername married Thegoodone instead of Thebadone. C'mon now. First of all, rudi-flipping-mentary time travel. Second, don't make the entire premise of your story the fact that everything is so interrelated and how one tiny change might wipe out the universe, and then make a HUGE change and report that the only difference in the timeline of history is that the dictator isn't evil anymore. Oh, and I so hated that Meg is nothing but dog-whisperer and baby-carrier. Meg is brilliant! And raised in a freaking female Nobel Prize-winning household. Not to say that she has to be a renowned scientist or anything, but it just would have been sweet to say what her non-house-keeping-baby-growing role is in her world. Or at least a short manifesto about feminist choices and the way she is living her feminism in this role. The end, for real this time. (less)

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Dec 14, 2011 Kathryn Knight rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was certainly the most confusing book of the Time Quartet. I'm glad I was able to read it in one sitting or I would have gotten lost. This book uses an element that I've always found fascinating, time travel, but mixes it in with Madeleine L'Engle's usual intricate style.

The novel begins on Thanksgiving day about nine years after the last book. The president calls Mr. Murry to warn him that the dictator of the South American country Vespugia is threatening nuclear war and the end of earth a...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Phoebe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: loved-it-young-adult-fantasy-sci, loved-it, young-adult, fantasy, sci-fi, rereads, favorite

I can't really claim that this will be a "review," not really. Reviews require a certain degree of (admittedly sometimes false) objectivity, and I suspect that I'm physically incapable of being objective in regards to A Swiftly Tilting Planet, the third book in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet and my favorite book ever. I've read it at least a dozen times in the past decade and a half. I own multiple copies (all with the same cover, with Charles Wallace in bell bottomed jeans with feathered hair...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Angela Corbin added it · review of another edition

This may be my favorite of the quintet so far. The possibility and hope of this story (these many stories, really) intertwined through creation, history, humanity, individuals, and time are still making my heart race and my mind swirl a little.

I love the way that Reality is made clearer in L'Engle stories...that what we see is not all that is. As I read, I felt newly awakened to the reality of how small I am. How fleeting are all things visible and present. And yet even as I was dwarfed by the...more

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Mar 14, 2011 Kelsey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

I really can't put into words what this book is about. All I can say is that it is the most amazing book I've ever read. This is one of the few books that any age can read. I read this the first time when I was about 10, and I I've read it about six times now. I love it more and more each time I read. Though I didn't fully understand it the first time I read it, I knew there was something special about it, so I went back and read it again. It's one of the few books that get better with each read...more

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Oct 30, 2010 Regina rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the third in the sequel to "A Wrinkle in Time" This one jumps 9 years. Meg is married to Calvin O'Keefe and expecting her first child. The Murry family come together for Thanksgiving. Mrs. O'Keefe, (Calvin's mother) also attends. During the meal, the US President calls Mr Murry to inform him that the dictator of Vespugia in South America, Maddog Branzillo, is threatening nuclear war. Mrs, O'Keefe recites an ancient rune and charges Charles Wallace with a quest to discover what in history...more

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Oct 26, 2010 heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, fiction, reread, sff, ya

ok. so rereading the first 2 books in this series (as an adult) was painful. the charm that i remembered didn't come through. i was ready to be disappointed by this, my favorite as a kid. although there are things about this that i found overly hokey, i still really enjoyed the book. and it surprised me. what i remembered about the story was time travel (fun!), unicorns (ok, i like dragons better, but unicorns are alright), and Meg in the attic (yep). um, this book is about the fusion of Wales,...more

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About Madeleine L'Engle

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 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 regeneration in The Arm of the Starfish, and so forth.

"Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918, and spent her formative years in New York City. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories, poems and journals for herself, which was reflected in her grades (not the best). However, she was not discouraged.

At age 12, she moved to the French Alps with her parents and went to an English boarding school where, thankfully, her passion for writing continued to grow. She flourished during her high school years back in the United States at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, vacationing with her mother in a rambling old beach cottage on a beautiful stretch of Florida Beach.

She went to Smith College and studied English with some wonderful teachers as she read the classics and continued her own creative writing. She graduated with honors and moved into a Greenwich Village apartment in New York. She worked in the theater, where Equity union pay and a flexible schedule afforded her the time to write! She published her first two novels during these years--A Small Rain and Ilsa--before meeting Hugh Franklin, her future husband, when she was an understudy in Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard. They married during The Joyous Season.

She had a baby girl and kept on writing, eventually moving to Connecticut to raise the family away from the city in a small dairy farm village with more cows than people. They bought a dead general store, and brought it to life for 9 years. They moved back to the city with three children, and Hugh revitalized his professional acting career. The family has kept the country house, Crosswicks, and continues to spend summers there.

As the years passed and the children grew, Madeleine continued to write and Hugh to act, and they to enjoy each other and life. Madeleine began her association with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where she has been the librarian and maintained an office for more than thirty years. After Hugh's death in 1986, it was her writing and lecturing that kept her going. She has now lived through the 20th century and into the 21st and has written over 60 books and keeps writing. She enjoys being with her friends, her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren."

http://us.macmillan.com/author/madele...

Copyright © 2007 Crosswicks, Ltd. (Madeleine L'Engle, President)(less)

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Books by Madeleine L'Engle

A Ring of Endless Light (Austin Family, #5)

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Quotes from A Swiftly Tilting Planet

“At Tara in this fateful hour,
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And the fire with all the strength it hath,
And the lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness:
All these I place,
By God's almighty help and grace
Between myself and the powers of darkness!” — 156 people liked it

“Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind.” — 133 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77276.A_Swiftly_Tilting_Planet?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327465278l/77276.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77276.A_Swiftly_Tilting_Planet?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle[/url]

A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time #3)

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