tek's rating: see introduction

Many Waters (pub. 1986)
Goodreads; isfdb; Madeleine L'Engle; StoryGraph; TV Tropes; Wikipedia

This book came out in 1986, and as such, it is the last in the volume. However, you may well find other omnibus editions which place it third, as that fits the order in which the story is set, chronologically. But to my way of thinking, reading it in that order would be about as bad as reading "The Magician's Nephew" before "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." And if you don't see what would be wrong with that, then you and I have nothing to talk about.

Well, Sandy and Dennys Murry are fifteen, Meg is away at college, and everyone else is out of the house when the twins come home one Winter day after hockey practice. They go into their mother's lab to look for some Dutch cocoa, and come across one of their father's experiments. They mess with the computer, before seeing a sign on the door that says "Experiment in progress. Please keep out." And then they find themselves in the middle of a desert, their house nowhere to be seen. They soon meet a small, dark young man, perhaps four feet tall, who thinks they're giants. His name is Japheth. He's confused by the fact that there are two of them who look just the same, because no one's ever seen twins before. He also has an animal named Higgaion, a mammoth which is about the size of a small dog. Anyway, the only other beings of the twins' size are the seraphim and nephilim, though Sandy and Dennys clearly aren't either of those, because they don't have wings. Japheth decides to take them to his Grandfather Lamech's tent at the oasis, because the twins really aren't cut out for the heat.

On the way, they see a partially materialized unicorn, though the twins can't really manage to believe in it. But when it becomes clear that they're both starting to suffer from sun-sickness, Japheth thinks they should get Higgaion to call a couple of unicorns to carry the twins. Dennys begins to think unicorns are something like the virtual particles their mother theorizes about. In any event, unicorns are called, and each twin climbs onto one. For some reason, these unicorns, unlike Gaudior, don't talk... but then, I suppose Gaudior probably didn't talk, either. Perhaps the problem is simply that Sandy and Dennys don't kythe. Anyway, unicorns have to be believed in to be real. During the ride, Dennys slips into unconsciousness, and so being in no position to believe in anything, he vanishes along with his unicorn. Sandy makes it to the oasis, and slides off his unicorn, before he too falls into unconsciousness. Sandy later awakes in a tent, with Japheth and Lamech looking after him. He wants to go look for Dennys, but he has to remain in the tent, to recover from his sun-sickness. So Japheth goes out to look for him, alone. Meanwhile, Japheth's sister, Yalith, came to the tent to bring Lamech a night-light (a bowl containing oil and a wick). And Sandy likes Yalith.

Later, he meets a couple of seraphim; Adnarel, who is sometimes within a scarab beetle, and Alarid, who is sometimes within a pelican. All seraphim and nephilim are sometimes within an animal. But in their proper forms, well, I think they must be more or less what we'd think of as angels, and fallen angels, respectively. The nephilim put me somewhat in mind of Echthroi, of course, but I'm really not sure about that. Perhaps it's different, so early in the history of the world... though I get ahead of myself. Very well, Sandy and Dennys will eventually figure out they're in Earth's distant past, after some time spent worrying that they might be anywhere in the universe. Anyway, there was a scene in the third book, near the start of Charles Wallace's journey, that makes me think Echthroi were as they now are, since the dawn of time, so it makes me wonder if I'm wrong to think of the nephilim as such. Most likely I am wrong. But surely, if they aren't the same, they ultimately work toward the same ends. Meanwhile, the seraphim seem to understand a bit about the future, so Sandy and Dennys, while still something of a mystery to them, aren't quite as strange to them as to the humans of this time. Of course, the nephilim find them to be a great and disturbing mystery.

Dennys awakes in a dirty, foul-smelling tent, the inhabitants of which had gotten their own mammoth to call a unicorn, which happened to be the one Dennys had gone out with. When Dennys appears, they roughly throw him out of their tent, down into a slimy, filthy, feces-filled pit. He climbs out, and uses sand to try to scrub himself clean. The mammoth of the people who had thrown him out then comes to him, and calls a unicorn to carry him away. Later, in Yalith and Japheth's father, Noah's tent, another of their brothers, Ham, asks their mammoth, Selah, to call him a unicorn. And one appears, carrying Dennys. There are many people living in Noah's tent (or in others near it); his wife Matred, their sons and daughters, most of whom have spouses. I don't think I ever learned about all of them. But there's Japheth and his wife, Oholibamah (who is rumored to be half nephil, though she's a very nice person), Ham and his wife Anah, Shem and his wife Elisheba, and the youngest, Yalith, and probably some others. Anyway, Dennys will stay there until he recovers, which will take longer than his brother, for he's in much worse shape than Sandy, after his experiences.

Well, it is some time before either twin can leave their respective tents. So Sandy gets to know Lamech. He learns people in this time live to be hundreds of years old. Lamech is 777. Yalith, though she appears to be about the twins' age, is I think nearly 100. Lamech also talks about his father, Methuselah, and his grandfather, Enoch. And about El, which Sandy and Dennys will eventually realize is these people's name for God. (Interesting side note, while Sandy and Dennys speak English, and everyone else speaks, I dunno, some ancient language... they all understand each other, because without meaning to, it's like they also speak the Old Language - from before the Tower of Babel, which precedes this time. They have an "under-hearing." Which reminds me of Charles Wallace previously having been called "of the Old Music." These sorts of ideas run throughout the books, actually, and such things are one of the ways all the Murrys seem to be special. Under-hearing also reminds me of my own idea of subwords, from a book I've been writing for years now. Which is of no consequence here and now, just thought I'd mention it. Great minds think alike...)

Where was I? Oh, yes. Lamech and his son Noah both talk to El. But they don't talk to each other, because of an old dispute involving Lamech's wells. But Japheth or some of the women go between the tents sometimes, so the twins will hear how one another is doing. Meanwhile, Dennys gets to know Noah and his family. And by the way, Dennys also likes Yalith. And she likes both the twins, which is confusing for her. Meanwhile, a nephil named Eblis wants her, though she's more interested in a seraph named Aariel. And there's also a girl named Tiglah who is interested in the twins. She is the younger sister of Ham's wife, Anah, and it was her family's tent in which Dennys was mistreated. So of course Dennys doesn't trust her at all, though she claims not to be like her father or brother. And Sandy isn't as distrustful of her as Dennys is, partly because she's beautiful. But he'll have his own reason to distrust her eventually, don't you worry about that....

Gosh, what else to say? It seems like such a long book, because of how long it took me to read it, stopping for such long stretches. Really, it isn't that long at all, but a lot happens. Eventually the twins get well, and are reunited. And the stars want them to reconcile Lamech and Noah, which they do. Everyone's quite happy about that, and grateful to the twins. This seems to have been the main point of their having come. But, like I said, a lot of other stuff happens. Yalith's sister Mahlah is impregnated by and marries a nephil named Ugiel. And none of the nephilim trust the twins. And there are plenty of other seraphim and nephilim, whose names and animal forms I can't begin to remember. And Sandy and Dennys spend alot of time working in Lamech's garden, which is familiar work for them, since they always kept their own garden back home. And El speaks to Lamech and to Noah of troubling things, of "many waters," and instructs Noah to build an ark. And the twins worry a great deal about what will happen when that time comes, since they have a vague idea what that story is all about, but know none of the details. Nor do they know how they might get home before it happens. And they also worry about Yalith, because El has told Noah to take his sons and their wives on the ark, but said nothing of his daughters. Well, eventually Noah and his sons begin building the ark, and the twins help. And everyone in the oasis laughs at them all.

And other stuff happens. Good stuff, and bad stuff. There's an answer for the question of what will become of Yalith. And the twins come up with a plan for unicorns and seraphim to help them return home. I'm not at all sure just how much dramatic license is taken with the Biblical story, but doubtless there's a fair amount. And I'm not clear on how long the twins remember their adventure after they return home. There's no indication that they forgot, but in the third book, which is set about five years later, I don't get any sense that they believe in such fantastic things. So I really would like to read more books in the series, at some point. Well, can't think what else to say, except that I've doubtless said both far too much and not nearly enough, about all the books in this quartet. As usual, I'm afraid my review is too much like a report. But at the very least, I hope it gives a fair sense of how interesting all this is....

Followed by An Acceptable Time