Dragons in the Waters by Madeline L'Engle
Aug. 15th, 2016 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroSimon Renier had been living with his elderly Aunt Leonis since being orphaned. A distant cousin named Forsyth Phair appears on their doorstep, interested in buying a valuable portrait of Simon Bolivar to donate to a museum in Caracas. Eager to expand Simon’s horizons, Leonis sends him on the boat passage with Forsyth. There, he meets members of the ubiquitous O’Keefe family, and gets embroiled in a ring of mystery and murder.
Like its predecessor, this book gets very bogged down in the logistics of travel and specifics of what the main character is doing at any given minute. The pacing is not great, and it can’t decide exactly how important the mystery is to the narrative—basically, are we reading a murder mystery? A thriller? A coming-of-age novel? L’Engle herself doesn’t seem terribly sure.
A number of the elements don’t actually blend well on top of that. Dr. O’Keefe investigating the chemical pollution into the lake is just an excuse for him to be on the ship, but that gets a significant amount of page-time in the ending. Canon Tallis’ presence (or even his existence) makes no sense if you haven’t read The Arm of the Starfish. (For that matter, it would have been really nice if L’Engle had a few more names to spread around. Charles Murray and Charles O’Keefe, despite being uncle and nephew a generation apart, might as well be the same character and I keep mixing them up.) Supposedly Simon is the main character, but much of the climax of the book takes place with him lost in the jungle (and if Poly is the main character, that’s even worse—she barely does anything is disappears for the latter third of the book).
There’s a constant weird sort of racism, which is probably a mix of attempting to be realistic and being respectful for the era: There are constant references to people’s heritage, and the avid discussion of the fiery “Latin” temperament. The Quiztanos are noble savages / magical natives, and are openly referred to as Indians.
L’Engle’s approach to religion in other works is fairly echoed here: A God of nature, a universal God, a God that values faith but doesn’t differentiate between faiths. And despite the clunky delivery, there was a very good sentiment in a line about the “Great God Science”; that science was never meant to replace faith and science should not be treated as a faith, but nor should faith denounce science, because they’re two different spheres that can compliment each other to explain the world.
Overall: I think it’s safe to assume at this point that I prefer L’Engle’s sci-fi over her attempts to write what are essentially YA mystery thrillers (with mild fantasy notes). This didn’t really work for me.
Like its predecessor, this book gets very bogged down in the logistics of travel and specifics of what the main character is doing at any given minute. The pacing is not great, and it can’t decide exactly how important the mystery is to the narrative—basically, are we reading a murder mystery? A thriller? A coming-of-age novel? L’Engle herself doesn’t seem terribly sure.
A number of the elements don’t actually blend well on top of that. Dr. O’Keefe investigating the chemical pollution into the lake is just an excuse for him to be on the ship, but that gets a significant amount of page-time in the ending. Canon Tallis’ presence (or even his existence) makes no sense if you haven’t read The Arm of the Starfish. (For that matter, it would have been really nice if L’Engle had a few more names to spread around. Charles Murray and Charles O’Keefe, despite being uncle and nephew a generation apart, might as well be the same character and I keep mixing them up.) Supposedly Simon is the main character, but much of the climax of the book takes place with him lost in the jungle (and if Poly is the main character, that’s even worse—she barely does anything is disappears for the latter third of the book).
There’s a constant weird sort of racism, which is probably a mix of attempting to be realistic and being respectful for the era: There are constant references to people’s heritage, and the avid discussion of the fiery “Latin” temperament. The Quiztanos are noble savages / magical natives, and are openly referred to as Indians.
L’Engle’s approach to religion in other works is fairly echoed here: A God of nature, a universal God, a God that values faith but doesn’t differentiate between faiths. And despite the clunky delivery, there was a very good sentiment in a line about the “Great God Science”; that science was never meant to replace faith and science should not be treated as a faith, but nor should faith denounce science, because they’re two different spheres that can compliment each other to explain the world.
Overall: I think it’s safe to assume at this point that I prefer L’Engle’s sci-fi over her attempts to write what are essentially YA mystery thrillers (with mild fantasy notes). This didn’t really work for me.
