Conference noted::sf

See note 237 for discussion on the Gormenghast Trilogy.

I've retitled this topic to be the place to discuss A Wrinkle in Time.

Dave C.
moderator

    Re .2:
    		Nope, Madeline L'Engle is the author.

    
    	I believe that is Andre Norton. All of her books were published
    by Ace during the 60's.
    
    							Mark

    re: .4  Do you mean to say that Madeline L'Engle is a psuedonym of
    Andre Norton's?!  That's the first time I've heard that suggested.
    
    re: .0  The author is Madeline L'Engle.  She has written four books
    directly about these characters --
    	A Wrinkle in Time
    	A Wind in the Door
    	A Swiftly Tilting Planet
    	Many Waters
    
    You can generally find her books in the Young Adult section of the 
    book store.
    
      Scott

    Andre Norton and Madeleine L'Engle are definitely not the same
    person, and A WRINKLE IN TIME is definitely by L'Engle, not Norton.
    I'm a big L'Engle fan myself, and actually, I consider AWIT and
    its sequels (well, the first two anyways) to be among her lesser
    books.
    
    In addition to the more direct sequels mentioned in .5, related
    books include:
    
    	THE ARM OF THE STARFISH
    	DRAGONS IN THE WATERS
    	A HOUSE LIKE A LOTUS
    
    These three books are about the children of Calvin O'Keefe and Meg
    Murry from the "Time" books. Actually, almost *all* of L'Engle's
    novels are part of one big happy interconnected universe.
    
    --- jerry

    I agree with Jerry.  By the way, I think AWIT or maybe ASTP won
    the Newberry Award for Children's Literature, kind of a junior Pulitzer
    or something.  I keep trying to imagine myself inside a tesserect
    (sp?), but so far no luck!
    
    Sherry

    re:.7
    
    WRINKLE won the Newbery Award, and some of her other books are
    Newbery "Honor" books ("honorary mentions", as it were).
    
    For what it's worth, my single favorite L'Engle is A RING OF
    ENDLESS LIGHT. A close second is a non-sf novel for adults, A
    SEVERED WASP.
    
    --- jerry

    Yes, AWIT is one of my all time favorite books, though I am ashamed
    to admit that I have not read any of her other books.
    
    I read AWIT in the third grade, and I credit it with getting me
    interested in SF.  In fact I would probably credit it with getting
    me interested in Science itself.
    
    --  Barry

    
    ..thanks to evryone for the info on AWIT.  I found it at the library
    last night.  Also, reading the comments about the Gormenghast Trilogy
    in note 237 reminded me just how ponderous (but satisfying, once I 
    finished them) those books are.
    
    re: .9 - AWIT was also the very first SF book I ever read, except for
    Tom Swift, Jr. which I consider more adventure than science.  I was so
    captivated with A Wrinkle that I spent the whole rest of that summer
    feverishly devouring every SF book that the tiny Mechanicsburg, PA. 
    library had (and there weren't many).  Another book that I got real
    attached to was a book about some rebels who were fighting against a
    dictatorship.  One guy was a pilot, but the only planes the rebels
    could get were 200 year old museum pieces which the rebels got back
    into fighting condition and then used them against the government
    forces who controlled the world from giant floating platforms.  The
    name of the book and author is now lost in the ozone, but I remember
    the cover had a picture of the hero pilot and his girlfriend who, of
    course, was wrapped in a tight, transparent sarong.  Being 11 or 12
    at the time, I considered that cover to be very cool and the best part
    of the book....

    Re .10
    
    Thats funny, I read AWIT in the Carlisle, PA. library.  And then
    a few years later I moved to Mechanicsburg, were I frequently borrowed
    SF and Fantasy books from the public library (I read Lord of the
    Rings there).
    
    Hmmm...?  Theres not THAT many people from Mechanisburg, who the
    heck are you anyway?
    
--  Barry

    
    re: .11
    
    ...just a fellow traveler through space and time.  Formal introduction
    in note 122.59
    
    Marc

    I liked A Wrinkle In Time, and I LOVED the sequel, "A Wind in the
    Door", although it got kind of far-fetched at times.  Interesting
    themes are also in her "A Swiftly Tilting Planet", which isn't as
    exciting as the previous two (and is I think unrelated, although
    it's been a while....), but also good.
    
    -Jody
    

    re:.13
    
    Yes, A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET *is* related tot he other two via
    common characters, but one of the things that bothered me about
    the sequels is their lack of consistency with the previous book(s).
    In each one, the characters act as if they've never encountered
    anything unusual before.
    
    --- jerry

    Re .14
    
    I did not get the impression that "the characters act as if they've
    never encountered anything unusual before."  For instance, Meg and
    Charles become more and more adept at "kything" as the sequence goes
    on.  But they DO get thrown a new loop every single book, so it is, in
    it's way, "realistic" that they are always being floored by the (new)
    special effects.  ("Okay, you've mastered the fourth dimension and
    telepathy.  Now for time-travel.")
    
    Earl Wajenberg

    
    
    	I agree with .9, etc. AWIT is I probally the first SF book that
    I ever read way back in grade school in Hamburg, PA. I still remember
    the story line and characters and how much I enjoyed reading it.
    And as .9 said I do beleave that AWIT is what got me intrested in
    SF and science as a whole. 
    (I think that after this gets big enough that someone should send
    this note to the author as a gift. Probally make a big impression)
    
    
    			Joe   (who read this about 20 eeek years ago)

    re:.16
    
    I'm sure that there isn't anything being said here that she hasn't
    heard thousands of times already.
    
    --- jerry

    L'Engle went to her first SF convention (Lunacon) just a couple
    of years ago.  She was (pleasantly) surprised to hear all of this
    stuff from hundreds of fen that weekend.  I believe she's going
    to cons pretty often now.  A little egoboo never hurts, eh?
    
    Merryl

    Never read the story, but was interested to see it listed as being
    in the top 20 (10 ?) children's fiction in B D'Alton's.  Was a
    published list from some newspaper or Corporate 'rag'.  Saw the
    list on the wall at the Greendale Mall store (Worcester, MA), on
    15 April.
    
    Dwight

    re:.18
    
    Actually, Lunacon was her second sf con -- her first was a Darkover
    convention on the West Coast. I haven't heard of her attending any
    other cons since, though. She was amazed when she encountered me.
    Almost everyone asking for autographs had copies of the Time Trilogy,
    some with a couple of the other marginal sf books. Me, I had *all*
    kinds of old and obscure books of hers with me. She and her (now
    late :-( ) husband couldn't figure out where I got some of them.
    
    Anyways, hearing "this stuff" from fans doesn't necessarily have
    to mean "in person". What I was getting at was that she's almost
    assuredly gotten tons of fan mail over the last 25+ years.
    
    --- jerry

    That doesn't mean it isn't worth saying again, Jerry.   :-)

    also my first SF book.  Sometime in grade school.  I remember some of
    the plot and enjoying it very much.  And I seem to remember - can
    somebody verify this? - that it begins, "It was a dark and stormy
    night..."
    
    -Michelle
    

    re:.22
    
    Yes, it is one of two novels (not counting Snoopy's opus :-)) that
    starts that way. The other is the Bulwer-Lytton one (title forgotten)
    that was the inspiration for the Bulywer-Lytton Contest for most
    creative openings for unwritten novels. Winners and other contestants
    for these contests can be found in the books IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY
    NIGHT, BRIDE OF IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT, etc. These are
    hilarious reading.
    
    --- jerry

    	Don't forget SON OF IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT...
    
    tlh
    (I can't believe that I know about a book that Jerry didn't know
    about!)
    

    re:.24
    
    Well, I didn't want to list them *all*...
    
    --- jerry

    Seen in a college bookstore last weekend, "An Acceptable Time" (or
    something like that) by Madeline L'Engle.  Didn't have a close look at
    it (was pressed for time...) but saw a fairly long list of books by the
    author; not sure how many of them are related to this theme.
    
    At $13. something (it was hardcover, of course) I passed it up.  Has
    anybody else seen it, or better still, read it?
    
    --Simon
    

    re:.26
    
    Yes, I have it and read it, and it's quite good. Far better than
    any of the earlier Time books (but then, I seem to be the odd man
    out in that I consider the Time Trilogy to be among the least of
    her books). It came out the end of last year.
    
    Actually, there is only a moderate connection with the others. The
    main character is Polly O'Keefe, eldest child of Calvin and Meg,
    and a principle character in three other L'Engle novels: THE ARM OF
    THE STARFISH, DRAGONS IN THE WATERS, and A HOUSE LIKE A LOTUS (only
    the first of these three is even borderline sf).
    
    In AN ACCEPTABLE TIME, Polly is visiting with her grandparents and
    finds herself crossing back and forth through a time gate to the
    area as it was a few thousand years ago, and getting involved in
    a struggle between two tribes that live then.
    
    --- jerry

Re .26, .27

If you haven't read L'Engle beyond the original Time Trilogy, you might well 
enjoy this book.  She deals with themes and characters you haven't seen too 
much before, except a bit in A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET.

For someone who has read all of L'Engle's YA novels, and a smattering of her 
adult novels, a dissenting viewpoint from Jerry's:

There wasn't anything in this novel that L'Engle hasn't done in other books.  
Tribes of wise native people, trouble in this paradise, time travel, Zachary 
Gray as the bad influence for a confused adolescent heroine (she's used him 
on both Vicky Austin and Poly O'Keefe)...  I could go on, but you get my 
point.  It isn't a bad book, it's just the same old stuff seen in the other
O'Keefe novels (and one or two Austin books), repackaged.

				Andrew