A Wind in the Door

Oh boy. Where do I begin? A Wind in the Door is probably nothing you've heard of, but it happens to be the sequel to the much more popular A Wrinkle in Time. That book happened to be a Newbery winner, but it's one I respect. Both books (and presumably the next two in the series, which I've also got backlogged) are science fiction in the truest sense of the word; L'Engle has an extremely imaginative mind rivaling that of any drug-taking creative artist, but uses it to modify existing facets of science. Some of the concepts and creatures in this book are original and bizarre enough to warrant praise. But overall, I'm not sure if the book is. It's kind of a mess from start to finish. Want to see for yourself? Since I'm positive no one reading this gives a shit about the plot, I'm about to retell the whole thing, doing my honest best not to misrepresent L'Engle or her book in any way. Meg and her brother Charles have very intelligent scientists for parents. Their mother has discovered tiny things called "farandola" in human mitochondria and their father is researching why certain stretches of stars have suddenly disappeared from the sky. Charles is very sick and it has something to do with his farandolae failing. One day Meg and Charles find a giant creature in their yard that has hundreds of wings and a myriad of varied eyes. I can only assume it's the thing on the book cover. It's L'Engle's idea of a "cherub," apparently. The cherub tells Meg they need to go on a journey together. A journey of learning. To save the world. Or maybe the universe. But also, just to save Charles. Meg is informed of the existence of the "Echthroi," an evil race of beings who seek only to destroy the universe and various things in it. This is why Meg's dad has observed stars vanishing and also why Charles is losing his farandolae. (The Echthroi are operating on all kinds of scales, from the galactic to the microscopic.) Anyway, some sort of transition occurs and suddenly Meg finds herself and the cherub standing in front of her wicked principal and two replicas of him. The replicas are a pair of Echthroi who have become duplicates. (Maybe they need to become his duplicates before they can destroy him? I don't really know. I'm sorry. Please understand my confusion here.) The cherub tells Meg that this is the first of three tests. She must identify the real principal and save him. For the sake of the universe, or something. She does so, but not before learning to communicate with the cherub - who is invisible when he wants to be, apparently. Also, she needs to have a strong and emotional memory about her boyfriend in order to identify the real principal and telepathically communicate it to the giant, winged, oft-invisible eyeball-monster. She's passed her test. Suddenly she and the cherub are in an imagined world. Her boyfriend and her principal are along for the ride now. There, they meet a farandola. (Yep. They're sentient beings.) The farandola looks like a mouse with shrimp-like antennae and legs. (I couldn't even begin to picture this. My image was something like Plankton from SpongeBob SquarePants.) He's a cocky youngster and his home happens to be one of Charles' mitochondria. It's being destroyed by Echthroi. The gang arrives on the scene at once. Now microscopic to the point where a mitochondria is the size of a planet, the gang must square off against the Echthroi. Now it's time for Meg's second trial. She must convince the farandola they are with to "come of age" and root himself into the mitochondria. Upon doing so, he will undergo some kind of metamorphosis and become more like a tree than a shrimp-rat. He will remain stationary and rooted for the rest of his days. But the Echthroi have arrived, and they're trying to tell him not to do it. And he's listening to them. But eventually he listens to Meg and her cherub and boyfriend and principal. They might all be communicating telepathically at this point. A struggle ensues. The principal gets cloned some more and the cherub needs to sacrifice itself for everyone else to live, but they do exactly that. And suddenly everyone is normal-sized again, and on Earth, and Charles is no longer sick. And then the book ends. Meg never undergoes her third trial - in fact, the trials are never even referenced after the second one begins. Oh, and somewhere along the way there is a talking black garden snake. It's very unclear, at least to me, whether or not they've thwarted the Echthroi once and for all, or if they've only saved Meg's little brother. Will stars continue to be destroyed? I don't know. L'Engle doesn't say. The book just kind of ends once it clears the 200-page mark even though another 50 to 100 pages of story seemed not only possible but necessary. So where do I stand on this book? It's tough to say. There were plenty of mature themes and imaginative concepts, so it's not just another kid's fantasy book. But the story was chaotic, strange, and ultimately unsatisfying. While I wanted it to be "deep" - at least, as much as a middle school read can be - sometimes it just felt like an awkward combination of Men in Black and The Magic School Bus. I guess I enjoyed the book more than, say, The Chronicles of Narnia, but I fear that the next two books in this series will prove just as monotonous to read as that very series. We'll see.