Old Timey Book Trailer
You know my penchant for book trailers. Until they become more common I'm just gonna keep linking to 'em. And now, for the first time in my experience, a publisher has invested time and money into a trailer for the republication of an old title. The Wrinkle in Time Quintet is what they're calling the new paperback re-releases from Squarefish. I was surprised to see that An Acceptable Time managed to get on that list. How come it has never really gotten the attention of the first four? Is it bad? Honestly, I want to know.
Labels: Book Trailers, Madeline L'Engle
posted by fusenumber8 @ 12:00 AM
9 Comments
9 Comments:
I haven't reread it in years, but my memory is that:
a) it's about Polly O'Keefe, not one of the original generation of siblings; I guess the time-traveling elements could be used to group it with the quartet, instead of with Arm of the Starfish, etc.
b) it's not that bad, but it's not that great - it feels like it was written mainly to redeem Zachary Gray.
I bought a hard cover quartet a year ago and read it all in a week or so. I had only ever read Wrinkle. Now I want to read everything she has written.
After ten minutes, the trailer was still loading (at only a little over 50 percent complete), so I gave up on it. Doesn't seem very useful to me....
I loved An Acceptable Time as a teen but I suspect it doesn't have the same oomph and lasting quality of Wrinkle.
It starts off on the Murray homestead, so perhaps why it's grouped with the others. I would've thought Many Waters would've been the fourth.
Duh. Quintet. I just watched the trailer, and I've got to say - this is how to redo covers well.
I have to say, to my knowledge it's always been the Time Quartet. Four books. Even the author refers to it that way. Sounds like creative packaging to me.
I don't know if I'd say it's bad, but it has the sometimes stilted
writing, and unrealistic characterization that is true of L'Engle's later
YA books (well, thinking mainly of Troubling a Star and An Acceptable
Time, both of which were published when I was a teen). While Acceptable
Time makes reference to the earlier Time books, particularly the Murry
characters, it's really much more referential to the previous Polly books
(Arm of the Starfish, Dragons in the Waters, House Like a Lotus), not to
mention the Austin family books in which Zachary appears. I think AT makes
much more sense as part of a "Polly" series. Of course, Meg is pregnant
with Polly at the end of Swiftly Tilting Planet, so it's a transition of
sorts. But a lot happens in the years between.
I found Many Waters much better than An Acceptable Time, and it fits better into the Time Quartet in that it's all in the original Murray family.
I like Poly/Polly as a character very much in her first couple books, but was distinctly disappointed in An Acceptable Time's portrayal of her. She's much less individualistic, more of a standard teen. And the plot was more over-the-top and less compelling. At least, that's my memory of it, but it's been a few years.
Also, you can read the first four without missing any plot points - they stand together. But An Acceptable Time should really be read after Arm of the Starfish and House Like a Lotus (for the background on Poly/Polly), and, ideally, The Moon By Night and A Ring of Endless Night (for the background on Zachary Gray).
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