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A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time Quintet #3) by Madeleine L’Engle

“The apocalypse is looming when a random South American Dictator threatens Nuclear War. Of course, Charles Wallace is the only one who can stop it!  It's all tied into the descendants of Meg's mother in law, Mrs. O'Keefe, Calvin's mother.  With the help of a Unicorn named Gudior, Charles Wallace is off to save the day. This was another head scratcher and I'm not holding out much hope that the series will start making sense."

2 Stars

Pros Time travel, to me, is far less surreal than whatever was going on in #2. So this was an easier read.

Cons: Megs constant questioning starts right on page 1, at least she’s consistent/I do love how Mr. Murry is on speed dial with the President/The various timelines got very confusing and all the Brans/Maddocs/Maddox/Gwens/Gwyns and the multiple Zillah and Zillies were extremely frustrating. I had no idea who I was reading about at the end. 

Full Review:

Years have passed and all the Murry children have grown. Dennys and Sandy are doctors/lawyers and Meg is married to Calvin and expecting their first child. Charles Wallace is a teen now, just as earnest as ever.

They've gathered together for a Thanksgiving feast, and they’ve invited over Megs mother in law. She’s a surly woman but they try to make the best of it. Calvin is off in London, presenting on a paper he wrote and Meg thought it would be nice to reach out to her mother in law, Mrs. O'Keefe. The atmosphere of love and family is quickly disrupted though when Mr. Murry receives a call from the President saying that Nuclear War is imminent. Apparently there's a South American dictator who’s stockpiling nukes named Branzillo. 

With that happy news, they try to have a nice dinner but it all feels rather forced. And the fact that Mrs. O'Keefe starts muttering about a Rune, Patricks' rune just makes things weirder. The weather starts going crazy but she and Charles Wallace’s words stop it. She tells him that it’s up to him.

Later that might, Meg and Charles Wallace talks and he knows this is important. He just can’t figure out why. So, he goes to the Star watching rock and calls upon all the powers of Heaven and Earth and bam, Gudior the Unicorn arrives to whisk Charles Wallace away to try and stop an event in time that could lead to catastrophe. And Meg rides along by Kything.

There are lots of Charles Wallace going “within” the consciousness of the many descendants of Madoc to try and figure out how to stop Branzillo, the random South American dictator who’s also a descendant of Madoc from blowing up the world. Needless to say, I lost the narrative a lot of times and by the end, I honestly just wasn't sure what I was reading. Again, another addition to the series and another book that left me bewildered and rather confused. 

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