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The Dark Is Rising #2
The Dark Is Rising
This night will be bad and tomorrow will be beyond imagining.
It's Midwinter's Eve, the day before Will's eleventh birthday. But there is an atmosphere of fear in the familiar countryside around him. This will be a birthday like no other. Will discovers that he has the power of the Old Ones, and that he must embark on a quest to vanquish the terrifyingly evil magic of the Dark.
The second novel in Susan Cooper's highly acclaimed Dark is Rising sequence.
It's Midwinter's Eve, the day before Will's eleventh birthday. But there is an atmosphere of fear in the familiar countryside around him. This will be a birthday like no other. Will discovers that he has the power of the Old Ones, and that he must embark on a quest to vanquish the terrifyingly evil magic of the Dark.
The second novel in Susan Cooper's highly acclaimed Dark is Rising sequence.
244 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1973
About the author
Susan Cooper
123 books2,320 followersSusan Cooper's latest book is the YA novel "Ghost Hawk" (2013)
Susan Cooper was born in 1935, and grew up in England's Buckinghamshire, an area that was green countryside then but has since become part of Greater London. As a child, she loved to read, as did her younger brother, who also became a writer. After attending Oxford, where she became the first woman to ever edit that university's newspaper, Cooper worked as a reporter and feature writer for London's Sunday Times; her first boss was James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
Cooper wrote her first book for young readers in response to a publishing house competition; "Over Sea, Under Stone" would later form the basis for her critically acclaimed five-book fantasy sequence, "The Dark Is Rising." The fourth book in the series, "The Grey King," won the Newbery Medal in 1976. By that time, Susan Cooper had been living in America for 13 years, having moved to marry her first husband, an American professor, and was stepmother to three children and the mother of two.
Cooper went on to write other well-received novels, including "The Boggart" (and its sequel "The Boggart and the Monster"), "King of Shadows", and "Victory," as well as several picture books for young readers with illustrators such as Ashley Bryan and Warwick Hutton. She has also written books for adults, as well as plays and Emmy-nominated screenplays, many in collaboration with the actor Hume Cronyn, whom she married in 1996. Hume Cronyn died in 2003 and Ms. Cooper now lives in Marshfield MA. When Cooper is not working, she enjoys playing piano, gardening, and traveling.
Recent books include the collaborative project "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure" and her biography of Jack Langstaff titled "The Magic Maker." Her newest book is "Ghost Hawk."
Visit her Facebook pages: www.facebook.com/SusanCooperFanPage
www.facebook.com/GhostHawkBySusanCooper
Susan Cooper was born in 1935, and grew up in England's Buckinghamshire, an area that was green countryside then but has since become part of Greater London. As a child, she loved to read, as did her younger brother, who also became a writer. After attending Oxford, where she became the first woman to ever edit that university's newspaper, Cooper worked as a reporter and feature writer for London's Sunday Times; her first boss was James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
Cooper wrote her first book for young readers in response to a publishing house competition; "Over Sea, Under Stone" would later form the basis for her critically acclaimed five-book fantasy sequence, "The Dark Is Rising." The fourth book in the series, "The Grey King," won the Newbery Medal in 1976. By that time, Susan Cooper had been living in America for 13 years, having moved to marry her first husband, an American professor, and was stepmother to three children and the mother of two.
Cooper went on to write other well-received novels, including "The Boggart" (and its sequel "The Boggart and the Monster"), "King of Shadows", and "Victory," as well as several picture books for young readers with illustrators such as Ashley Bryan and Warwick Hutton. She has also written books for adults, as well as plays and Emmy-nominated screenplays, many in collaboration with the actor Hume Cronyn, whom she married in 1996. Hume Cronyn died in 2003 and Ms. Cooper now lives in Marshfield MA. When Cooper is not working, she enjoys playing piano, gardening, and traveling.
Recent books include the collaborative project "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure" and her biography of Jack Langstaff titled "The Magic Maker." Her newest book is "Ghost Hawk."
Visit her Facebook pages: www.facebook.com/SusanCooperFanPage
www.facebook.com/GhostHawkBySusanCooper
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,183 reviews
February 19, 2016
Getting my brother (12) to read is liking getting a cat to take a bath, getting a high-schooler to go to school, getting a cheerleader to go to computer club.
All those really difficult things in life.
I read this series myself about a year or two ago, so when he needed a book to do for literature in his homeschool, I suggested that he pick this one and I'd do it with him.
He moaned and groaned and hated life, that he'd have to do something so awful as reading.
I just shrugged and told him to suck it up and drive on.
We get started, and the first chapter goes just like I expected it to. We take turns reading out loud, 2 pages at a time, and each time his turn is over he hands the book to me like it burned him to touch it, let alone read it.
But then, after we hit the end of the second chapter or so, I notice something: he starts to enjoy it.
He starts sneaking in an extra page once in a while, 'accidentally' skipping my turn.
Towards the end, he's reading 10, 20 pages in one sitting by himself (out loud, remember) as I sit and work on my knitting. (Because I can't just sit there, donchaknow. ^^). Now it's a fight to get him to stop reading long enough for us to discuss the questions.
When we finish the book and he takes the final test, he steals my copy away and reads it again.
And again.
And again.
I begin to lose hope of ever recovering my book, but one day I find him his own set in the thrift store.
Maybe he'll actually go on to the next book in the series now. *laughs*
Anyways. I love this book. I love this series.
A friend of mine actually suggested it to me once many, many years ago, but I never read it. For some reason the name stuck in my mind, though.
Happy I am that it did, for now I've another great series I can read and reread.
As does my brother. ^^
All those really difficult things in life.
I read this series myself about a year or two ago, so when he needed a book to do for literature in his homeschool, I suggested that he pick this one and I'd do it with him.
He moaned and groaned and hated life, that he'd have to do something so awful as reading.
I just shrugged and told him to suck it up and drive on.
We get started, and the first chapter goes just like I expected it to. We take turns reading out loud, 2 pages at a time, and each time his turn is over he hands the book to me like it burned him to touch it, let alone read it.
But then, after we hit the end of the second chapter or so, I notice something: he starts to enjoy it.
He starts sneaking in an extra page once in a while, 'accidentally' skipping my turn.
Towards the end, he's reading 10, 20 pages in one sitting by himself (out loud, remember) as I sit and work on my knitting. (Because I can't just sit there, donchaknow. ^^). Now it's a fight to get him to stop reading long enough for us to discuss the questions.
When we finish the book and he takes the final test, he steals my copy away and reads it again.
And again.
And again.
I begin to lose hope of ever recovering my book, but one day I find him his own set in the thrift store.
Maybe he'll actually go on to the next book in the series now. *laughs*
Anyways. I love this book. I love this series.
A friend of mine actually suggested it to me once many, many years ago, but I never read it. For some reason the name stuck in my mind, though.
Happy I am that it did, for now I've another great series I can read and reread.
As does my brother. ^^
June 28, 2013
Originally read: 1979
My absolute favorite series as a child. One of these days I need to reread it. (ETA: see below.) A bit like Harry Potter, but darker in tone (and of course, Will Stanton predates Harry Potter by decades). A shame that Hollywood's treatment of this classic book was so epically bad. It should be noted that while technically this is book two in the series, the saga really begins here, with Over Sea, Under Stone being a prequel of sorts.
Reread: 2013
I first read this book when I was ten years old, and though I have held it in my heart as one of my favorite books ever, I only just reread it for the first time in decades.
Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising features Will Stanton, last of the Old Ones (and no, we're not talking about Lovecraft Old Ones). On his eleventh birthday, he learns that he is a being of great power who is prophecied to "bring the circle to a close," ending a cycle of battles between the Light and the Dark that has been waged for thousands of years. Mentoring him in his quest is one of the most ancient and powerful of the Old Ones, a stern yet compassionate old wizard named Merriman.
Sound familiar? Yes, perhaps this series was why, many, many years later, I took to Harry Potter despite being long out of the target age range for those books.
In my opinion, Susan Cooper is an enormously better writer than J.K. Rowling. Whereas Rowling's worldbuilding is a creatively zany hodge-podge of random fairy tales, mythological critters, and pun-Latin spells. Cooper's is a carefully constructed reinterpretation of English myth. There is tons of lore even in the first book, from the obvious Arthurian references to the men out of time cursed to wander the world forever, to the Wild Hunt. And on a prose level, Cooper just writes better than Rowling too. Her imagery and especially her poetry is far more artful.
That said, this is ultimately a rather dark and gloomy tale, even if the good guys win; there's very little of the fun and light-heartedness of Harry Potter, no secondary characters who become best friends. Will Stanton's quest is mostly made up of tasks he must perform on his own, and his introduction to magic and the power of the Old Ones is not an entrance into a fantastic world of wizardry, but the realization that he's now an eternal warrior whether he likes it or not, and he's also been forever set apart from his family and everyone else he knows.
For a book targeted at young readers, it's pretty heavy stuff. There is of course not much direct violence (though there is death), and the good guys are always good, the bad guys unambiguously bad. (Though one character, a traitor who turned to the Dark, is as tragic a figure as Gollum, and far more sympathetic.) But this isn't fun times with wands and owls. It's freezing storms blanketing all of England and sinister rooks and as much scary stuff as you can throw at a preternaturally-aged eleven-year-old boy.
I really liked The Dark is Rising upon rereading it, though to be honest, I would probably rate it only 4 stars if it were my first time reading it. While in my opinion a better work of literature than most juvenile fiction, including that really famous one with the Johnny-come-lately boy wizard, it does lack that indefinable quality of joy and fun that I guess made J.K. Rowling the richest woman in England and not Susan Cooper. It's really a classic of children's fantasy literature, though.
I will continue my reread of this series.
Warning: A few years ago, Hollywood made a movie called Seeker: The Dark is Rising. Do not see this movie! It is awful. I cannot describe how awful it is. Even aside from the book it's supposedly based on, it's just terrible and brainless (one of my few 1-star ratings on Netflix), but when compared with Susan Cooper's book, it is truly painful to watch. Susan Cooper deserved the J.K. Rowling treatment, and what she got was a dumbed-down Americanized piece of crap that bombed, deservedly, at the box office.
My absolute favorite series as a child. One of these days I need to reread it. (ETA: see below.) A bit like Harry Potter, but darker in tone (and of course, Will Stanton predates Harry Potter by decades). A shame that Hollywood's treatment of this classic book was so epically bad. It should be noted that while technically this is book two in the series, the saga really begins here, with Over Sea, Under Stone being a prequel of sorts.
Reread: 2013
I first read this book when I was ten years old, and though I have held it in my heart as one of my favorite books ever, I only just reread it for the first time in decades.
Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising features Will Stanton, last of the Old Ones (and no, we're not talking about Lovecraft Old Ones). On his eleventh birthday, he learns that he is a being of great power who is prophecied to "bring the circle to a close," ending a cycle of battles between the Light and the Dark that has been waged for thousands of years. Mentoring him in his quest is one of the most ancient and powerful of the Old Ones, a stern yet compassionate old wizard named Merriman.
Sound familiar? Yes, perhaps this series was why, many, many years later, I took to Harry Potter despite being long out of the target age range for those books.
In my opinion, Susan Cooper is an enormously better writer than J.K. Rowling. Whereas Rowling's worldbuilding is a creatively zany hodge-podge of random fairy tales, mythological critters, and pun-Latin spells. Cooper's is a carefully constructed reinterpretation of English myth. There is tons of lore even in the first book, from the obvious Arthurian references to the men out of time cursed to wander the world forever, to the Wild Hunt. And on a prose level, Cooper just writes better than Rowling too. Her imagery and especially her poetry is far more artful.
That said, this is ultimately a rather dark and gloomy tale, even if the good guys win; there's very little of the fun and light-heartedness of Harry Potter, no secondary characters who become best friends. Will Stanton's quest is mostly made up of tasks he must perform on his own, and his introduction to magic and the power of the Old Ones is not an entrance into a fantastic world of wizardry, but the realization that he's now an eternal warrior whether he likes it or not, and he's also been forever set apart from his family and everyone else he knows.
For a book targeted at young readers, it's pretty heavy stuff. There is of course not much direct violence (though there is death), and the good guys are always good, the bad guys unambiguously bad. (Though one character, a traitor who turned to the Dark, is as tragic a figure as Gollum, and far more sympathetic.) But this isn't fun times with wands and owls. It's freezing storms blanketing all of England and sinister rooks and as much scary stuff as you can throw at a preternaturally-aged eleven-year-old boy.
I really liked The Dark is Rising upon rereading it, though to be honest, I would probably rate it only 4 stars if it were my first time reading it. While in my opinion a better work of literature than most juvenile fiction, including that really famous one with the Johnny-come-lately boy wizard, it does lack that indefinable quality of joy and fun that I guess made J.K. Rowling the richest woman in England and not Susan Cooper. It's really a classic of children's fantasy literature, though.
I will continue my reread of this series.
Warning: A few years ago, Hollywood made a movie called Seeker: The Dark is Rising. Do not see this movie! It is awful. I cannot describe how awful it is. Even aside from the book it's supposedly based on, it's just terrible and brainless (one of my few 1-star ratings on Netflix), but when compared with Susan Cooper's book, it is truly painful to watch. Susan Cooper deserved the J.K. Rowling treatment, and what she got was a dumbed-down Americanized piece of crap that bombed, deservedly, at the box office.
April 20, 2024
The Dark is Rising is a memorable and imaginative fantasy novel by the British author Susan Cooper, first published in 1973. This novel, for readers of maybe 9 and above, gave its name to a series of five contemporary fantasy books written between 1965 and 1977. They form an Arthurian quintet, in which the forces of the Dark and the Light are pitched against each other in a battle for humanity. The Dark Is Rising, although the second novel in the series, remains the most popular, and it is possible to begin the series with this book.
The Dark is Rising has a different set of characters from the first one, “Over Sea, Under Stone”, and introduces us to Will Stanton, the seventh son of a seventh son, and an Old One; the last initiate of an ancient order of benevolent immortals. He is destined to seek the six magical signs of power, which will enable the Old Ones to triumph over the evil forces of the Dark.
Susan Cooper is not as well known as other British children’s fantasy authors writing around her time, such as Alan Garner, or a little earlier, C.S. Lewis, with his Narnia Chronicles, J.R.R. Tolkien with “The Hobbit”, or much later, J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series. Her mood pitches betwixt the darkness of Alan Garner, and the fantasy books of C.S. Lewis. Her writing is steeped in mythology and Celtic folklore, especially the Welsh “Mabinogian” and, like theirs, feels very British. In a way, this series is subtler than either, with its moral dualism of the Light and the Dark. It is not as comfortable and clear-cut as the reader expects.
There are family domestic scenes, common to most books of this type, ostensibly geared to older children, and has a child as the protagonist. However, Susan Cooper’s descriptions are powerful, and parts of this book leave you spellbound with her beautiful prose. As in all her novels, there is an underlying sense of menace. A perfect time of year to read The Dark is Rising is Winter, as much of the story is steeped in the snow, and parts of this book chill you emotionally too, with a hard, relentless, freezing cold.
It begins on the eve of Will Stanton’s 11th birthday, 21st December or Midwinter’s day, and like many children, he longs for the snow to fall. Will is part of a noisy, bustling cheerful family, with 11 members; Will is the seventh child of nine. They live in a rambling farmhouse, on the edge of the Thames Valley near the Chiltern Hills. Will imagines great white blankets of snow, covering the land around the old farmhouse, and bringing everything to stillness and silence. And yet even during this festive day, when Will should be doubly excited because of what will happen the next day, he is uneasy. The weather seems brooding and threatening with its lowering sky.
“It’s a horrible day … It’s—creepy somehow.”
People seem to be behaving oddly, and even his neighbour, Mr Dawson, does not seem the same cheery man he usually is, with his mysterious dark comments:
“The Walker is abroad … And this night will be bad, and tomorrow will be beyond imagining.”
And why should Farmer Dawson give him an odd sort of old belt buckle:
“a kind of ornament made of black metal, a flat circle quartered by two crossed lines”
as if it were somehow, significant. Even the rooks seem to be behaving oddly. And Will thought he caught sight of someone a few times—just a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. It’s all rather mysterious, and worrying. Eventually, the day comes to an end.
Next morning Will is woken by delicate trills of music, so enchanting that he doesn’t want it to stop. It slowly recedes, and yet Will is convinced this strange music was not a dream. Even more oddly, something weird has happened to his family. He goes around to several other bedrooms, and can see all of his family members, but even though he tries to wake them, they can’t see or hear him.
Will is soon distracted though, when he sees it has snowed overnight. He goes outside, and hears the strange music again, and senses that the world is not right. Will meets one of the farm workers, who is working at an anvil to make horseshoes, while a magnificent black horse waits by patiently. There is also a strange figure in a long old-fashioned robe. This man has a curious accent, and also says strange things, full of foreboding, just as Mr Dawson had done.
Susan Cooper conveys everything which is happening as if it has an unearthly, dreamlike quality. A woman Will does not know, comes up and offers both of them bread. The strange man accepts it, but although Will is hungry, for some reason he also feels suspicious, so he doesn’t take it. The man offers to take Will wherever he wants to go, on his horse, as the snow makes it so difficult to get anywhere, but Will refuses. Startling himself, Will says:
“I am out to find the Walker”. The stranger tries to grab Will, and force him onto his horse, as he sneers:
“But now the Rider is abroad”.
The smith intervenes to save Will, though he still does not understand what is happening, as the smith too seems to be talking in riddles. The arrival of a white horse, a “reverse image of the Rider’s midnight-black stallion” does little to clarify things. Will’s head is once more filled with the mysterious music, which makes him feel sick and giddy, and then he realises he is on the horse’s back. But he is not ready to ask the mare to take him anywhere, so jumps down. When this horse has been shod, and gallops off, Will notices that her hooves are replicas of the cross-quartered circle that he now wears on his own belt.
Will carries on walking, trying to make sense of things, and comes across the same old tramp he had seen with farmer Dawson, and senses that this is the Walker, and that somehow the rooks are involved. He is beginning to learn more, and reveals the strange sign, when the black stallion with the man on it rushes up, threateningly. The white mare arrives in the nick of time, and speeds away with Will on her back:
“Then all at once greyness came around them, and the sun was blacked out. The wind wrenched into Will’s collar and sleeves and boot-tops, ripping at his hair. Great clouds rushed towards them out of the North, closing in, huge grey-black thunderheads; the sky rumbled and growled. One white-misted gap remained, with a faint hint of blue behind it still, but it too was closing, closing. The white horse leapt at it desperately. Over his shoulder Will saw swooping towards them a darker shape even than the giant clouds: the Rider, towering immense, his eyes two dreadful points of blue-white fire. Lightening flashed, thunder split the sky, and the mare leapt at the crashing clouds as the last gap closed.
And they were safe.“
This strange symbol is certainly important, and powerful. But why does he, Will, have it? And why do people seem to recognise him, and know he has a destiny?
These first two chapters, with their magical prose, set the tone of the novel. The overall feeling remains mysterious and foreboding. Unlike other older children’s fantasy novels, Will’s quest is a solitary one: he is very much on his own, despite his huge family. And it is a sort of Quest, as well as a most unusual coming-of-age novel.
Chapter 3 in a way forecasts the rest of the story. Through a subtle indication that we will view different parallels in time, we are introduced to two other key figures, an old woman termed “The Lady”, and a man named Merriman (who is clearly Merlin). They explain to Will that his eleventh birthday has marked the moment when he steps into his destiny as one of the “Old Ones”, outside Time:
“I will tell you only this: that you are one of the Old Ones, the first to have been born for five hundred years, and the last. And like all such, you are bound by nature to devote yourself to the long conflict between the Light and the Dark.”
These Old Ones must prevent the Dark—personified in this book by the “cloaked rider on a midnight horse”—whom we have met, from “rising” and gaining power over the land. Will is told he find the six signs of the Light, which will help him defeat the Dark, before Twelfth Night, when the Dark will be at its peak. They are circles quartered by a cross in wood, formed from bronze, iron, water, fire and stone.
“For the Dark, the Dark is rising. The Walker is abroad, the Rider is riding; they have woken, the Dark is rising. And the last of the Circle is come to claim his own, and the circles must now all be joined. The white horse must go to the Hunter, and the river take the valley; there must be fire on the mountain, fire under the stone, fire over the sea. Fire to burn away the Dark, for the Dark, the Dark is rising!”
Will is still doubtful about his powers. He is just a small boy, How can he be an “Old One”. But it starts to make sense to him, when Merriman and the woman tell him to think of something, and make it happen. He doesn’t believe them at first, but then he imagines a fire, and one magically appears in the fireplace.
As the book progresses, we move with Will between warmth and safety and a much darker, uncertain world, as he learns more about himself and his own powers. Sometimes he is part of his family’s comfortable and familiar seasonal traditions, such as lighting the yule log fire, and decorating the Christmas tree, and others, in a strange uncharted territory, compelling but increasingly terrifying, trying to come to terms with his new self; powerful but isolated.
Will struggles with his new identity, and readers see him mature. Increasingly he finds, to his horror, that he is obliged to choose the greater good over the fate of any single individual. At one point he is mortified, when his actions appear to Several times he is desperate to protect his family, but must choose a wider purview: acting so as to right the greater wrong.
We also deepen our understanding of the other characters, such as Merriman, and “The Lady”. I felt particularly sorry for
In the present-day world, the snow-covered land is quickly turning into a catastrophe. The snowstorm continues, and outside the door, the snow covers roofs and lanes. The snow continues to cascade down, blocking the ways, stopping all travel, and eventually preventing people from leaving their homes. The land seems to be locked in snow, and somehow the dark seems to have something to do with it.
As we follow Will’s quest, finding the signs to defeat the Dark, the events become more and more savage. They are personal, challenging Will’s determination and tenacity, as well as his new-found powers. There is death, and there is transformation. There is an accident, a kidnapping, and a pretended friendship, making Will act according to his conscience and defy his parents. There is temptation—when Will attempts a rescue of someone he loves dearly. This is another Christian parallel, of the temptation of Christ on the mountain. There is a mysterious exotic Christmas gift, from Will’s eldest brother Stephen, who is in the army abroad. . There is an ancient magic book, “The Book of Gramarye”, which tells Will that Dark is always around, just like the Light. The Old tongue it is written in, sounds like gibberish to humans, though Will finds he can understand the Old Ones who speak it perfectly well.
There is a battle, with a deadly surprise and a paradox.
The snow is ever-present and a powerful metaphor. Will begins the book as an innocent, on whose birthday, the snow is “smooth and white and inviting”. There is the cold beauty of the Light when the snow glimmers and sifts. But the most powerful metaphor is when the blizzards never let up. The snow has a malevolent edge, pushing in through windows, and piling up at doors, representing the threat of brutality as the Dark grows stronger.
For all its similarity to those essentially Christian allegories of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, for all her biblical parallels and stress on good versus evil, we are blindsided when . Susan Cooper seems to be telling us that extremism of beliefs is the true cause of evil. She also presents us with a paradox. So which is it? Do we decide what happens in our lives, or does Fate rules the universe after all? Will is able to choose what to do with his newfound powers, and decides to actively seek out the signs, because he genuinely cares about helping to save the world. These are very sophisticated concepts to find in a children’s—nay in any—book.
Susan Cooper’s enthralling prose combines fantasy elements with folklore and mythology. She explores depths of subtlety few other writers do, through a gripping adventure story. It is flawlessly structured over the twelve days of Christmas. The Dark is Rising is a snapshot in time, full of wonder, terror, and delight. It is time this author was better known.
“The Dark is vanquished, at last, in this encounter. Nothing may outface the Wild Hunt. And Herne and his hounds hunt their quarry as far as they may, to the very ends of the earth. So at the ends of the earth the Lords of the Dark must skulk now, awaiting their next time of chance.”
The Dark is Rising has a different set of characters from the first one, “Over Sea, Under Stone”, and introduces us to Will Stanton, the seventh son of a seventh son, and an Old One; the last initiate of an ancient order of benevolent immortals. He is destined to seek the six magical signs of power, which will enable the Old Ones to triumph over the evil forces of the Dark.
Susan Cooper is not as well known as other British children’s fantasy authors writing around her time, such as Alan Garner, or a little earlier, C.S. Lewis, with his Narnia Chronicles, J.R.R. Tolkien with “The Hobbit”, or much later, J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series. Her mood pitches betwixt the darkness of Alan Garner, and the fantasy books of C.S. Lewis. Her writing is steeped in mythology and Celtic folklore, especially the Welsh “Mabinogian” and, like theirs, feels very British. In a way, this series is subtler than either, with its moral dualism of the Light and the Dark. It is not as comfortable and clear-cut as the reader expects.
There are family domestic scenes, common to most books of this type, ostensibly geared to older children, and has a child as the protagonist. However, Susan Cooper’s descriptions are powerful, and parts of this book leave you spellbound with her beautiful prose. As in all her novels, there is an underlying sense of menace. A perfect time of year to read The Dark is Rising is Winter, as much of the story is steeped in the snow, and parts of this book chill you emotionally too, with a hard, relentless, freezing cold.
It begins on the eve of Will Stanton’s 11th birthday, 21st December or Midwinter’s day, and like many children, he longs for the snow to fall. Will is part of a noisy, bustling cheerful family, with 11 members; Will is the seventh child of nine. They live in a rambling farmhouse, on the edge of the Thames Valley near the Chiltern Hills. Will imagines great white blankets of snow, covering the land around the old farmhouse, and bringing everything to stillness and silence. And yet even during this festive day, when Will should be doubly excited because of what will happen the next day, he is uneasy. The weather seems brooding and threatening with its lowering sky.
“It’s a horrible day … It’s—creepy somehow.”
People seem to be behaving oddly, and even his neighbour, Mr Dawson, does not seem the same cheery man he usually is, with his mysterious dark comments:
“The Walker is abroad … And this night will be bad, and tomorrow will be beyond imagining.”
And why should Farmer Dawson give him an odd sort of old belt buckle:
“a kind of ornament made of black metal, a flat circle quartered by two crossed lines”
as if it were somehow, significant. Even the rooks seem to be behaving oddly. And Will thought he caught sight of someone a few times—just a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. It’s all rather mysterious, and worrying. Eventually, the day comes to an end.
Next morning Will is woken by delicate trills of music, so enchanting that he doesn’t want it to stop. It slowly recedes, and yet Will is convinced this strange music was not a dream. Even more oddly, something weird has happened to his family. He goes around to several other bedrooms, and can see all of his family members, but even though he tries to wake them, they can’t see or hear him.
Will is soon distracted though, when he sees it has snowed overnight. He goes outside, and hears the strange music again, and senses that the world is not right. Will meets one of the farm workers, who is working at an anvil to make horseshoes, while a magnificent black horse waits by patiently. There is also a strange figure in a long old-fashioned robe. This man has a curious accent, and also says strange things, full of foreboding, just as Mr Dawson had done.
Susan Cooper conveys everything which is happening as if it has an unearthly, dreamlike quality. A woman Will does not know, comes up and offers both of them bread. The strange man accepts it, but although Will is hungry, for some reason he also feels suspicious, so he doesn’t take it. The man offers to take Will wherever he wants to go, on his horse, as the snow makes it so difficult to get anywhere, but Will refuses. Startling himself, Will says:
“I am out to find the Walker”. The stranger tries to grab Will, and force him onto his horse, as he sneers:
“But now the Rider is abroad”.
The smith intervenes to save Will, though he still does not understand what is happening, as the smith too seems to be talking in riddles. The arrival of a white horse, a “reverse image of the Rider’s midnight-black stallion” does little to clarify things. Will’s head is once more filled with the mysterious music, which makes him feel sick and giddy, and then he realises he is on the horse’s back. But he is not ready to ask the mare to take him anywhere, so jumps down. When this horse has been shod, and gallops off, Will notices that her hooves are replicas of the cross-quartered circle that he now wears on his own belt.
Will carries on walking, trying to make sense of things, and comes across the same old tramp he had seen with farmer Dawson, and senses that this is the Walker, and that somehow the rooks are involved. He is beginning to learn more, and reveals the strange sign, when the black stallion with the man on it rushes up, threateningly. The white mare arrives in the nick of time, and speeds away with Will on her back:
“Then all at once greyness came around them, and the sun was blacked out. The wind wrenched into Will’s collar and sleeves and boot-tops, ripping at his hair. Great clouds rushed towards them out of the North, closing in, huge grey-black thunderheads; the sky rumbled and growled. One white-misted gap remained, with a faint hint of blue behind it still, but it too was closing, closing. The white horse leapt at it desperately. Over his shoulder Will saw swooping towards them a darker shape even than the giant clouds: the Rider, towering immense, his eyes two dreadful points of blue-white fire. Lightening flashed, thunder split the sky, and the mare leapt at the crashing clouds as the last gap closed.
And they were safe.“
This strange symbol is certainly important, and powerful. But why does he, Will, have it? And why do people seem to recognise him, and know he has a destiny?
These first two chapters, with their magical prose, set the tone of the novel. The overall feeling remains mysterious and foreboding. Unlike other older children’s fantasy novels, Will’s quest is a solitary one: he is very much on his own, despite his huge family. And it is a sort of Quest, as well as a most unusual coming-of-age novel.
Chapter 3 in a way forecasts the rest of the story. Through a subtle indication that we will view different parallels in time, we are introduced to two other key figures, an old woman termed “The Lady”, and a man named Merriman (who is clearly Merlin). They explain to Will that his eleventh birthday has marked the moment when he steps into his destiny as one of the “Old Ones”, outside Time:
“I will tell you only this: that you are one of the Old Ones, the first to have been born for five hundred years, and the last. And like all such, you are bound by nature to devote yourself to the long conflict between the Light and the Dark.”
These Old Ones must prevent the Dark—personified in this book by the “cloaked rider on a midnight horse”—whom we have met, from “rising” and gaining power over the land. Will is told he find the six signs of the Light, which will help him defeat the Dark, before Twelfth Night, when the Dark will be at its peak. They are circles quartered by a cross in wood, formed from bronze, iron, water, fire and stone.
“For the Dark, the Dark is rising. The Walker is abroad, the Rider is riding; they have woken, the Dark is rising. And the last of the Circle is come to claim his own, and the circles must now all be joined. The white horse must go to the Hunter, and the river take the valley; there must be fire on the mountain, fire under the stone, fire over the sea. Fire to burn away the Dark, for the Dark, the Dark is rising!”
Will is still doubtful about his powers. He is just a small boy, How can he be an “Old One”. But it starts to make sense to him, when Merriman and the woman tell him to think of something, and make it happen. He doesn’t believe them at first, but then he imagines a fire, and one magically appears in the fireplace.
As the book progresses, we move with Will between warmth and safety and a much darker, uncertain world, as he learns more about himself and his own powers. Sometimes he is part of his family’s comfortable and familiar seasonal traditions, such as lighting the yule log fire, and decorating the Christmas tree, and others, in a strange uncharted territory, compelling but increasingly terrifying, trying to come to terms with his new self; powerful but isolated.
Will struggles with his new identity, and readers see him mature. Increasingly he finds, to his horror, that he is obliged to choose the greater good over the fate of any single individual. At one point he is mortified, when his actions appear to Several times he is desperate to protect his family, but must choose a wider purview: acting so as to right the greater wrong.
We also deepen our understanding of the other characters, such as Merriman, and “The Lady”. I felt particularly sorry for
In the present-day world, the snow-covered land is quickly turning into a catastrophe. The snowstorm continues, and outside the door, the snow covers roofs and lanes. The snow continues to cascade down, blocking the ways, stopping all travel, and eventually preventing people from leaving their homes. The land seems to be locked in snow, and somehow the dark seems to have something to do with it.
As we follow Will’s quest, finding the signs to defeat the Dark, the events become more and more savage. They are personal, challenging Will’s determination and tenacity, as well as his new-found powers. There is death, and there is transformation. There is an accident, a kidnapping, and a pretended friendship, making Will act according to his conscience and defy his parents. There is temptation—when Will attempts a rescue of someone he loves dearly. This is another Christian parallel, of the temptation of Christ on the mountain. There is a mysterious exotic Christmas gift, from Will’s eldest brother Stephen, who is in the army abroad. . There is an ancient magic book, “The Book of Gramarye”, which tells Will that Dark is always around, just like the Light. The Old tongue it is written in, sounds like gibberish to humans, though Will finds he can understand the Old Ones who speak it perfectly well.
There is a battle, with a deadly surprise and a paradox.
The snow is ever-present and a powerful metaphor. Will begins the book as an innocent, on whose birthday, the snow is “smooth and white and inviting”. There is the cold beauty of the Light when the snow glimmers and sifts. But the most powerful metaphor is when the blizzards never let up. The snow has a malevolent edge, pushing in through windows, and piling up at doors, representing the threat of brutality as the Dark grows stronger.
For all its similarity to those essentially Christian allegories of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, for all her biblical parallels and stress on good versus evil, we are blindsided when . Susan Cooper seems to be telling us that extremism of beliefs is the true cause of evil. She also presents us with a paradox. So which is it? Do we decide what happens in our lives, or does Fate rules the universe after all? Will is able to choose what to do with his newfound powers, and decides to actively seek out the signs, because he genuinely cares about helping to save the world. These are very sophisticated concepts to find in a children’s—nay in any—book.
Susan Cooper’s enthralling prose combines fantasy elements with folklore and mythology. She explores depths of subtlety few other writers do, through a gripping adventure story. It is flawlessly structured over the twelve days of Christmas. The Dark is Rising is a snapshot in time, full of wonder, terror, and delight. It is time this author was better known.
“The Dark is vanquished, at last, in this encounter. Nothing may outface the Wild Hunt. And Herne and his hounds hunt their quarry as far as they may, to the very ends of the earth. So at the ends of the earth the Lords of the Dark must skulk now, awaiting their next time of chance.”
February 4, 2022
I remember as a kid getting totally swept away by this book. As an adult, I think it's a powerfully atmospheric book, with the looming dark ever present. Fun to revisit and still good, though I wish I wanted to gush over it as much as I used to.
2022 re-read: I loved it more this time. Some of the issues were a bit more glaring (the world acts and Will gets swept along from one odd thing to the next without really being in control of anything), but the writing was lovely. And I felt the magic way more this time around, almost enough to sweep me away.
2022 re-read: I loved it more this time. Some of the issues were a bit more glaring (the world acts and Will gets swept along from one odd thing to the next without really being in control of anything), but the writing was lovely. And I felt the magic way more this time around, almost enough to sweep me away.
March 28, 2012
The one of my heart. But not entirely a book of childhood. Unlike the rest of the series, this one is layered all through young adulthood for me. I read it countless times as a wee thing, of course, but it was also my book on a horrible flight home from Oxford after Trinity Term, and what I read the week I retired my first guide dog, and what I read in tiny pieces in the month after I lost my eye. Looking at that list is one of those foreheadslap moments where you notice that narrative refrain isn't something that happens only in fiction. This book recurs in my life the way Greensleevves recurs in the book. This is a book of departing for me, a book of loss. Which is not surprising, since that's kind of what it's about.
It's true there isn't much of a story here. It has this treasure hunt quality to it, where Will shows up somewhere and magic happens and then he gets a prize. There's this one part where Will beats back the Dark by being a coat rack. Straight up, he stands still and holds up the signs and waits. And this is textually celebrated as extraordinary, because the Old Ones have always needed their minds to beat back the Dark, but now they have things. I stopped reading there and blinked a lot, because you just don't see formulations like that in fantasy, and it was confusing because I remembered this book as being so much about the mind.
That's because it's not about the quest. It's about Will. And it's all about his mind. He has this beautiful, sad, double-voiced narration. One voice is eleven and content with life, and then afraid and delighted by magic in turns. And the other is the Old One, the overnight adult who alienates Will from his family and community. Coming into power -- and into symbolic adulthood -- is a process of endless loss for Will (though of course it doesn't really ramp up until Silver on the Tree). This is the only book in the series to take place at home; all the others are on holiday. It has to be at home, because you have to be home to lose home.
So of course I read it in times of loss. But not in the expected way. I loved Will as a child, fiercely and without reserve, like a totem. There was something hopeful to this sad, sad book. It's like Will reading his book of magic within this book and being granted power through reading -- that's what I wanted, and a little of what I got. That a child could be lifted out of childhood by knowing (and by reading!), that adulthood would come and take me into a new world, and even if it wasn't always a kind world, I would have power there and it would be mine and I could find my people.
And hey, look, here you guys are.
Anyway. There's a whole hell of a lot more going on here, with Merriman's bitter lesson (through loss, of course) that mortal men will break if trusted too well, used too hard. And the connected tidbit that I don't really have anything to say about yet, but I want to flag it for myself, because I willneed it later I think: that a person must be born to the Light to be of it, but that the Dark is a thing any man can choose.
Onward to Greenwitch.
It's true there isn't much of a story here. It has this treasure hunt quality to it, where Will shows up somewhere and magic happens and then he gets a prize. There's this one part where Will beats back the Dark by being a coat rack. Straight up, he stands still and holds up the signs and waits. And this is textually celebrated as extraordinary, because the Old Ones have always needed their minds to beat back the Dark, but now they have things. I stopped reading there and blinked a lot, because you just don't see formulations like that in fantasy, and it was confusing because I remembered this book as being so much about the mind.
That's because it's not about the quest. It's about Will. And it's all about his mind. He has this beautiful, sad, double-voiced narration. One voice is eleven and content with life, and then afraid and delighted by magic in turns. And the other is the Old One, the overnight adult who alienates Will from his family and community. Coming into power -- and into symbolic adulthood -- is a process of endless loss for Will (though of course it doesn't really ramp up until Silver on the Tree). This is the only book in the series to take place at home; all the others are on holiday. It has to be at home, because you have to be home to lose home.
So of course I read it in times of loss. But not in the expected way. I loved Will as a child, fiercely and without reserve, like a totem. There was something hopeful to this sad, sad book. It's like Will reading his book of magic within this book and being granted power through reading -- that's what I wanted, and a little of what I got. That a child could be lifted out of childhood by knowing (and by reading!), that adulthood would come and take me into a new world, and even if it wasn't always a kind world, I would have power there and it would be mine and I could find my people.
And hey, look, here you guys are.
Anyway. There's a whole hell of a lot more going on here, with Merriman's bitter lesson (through loss, of course) that mortal men will break if trusted too well, used too hard. And the connected tidbit that I don't really have anything to say about yet, but I want to flag it for myself, because I willneed it later I think: that a person must be born to the Light to be of it, but that the Dark is a thing any man can choose.
Onward to Greenwitch.
August 27, 2007
Reread. I saw the trailer for the upcoming movie—and more importantly, I saw Darcy's furious reaction to the trailer for the upcoming movie, and I realized that I didn't remember these books well enough to be properly furious myself. I read the first two in the series, in the wrong order, when I was much younger, but didn't recall being particularly engaged by them, which was why I never continued. I figured that, rereading them as an adult, I'd see the error of my ways.
Sadly, I didn't. I still don't find these books very engaging. Over Sea Under Stone is, as even Darcy admits, only so-so: the setting is great (the rambling old Cornish house, the standing stones perched on their cliffs, the sea-cave), and at least one of the siblings (Barney) is spunky and entertaining, yet the treasure hunt-plot is oddly slow, and the conclusion completely unsatisfying in my mind. (They give the grail to a museum and get 100 quid? Barney has his "Dude! Merlin!" revelation? Yawn.) I thought The Dark Is Rising would be better, but it didn't do much for me, either. There's a lot of portentous stuff, but I felt that every scrape Will gets into he gets out of either through the intervention of an adult or thanks to a deus ex machina. Meanwhile, the Dark Rider and the Dark in general seemed oddly unthreatening to me, while being an agent of the Light did not seem particularly exciting or pleasurable. I never wished I was there: with, say, the Narnia books, I wanted SO BADLY to go through a wardrobe or a painting of my own, even if it was dangerous; but being an Old One mostly seems dull and chanty to me, to the point that if the position were offered on craigslist, I think I might pass. What is wrong with me?
Because I really do feel, having this reaction, that there must be something wrong with me and not the books: so many people—and people whose opinions I trust—love them. Oh well. I suppose I didn't like The Lord of the Rings, either.
Sadly, I didn't. I still don't find these books very engaging. Over Sea Under Stone is, as even Darcy admits, only so-so: the setting is great (the rambling old Cornish house, the standing stones perched on their cliffs, the sea-cave), and at least one of the siblings (Barney) is spunky and entertaining, yet the treasure hunt-plot is oddly slow, and the conclusion completely unsatisfying in my mind. (They give the grail to a museum and get 100 quid? Barney has his "Dude! Merlin!" revelation? Yawn.) I thought The Dark Is Rising would be better, but it didn't do much for me, either. There's a lot of portentous stuff, but I felt that every scrape Will gets into he gets out of either through the intervention of an adult or thanks to a deus ex machina. Meanwhile, the Dark Rider and the Dark in general seemed oddly unthreatening to me, while being an agent of the Light did not seem particularly exciting or pleasurable. I never wished I was there: with, say, the Narnia books, I wanted SO BADLY to go through a wardrobe or a painting of my own, even if it was dangerous; but being an Old One mostly seems dull and chanty to me, to the point that if the position were offered on craigslist, I think I might pass. What is wrong with me?
Because I really do feel, having this reaction, that there must be something wrong with me and not the books: so many people—and people whose opinions I trust—love them. Oh well. I suppose I didn't like The Lord of the Rings, either.
December 31, 2022
A little disappointed that I did not like this as much as I was hoping to do. Maybe if I had read it when I was young I would have liked it more, but after years of reading fantasy I found this was like a bundling together of as many myths and legends as the author found possible. Old Ones, White Lady, evil men on horseback, seventh son of seven son - they were all there and more.
On the plus side it is extremely well written. The imagery and descriptions of the English countryside in Winter were beautiful. I wanted to be back there walking across the snowy fields. The family scenes were enjoyable too, especially Will's relationships with his siblings.
So I liked it but did not love it. Pretty sure my eleven-year-old self would have gobbled it up though!
On the plus side it is extremely well written. The imagery and descriptions of the English countryside in Winter were beautiful. I wanted to be back there walking across the snowy fields. The family scenes were enjoyable too, especially Will's relationships with his siblings.
So I liked it but did not love it. Pretty sure my eleven-year-old self would have gobbled it up though!
August 24, 2016
With The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper sets the stage for a sweeping fantasy saga about nothing in particular.
When Will Stanton, an English lad from an unusually large family, turns twelve, he finds out he is an Old One - a being of great and mysterious powers who can hop in and out of human time and space anytime he chooses. Occasionally assisted by Merriman Lyon, who was once called Merlin and is now passing himself off as an archaeology professor, Will sets off to assist The Light, who are good, because reasons, in their great struggle against The Dark, who are evil, because reasons. Will's quest is to do something and go somewhere, or more likely go somewhere else and watch somebody else do something that was important because it was.
It does not bode well for this book that I read it only nine months ago and cannot for the life of me remember the plot, let alone the point. Maybe because it possesses neither.
Cooper dazzles with her strong prose. With words that sound like music together, she tricks you into thinking you're reading a good book that has meaning and occasionally even makes sense. If you then run off and read the three remaining books in the sequence as fast as you can (I did), you might not notice until halfway through Silver on the Tree that this series is "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
But sadly, this is the truth of the matter. Cooper tries to set up her two sides as absolute good and absolute evil, but her book either doesn't know or doesn't care what those words actually mean. There is little distinction between the behaviors of the two sets of characters. Both are after power, use violence and deception to achieve their ends, and view ordinary people caught up in their confrontations as collateral damage. And the critics compare this series to Narnia and Middle-earth, because England and pretty words.
This is most manifest in the character of Will. He doesn't want any harm to come to his family because of him, but his feelings regarding them are alarmingly detached. I don't care if he's really a five-thousand-year-old inter-world traveler who is not their blood relative and only got plopped into their family because reasons. As far as he knew until literally yesterday, these are his mum and his dad and his siblings we're talking about here. He ought to love them, not just care about them in this cool, distant, holier-than-thou way.
Not to mention that Will has no discernible interests outside of being an Old One, and doesn't even seem particularly enthused about that. He learns everything he needs to know about nearly everything in the universe over the course of a few minutes, and is never inquisitive about anything ever again. He is sedate and obedient to an unusual point for anyone. He's not close to any of his siblings or either parent. He doesn't seem to notice sports, science, action movies, comic books, rock music, or girls. In short, he is nothing like any twelve-year-old boy I ever met, and I doubt anyone else has met one like him either. He is bland to the point of being creepy. He is so devoid of personality he makes Harry Potter look like Howl Jenkins.
And what does being an Old One entail, exactly? Saving the world. Okay, how? By driving away The Dark. How does one do that? Um...by, uh, chanting, I guess. And time-travelling, to get, uh, artifacts. The Things of Power. What do the Things of Power do? Well, they can block people. And when you put them all together, they make a humming noise or...something. Also, be sure to snipe at the good-hearted Anglican priest who's just trying to protect his flock. Silly man just doesn't understand that God and gods are silly superstition and the Old Ones are the real deal.
The anti-Christian found in so much of contemporary fantasy does not start with Rowling, or even with Pullman. It starts here, in this book. It starts with Cooper.
I feel awful skewering a Newbery book like this, but I really wonder what the committee was thinking when they selected this one. Perhaps they were too bamboozled by Cooper's beautiful prose to notice that there is no character development, no plot, no overarching theme, and no story.
The next book in the series is Greenwitch, which is a lot better than this one if only because the Drews (remember them from Over Sea, Under Stone?) are in it.
In conclusion, this book and this series are an incoherent mess that have done nothing to merit the title of "classic" except be around for forty years - and that is only because their underlying ideology is compatible with the narcissistic gnosticism of our time. Not recommended.
When Will Stanton, an English lad from an unusually large family, turns twelve, he finds out he is an Old One - a being of great and mysterious powers who can hop in and out of human time and space anytime he chooses. Occasionally assisted by Merriman Lyon, who was once called Merlin and is now passing himself off as an archaeology professor, Will sets off to assist The Light, who are good, because reasons, in their great struggle against The Dark, who are evil, because reasons. Will's quest is to do something and go somewhere, or more likely go somewhere else and watch somebody else do something that was important because it was.
It does not bode well for this book that I read it only nine months ago and cannot for the life of me remember the plot, let alone the point. Maybe because it possesses neither.
Cooper dazzles with her strong prose. With words that sound like music together, she tricks you into thinking you're reading a good book that has meaning and occasionally even makes sense. If you then run off and read the three remaining books in the sequence as fast as you can (I did), you might not notice until halfway through Silver on the Tree that this series is "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
But sadly, this is the truth of the matter. Cooper tries to set up her two sides as absolute good and absolute evil, but her book either doesn't know or doesn't care what those words actually mean. There is little distinction between the behaviors of the two sets of characters. Both are after power, use violence and deception to achieve their ends, and view ordinary people caught up in their confrontations as collateral damage. And the critics compare this series to Narnia and Middle-earth, because England and pretty words.
This is most manifest in the character of Will. He doesn't want any harm to come to his family because of him, but his feelings regarding them are alarmingly detached. I don't care if he's really a five-thousand-year-old inter-world traveler who is not their blood relative and only got plopped into their family because reasons. As far as he knew until literally yesterday, these are his mum and his dad and his siblings we're talking about here. He ought to love them, not just care about them in this cool, distant, holier-than-thou way.
Not to mention that Will has no discernible interests outside of being an Old One, and doesn't even seem particularly enthused about that. He learns everything he needs to know about nearly everything in the universe over the course of a few minutes, and is never inquisitive about anything ever again. He is sedate and obedient to an unusual point for anyone. He's not close to any of his siblings or either parent. He doesn't seem to notice sports, science, action movies, comic books, rock music, or girls. In short, he is nothing like any twelve-year-old boy I ever met, and I doubt anyone else has met one like him either. He is bland to the point of being creepy. He is so devoid of personality he makes Harry Potter look like Howl Jenkins.
And what does being an Old One entail, exactly? Saving the world. Okay, how? By driving away The Dark. How does one do that? Um...by, uh, chanting, I guess. And time-travelling, to get, uh, artifacts. The Things of Power. What do the Things of Power do? Well, they can block people. And when you put them all together, they make a humming noise or...something. Also, be sure to snipe at the good-hearted Anglican priest who's just trying to protect his flock. Silly man just doesn't understand that God and gods are silly superstition and the Old Ones are the real deal.
The anti-Christian found in so much of contemporary fantasy does not start with Rowling, or even with Pullman. It starts here, in this book. It starts with Cooper.
I feel awful skewering a Newbery book like this, but I really wonder what the committee was thinking when they selected this one. Perhaps they were too bamboozled by Cooper's beautiful prose to notice that there is no character development, no plot, no overarching theme, and no story.
The next book in the series is Greenwitch, which is a lot better than this one if only because the Drews (remember them from Over Sea, Under Stone?) are in it.
In conclusion, this book and this series are an incoherent mess that have done nothing to merit the title of "classic" except be around for forty years - and that is only because their underlying ideology is compatible with the narcissistic gnosticism of our time. Not recommended.
December 12, 2009
I suspect that the books of this sequence are among the most beautiful I've read. I get that feeling especially with this book. The tone here has changed already from the Blyton-esque kids-on-a-great-adventure of the first book, and the character is different accordingly. It's almost a bildungsroman, for all that we only see less than a month of an eleven year old boy's life.
One of the main things I love about this sequence, particularly from this book on, is the characterisation. Where Simon, Jane and Barney were simplistic but also realistic in the first book, Will is now much more layered. Literally. There's a part of him that's a boy, and there's a part of him that's ancient and ageless, and in this book he's got to learn to balance the two, use the two, keep them separate where he can. In my opinion, this is beautifully done. One minute he's standing with the Lady and Merriman, fighting back the dark -- the next, boy like, he's making mistakes through over-enthusiasm. At first he cannot accept that he's not just an ordinary boy, and then he's playing tricks with his new-found powers. At the end, he acknowledges that sometimes he wishes he could just be an ordinary boy, but not always.
It's not just Will, though. Despite it being a short book, you catch glimpses of so many characters who are worth thinking about, and yet Susan Cooper never loses focus either. The Stanton family are particularly well-drawn, in my opinion. There's so many of them that you can't get a fully-rounded picture of any of them, but you still feel as if maybe you've been to tea with them a couple of times -- or I do, anyway. I feel like I'd like to date Paul, I'd want to hit Mary, I'd antagonise James, I'd... It's wonderful how Susan Cooper shows us so many characters and makes us care about them, so briefly and succinctly.
The writing, of course, I think is lovely. I whisper it aloud to myself. There are some beautiful images and scenes -- the Doors, for example, and the appearance of the ship, the signs... I love the way Susan Cooper writes.
I've read reviews where people felt that nothing happened in these books. I find that hard to understand -- there's moments of real brooding menace, real magic, but I think people who are expecting swordfights and high fantasy in that sense are going to be disappointed. Ultimately, the sequence concludes that the battle against the Dark is fought in men's hearts. That, in some ways, is not a "satisfying" conclusion -- yet it's a realistic one, and that's something I like.
Reread in December 2009. The bit that struck me most this time, somehow, was the dead king who carried the Sign of Water. Beautiful.
One of the main things I love about this sequence, particularly from this book on, is the characterisation. Where Simon, Jane and Barney were simplistic but also realistic in the first book, Will is now much more layered. Literally. There's a part of him that's a boy, and there's a part of him that's ancient and ageless, and in this book he's got to learn to balance the two, use the two, keep them separate where he can. In my opinion, this is beautifully done. One minute he's standing with the Lady and Merriman, fighting back the dark -- the next, boy like, he's making mistakes through over-enthusiasm. At first he cannot accept that he's not just an ordinary boy, and then he's playing tricks with his new-found powers. At the end, he acknowledges that sometimes he wishes he could just be an ordinary boy, but not always.
It's not just Will, though. Despite it being a short book, you catch glimpses of so many characters who are worth thinking about, and yet Susan Cooper never loses focus either. The Stanton family are particularly well-drawn, in my opinion. There's so many of them that you can't get a fully-rounded picture of any of them, but you still feel as if maybe you've been to tea with them a couple of times -- or I do, anyway. I feel like I'd like to date Paul, I'd want to hit Mary, I'd antagonise James, I'd... It's wonderful how Susan Cooper shows us so many characters and makes us care about them, so briefly and succinctly.
The writing, of course, I think is lovely. I whisper it aloud to myself. There are some beautiful images and scenes -- the Doors, for example, and the appearance of the ship, the signs... I love the way Susan Cooper writes.
I've read reviews where people felt that nothing happened in these books. I find that hard to understand -- there's moments of real brooding menace, real magic, but I think people who are expecting swordfights and high fantasy in that sense are going to be disappointed. Ultimately, the sequence concludes that the battle against the Dark is fought in men's hearts. That, in some ways, is not a "satisfying" conclusion -- yet it's a realistic one, and that's something I like.
Reread in December 2009. The bit that struck me most this time, somehow, was the dead king who carried the Sign of Water. Beautiful.
March 9, 2017
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper is a young adult fantasy novel first published in 1973.
The second book in the series of the same name, apparently the first book, Over Sea, Under Stone, was written for a younger audience and provides more of a prequel than a beginning point.
This book tells the tale of Will Stanton, who on his eleventh birthday learns that he is an Old One, a member of a group with magical powers who represent the Light, opposed to the members of the Dark. Cooper uses colorful Celtic and Britannic legends and lore to create a world where Will must collect signs of power to be used against the forces of the dark. Cooper also uses time travel elements to further compliment this imaginative and well-written fantasy.
Not bad, but definitely for the younger crowd.
The second book in the series of the same name, apparently the first book, Over Sea, Under Stone, was written for a younger audience and provides more of a prequel than a beginning point.
This book tells the tale of Will Stanton, who on his eleventh birthday learns that he is an Old One, a member of a group with magical powers who represent the Light, opposed to the members of the Dark. Cooper uses colorful Celtic and Britannic legends and lore to create a world where Will must collect signs of power to be used against the forces of the dark. Cooper also uses time travel elements to further compliment this imaginative and well-written fantasy.
Not bad, but definitely for the younger crowd.
March 24, 2024
Read this for the second time ever for the #DarkIsReading challenge. I had forgotten a great deal of it, like the fact that it takes place between the Winter Solstice and Twelfth Night. I remembered that it was Will's 11th birthday, but not the significance of the date/s.
It has been really interesting to read it now, with a community, and see how many people were influenced by this book and series. I can also see how it has influenced modern middle grade fantasies.
Reread/Read aloud 2024: The language of this book is so beautiful! It's wonderfully descriptive, and I really wonder if, had Cooper shopped this around in 2024, publishing might have turned up its nose at such high falutin' language.
It has been really interesting to read it now, with a community, and see how many people were influenced by this book and series. I can also see how it has influenced modern middle grade fantasies.
Reread/Read aloud 2024: The language of this book is so beautiful! It's wonderfully descriptive, and I really wonder if, had Cooper shopped this around in 2024, publishing might have turned up its nose at such high falutin' language.
July 18, 2022
We're suffering a record breaking heatwave in the UK, and I remembered this quote.
January 5, 2022
Having not enjoyed the first book in this series we were glad to have given the second book a go. Parts of this book were immensely enjoyable, magical and atmospheric and perfect Christmas reading. Much of this story rated 5 stars for us, we loved the mystery, the intertwining of folklore, the family dynamics, the snow and the magic. The downsides for us was the battle between good and evil, this didn't appeal to us but that's a personal preference.
This story seemed inspired by The Box of Delights and The Children of Green Knowe which are two of our favourite Christmas stories but there are plenty of elements to this one that are original. Perfect to read between midwinter and Old Christmas (6th January).
This story seemed inspired by The Box of Delights and The Children of Green Knowe which are two of our favourite Christmas stories but there are plenty of elements to this one that are original. Perfect to read between midwinter and Old Christmas (6th January).
January 9, 2016
Slightly ahead of the ideal time to read this book — which would be veeery slowly, a chapter or two at a time, over the Twelve Days of Christmas. I never have the patience for that! As usual, I loved The Dark is Rising; the quiet moments of enchantment, the beautiful writing, the warmth of the family relationships and the reality of the bickering, protective group of siblings. There’s more adult, complicated stuff as well as simple squabbling among siblings: the whole relationship between Merriman and Hawkin is a difficult one, and foreshadows what John Rowlands says about the Light in a later book. The morality of the Light is a cold, clear justice.
One thing I noticed a lot this time, though, was how Britain-centric the sequence is. Every so often it’ll make a reference to other parts of the world — the Jamaican carnival head, the darker skinned Old Ones, etc — but it talks about the battle for “this land”. As though the struggle between Light and Dark throughout history is focused on Britain. I’m not sure that’s an attitude that can really fly anymore, however simple and obvious it may have seemed when the books were originally written. I love how rooted the books are in Britain, the landscape and the people and the different histories that intertwine, the Anglo-Saxon and the Celtic, the Roman. But the focus on Britain as the whole centre of the fight against the Dark seems short-sighted.
Still, that is the other thing to love: the glimpses of mythology surrounding the books. Not just the Arthurian mythology, but the mysterious king whose dead hands held the Sign of Water for Will; the lore of the smiths; the Old Ways; Herne the hunter… I wish I could read beyond the pages into all that richness.
Originally posted here.
One thing I noticed a lot this time, though, was how Britain-centric the sequence is. Every so often it’ll make a reference to other parts of the world — the Jamaican carnival head, the darker skinned Old Ones, etc — but it talks about the battle for “this land”. As though the struggle between Light and Dark throughout history is focused on Britain. I’m not sure that’s an attitude that can really fly anymore, however simple and obvious it may have seemed when the books were originally written. I love how rooted the books are in Britain, the landscape and the people and the different histories that intertwine, the Anglo-Saxon and the Celtic, the Roman. But the focus on Britain as the whole centre of the fight against the Dark seems short-sighted.
Still, that is the other thing to love: the glimpses of mythology surrounding the books. Not just the Arthurian mythology, but the mysterious king whose dead hands held the Sign of Water for Will; the lore of the smiths; the Old Ways; Herne the hunter… I wish I could read beyond the pages into all that richness.
Originally posted here.
November 17, 2015
3.5 . . . maybe. A good story; well told. It fits neatly between The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter. Very English; magical realm beyond the mundane; contemporary (more or less) to the time of writing; YA that should appeal to adults, but it doesn't have the--dare I use this word?--magic.
William, the eleven year old protagonist, is too passive. He floats through the book's big crises more as observer than an actor. Great things happen around him, but the reader does not feel that William is engaged in them. His involvement and angst, if it exists, isn't communicated well.
Also, despite his pack of brothers and sisters, I don't get the familiar interaction as among the Pervesie children or Harry and his friends.
Which suggests another problem: the lack of humor. Both Lewis and Rowling had it. Cooper not. In stories, as in life, the frivolous provides contrast for the serious.
Still, I'm surprised this isn't/wasn't more popular. Perhaps it was because Cooper was moving toward Rowling in her ideals while staying closer to Lewis in her prose. Perhaps she wasn't in sync with the pulse of the 1970s. And, of course, her series had neither an Aslan nor a Hogwarts. Merriman is no Aslan nor a Dumbledore. And William is no Harry, nor Peter or even Edmund.
William, the eleven year old protagonist, is too passive. He floats through the book's big crises more as observer than an actor. Great things happen around him, but the reader does not feel that William is engaged in them. His involvement and angst, if it exists, isn't communicated well.
Also, despite his pack of brothers and sisters, I don't get the familiar interaction as among the Pervesie children or Harry and his friends.
Which suggests another problem: the lack of humor. Both Lewis and Rowling had it. Cooper not. In stories, as in life, the frivolous provides contrast for the serious.
Still, I'm surprised this isn't/wasn't more popular. Perhaps it was because Cooper was moving toward Rowling in her ideals while staying closer to Lewis in her prose. Perhaps she wasn't in sync with the pulse of the 1970s. And, of course, her series had neither an Aslan nor a Hogwarts. Merriman is no Aslan nor a Dumbledore. And William is no Harry, nor Peter or even Edmund.
December 6, 2022
Second in the Dark is Rising sequence, The Dark is Rising (1973) by Susan Cooper takes us into very different territory from and introduces us to entirely different characters than the first book, and if I found the darkness and danger palpable in that one, in this book it is far more intense and disconcerting.
The book opens in the Stanton home where young Will Stanton lives with his parents and several siblings, the eldest though away in the Navy. It is nearly the winter solstice, the day that also marks Will’s birthday and he is about to turn 11. But as he steps out with his brother on the evening before his birthday for some errands, strange things begin to happen—the birds and animals are uneasy, even his own dogs seeming to ‘fear’ him, a tramp is lurking about, and Will himself experiences a strong feeling of fear in his subconscious. As they visit the Dawson farm, Mr Dawson gives Will an ornament—an iron circle quartered by two crossed lines which he tells Will to wear as a buckle always. When Will wakes up the next morning (after a hard, snowy night), he finds himself in almost a different world. Soon he learns that he is no ordinary boy, but one of the ‘old ones’, possessors of special powers and knowledge; and while this makes him extraordinary, it also places on him a great burden—to fight the forces of darkness which are rising once again. In this fight, Will is the sign seeker charged with finding the six great signs of light which when joined will empower the old ones to defeat the dark. The path is no easy one though and involves hard tasks and tests, and facing the forces of darkness which might even endanger his family; on this journey, he is guided by other ‘old ones’, among them Merriman Lyon, who is almost always by his side. How does Will discharge this heavy burden?
When I read and reviewed the first book in the sequence, Over Sea, Under Stone which I enjoyed very much, a few fellow readers mentioned that that wasn’t their favourite or that the later books were better. But it is only when I finally read The Dark is Rising that I found that while the first book was very good, this one takes things to a completely different level.
Throwing the reader straight into the midst of action, Cooper’s descriptions create a sense of fear and unease which is intense right from the start and stays with the reader all through. As we read, we experience the same fears and anxieties, hear the terrifying sounds and see the images that Will does in his subconscious, and I must say, had I read this as a child, I’m sure I’d be very frightened indeed (I was as an adult too). Alongside the fear, Copper also manages to get us to almost feel the fluidity of time as Will more or less floats amidst time as he carries out his task of finding the six signs, and at times seems even beside it, getting him to realise how it can exist side by side:
‘I mean part of all of us, and of all the things we think and believe, that has nothing to do with yesterday or today or tomorrow. Yesterday is still there, on that level. Tomorrow is there too. You can visit either of them’. And all Gods are there, and all the things they have ever stood for. And, he said, sadly, ‘the opposite too’.
But to balance out these unsettling feelings, and indeed the cold cold atmosphere the characters (and reader) are soon enveloped in, there is Christmas! Cooper’s descriptions of Christmas at the Stanton home are equally gorgeous, taking us right in the middle of the celebrations, the tree being brought in, the ornaments taken out for decoration (‘the golden-haired figure for the top of the tree; the strings of jewel-coloured lights…Half-spheres…like red and gold-green seashells, slender glass spheres, spidery webs of silvery glass threads and beads…’) tasty treats being prepared, presents bought and wrapped, and all the joy around (even if it sits alongside the unfolding darkness). This is certainly an atmospheric book which draws the reader right in and in which one stays enwrapped as the story plays out.
Like the first book (which explored Arthurian legends), The Dark is Rising, too, is rich in its weaving in of folklore and legends. Whether it is Will discovering the truth about himself on his eleventh birthday (as do many heroes and heroines of children’s fiction), or turning out to be the seventh son of a seventh son, making him the possessor or special powers; or legends associated with Christmas like the power of holly to protect against evil (besides bringing good fortune), or the story of Herne the Hunter or even the relevance of the solstice, these and more don’t merely enrich the story, but are really the frame on which the story is built.
And Cooper doesn’t give us only excellent atmosphere but a thoroughly good story too, with an exciting but also very dangerous quest, terrifying enemies but also good friends, travels through time with a constant sense of its fluidity, and a satisfying end and yet knowing that there is more to come.
At the end of the Vintage Classics edition of the book is a short interview with Susan Cooper where she mentions that it was with this book that the idea of a sequence really came about and she realised how it would also connect with Over Sea, Under Stone and also that there would be more books to come; and while this book gives one some clue as to a link between the two adventures, it has left me very keen to see whether the two sets of characters meet—how their stories end up connecting and what forms the dark takes on next!
A really wonderful read!
The book opens in the Stanton home where young Will Stanton lives with his parents and several siblings, the eldest though away in the Navy. It is nearly the winter solstice, the day that also marks Will’s birthday and he is about to turn 11. But as he steps out with his brother on the evening before his birthday for some errands, strange things begin to happen—the birds and animals are uneasy, even his own dogs seeming to ‘fear’ him, a tramp is lurking about, and Will himself experiences a strong feeling of fear in his subconscious. As they visit the Dawson farm, Mr Dawson gives Will an ornament—an iron circle quartered by two crossed lines which he tells Will to wear as a buckle always. When Will wakes up the next morning (after a hard, snowy night), he finds himself in almost a different world. Soon he learns that he is no ordinary boy, but one of the ‘old ones’, possessors of special powers and knowledge; and while this makes him extraordinary, it also places on him a great burden—to fight the forces of darkness which are rising once again. In this fight, Will is the sign seeker charged with finding the six great signs of light which when joined will empower the old ones to defeat the dark. The path is no easy one though and involves hard tasks and tests, and facing the forces of darkness which might even endanger his family; on this journey, he is guided by other ‘old ones’, among them Merriman Lyon, who is almost always by his side. How does Will discharge this heavy burden?
When I read and reviewed the first book in the sequence, Over Sea, Under Stone which I enjoyed very much, a few fellow readers mentioned that that wasn’t their favourite or that the later books were better. But it is only when I finally read The Dark is Rising that I found that while the first book was very good, this one takes things to a completely different level.
Throwing the reader straight into the midst of action, Cooper’s descriptions create a sense of fear and unease which is intense right from the start and stays with the reader all through. As we read, we experience the same fears and anxieties, hear the terrifying sounds and see the images that Will does in his subconscious, and I must say, had I read this as a child, I’m sure I’d be very frightened indeed (I was as an adult too). Alongside the fear, Copper also manages to get us to almost feel the fluidity of time as Will more or less floats amidst time as he carries out his task of finding the six signs, and at times seems even beside it, getting him to realise how it can exist side by side:
‘I mean part of all of us, and of all the things we think and believe, that has nothing to do with yesterday or today or tomorrow. Yesterday is still there, on that level. Tomorrow is there too. You can visit either of them’. And all Gods are there, and all the things they have ever stood for. And, he said, sadly, ‘the opposite too’.
But to balance out these unsettling feelings, and indeed the cold cold atmosphere the characters (and reader) are soon enveloped in, there is Christmas! Cooper’s descriptions of Christmas at the Stanton home are equally gorgeous, taking us right in the middle of the celebrations, the tree being brought in, the ornaments taken out for decoration (‘the golden-haired figure for the top of the tree; the strings of jewel-coloured lights…Half-spheres…like red and gold-green seashells, slender glass spheres, spidery webs of silvery glass threads and beads…’) tasty treats being prepared, presents bought and wrapped, and all the joy around (even if it sits alongside the unfolding darkness). This is certainly an atmospheric book which draws the reader right in and in which one stays enwrapped as the story plays out.
Like the first book (which explored Arthurian legends), The Dark is Rising, too, is rich in its weaving in of folklore and legends. Whether it is Will discovering the truth about himself on his eleventh birthday (as do many heroes and heroines of children’s fiction), or turning out to be the seventh son of a seventh son, making him the possessor or special powers; or legends associated with Christmas like the power of holly to protect against evil (besides bringing good fortune), or the story of Herne the Hunter or even the relevance of the solstice, these and more don’t merely enrich the story, but are really the frame on which the story is built.
And Cooper doesn’t give us only excellent atmosphere but a thoroughly good story too, with an exciting but also very dangerous quest, terrifying enemies but also good friends, travels through time with a constant sense of its fluidity, and a satisfying end and yet knowing that there is more to come.
At the end of the Vintage Classics edition of the book is a short interview with Susan Cooper where she mentions that it was with this book that the idea of a sequence really came about and she realised how it would also connect with Over Sea, Under Stone and also that there would be more books to come; and while this book gives one some clue as to a link between the two adventures, it has left me very keen to see whether the two sets of characters meet—how their stories end up connecting and what forms the dark takes on next!
A really wonderful read!
July 14, 2010
2.5 stars. I really thought I was going to like this more than I did. It was well-written and the premise of a story was interesting. I just never really got into the story and found myself waiting for something exceptional to happen. Unfortunately, it didn't. That said, it wasn't a bad book and, being short, it didn't take too long to get through.
October 8, 2012
'When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone;
Five will return, and one go alone.'
'Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long;
Wood from the burning, stone out of song;
Fire in the candle-ring, water from the thaw;
Six Signs the circle, and the grail gone before.'
'Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold
Played to wake the Sleepers, oldest of the old;
Power from the green witch, lost beneath the sea;
All shall find the light at last, silver on the tree.'
As a child I developed my love of fantasy and superheroics. I suppose that what appeals to a child about a fantasy novel is the sense of mystery, adventure and the fact that no one in a fantasy novel need be powerless against the forces of evil let loose in the world. Haven't you ever dreamed about being able to use magic to solve the inconvenience of lacking a parking spot or being late to work? Isn't one of our greatest fears that sense of powerlessness, the frustration that we cannot control everything?
I know that some people do not like this series. I suppose it is better appreciated when read as a child. Reading it again now for the fifth or so time I see the simplicity of the narrative, those few elements that don't quite make sense or seem a little shallow. I must admit that the slight dig at how religion isn't relevant in this magical world also irks me in the book. But that said this is in the end a novel and when you can see those little things you laugh at them and then ignore them to enjoy the overall story. Or at least I do. The one thing I've always appreciated about this series is the story of Dark versus Light, good versus evil, one boy discovering his supernatural powers.
The three verse poem written above represents the entire sequence of this series (which I prefer to read in the order of book 2, 1, 3, 4, 5 as for me the proper story begins here in the story of Will Stanton, last of the Old Ones. On his eleventh birthday, Will discovers that he has a calling to discover six magical signs which will enable the forces of the Light to begin their battle over evil.
Most of the mythology and fairytale elements of this story are taken from Celtic origins which is a fascinating set of mythology to me. But don't ever read this expecting Tolkien or Lewis I still rate them a little higher than this. But this is still a classic children's fantasy series and deserves to be read by audiences. Interestingly reading it today it still reads like the first time I read it. Only I'm an even faster reader now than I was then. Perhaps my powers are awakening like Will's...
December 28, 2021
Though this is the second of a series, it can easily be read as a novel complete in itself. A wonderfully creepy midwinter story, in which 11-year-old Will discovers that he has been born into a magical tradition, it explores the pagan roots of midwinter festivals, and draws on the gods of pre-Christian England, as well as the powers of nature, such as snow, rain, rivers, trees, and mountains. It is a compelling and atmospheric book: it's an excellent and imaginative novel for children, but it also works on an adult level, drawing readers into a fantasy that feels so grounded in things we've all experienced, such as flickering candle flames, voices joined in song, and the sound of footsteps in snow, that it feel palpably real. The Victorian tradition was to tell ghost stories in the long dark nights around Christmas, and The Dark is Rising draws on that idea, focusing on both the beauty of midwinter and the perishing fears. Will must overcome dark powers gathering in the snow, and turn to dangerous forces, such as Herne the Hunter, for help. Though Will is on the side of light, he finds his allies are difficult and frightening people too, and the victory over the dark is solemn and complicated. Complex, emotional and immersive, this is a book that can be read and re-read. A treat.
July 8, 2013
I’m trying to think of how many other books’ sequels are more notable than the books themselves. The Dark is Rising is the second book in the sequence, yet it was the one that got adapted into an apparently awful film, and it was the one that gave its title to the entire series. I suppose I can see why. Of the first two books, it more stereotypically conforms to the monomyth and has that “epic” quality one desires in “epic fantasy”. Over Sea, Under Stone is firmly a juvenile adventure, whereas the threats and dangers in The Dark is Rising are more potent and terrifying. I complained about the lack of such terror in my review of the first book, but I can’t make that complaint here.
Will Stanton is turning eleven years old. He discovers he is the last Old One, a group of incredibly powerful, immortal beings who fight against the Dark in the name of Light. Much like the recent era of Doctor Who, The Dark is Rising delights in using its title as a catchphrase. We are repeatedly warned that the powers of Dark will be at their strongest soon. Will can defeat them, but only if he finds the six signs required to complete the “circle”. Merriman Lyon (Great-Uncle Merry from the first book) pops in and out to help Will and offer him some guidance, but it’s mostly Will’s show. Sort of.
Gamers like to refer to some video games as having sequences “on rails”, which means an action sequence where the player has little to no control over their movement but full control over their weapons (for example, being on a moving train that takes them along a pre-determined route while they fight off bad guys). These sequences have threats, and often failure modes if the player can’t react fast enough or eliminate enough baddies within a certain time limit. Thus, rails sequences aren’t inherently bad, and they don’t necessarily squelch the enjoyment or tension in a video game. But they can be tricky to do well, and they can often be frustrating.
The Dark is Rising feels like one big story on rails, for both Will and the protagonist. The threats are manifest in a way they weren’t in Over Sea, Under Stone. But the fortuitous outcome all seems so obvious, so pre-destined, that the tension is almost zero. Will seems to recover the signs without much effort on his part. I don’t mean to sell him short, because he does have moments of autonomy that make him shine. For the most part, though, Cooper doesn’t want to take off the training wheels on her hero. Will only makes the mistakes he is allowed to make, the perfect mistakes for a young, untrained hero to make. And the result is character development that feels very artificial and formulaic.
If there is fulfilment to be had here, then it’s in the inevitable empathy one must have for Will. He is thrown out of his depth quite quickly, and he hits the ground running. Say what you will about Harry Potter, he had it pretty easy. He got the guided tour of Hogwarts. Will turns eleven, gets told he is an Old One, and within a few days he has to save the world from the near-infinite power of the Dark. And he can’t talk to anyone about it. Harry had Ron and Hermione. Will only has Merriman, who as inconstant presence at best. He can’t tell his siblings why the farmer’s daughter is evil; he can’t explain that the horrendous snowstorm the countryside is experiencing is a result of evil’s waxing power. Will is completely alone.
Will’s adversaries, the Rider and, later, the Walker, prey upon that chink in his psychological armour. They bring to bear the age-old “you can never hope to defeat the power of the dark side” speech, and it starts to wear Will down. He perseveres every time, and he succeeds every time--and as I said above, it’s not surprising he does. But it’s still fun to watch him struggle against the emotional toll this is taking. This is particularly true at the climax of the book, when it seems that Merriman has deserted him and Will has to choose between vanquishing the Dark or saving his sister.
The Dark is Rising is indubitably better than Over Sea, Under Stone, though the latter has plenty going for it. Neither, though, has convinced me it’s worth being called a classic. The story and characters have changed, but there is still an overwrought, painfully obvious quality to the writing--the disharmonious sounds of Cooper trying so very hard. Great writing isn’t effortless, by any means. But mediocre writing is usually very hard indeed.
My reviews of the Dark is Rising sequence:
← Over Sea, Under Stone | Greenwitch →
Will Stanton is turning eleven years old. He discovers he is the last Old One, a group of incredibly powerful, immortal beings who fight against the Dark in the name of Light. Much like the recent era of Doctor Who, The Dark is Rising delights in using its title as a catchphrase. We are repeatedly warned that the powers of Dark will be at their strongest soon. Will can defeat them, but only if he finds the six signs required to complete the “circle”. Merriman Lyon (Great-Uncle Merry from the first book) pops in and out to help Will and offer him some guidance, but it’s mostly Will’s show. Sort of.
Gamers like to refer to some video games as having sequences “on rails”, which means an action sequence where the player has little to no control over their movement but full control over their weapons (for example, being on a moving train that takes them along a pre-determined route while they fight off bad guys). These sequences have threats, and often failure modes if the player can’t react fast enough or eliminate enough baddies within a certain time limit. Thus, rails sequences aren’t inherently bad, and they don’t necessarily squelch the enjoyment or tension in a video game. But they can be tricky to do well, and they can often be frustrating.
The Dark is Rising feels like one big story on rails, for both Will and the protagonist. The threats are manifest in a way they weren’t in Over Sea, Under Stone. But the fortuitous outcome all seems so obvious, so pre-destined, that the tension is almost zero. Will seems to recover the signs without much effort on his part. I don’t mean to sell him short, because he does have moments of autonomy that make him shine. For the most part, though, Cooper doesn’t want to take off the training wheels on her hero. Will only makes the mistakes he is allowed to make, the perfect mistakes for a young, untrained hero to make. And the result is character development that feels very artificial and formulaic.
If there is fulfilment to be had here, then it’s in the inevitable empathy one must have for Will. He is thrown out of his depth quite quickly, and he hits the ground running. Say what you will about Harry Potter, he had it pretty easy. He got the guided tour of Hogwarts. Will turns eleven, gets told he is an Old One, and within a few days he has to save the world from the near-infinite power of the Dark. And he can’t talk to anyone about it. Harry had Ron and Hermione. Will only has Merriman, who as inconstant presence at best. He can’t tell his siblings why the farmer’s daughter is evil; he can’t explain that the horrendous snowstorm the countryside is experiencing is a result of evil’s waxing power. Will is completely alone.
Will’s adversaries, the Rider and, later, the Walker, prey upon that chink in his psychological armour. They bring to bear the age-old “you can never hope to defeat the power of the dark side” speech, and it starts to wear Will down. He perseveres every time, and he succeeds every time--and as I said above, it’s not surprising he does. But it’s still fun to watch him struggle against the emotional toll this is taking. This is particularly true at the climax of the book, when it seems that Merriman has deserted him and Will has to choose between vanquishing the Dark or saving his sister.
The Dark is Rising is indubitably better than Over Sea, Under Stone, though the latter has plenty going for it. Neither, though, has convinced me it’s worth being called a classic. The story and characters have changed, but there is still an overwrought, painfully obvious quality to the writing--the disharmonious sounds of Cooper trying so very hard. Great writing isn’t effortless, by any means. But mediocre writing is usually very hard indeed.
My reviews of the Dark is Rising sequence:
← Over Sea, Under Stone | Greenwitch →
January 9, 2008
Stop me if you've heard this one: A boy living in England discovers on his 11th birthday that he has special powers. An early encounter with an enemy leaves him with a scar. With guidance from a few mentors, he is trained and learns about the Dark, which he can vanquish by collecting several ancient objects.
Well, putting aside my increasing irritation with J.K. Rowling's lack of originality, I really enjoyed this (earlier) novel, which was surprisingly well-written. (Especially compared with A Wrinkle In Time, which I read immediately preceding this.) The forces of the Dark are unfortunately kept pretty vague, and Will's quest seemed too easy throughout, as if it were merely happening to him, but I enjoyed the careful placement of details and the large number of important supporting characters, including 8 siblings.
I need to mention here that the book uses much Christian imagery, has several crucial scenes take place in a church, and is set almost entirely during Christmas time, but I was impressed by how little this bothered me -- it has hardly the blatant Christian overtones of C.S. Lewis or Madeleine L'Engle. (Again, another favorable comparison with A Wrinkle In Time.) Furthermore, one character makes the point that the traditions involved predate Christianity, and indeed this book should appeal to anyone interested in the Pagan origins of Christmas.
Well, putting aside my increasing irritation with J.K. Rowling's lack of originality, I really enjoyed this (earlier) novel, which was surprisingly well-written. (Especially compared with A Wrinkle In Time, which I read immediately preceding this.) The forces of the Dark are unfortunately kept pretty vague, and Will's quest seemed too easy throughout, as if it were merely happening to him, but I enjoyed the careful placement of details and the large number of important supporting characters, including 8 siblings.
I need to mention here that the book uses much Christian imagery, has several crucial scenes take place in a church, and is set almost entirely during Christmas time, but I was impressed by how little this bothered me -- it has hardly the blatant Christian overtones of C.S. Lewis or Madeleine L'Engle. (Again, another favorable comparison with A Wrinkle In Time.) Furthermore, one character makes the point that the traditions involved predate Christianity, and indeed this book should appeal to anyone interested in the Pagan origins of Christmas.
December 16, 2016
12/15/16: More of my Christmas reading. This time, I'm struck as I never was as a teen how very bleak Cooper's universe of Light and Dark is. The Old Ones, for all they come from human families (presumably, if Will Stanton is representative) are not even a little bit human, and Light and Dark clash in ways that care nothing for individual men and women. Their battle isn't for the sake of human salvation, it's for things and forces far, far beyond human concerns. This becomes most evident in Silver on the Tree, but it comes up repeatedly through the sequence. And I'm not sure anymore that I like that. Merriman Lyon says noble things about man's gift of free will, but that comes at the end, after he's already displayed a more dismissive attitude toward the ordinary humans in the story. So this time, I'm conflicted.
12/22/15: A lovely afternoon's re-read. One of the things I love about it is its depiction of a large family; I'm the oldest of nine children and this always comes off as very believable to me. The contrast between the very small concerns of an 11-year-old boy and the very large concerns of the last of the Old Ones, tasked with a great quest, makes this story come alive.
Read 12/18/11: I always like to re-read this around Christmastime. It's one of my all-time favorites.
12/22/15: A lovely afternoon's re-read. One of the things I love about it is its depiction of a large family; I'm the oldest of nine children and this always comes off as very believable to me. The contrast between the very small concerns of an 11-year-old boy and the very large concerns of the last of the Old Ones, tasked with a great quest, makes this story come alive.
Read 12/18/11: I always like to re-read this around Christmastime. It's one of my all-time favorites.
February 2, 2020
The second book in the series frustrated me slightly when I first read it (way back when through the mists of time) because it introduces a new protagonist. Not only that but the protagonists from book one don’t appear at all and their existence is only hinted at. My ten year old self did not like this at all!
Perhaps because I was expecting it this time, my forty four year old self didn’t mind the protagonist switch at all. I enjoyed revisiting this book immensely and can safely say I enjoyed it more this time than when I first read it as a wee nipper. Great fantasy based in British folklore, the likes of which I cannot get enough of! I am, as ever, a complete sucker for a magical quest!
On to book three!
Perhaps because I was expecting it this time, my forty four year old self didn’t mind the protagonist switch at all. I enjoyed revisiting this book immensely and can safely say I enjoyed it more this time than when I first read it as a wee nipper. Great fantasy based in British folklore, the likes of which I cannot get enough of! I am, as ever, a complete sucker for a magical quest!
On to book three!
February 29, 2024
Not for me. My interest and overall enjoyment level were extremely low. 😴
November 9, 2011
I loved this book very much in my early teens. Unfortunately it was a disappointing re-read. The imagery is still very beautiful, but I now find the worldbuilding unsatisfying.
It suffers from the unquestioning existence of Good and Evil labels. The Good are good because they are born that way. Merriman, the protagonist's teacher, places great emphasis on the burden of being for the Light, which I now find disturbing, not noble: their burden is that they have to be misunderstood by the ordinary people about them, and especially that they have to sacrifice the people about them. This includes memory-wipes to protect from what the Good deem unilaterally to be too much knowledge, and also the changing and endangering of ordinary people's lives, mandated by the rules of the magic that the Good serve. In the end, as with many fantasy stories, the Good side seems to be good based mainly on poetic associations -- light, Christmas, warmth.
The Evil are said to become evil by choice. This might give some opportunity for interesting, humanizing characterization of the evil characters, but it does not in the case of the "Rider" (who is marked as evil mainly by the sinister feeling he produces in the protagonist) or of Maggie Barnes, who is the only character in the book to express any sort of sexuality, and who is referred to dismissively by the eleven-year-old protagonist as "the girl."
*spoiler*
The one character whose choice of evil we do get to see is the Walker. We learn that he was an orphan, Merriman's liege man who loved him like a father. Because of their bond, he was chosen to be part of a spell protecting the Book of Gramarye. Using this spell, when Merriman retrieved the Book for the protagonist, he used the Walker's life as collateral. The Walker was shocked to realize that Merriman was willing to risk his death, and decided to betray him. Even though Merriman (in godlike fashion) understood how the Walker would choose, he cursed him to continue to help the side of Light by carrying one of its symbols for hundreds of years, living as a tramp and never being allowed even to die.
Besides seeing this situation as weighted against the Walker, on this reading I realized that the story is also assigning moral value to feudal loyalty. It would have best helped the Light if the Walker had accepted that it was right for Merriman to use his life for his cause. Instead he wanted to be Merriman's moral equal -- as Merriman puts it, "he loves as a man, wanting proof of love in return." But in the morality of the story, Merriman and the Light are too great to be able to relate to the Walker with equality; what they take from him is different from what they give to him, and when he protests that the taking is too much, they give him misery.
Other parts of the story also promote this idea of traditional, hierarchical relations. Most explicitly is the later episode in which the Dark is assailing the village with winter storms and the local gentrywoman offers to shelter everyone in her hall. The protagonist's father's refusal to take his own family there is presented as stubborn, prejudiced pride which has to be overcome. Then, the scene of the villagers gathered around the aristocrat is one of appropriate protection, beautiful and harmonious.
These things are mostly subtle, but they align the old, patriarchal social order with the Light -- another unfortunate tendency common to many fantasy stories.
It suffers from the unquestioning existence of Good and Evil labels. The Good are good because they are born that way. Merriman, the protagonist's teacher, places great emphasis on the burden of being for the Light, which I now find disturbing, not noble: their burden is that they have to be misunderstood by the ordinary people about them, and especially that they have to sacrifice the people about them. This includes memory-wipes to protect from what the Good deem unilaterally to be too much knowledge, and also the changing and endangering of ordinary people's lives, mandated by the rules of the magic that the Good serve. In the end, as with many fantasy stories, the Good side seems to be good based mainly on poetic associations -- light, Christmas, warmth.
The Evil are said to become evil by choice. This might give some opportunity for interesting, humanizing characterization of the evil characters, but it does not in the case of the "Rider" (who is marked as evil mainly by the sinister feeling he produces in the protagonist) or of Maggie Barnes, who is the only character in the book to express any sort of sexuality, and who is referred to dismissively by the eleven-year-old protagonist as "the girl."
*spoiler*
The one character whose choice of evil we do get to see is the Walker. We learn that he was an orphan, Merriman's liege man who loved him like a father. Because of their bond, he was chosen to be part of a spell protecting the Book of Gramarye. Using this spell, when Merriman retrieved the Book for the protagonist, he used the Walker's life as collateral. The Walker was shocked to realize that Merriman was willing to risk his death, and decided to betray him. Even though Merriman (in godlike fashion) understood how the Walker would choose, he cursed him to continue to help the side of Light by carrying one of its symbols for hundreds of years, living as a tramp and never being allowed even to die.
Besides seeing this situation as weighted against the Walker, on this reading I realized that the story is also assigning moral value to feudal loyalty. It would have best helped the Light if the Walker had accepted that it was right for Merriman to use his life for his cause. Instead he wanted to be Merriman's moral equal -- as Merriman puts it, "he loves as a man, wanting proof of love in return." But in the morality of the story, Merriman and the Light are too great to be able to relate to the Walker with equality; what they take from him is different from what they give to him, and when he protests that the taking is too much, they give him misery.
Other parts of the story also promote this idea of traditional, hierarchical relations. Most explicitly is the later episode in which the Dark is assailing the village with winter storms and the local gentrywoman offers to shelter everyone in her hall. The protagonist's father's refusal to take his own family there is presented as stubborn, prejudiced pride which has to be overcome. Then, the scene of the villagers gathered around the aristocrat is one of appropriate protection, beautiful and harmonious.
These things are mostly subtle, but they align the old, patriarchal social order with the Light -- another unfortunate tendency common to many fantasy stories.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 15, 2019
Overall I'd say I prefer stories about heroes who become, rather than who are chosen. But if it the author is relying on fate, how better than to use time travelers and incorporate all the myths of the British Isles?
The compressed time period of the winter holidays works well. I like that Will has a close and involved family, parents included, such that the author had to take him outside of time to be in any danger. The story is well-paced, the villains ambiguous, and the whole thing is enormous fun. Winter solstice to Twelfth Night, and filled with snow, it comes across, and I mean this in the best possible way, as a Christmas episode of Dr. Who.
Library copy
The compressed time period of the winter holidays works well. I like that Will has a close and involved family, parents included, such that the author had to take him outside of time to be in any danger. The story is well-paced, the villains ambiguous, and the whole thing is enormous fun. Winter solstice to Twelfth Night, and filled with snow, it comes across, and I mean this in the best possible way, as a Christmas episode of Dr. Who.
Library copy
March 22, 2022
Wow - absolutely stunning. Can’t believe I’ve only just got round to reading this series of stories. I very much look forward to my granddaughters reading them when they’re older.
December 23, 2019
Een echt midwinter verhaal, over het Licht en het Duister en vol magie. Wat ik altijd het meest mis hier in Nederland is het Britse landschap en met dit verhaal kwam ik helemaal aan mijn trekken. Susan Cooper schreef dit verhaal nadat ze toen ze midden twintig was emigreerde naar Amerika en zelf het Engelse landschap en haar geschiedenis in elk detail zo ontzettend miste. Het verhaal is vol liefde voor het landschap, zijn geschiedenis en de Keltische verhalen en legendes die al eeuwenlang teruggaan.
Voor wie het boek gelezen heeft en wat meer inhoudelijk erover wil lezen is dit een erg interessant stuk van 'The Shadow Booth'
“When the Dark comes rising six shall turn it back;
Three from the circle, three from the track;
Wood, bronze, iron; Water, fire, stone;
Five will return & one go alone..."
Voor wie het boek gelezen heeft en wat meer inhoudelijk erover wil lezen is dit een erg interessant stuk van 'The Shadow Booth'
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