What I'm Reading Now-The Jumbo 2010 Catch-Up/I-Spoke-Too-Soon Edition, Part V

Soooo, remember how I thought I was all done catching up on my 2010 reads with my last post?  Well, as I was assembling my Books Read in 2010 page, I realized that I had one more that never got reviewed here.  I did review it on Goodreads though, so I am just straight up going to copy and paste.  Not only does that save me a lot of time, but it also means that all the embedded links are going to take you to Goodreads.com

Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle-I don't really have too much to say about this book. I liked it a lot better than #3 in the series, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, but I still didn't love it. I understand why L'Engle's books endure-I think she does a great job of bringing sophisticated science to young readers in a way that is interesting-I can see how some kid might decide she wants to be a physicist or a mathematician after reading some of L'Engle's books, and I think that's great; however, I don't think she's a very good writer. I hate to say that, seeing as how I have no credentials to base that on and I didn't really notice it as much in the first three books, but I almost couldn't keep reading after the first 20 or so pages of Many Waters. Things just feel clunky and awkward and so very non-Mary-Doria-Russell. (File this under "things that are being unfairly compared toThe Sparrow") 

That said, I thought this was an interesting interpretation of the story of Noah and the ark. Sandy and Dennys Murry, the popular twin brothers of Meg and Charles Wallace, find themselves whisked away to Biblical times when they accidentally mess with one of their parent's experiments. As in L'Engle's other books, there are mythical creatures, like unicorns and manticores, right alongside her other characters. There are nephilim and seraphim, which I didn't know anything about, but I took them to be similar to angels and fallen angels or angels and demons-in-the-making. After some wikipedia-ing, I see that I pretty much had it right. 

Like A Wind in the Door, this book is filled with creatures that I think would capture the imaginations of younger readers, and I'm sure it would also promote some good discussions about both religion and science.

There.  NOW I am done!  Woohoo!