Many popular series, be they books, movies or television shows, generally try to experiment with the format in later books. Maybe they introduce new characters, present a whole different premise, or use an alternate storytelling style.
“A Swiftly Tilting Planet” by Madeleine L’Engle does the latter. In addition to that, it sidelines former main character Meg Murry by making her pregnant, so she can’t join Charles Wallace on his adventures through space and time.
I kid you not. Back in 1978, they already used pregnancy as an excuse to put a character on a bus or diminish their role. It’s a clumsily written excuse to prevent Meg from joining Charles Wallace on his adventure. Calvin isn’t available too, because he’s on a business trip – but that sounds far more plausible and much more politically correct than Meg’s reason.
Fortunately, he has a sarcastic, angelic unicorn along for the ride – Gaudior. The pair make for a fairly funny duo as they progress through the different set pieces chapters of the novel.
Set pieces? Well, yes. You see, in order to save the world, Charles Wallace must inhabit the minds of influential people across history so that he can change a particular sequence of events. Basically, he needs to change the past to change the future (when the world is in grave danger). He visits different settlements, takes on the lives on different people, and tries to subtly guide their actions as he does so.
This means that a good many chapters have virtually no link to the main narrative. As a result, it feels like the Charles Wallace-Gaudior plot is more like a framing device to tell an anthology of short stories. These are all Earth-based stories, mind you, so they’re certainly not as interesting or vivid as those in previous books.
Oh, and they have a song! A song that they keep repeating in the book. It’s a great idea in theory, but if you’ve read “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy then you’ll realise how awkward and weird songs look in a book. The song is a huge plot device, I’ll give you that – but it kind of grates on you after awhile, especially when you can see it coming.
However, the book does begin in an intriguing way, which is what compelled me to finish it in the first place. You get a sudden mystery, and the revelation that the world is on the brink of a nuclear war. A nuclear war! It fires up your imagination, because you think that maybe Meg and Charles Wallace and Calvin might be off to stop nuclear missiles later in the book.
But, nope, it’s just Charles Wallace leaping into the minds of people in the past, so that the writer can experiment with other stories she’s wanted to tell, but weren’t fully formed yet.
I might be seeing “A Wrinkle in Time” through rose-tinted glasses, but it seems like nothing else (film adaptations or the other books in the series) comes close. “A Swiftly Tilting Planet” would have been okay if we saw Earth toppling over quickly, but that never happens.
Score: 3.0/5
“A Swiftly Tilting Planet” by Madeleine L’Engle is a science fiction fantasy novel that’s part of the Time Quintet (the first book is “A Wrinkle in Time”). The story takes place 10 years after the events of the first book. This time, it is up to Charles Wallace and new character Gaudior to save the planet from extinction.
You can buy “A Swiftly Tilting Planet” on Book Depository or at Kinokuniya.
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I’m a scriptwriter who’s written for popular shows like Lion Mums, Crimewatch, Police & Thief, and Incredible Tales. I’m also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. You can find me on social media as Optimarcus and on my site.
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