collected
Fiction · Novel · Fantasy · Science Fiction
About 7 h 15 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 15 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
Fifteen-year-old twins Sandy and Dennys Murry accidentally transport themselves from their parents’ laboratory to a desert where unicorns exist and angels walk among people. Noah’s family takes them in at an oasis, and the brothers realize they have arrived in the world before the biblical Flood. Knowing what is coming offers little protection when they have no idea how to get home.
The fourth Time Quintet novel is a middle-grade science fantasy, humorous and mythic in tone. Family quarrels and everyday chores occupy considerable space, and the adventure frequently slows for frank conversations about faith, biblical ideas and the responsibilities that come with loving others.
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
No, the prose is direct and descriptive, and the story follows a linear path. The greater challenge comes from conversations about faith, biblical ideas and the responsibilities of loving others, rather than complicated language or structure.
No, the adventure moves at a moderate pace, with considerable space given to family quarrels and everyday chores. Sandy and Dennys’s predicament creates tension, but conversations about faith and responsibility frequently slow the action.
Religion is central: Sandy and Dennys arrive in the world before the biblical Flood, stay with Noah’s family and encounter angels. The story frequently pauses for frank conversations about faith, biblical ideas and the responsibilities that come with loving others.
Many Waters is a middle-grade science fantasy with fifteen-year-old twins at its centre. Its humorous, mythic tone sits alongside earnest discussion of family, morality and faith, making those interests useful guides to its appeal.
About 368 pages in the Square Fish 2007 edition. The pace is moderate, with family life, everyday chores and philosophical conversations taking up considerable space alongside the adventure.
Square Fish · 2007 · Paperback. ISBN 9780312368579.
1. A Wrinkle in Time; 2. A Wind in the Door; 3. A Swiftly Tilting Planet; 4. Many Waters; 5. An acceptable time.
About 7 hours 15 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 368-page Square Fish edition. Dense books can take longer.
Madeleine L’Engle was an American writer whose career ranged across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. After publishing her first novels in the 1940s, she endured repeated rejection and even considered abandoning writing, an experience that underscores the persistence behind her later success. Her best-known book, the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time, established a characteristic method: bringing science fiction and fantasy into the intimate world of family loyalties, vulnerable young people, and difficult moral choices. The related Murry novels widen that approach through cosmic conflict, illness, time travel, biblical history, and the threat of nuclear war, while keeping ideas tied to the fate of particular characters. L’Engle’s prose could be direct and descriptive or more lyrical and atmospheric, depending on the scale of the story. Her nonfiction, including Walking on Water, makes explicit another enduring concern: the relationship between faith, artistic practice, close attention, and honest creation.
