As mentioned upthread, I felt that the book held up well when I listened to it on audio ~5 years ago. I may be biased by that, but it's also one of the ones that I remember most vividly (though I remember much of A Swiftly Tilting Planet fairly well despite not having read it since I was a teenager).
I do have a surprising stray amount of Planet in my head. The bits that don't work really don't work, but I think passages of it are more ambitious than anything else in the Murry novels, like the broken poetry of the chapter from Chuck's brain-damaged perspective. I learned "Saint Patrick's Breastplate" from it.
Proginoskes is my favorite non-human L'Engle character; the farandolae stuff
Yes! On both counts. The green-black heart-beating abyss of Yadah.
Echthroi is a great name (and I was excited when I learned that "echthros" is actually the greek for "enemy").
Yes! And specifically a personal enemy: a πολέμιος is a political enemy, someone you might be sent to fight, but an ἐχθρὸς is someone who hates you. Someone who is hateful. "Sky tearers. Light snuffers. Planet darkeners. The dragons. The worms. Those who hate." The only part of that I object to is the calumny against dragons, though I know how L'Engle means it.
no subject
You're welcome!
As mentioned upthread, I felt that the book held up well when I listened to it on audio ~5 years ago. I may be biased by that, but it's also one of the ones that I remember most vividly (though I remember much of A Swiftly Tilting Planet fairly well despite not having read it since I was a teenager).
I do have a surprising stray amount of Planet in my head. The bits that don't work really don't work, but I think passages of it are more ambitious than anything else in the Murry novels, like the broken poetry of the chapter from Chuck's brain-damaged perspective. I learned "Saint Patrick's Breastplate" from it.
Proginoskes is my favorite non-human L'Engle character; the farandolae stuff
Yes! On both counts. The green-black heart-beating abyss of Yadah.
Echthroi is a great name (and I was excited when I learned that "echthros" is actually the greek for "enemy").
Yes! And specifically a personal enemy: a πολέμιος is a political enemy, someone you might be sent to fight, but an ἐχθρὸς is someone who hates you. Someone who is hateful. "Sky tearers. Light snuffers. Planet darkeners. The dragons. The worms. Those who hate." The only part of that I object to is the calumny against dragons, though I know how L'Engle means it.
All of that book just works.