Rating: 
Summary: L'Engle's best book to date.
Review: The way this book combines so many adult things (morals, religion, science fiction, and fantasy) into a children's book is truly magnificent. As a seventeen-year-old reader, I can definitely say that this book is not just for children. It's a triumphant and intellectual journey into adulthood, and very clever at being so. I especially love the personalities given to Sandy and Dennys, who previously in the series weren't given very much thought. This novel stands on its own from the rest of the series with the integrated aspects of religion and adventure... it's definitely the least sci-fi. The other books are not required reading beforehand, and I dearly love this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite one to date!
Review: I read this book a number of years ago and this was my favorite book by Madeline L'Engle, and will always be the one most vivid in my memory. Many Waters surprised me even in the 5th grade when I realized that the story was of a biblical nature and was recounting the story of the great flood. I remember loving her ability to retell an ancient story with accuracy while using her artistic license to add a new character and making it very entertaining. All L'Engle fans should be sure to read this one, and those who aren't should as well. Most won't be dissapointed. I know I wasn't.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable for everyone! Mostly for the 12-14 Year Olds.
Review: Many Waters was a great book! This time, Sandy and Dennys have their own adventure. One day after Sandy and Dennys return home from school they go fumbling around in their dad's lab (he has been researching about a tesser and space). They type in his computer and then are about to leave when they see a note saying "Experiment in Progress: STAY OUT". They leave the lab and walk down the hallway and open the kitchen door. Suddenly they appear in the middle of a desert and a fellow named Japheth comes to rescue them (there was no Oasis nearby). Japheth teaches them how to call a Unicorn and they each mount one. During the ride, Sandy nearly falls asleep but Dennys wakes him up. This causes Dennys to fall off his unicorn and disappear. He disappeared because someone in another village called the Unicorn he was riding on. Sandy makes it to the Oasis Village first, so he gets medical attention and heals before Dennys does. Dennys arrives soon after, having gotten an even worse sunburn. He also has had a tiny adventure. There at the Village, they learn of Yalith, of Grandfather Lamach, and of many other people. They also learn about the Seraphim and the Nephilim as well as about Manticores and the mysterious Mammoths. The whole story is set around a desert but mainly takes place at an Oasis Village in the desert.
Rating: 
Summary: Biblical science fiction?
Review: In the fourth volume of the highly acclaimed "Time Quintet", Madeleine L'Engle explores a genre known as Biblical fiction, or in her case: Biblical science fiction. This genre typically takes a historical narrative from the Bible, and weaves a fictional story around it. In "Many Waters", the Biblical element is naturally the waters of the flood. The "fictional" element consists of the Murry twins, Sandy and Denny, whose curiosity in the laboratory brings them back in time onto the hot desert sand with Noah and his family shortly before the flood. In addition to the familiar Biblical characters (Noah, his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, his father Lamech), here they also meet a host of extra-Biblical characters, notably Yalith, Mahlah, and two other daughters of Noah (p.50), as well as several mythical creatures including pet mammoths, griffins and unicorns. As to be expected in a work of Biblical fiction, L'Engle also takes artistic license by depicting various events not found in the Bible, such as a family conflict between Noah and his father Lamech. One might already take issue with the idea of crafting a speculative story around a Biblical event. But L'Engle's chances of pulling this off this successfully is reduced even more by the fact that the Biblical account of the flood includes several difficult exegetical questions. Readers should be aware that L'Engle's position on these questions is highly questionable. Firstly Genesis, 6:2 speaks about "the sons of God" marrying "the daughters of men". Although this is commonly interpreted to refer to intermarriage between believers and unbelievers, L'Engle adopts the controversial explanation that this refers to relations between men and angels: "winged creatures who sleep with the daughters of men" (p.72). She takes the "Nephilim" of Genesis 6:4 to be fallen angels who have relations with human women, as opposed to the "Seraphim" who are the good angels (p.59,96,126,171). This understanding becomes a foundational element of the novel. However this explanation of Nephilim and Seraphim is highly questionable for various reasons, including the fact that the only seraphim in the the Bible are pictured in heaven and not on earth (Isa. 6), and that the traditional understanding of this Genesis 6 has a great deal to commend it. Further, the idea that the angels can switch between human form and within an animal host is entirely without any basis (p45-6). Secondly, Genesis 6:3 speaks about man's days being 120 years. L'Engle takes this to refer to a shortening of life span, rather than a period of 120 years of warning prior to the flood. Admittedly this is a controversial but certainly not unpopular explanation, and does not really hamper the novel significantly. However, there are also many simple blunders and inaccuracies where it seems that close attention has not been paid to the Biblical text. For instance, Noah's father Lamech is described as dying shortly before the flood, whereas the Bible indicates his death occurred five years earlier (Gen 5:30; 7:11). And Shem is pictured as a hunter of animals, even though God only gave animals as food after the flood (Gen. 9:3). The fact that he thanks the animal rather than God is also bizarre (p180-1). On these points the book goes beyond speculation, and is simply incorrect. The idea of listening to, obeying and trusting the stars is also somewhat vague and troubling because it lends credence to a form of divine revelation never mentioned in Scripture (p.141, 282). Perhaps L'Engle's own view of divine revelation accounts for this. The way the Bible was referred to made me seriously wonder about the author's own view of Scripture: the Bible is described as "chauvinistic" (p168) and "It's supposed to be the Word of God, not written by God." (p169). Furthermore, the constant to attention to lust and sexual content made me wonder whether this book is really suitable for children. If one can overlook the speculation, the plot itself is well-written and fascinating. And certainly there are many wholesome ideas and concepts. The aspect of spiritual war is certainly Biblical, although the portrayal of this war as a battle between the nephilim and seraphim is of course pure speculation. "I think the seraphim like us. But the others don't ... I mean, the other ones, the nephilim." (p.188) The twins are involved in this spiritual war, and must resist temptation and maintain their integrity. The historical redemptive significance of Noah's salvation is correctly pointed out: "If the flood had drowned everybody, if the earth hadn't been repopulated, then Jesus would never have been born." (p198). The ongoing problem of human depravity after the flood is not diminished: "We do even worse things to one another because we know more." (p197). And the title is a very creative application of Song of Solomon 8:7 ("Many waters cannot quench love") to the waters of the flood (p242,296), although the "love" is never fully worked out, and the exact significance of the title remains rather obscure even by the end of the book. In the end, however, I found the whole notion of Biblical fiction with its heavy dependence on speculation rather disturbing. If there's one book in the Time Quartet that you can afford to miss, it is this one. You will have to make up your own mind about this, but at the very least you should be aware ahead of time that this is not just a work of fiction, but a work of Biblical science fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: I have always loved Madelineine L'Engle and especially characters from the Wrinkle in Time series, but this story didn't quite measure up. I would recommend it, though, but not before you've read the other books. The other ones, while still fantasy/science fiction, seemed a lot less contrived in terms of their main plot device than Many Waters. That said, it's great to see the Murry family again.
Rating:
Summary: Well-thought-out and knowledgeable
Review: Many Waters by Madeline L'engle was very well-thought-out and scientific. It was wonderfully clever, and held a very unique point of view on time and religion. The story gave an excellent picture of how the main characters, Sandy and Denis, tried to find their way home from a strange desert world before it is flooded.
I enjoyed Many Waters very much. The only problem was how slow it moved. The book took so much time describing some parts that it missed describing other parts. This made it seem like a failed attempt to make something exciting. Otherwise, Many Waters was a very interesting book to read. I recommend it to people that like slow, well-described, and knowledgeable sounding stories.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: The protagonist is Sandy and Dennys. The conflict was that Sandy and Dennys are trying to save Noah and his family from the flood. Sandy and Dennys mess around with one of thier fathers inventions and get wiscked away on, not onley time but, in adventure . In thier trip they meet seraphim, nephlim, tiny mamoths, manticores that want to eat the mamoths, and ,craziest of all , people the hieght of your waist! The best part of all was when Sandy and Dennys meet the seraphim. I recomend it for anyone that reads this.
Rating:
Summary: One of these things is not like the other
Review: "Many Waters" was my least favorite of the four books in the "Time Quartet," but it was good. It just seemed VERY different from the three previous books that I read as a teenager. This book is about Meg and Charles Wallace's twin brothers Sandy and Dennys. The boys mistakenly get taken up by one of their father's space-time experiments and find themselves in a desert, rescued by a small oasis-dwelling man named Japeth. It turns out that they have found themselves in the Biblical story of Noah before the flood. The book details some of L'Engle's suppositions about the daily life of the the people then and also elaborates on the supernatural life of the time... seraphim were common visitors to the people of Noah's oasis as were something called "nephilim," which were once more godly creatures that turned their backs on god and began to marry and mate with humans. The boys get caught up in the stories of the relationships among all these "species" and have their own adventures. It's an interesting tale, but as I said, it is so different from the others, it wasn't what I expected. The book is a little more overtly religious than the other books, but it's an interesting interpetation of what's always been a very puzzling chapter in Genesis (Gen 6) which talks about the sons of God mating with the daughters of men, and the Nephilim living among them. It's always seemed to be a bit of undigested ancient mythology that was never edited out of the biblical stories when Judaism became a more coherent and modern religion after the Babylonian exile. But l'Engel turns it into an interesting fantasy with a good deal of symbolic value, and makes it about love and faith and the miraculous power of God to bring good out of evil. "Many waters cannot drown love," we are told, and that seems to be the point of the story.
Rating:
Summary: You won't want to put it down!
Review: The novel “Many Waters” by Madeleine L’Engle is so enticing you will not want to put it down. It intertwines Biblical ideas with contemporary life in such a way that some very enigmatic concepts are made truly believable. I really like L’Engle’s work in general, and I especially enjoyed this book.
In the beginning the Murray twins, Sandy and Dennys wonder into their parents lab, overlooking an “experiment in progress” sign on the door. Their parents are scientists exploring space and time travel, which puts the twins in a potentially dangerous position. The boys toy with one experiment, which transports them to the middle of the desert. All the inhabitants of the desert are very small in comparison to Sandy and Dennys, and there are two other types of creatures, the seraphim, or the angels, and the nephilim, or fallen angels. They pull the twins in opposite directions of good and evil. All the mortal creatures pertain to characters in the story of Noah’s Ark of the book of genesis. Just like in the story, a great flood, or many waters, is approaching and it is up to Sandy and Dennys to help Noah build the ark. All the boys want to do is get home.
In my opinion, this is a great book, and no matter what your personality or lifestyle may be, you will be able to relate to the characters and appreciate this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Many Waters Cannot Quench Love
Review: When Sandy & Dennys Murry mess up their father's experence with virtual particles, it's their turn for the adventure. They go back in the days of Noah, before a terrible flood that only Noah & his wife, Matred, his sons, Shem, Ham, & Jashep, & their wives can live through. Before that, however, 'The Sand' & 'The Den' must bring Noah & his father together, build up the ark, get thrown between the fuide between the good sephim and the evil nephilim, and learn to love before they leave.
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