Teresa’s review sums it up perfectly.

I read this set during one of my childhood nocturnal phases over summer break. Its been years so I don't remember the stories that clearly, but I do remember that the story left an impact. It was an unusual and powerful adventure and extremely surreal.

I debate reading it again as an adult to see if it had the same effect on me

a nice series to read

Please do note that my five star review for Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters is NOT AT ALL about the actual contents and the specific thematics of Madeleine L'Engle's four Time Quartet novels. Because while I did read A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet and Many Waters in this here omnibus, in Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters I in fact and actually have reviewed each of the four books individually and as I finished with them. And therefore, if you go to the individual novels, you will be able to see and read my reviews for each of them, with A Wrinkle in Time receiving a three star rating, A Wind in the Door four stars, A Swiftly Tilting Planet once again three stars and Many Waters five stars (and with Many Waters most definitely being my hands-down favourite of Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet and probably after Meet the Austins my favourite L'Engle novel, period).

However, I do want to point out that if you are indeed interested in reading the stories Madeleine L'Engle has penned about the Murry Family and concerning their fantastical science fiction and fantasy imbued exploits and adventures in one all encompassing volume, you should in my opinion very seriously consider Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters (and no, neither the Murrys nor Calvin O'Keefe really play all that significant thematic roles in the four novels Madeleine L'Engle has written about Polly O'Keefe, with characters like Meg and Calvin O'Keefe generally simply textually existing and that the twins, that Sandy and Dennys Murry also very briefly appears in A House Like a Lotus, so if you want to read about the Murry Family in any amount of specific detail, well, you totally do need to read the four Time Quartet novels for that).

So yes, with regard to Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters, not only does this omnibus feature all four of the Time Quartet novels unabridged and complete, the fact that editor Leonard S. Marcus has also decided to add an informative timeline about Madeleine L'Engle's life, notes on the featured stories and a number of interesting articles (essays) penned by L'Engle about her work and how she views the universe, for and to me, this totally and majorly increases the reading pleasure and interest value of Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters exponentially and certainly does render me really happy and delighted to have read A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet and Many Waters in Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters and not separately, not individually. And honestly, truly, how Leonard S. Marcus shows and features Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time Quartet: A Wrinkle in Time / A Wind in the Door / A Swiftly Tilting Planet / Many Waters (and with all of the appreciated and wonderful supplementals), this all is certainly and spectacularly wonderful, superb and is in my opinion most well deserving of a five star rating simply and just for layout and set-up alone.

The Wrinkle in Time quartet, with its big questions and unerring knack for capturing a kid's most deeply felt wishes, grabbed of my imagination and held on to it long past my formative years. When I recently reread them, I was struck again by L'engle's eye for evocative detail and way with believable-but-crazy narrative turns. Worth a read even if grade school's just a memory.

I hate science in most of its forms, so for Madeline L'Engle to even keep my attention in the Time Quartet is miraculous. I hate the theories. I hate the jargon. But the stories still keep me entertained and they are a nice change of pace from what I'm used to.

I reread these periodically. I loved them passionately when I was small, and I still do.

I had read a couple of these before, but did not remember them very well. Here's my book by book breakdown:

Wrinkle in Time: I remembered this one much more than I thought I did when I started. It is still probably the best of the bunch and the only one that might be called 'required reading'.

Wind in the Door: Probably my favorite of the books. Easily the most thematically satisfying and intriguing. I found the concept of 'naming' and the development of Mr. Jenkins especially relevant to our modern world.

Swiftly Tilting Planet: Easily my least favorite (at least time time around in which they were read in closer proximity to each other for reasons that'll become apparent as I go into why I liked Many Waters.

Many Waters: I can see why this is many people's least favorite. It is the most slowly plotted and least thematically intricate. However, as time went on, I appreciated it. In particular, I appreciated that it is one of the few works about the flood that realizes it's a story about the end of the world. I enjoyed that Sandy and Dennys got to be front and center as they, in later books, became the most interesting characters as they never got to do much (although Meg & Calvin remain my favorite characters) and, after three books in a row, I had grown sick of Charles Wallace.

Please read this. Madeleine L'Engle was once a guest speaker at Biola and spoke of children being able to fly. She wasn't invited back. Too wild, but grounded with not obvious Truth. Bible verses put so carefully into the conversation of children, it just sounds simple.

I own the omnibus of this great children's sci-fi adventure of family and friends and much more!!
These books have stretched my vision, mind, and perception of fantasy and the real-world to only have them seamlessly conclude that anything is possible!

Some of the best science fiction out there in my opinion. I love the way the stories intermingle without having an "order" to read them in. The characters are very easy to get into and I really found myself caring about what happend to them.

For many years, when people would ask me about my favorite book I would promptly say that it was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Recently, I started to wonder if my love for the novel had stood the test of time so I picked up the 4 book series entitled the Time Quartet (I have the box set that I got years ago) from my shelf and dove in headfirst. Reading the first book in the series, A Wrinkle in Time, completely transported me back to middle school when I first discovered the delightful writing of L'Engle. The book was just as fantastic as I remembered but with the passing of time I see more clearly the overt references to Christianity which were lost on me as a child. (She's a bit like C.S. Lewis in the way that she writes for children about Christianity but instead of fantasy devices she uses science fiction and fantasy.) This literary device would increase as the series continued and in a lot of ways it took away some of the enjoyment of the books for me. One of the bonuses of L'Engle's writing is that it is never 'dumbed down' for her child audience. She uses technical terminology and speaks of scientific endeavors as if the reader should already be aware of them. When I first read that book, this was a foreign concept to me as I didn't think I was any good at the sciences when I was in school. (Now look at how many scientific books I've read and reviewed!)

The main character in the first book is Meg, eldest sister of the Murry clan, and we see everything from her point of view. A large portion of why I loved this book was that Meg wasn't a typical girl of her age and I strongly identified with her (and I had a crush on Calvin). A Wrinkle in Time focuses on Meg's relationship with herself, her family, and her peers (especially Calvin). She sees herself as 'other' except when she's with Charles Wallace or her mother (or Calvin...yes, I'm enjoying myself). It doesn't help that their father has been missing for so long that the postman in town has started asking impertinent questions. (The whole town is gossiping or so it seems.) While Meg plays a large role in A Wind in the Door, the main part of the plot is written with Charles Wallace (youngest Murry son) as the main character. Both books are full of adventure and self-discovery. Both Murry children come into their own and use their unique strengths to help them accomplish their goals. The stakes are always set extremely high and the pace is alternately rushed no-holds-barred action and so lackadaisical as to seem stagnant. (Note: If you don't enjoy books with a lot of descriptions and copious amounts of symbolism then I'm afraid this isn't the series for you.) By A Swiftly Tilting Planet, I felt almost overwhelmed by the underlying religious messages and the conclusion, Many Waters, which focuses on the twins, Sandy and Dennis, was so far-fetched as to be ridiculous. (Books 3 and 4 are so convoluted that I don't feel like I can talk about them in detail other than to say they are out there.) Part of me wishes that I had stopped reading at A Wrinkle in Time (as I had done for so many years) so as to not shatter the illusion of what this series meant to me but part of the reason I started this blog was to explore new books and to give as honest a review as possible. The hope is that even if I don't enjoy a book it might interest someone else. With that being said, A Wrinkle in Time remains in my top 50 all-time faves but the others...not so much. 9/10 for book 1 and a 3/10 for the series overall.

A/N: I just did a little Google search and discovered that although I have the box set which is called the Time Quartet there was actually a fifth book written called An Acceptable Time and which called for a new set to be created, the Time Quintet. I feel like I've been hoodwinked! Does this mean I need to find a copy of this book to complete the experience?! (Spoiler alert: I am probably not going to do this.)