The Sword and Laser discussion

So with this announced so long ago, I kind of dropped the ball on the announcement thread. Better late than never.

Where's that 2nd A in AWAIT coming from, Rob? :D

EDIT: Oh sure, make me look silly by editing the title after I comment. Haha!

The first edition

the UK paperback

I think this is the cover of the paperback edition I read many many super blood moons ago. I found a more recent reprint with the same cover to read this February with S+L.

and the graphic novel, with a link to a preview at Tor.com

https://www.tor.com/2012/09/12/a-wrin...

I have the four-set from some 20 years ago, and reread the first three some 12 years back. I'm afraid my eyes aren't what they were so I won't be turning to that. But I have the graphic novel as well as the book on hold at the library. Probably won't come in until halfway through the month, but then, I recall the storyline fairly well.

Mark wrote: "I think this is the cover of the paperback edition I read many many super blood moons ago. I found a more recent reprint with the same cover to read this February with S+L.

"

That is the paperback I'm reading to my son right now.

The first book we've read that was published in my birth year.

Yes I am that old ;-)

I also think I'm reading this about 45 years too late :-?
10 yo me would have loved this.

Tassie Dave wrote: "...

I also think I'm reading this about 45 years too late :-?
10 yo me would have loved this."

Yes, my feelings precisely! Read this for the first time, about 4 months ago and honestly wasn't very impressed, but I suspect we'll get lots of comments from people who first read it as children and have fond recollections of it as a result.

I gave the audiobook a quick re-listen in the last couple of days, partly so I could keep up with the discussions, but also as an easy win for the reading challenge!

Colin wrote: "Tassie Dave wrote: "...

I also think I'm reading this about 45 years too late :-?
10 yo me would have loved this."

Yes, my feelings precisely! Read this for the first time, about 4 months ago and..."

Yup, that's exactly what I said when I read it last month. I didn't like it now but I probably would I have thought it was amazing when I was 9 or 10. To me it seemed like she was trying to do a Heinlein/sf version of Narnia.

I'm not sure what's available in the US, but in Canada I have the option of purchasing The Wrinkle in Time Quintet for 25.99 from Kobo. I'm planning on reading all five, so it just makes sense for me rather than purchasing the ebooks separately.

Interesting article about Madeleine L'Engle in the New Yorker. Contains spoilers for her books.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

I like how the book starts with " It was a dark and stormy night," the classic example of a bad way to start a novel .

Mark wrote: "the UK paperback"

Geekmom did a look at different covers for "A Wrinkle in Time" through the years:
https://geekmom.com/2018/01/judging-w...

I couldn't decide which cover I liked best, so I created my own mongrel hybrid cover.

Inconsequential fun fact: The original "It was a dark and stormy night" novel, Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, was published in London in 1830, in three volumes, like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

And of course, there's Snoopy

William wrote: "Geekmom did a look at different covers for "A Wrinkle in Time" through the years:
https://geekmom.com/2018/01/judging-w..."

Thanks for pointing this article out. Always entertaining to look at the cover art.

Agree with comments above that I wished I'd have read this when I was 10! Little me would have loved it - it reminds me a bit of The Phantom Tollbooth which was a book I very much enjoyed as a child.
Adult me got through it fast enough but found the writing style a bit clunky.
Although I did enjoy Aunt Beast and the difficulties of describing things to alien beings who don't share the same means of perception.

I did read it first when I was ten (or close enough) and L'Engle I think doesn't like book endings. I read another one of her books and it had the (view spoiler)[same great build up with the sudden hard stop. And the ending had almost nothing to do with anything we've learned so far! It just magically happened! (hide spoiler)] That got me, even as a kid and more so in the reread.

Colin wrote: "Yes, my feelings precisely! Read this for the first time, about 4 months ago and honestly wasn't very impressed, but I suspect we'll get lots of comments from people who first read it as children and have fond recollections of it as a result.."

That was what I thought. That a lot of the love for the book is childhood nostalgia.

I would recommend it to the pre-teen children in my life. It has got a charm about it.

I'm not far off finishing it and then I'll will move on to something a bit more mature ;-)

Allison wrote: "I did read it first when I was ten (or close enough) "

I think that was the age when I read it too, but I hardly remember it for some reason. I'm going to have to read it again.

We read this in school as a class back when I was in primary school. I don't remember much about it.

I read it in 3rd or 4th grade. Barely remembered anything but the basics. I am really enjoying it though and it's fun trying to figure out how the movie will be.

I read this as a child, and some of the sequels - probably up to A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and I chose to read the series to my daughter as a child.

I enjoyed this book both times I read it, but as an adult, the subsequent books made me enjoy the series less and less.

We got to Many Waters and stopped. I think my daughter was bored with that book as I was, and I found the resolution underwhelming.

The later books also highlight the Christian themes in AWIT, with the religion being entirely explicit in Many Waters. A non religious friend of mine called AWIT and the Time Quintet "a blindingly-obvious 'stealth' Christian fantasy." That's not a problem, it is what it is, and I've read plenty of books with explicitly religious themes. Only as the more explicit this series gets, the content and quality of the books degraded.

I'm debating whether or not to re-read this book, as it's been about 10 years since I last read it, and I'm having trouble remembering the details.

I'm now 1/4 into the book, and so far I enjoy it. The characters are engaging enough (if a bit too perfect, they are clearly very much wish-fulfillment characters for misfit nerdy kids to project themselves onto), and while the weirdness hasn't fully started yet, the hints that have been dropped so far are promising.

I found this to be rather light weight and not that great. Not even sure I would have liked it as a 10 year old. The characters are mostly OK. However, Meg is a lacks Agency as a protagonist. The boys tend to do everything for most of the book.

Mark wrote: "The first edition

"

Fun fact: The first edition cover design was by Ellen Raskin, who later wrote The Westing Game.

Also, every online discussion I've seen of this book had at least one adult reader who missed the Christian imagery. It's not obvious to everybody, which is probably a point in its favor.

Phil wrote: "Mark wrote: "The first edition

"

Fun fact: The first edition cover design was by Ellen Raskin, who later wrote The Westing Game.

Also, every online discussion I've seen of this book h..."

...did they miss the part where the angelic beings literally sing "praise the lord"?

Dominik wrote: "...did they miss the part where the angelic beings literally sing "praise the lord"?."

I know, it seems obvious. Maybe it only rings a bell for people who've been around churches?

Phil wrote: "Dominik wrote: "...did they miss the part where the angelic beings literally sing "praise the lord"?."

I know, it seems obvious. Maybe it only rings a bell for people who've been around churches?"

I often miss stuff like that (and I literally spent my early years playing in my Grandfather's church ;-)). It is just background noise in a story, some characters believe in god, it is just what they do. Americans are more likely to be god botherers than Europeans and Australians.

Aaand done. I thought it was alright for the most part, though the religious stuff was a bit heavy-handed and the ending felt kind of anti-climactic.

Incidentally, anyone here read the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane? Because this reminded me a lot of that, and I'm almost certain Duane was heavily inspired by it.

Incidentally, anyone here read the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane?"

I was a huge fan of those as a kid. The two seem very different to me. Mainly in how the protagonists approach the mindnumbingly big destructive force.

I feel like the wizards were more go get 'em (Probably why I read that whole series and only L'engle's book 1)

However you're not wrong. I would be surprised if Duane wasn't inspired by this.

I read this when it first came out and I remember younger me really enjoying it. I'm reluctant to reread books because I like being surprised and often reading the first few lines of a chapter will trigger flashbacks to the rest of it. I'd thought that the first read of this one would have been long enough ago that this wouldn't happen but... no. That's very odd given that I regularly have trouble remembering names. This book must have made quite an impression on me at the time.

I always said this was my favorite childhood book, alongside The Secret Garden. I was scared to reread it as an adult but first did so two years ago when I asked my reading class to revisit a childhood favorite. One of the students in my reading class, Molly, twenty years younger than me, reread it too. So it does seem to continue entering the childhood experience!

This time around, I'm going to keep going in the series. I feel like I read some of them as a kid but don't remember them the way I remember A Wrinkle in Time. I gifted myself the box set.

I never read this book as a kid. I am about half way through the Audible book and am thoroughly enjoying it.

I heard about the movie before I read the book and think the image of Oprah as Mrs Witch totally spoil it for me. She doesn't even come close to the personality I imagined from the book and the movie is a definite skip-it for me.

Hello! First time posting, but I've been a passive member of the group for some time.. I was excited to see this book picked for this month b/c it just so happens I was reading it to my daughter anyways! I have fond recollections of reading this book/series as a child, but clearly the wires in my brain must have crossed at some point, b/c the scenes that come to mind when remembering AWIT are most definitely not in the book so far!

I/we are enjoying it so far! But we're 3/4 of the way through it and I keep feeling struck by how, I don't know, dependent, Meg seems to be. It seems like every other page she's looking for a male figure to take the lead or comfort her. I don't consider myself overly sensitive (or even observant) to that sort of thing in writing, but here it just feels, I don't know - off. Is it just me?

It was published in the 60s. Many of us were conditioned (by society if not our families) to think a male figure should always take the lead.

It's a growing up book: Meg needed to stop looking to her father/adults to solve all her problems or kiss her boo boos. Meg isn't always easy to love, that's for sure. (She reminds me of me in soooooo many ways).

^This. So very much this.

And the book is pretty progressive for its time. Three vastly powerful beings are all at least apparently female. At least one of them seems to be beyond gender in their true form. The mother has a career and while she pines for her husband, holds it together without him.

Bit late, but this made me laugh :D

I love it! So true.