A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Madeleine L'Engle
- First Published: 1978
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Fantasy
- Subjects: Dictators, Supernatural, Science or scientists, Religion, Time travel, Good and evil, Heroes or heroism, End of the world, Nuclear warfare or weapons
- Locales: South America, New England, Wales, Vespugia (fictive)
A Swiftly Tilting Planet presents Charles Wallace with a quest to save the world from Maddog Branzillo, who would start nuclear war. He is given only an ancient rune as clue by a mysterious Mrs. O’Keefe. Charles Wallace goes out to the star-watching rock to contemplate and, after saying the rune, is greeted by Gaudior, a unicorn who takes him back and forth through time on the wind as he attempts to discover what in history caused the nuclear threat to appear in the present.
L’Engle explores the idea of the butterfly effect—the idea that one decision or flap of a...
[The entire page is 501 words long]
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