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Mar 19, 2017JEM_LPL rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
If you happen to see me murmuring under my breath “At Tara in this fateful hour...”, please rest assured that I haven’t mistaken our new library for Scarlett O’Hara’s old digs; I’m just reciting the rune from Madeline L’Engle’s science fiction “A Swiftly Tilting Planet”. It’s the third in her “Time” quartet, but it can be read as a stand alone, and it’s the most accessible of her novels. It opens with the Murray family about to celebrate Thanksgiving, when they hear about a vicious dictator named “Mad Dog” Branzillo is about to plunge the world into nuclear war. (Hmmm....an erratic, power-crazed world leader in charge of nuclear weapons. Nah, that’d never happen. ;) Before you can say “Quantum Leap copied us!” the teenage genius Charles Wallace Murray is riding a winged unicorn named Gaudior through time so they can avert the atomic holocaust. I think a “A Swiftly Tilting Planet” deserves a shout out during Women’s History month for two reasons; L’Engle wrote it in 1978, when science fiction was still considered a man’s domain, plus the old lady whom most of the characters disdain and disregard proves to be the ultimate savior of the world. True, Madoc’s song “When will come the Old Man’s daughter?” is corny, and the repeated emphasis on blue eyes sounds vaguely racist now. However, the theme and the rune will haunt many readers, and the closing paragraph still packs a punch today.