The Dark is Rising (Dark is Rising Sequence (Paperback))

My rating:

add to my books

The Dark is Rising (Dark is Rising Sequence (The Dark Is Rising #2)

by Susan Cooper (Goodreads Author)

4.00 · rating details · 11,068 ratings · 849 reviews

"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."

With these mysterious words, Will Stanton discovers on his 11th birthday that he is no mere boy. He is the Sign-Seeker, last of the immortal Old Ones, destined to battle the pow...more

Paperback, 232 pages

Published December 21st 2001 by Aladdin (first published January 1st 1973)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 14,724)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 18, 2010

Ceridwen rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: younger Ceridwen

Recommended to Ceridwen by: Eh!

Shelves: books-about-books, fantasy, young-adult, rule-britannia

So, I'm going to start this review with a big love letter to my friend Eh!, and then I'll actually talk about this book, so if you want to skip the love-in, that's cool. Eh! mailed me this series when I expressed an almost idle curiosity in it, and I didn't understand until I read it what a powerful act of trust this was. These are her childhood books: the paper yellowed, a crease on the front flap from use, small finger-shaped edges on the back flap, that odd, woody, not-unpleasant smell of old...moreSo, I'm going to start this review with a big love letter to my friend Eh!, and then I'll actually talk about this book, so if you want to skip the love-in, that's cool. Eh! mailed me this series when I expressed an almost idle curiosity in it, and I didn't understand until I read it what a powerful act of trust this was. These are her childhood books: the paper yellowed, a crease on the front flap from use, small finger-shaped edges on the back flap, that odd, woody, not-unpleasant smell of old paper, her name written carefully with the looping cursive of young women. I read from an artifact of her younger self, and it almost makes me shake to think that she found me worthy enough to entrust this book to my hands, that she would mail this book across the country to a person she has never seen in the flesh.

I was a bookish girl, which may not come as a huge freaking surprise. I spend my young life stoppered up and angry, unable to find the words that I could use to speak myself into some sort of equilibrium with the universe as it stands. I was broken by a trip to the USSR at 16; the journal I kept originally as some sort of catalog of events morphing into a true diary of my heart and mind; a catalog of less tangible events. But before I wrote, I read, finding comfort and understanding in the minds of fictional people, testing the edges of my emotional boundaries through imaginary action. My feelings toward the books of Madeleine L'Engle are entirely out of bounds of their literary merit, not that they are bad by any stretch.

I wish that I had encountered these books younger, so that they could sink into the soft sand of my forming personality. I'm not really criticizing here; I've just gotten old and I've read too much, so I keep distracting myself with thoughts like, “Aha! the Stantons are the model for the Weasleys in Harry Potter” or “The way Cooper deals with prophesy, through the re-purposing of folk-songs and -tales, is a fascinating glimpse into post-WWII nostalgia.” I'm just too grumpy and crappy not to be bothered by an almost tautological sense of good and evil here, but, man, if Cooper doesn't get so many things right that these are almost personal failings and not written in the text.

First, there's her prose, which is abso-total-lutely fantastic. This isn't hasty or, the faint-praise of adjectives, workman-like. Like this, from the FIRST PAGE: “The snow lay thin and apologetic over the world.” Without a lot of flowering poetical b.s., Cooper imbues the landscape with the Christmas hopes and disappointments of the boys who look out over it. The thin snow should apologize for not living up to the expectations of children. Lovely! My real freak-out happened when our young protagonist settles in to read one of those books of power that fantasists are always going on about. Again, I quibble not, despite my slightly dismissive tone. As an avid reader, I'm often puzzled by the paucity of good descriptions of the pleasures of reading, despite an almost religious fetishization of the books themselves in some books. (There IS a good one in Byatt's Possession a Romance) Then there's this:

“He might read no more than one line - I have journeyed as an eagle - and he was soaring suddenly aloft as one winged, learning through feeling, feeling the way of resting on the wind and tilting round the rising columns of air, of sweeping and soaring, of looking down at patchwork-green hills capped with dark trees, and a winding, glinting river between.”

I don't get the impression that Cooper is trying to be clever here, but she is, dropping a small line in italics which suggests whole experiences to our reader-hero, the way her words and the experience of the words double and treble with the layer of myself as reader, soaring out into wordless understanding of unlived sensation. Fantastic. Bloody brilliant.

One of my weird convergences that I brought to my reading was a recent reading-induced nightmare of a world ending in snow and cold white, with black flying terrors haunting the edges of a too-blue sky. The story of Will Stanton awakening the day of his eleventh birthday to find his power as an Old One, the last in line of Old Ones, locked in a battle with the Dark mounts in drifts of white against the kitchen window, this locked into my half-remembered dream, and I shivered not only from the experience of the words that describe that cold, but the cold of my somnambulist life. Will, Old One and boy, breaks the cold, like waking, but this doesn't end the tale. Instead he struggles though an adolescence, like snowbanks, that does not recede simply because the sky clears.

If only I'd known Will when I was his age. As it stands, I'm humbled to meet him in the books of a friend who was gracious enough to loan me these pieces of her reading life. Thank you, Eh!.

(less)

like 37 likes

· see review

Jun 14, 2010

Aerin rated it

· review of another edition

I'm starting to find that I write my best - or, I should say, my most fervent - reviews when I'm halfway through a book. It's when I'm in the middle that I have thoughts, opinions, arguments, things to say. When I close a book for the final time, that intensity starts to slowly boil off. Unless it was a particularly thought-provoking or emotionally moving book, getting all worked up again to write a review feels like a chore, fighting against entropy - I just want to move on to something new....more

like 15 likes

· see review

Mar 30, 2010

Elizabeth rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Elizabeth by: Ceridwen and Falstaff

Shelves: arthurian, gods-myths-heroes, childhood-favorites, in-by-of-england, reviewed, fantasy-sci-fi

This book has no nipples. Now, if you're a parent who has been letting your child use the internet unsupervised, I recommend reconsidering that if the first sentence was distressing to you. For the kids who may be reading this unsupervised, this is actually going to be a really boring review where I talk about adult themes in children's literature. Go find your nipples elsewhere, kids.

Now that the disclaimer is over, back to the nipples, sort of. Karen and I, in a review I cannot fin...more

like 17 likes

· see review

view all 70 comments

Dusk Peterson I think you make a lot of legitimate points: that our society desexualizes myths when presenting them to children, that the author never really deals ...more
Dec 05, 2010 11:37am

Elizabeth Dusk wrote: "I think you make a lot of legitimate points: that our society desexualizes myths when presenting them to children, that the author n...more
Dec 05, 2010 05:04pm

Aug 20, 2007

Arianna rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, liked-it

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 ...more

like 13 likes

· see review

Oct 21, 2009

Jon rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, young-adult, read-in-my-40s

3.5 stars

A good adventure quest tale. A bit lacking in character development, but there were some heart-pounding scenes that made up for it. Towards the end, I almost had a sense deja vu, like I was reading Moonheart by DeLint, which got me thinking this could be classified as early urban fantasy.

As with most Young Adult fiction, the lines of good and evil are clearly drawn. Only one or two characters traversed the grey, pulling and tugging against the inevitable tid...more

like 8 likes

· see review

Dec 12, 2009

Nikki rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, fantasy, children-s-and-ya, arthurian, based-on-myth-saga-etc

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. Wh...moreI 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.(less)

like 9 likes

· see review

Feb 27, 2008

Robert rated it

· review of another edition

I read this many years ago, and liked it. When the movie came out (not a very good movie), I wondered what my 43-year-old self would think of my hazy memory of what my 14-year-old self had thought. Turns out my 14-year-old self wasn't much of a critic. The Dark is Rising was quite disappointing, making it all the more surprising that it won awards and stuff. I guess I can kind of see why--the writing is at least meant to seem deep. The fact that it has a literary style of any kind is a novelty, ...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Aug 26, 2007

Trin rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, childrens, english-lit

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...more

like 10 likes

· see review

Jun 20, 2007

Lake Oz Fic Chick rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: folks who like good vs. evil fantasies

Shelves: bests-wow

"The Walker is abroad." Will Stanton hears these words on the eve of his eleventh birthday, and from the time he hears them, everything is changed. He soon learns that he is an Old One, a warrior for the Light. It is his mission to search for the six magical signs that will be needed for the world-shaking battle between the evil forces of the Dark and the Light, chronicled in this and the other four books in Cooper's The Dark is Rising series. Because you'll find these books in th...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Nov 09, 2011

Dorothea rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 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 th...moreI 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.(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Oct 07, 2007

Martha added it · review of another edition

Shelves: re-read, classics, park-slope-bookclub, newbery, middle-grade, fantasy

(October book club)

like 2 likes

· see review

May 18, 2008

Devin rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-literature

I saw the movie "The Seeker" which I now use as a standard to judge all movies I really dislike; but I was required by my class to read it so I did.
Honestly, the book was entertaining. But I still didn't like it for multiple reasons:
The beginning was really hard to follow. Susan Cooper needs to make it less work for the reader to try and figure out what's going on. The plot was good; the classic battle between the darkness and the light. But Will Stanton didn't have to mak...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Jan 28, 2008

Julie rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Julie by: Jamie

I liked this book, but I had a few issues with it. Her use of adverbs after dialogue tags was driving me crazy, but eliminating those is a more recent convention, I think (this book is 45 years old). Also, I really liked having an 11-year-old protagonist, but he didn't do enough. In fact, sometimes he screwed things up and had to be rescued. And the whole light/dark imagery became trite at times. The coolest thing about it was the whole mystery of it. We didn't really know what was going on--we...more

like 1 like

· see review

Jan 08, 2008

Alex rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: for-children

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 co...more

like 4 likes

· see review

Feb 28, 2011

Beth A. rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy, audio-book, read-more-by-this-author

Initially, I was disappointed that this book didn’t continue with the Over Sea, Under Stone characters, but I loved the increased energy in this book, and that it contained more fantasy elements. It’s a classically themed good vs. evil story with some interesting magic and time travel ideas. Will’s character was easy to identify with, and the story line was captivating. I really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the next book, Greenwitch, takes me.

like 1 like

· see review

Mar 12, 2009

Rebecca rated it

· review of another edition

Fantasy which re-animates my local myths, such as Herne the Hunter, but loses a point for omitting Uffington... where St George slew the dragon and Alfred the Great defeated the Vikings and Kate Bush went Cloudbusting...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRHA9W-zE...

like 2 likes

· see review

Aug 01, 2010

Erin rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, juvenile, fiction

After the gaping disappointment that Over Sea Under Stone was, this book was great! It had magic and adventures and stuff happening and fighting the evil dark etc. I really liked that there was clear and present danger from an enemy that was interesting. What is most interesting is probably the references to folk lore and symbolism of different elements. There also seemed to be more clues to follow than the rather dull treasure hunt in the previous book. It is also intriguing that a child o...more

· see review

Jan 19, 2009

Tricia added it · review of another edition

If I had known that this book was part of a series, I may have hesitated to dive into the middle of a saga that spans five books. I'd have been right. Susan Cooper works a fantastical plotline into a coming of age story and a boy's ultimate destiny. The series is based on Arthurian myths, with many connections to Celtic and Norse legend and is written primarily for older children and young adults. Think white-haired wizards, power to stop time, immortal souls and disappearing doorways. This ...more

· see review

Sep 03, 2011

Alison rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: confident-readers-chapter-books

I have loved this book for over 30 years. I remember very distinctly reading it in my classroom at Primary school, after my teacher, Mrs Stowell, read the first in the series, Over Sea, Under Stone, which in my opinion is a far more conventional children's holiday adventure with some fantasy in it (and some regrettable 1960s class attitudes as well).

Will Stanton is the 7th son of a 7th son. He is growing up on his family's farm in Buckinghamshire (not far from where I grew up in Hertf...more

· see review

Aug 25, 2011

Stuart rated it

· review of another edition

This book is everything that people say it is and lives up to its reputation beautifully. A fast, fast-paced read, it manages to never feel rushed as it takes you through the twelve days that mark young William's ascension to what amounts to minor god-hood. And because this is a British novel from the early 70's, Will is neither obnoxious nor overly precious, and so his transition feels believable, including the parts of him that wish to stay normal. The cast of characters is larger but compelli...more

· see review

Aug 22, 2011

Beth Bonini rated it

· review of another edition

Although I was the perfect age for this series when it was first published, somehow it passed me by. I wasn't a true fantasy aficionado as a child; strangely, I seem to have acquired more appreciation for that genre since I've become an adult. Two of my friends alerted me to these books, which they remember as particular favorites -- and I've been reading them on those recommendations. I have another agenda, too. Having learned of the ways the books draw on ancient Welsh/Arthurian legends and...more

· see review

Jul 14, 2011

Sienna rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

I have this theory about winter, and Christmas (or your seasonal celebration of choice — Yule would be the most appropriate to mention here), of which probably everyone I know in New Zealand has had more than an earful: in the northern hemisphere, the holidays help us get through the long cold months, or at least the first of them. We step outside ourselves to think of loved ones, decorate trees, perform annual rituals rooted in our childhoods (or as an escape from them), and in doing so we mak...moreI have this theory about winter, and Christmas (or your seasonal celebration of choice — Yule would be the most appropriate to mention here), of which probably everyone I know in New Zealand has had more than an earful: in the northern hemisphere, the holidays help us get through the long cold months, or at least the first of them. We step outside ourselves to think of loved ones, decorate trees, perform annual rituals rooted in our childhoods (or as an escape from them), and in doing so we make those few daylight hours brighter, the waxing nights more bearable. I love that time of year. Our family traditions revolved around food, with a hearty brunch and Christmas crackers after morning presents (my grandparents always got each other so many shirts) and a Mexican feast in the evening: enchiladas, salads, Spanish rice, tamales, empanaditas, yum! Though I grew up in Southern California, where our roaring fires were ornamental at best, my last five years in the US were spent in chillier climes. I relished the snow.

The southern hemisphere, by contrast, offers no such respite from winter. There aren't even minor holidays to get us through in New Zealand, with a conspicuous gap between Queen's Birthday in early June and Labour Day in late October, nearly five months of damp, misty weather to endure without a break. Christmas represents the start of summer and the silly season, with lamb roasts and pavlovas and fresh fruit and, bizarrely, elaborate winter scenes at department storefronts like Smith & Caughey, even though everyone's just waiting to get out of town for their beach holiday up north. It's lovely wearing flip-flops and sundresses, but I find Christmas here so depressing in its unfamiliarity. It feels wrong.

That lengthy preamble is just to say that Will Stanton perfectly captures that enthusiasm for the holidays, for snow, for the magic we may never even have felt as children but are nonetheless convinced ought to be a part of our celebrations. The fact that this constitutes a major theme of The Dark is Rising endears it to me in ways that make an objective rating nearly impossible. The characterization is stronger in this one in spite of the large cast, and the writing is at times staggeringly beautiful (had to fan my writerly self after "I am fire-fretted and I flirt with wind"). I struggle with monochromatic good-versus-evil showdowns and didn't find the plot particularly compelling, but was so delighted with the Book of Gramarye and the pagan elements and the music that I made it through without much sighing or eye-rolling, except when Cooper used the word "sepulchrally" again. My only major complaint is to do with the incredibly unsatisfactory backstory of the Old Ones. We know next to nothing about their lineage and mythology, not to mention how or why Will is the last of these enigmatic immortals, but the remaining books will presumably rectify the problem.(less)

· see review

Jun 18, 2011

Greg rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Continuing to play "catch-up" with this series--meant to read it as a kid after receiving book 4 as a gift and never really getting into it properly. I never forgot about it, and it's been good in-between-the-serious-stuff summer fare. I'm not hugely knowledgeable or into the old mythologies played around with here, and I think I would have enjoyed it slightly more if I had known more about them and the plot points would have tickled those synapses a little more. Regardless, it was a f...more

· see review

May 16, 2011

Lars J. Nilsson rated it

· review of another edition

As many others here, this was a re-read for me. I read them as a child and loved them, although I seem to remember only bits from them from the last read, which could possibly be explained by them being a bit uneven. For example, the difference in pace and style between book one and two is striking, I loved, and still do, the mystical, snow-ridden cold and dark of book two, while I found book one to be rather plain.

Having said that, the books are still very well written and enjoyable...more

· see review

May 01, 2011

Jessica rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult

I read The Dark Is Rising and Greenwitch back-to-back, so here is a review of both at once:

My overall impression of this series so far is that the stories are FANTASTIC but the characters are somewhat weak/contrived: the stories themselves carry you through the books, but if you stop to look at the characters themselves, they come across as emotionless and somewhat robotic. They always seem to know what they should do, and things often fall into place without them doing much. Also, I f...more

· see review

Apr 23, 2011

Court rated it

· review of another edition

Young Will Stanton is turning eleven, and surviving this birthday could save the world. Will is the last Old One to be born, an ancient, magical and mysterious race of beings who fight for good and the Light. Their enemies are waiting for Will, hoping to bring him to the Dark, and he if will not join them, they will do anything to make certain the Light will fail.
The Dark is Rising is the title of this book, as well as the name of the five book series. This particular title is second in...moreYoung Will Stanton is turning eleven, and surviving this birthday could save the world. Will is the last Old One to be born, an ancient, magical and mysterious race of beings who fight for good and the Light. Their enemies are waiting for Will, hoping to bring him to the Dark, and he if will not join them, they will do anything to make certain the Light will fail.
The Dark is Rising is the title of this book, as well as the name of the five book series. This particular title is second in the series. The characters and story lines in this book follow Celtic and Norse mythology lines and blends characters from those legends into a ‘modern’ or contemporary setting. Along with the Norse and Celtic mythology is a strong influence of Arthurian legend. In the fourth book of the series, The Grey King, Arthur is a character himself.
The books relate a group of seemingly ordinary children who get cast into some extraordinary roles. The series has been touted as contemporary children’s fantasy, but is written in a language that seems better suited towards older children and young adults. This book has all the earmarks of an old-fashioned epic. A quest, magic, fabulous locations, riddles, ancient battles between good and evil, and an unlikely cast of heroes, in this case, children.

I have always been a fan of Susan Cooper, and this book was just the impetus to finish reading all of her titles. The first time I read this book, I was the same age as the main character, and I was enchanted by the idea that a young person was needed to help as great a figure as Merlin. The language that Cooper used made this young adult novel that much more fun to read. The book was well written, with hints of what a true child thinks like, as well as the seriousness of being involved in something epic. The character of Will was easy to relate too, and his plethora of brothers and sisters rang true. I loved this book and would gladly recommend it to any young adult with an interest in fantasy.(less)

· see review

Apr 13, 2011

Jamie Lott rated it

· review of another edition

Highly atmospheric, Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising takes the simple concepts of good versus evil, banally embodied by forces of light and darkness, and escalates it to masterful levels. As a child, I found the story to have a subtle, unsettling feel, resonating from strange occurrences experienced by the main character. As an adult, I realize that 11 year old Will's earliest encounters are very schizophrenic in nature. Everyday aspects of one's existence such as animals, climate, and aquainta...more

· see review

Apr 10, 2011

Elliot Clark rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

· see review

Mar 18, 2011

Brynne Skoropys rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone that has nothing better to read

Shelves: for-school

Plot- 2.5
Characters- 2
Writing- 1.5
Overall Rating: 2 stars
I have come to the conclusion that I will always hate books that I am required to read for school. Okay, maybe there will be an exception of one or two books, but all of the books I've read for school have just been downright AWFUL. Now, I know what you're thinking: I'm going to tear this book apart and this will be a hate review. Yes, I will tear this book apart (I'd actually like to do that in a literal sense), bu...morePlot- 2.5
Characters- 2
Writing- 1.5
Overall Rating: 2 stars
I have come to the conclusion that I will always hate books that I am required to read for school. Okay, maybe there will be an exception of one or two books, but all of the books I've read for school have just been downright AWFUL. Now, I know what you're thinking: I'm going to tear this book apart and this will be a hate review. Yes, I will tear this book apart (I'd actually like to do that in a literal sense), but I'm not going to go on and on how this book absolutely sucked and, as one of my friends said (who also had to read this book for our Reading class), "can go to hell." Okay, maybe the person who said that was me. But I can guarantee 90 % of the people in my Reading class hated it, or was hopelessly confused on the events in the novel.
From the beginning I knew that I was not going to like this book. When I opened it, looking at the copyright page, and saw that it was originally published in 1973, I thought uggh... another old book with writing that makes no sense. Now, I don't have anything against old books, in fact, there are many classics, most of which published before the 70s that I've liked. But, judging by all of the books that I've been required to read this year for Reading class, all of those books had writing that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Half of the words I didn't understand, not because I have don't have a good vocabulary, but because a lot of the words NO ONE USES. NO ONE. Here; I've got some good examples for ya:
Benison- seriously, WTF? Have you ever heard that before? No, because in the twenty-first century, we say "benediction" instead. Granted, this was published in the 1970s, but I read a reprint edition, which my teacher said was altered from the original. And, have you heard any teen every say the word benison? EVER, at all? Exactly. (And think about how many adults say benison. Yeah. My point is proven)
Liege- Another epic WTF.
Sepulchrally- I can't even pronounce this one. Seriously. I think the author just ran out of words.
Throng- For quite a while I thought the author meant to say "thong." Things would be so much simpler. I also found variations of that word ("thronging," etc.) used about 10 times in one chapter. Ever hear of a thesaurus?
And the best part, I get to have a vocabulary test over this! Oh, how I'm looking forward to that!
Aside from the vocab., I just didn't like the writing in general. I found it quite confusing and there were plenty of examples of run on sentences that could be 3 individual strong sentences, if not more. I thought that the dialogue jumped around and there was no transition between different topics. I feel that the narrating had that problem too. Despite that, I liked that fact that there were many similes, metaphors, etc., but sometimes it was just overkill.
Now moving onto the plot.
I really don't have much to say about this subject. Well, besides the fact that I had no idea what was going on 75 % of the time. I had only a vague understanding of the events occurring, which, is obviously not a good thing due to the fact that there was such a complicated plot. From what I understand there was supposed the book was supposed to be an Arthurian retelling, but I just think it was poorly written.
Maybe I was confused mainly due to the fact that I was also reading 5 books aside from this one and my mind couldn't take another damn book, but I wasn't confused in any of the other books I was reading, so I highly doubt it.
Now onto the characters. I could not connect with them. At all. I did not like Will, but maybe it's because he was 11 for crying out loud. I'm not going to say how old I am, (but I will say that I'm not in high school yet) but I think this book would be more for 8-9 year olds. At least, I bought the book the summer of going into fourth grade, and I just turned nine. That would be the age I would have read it. Thank God I didn't and distracted myself with MUCH, much better books.
I thought that Merriman was, well, a creeper. He was just... weird. Not to mention the Walker and Rider (still unclear who they are) dudes. Getting back to Merriman, I thought it was weird how Will just automatically trusted him. What if Merriman was lying to Will about the whole Old Ones crap and powers and quest and stuff? It was weird how Will just automatically accepted all of it, without really doubting any of it. I mean, if someone told me that I had this quest and powers, my response would probably be something along the lines of "Get the F*** away from me!" And Will never really had any character development in the novel.
So, yeah. I think I'll stop now. Hope I didn't seem too harsh :)
Cover comments: 1.5/5 (based on this cover, which is the one I have:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/1131... ). I think it speaks for itself.(less)

· see review

Mar 18, 2011

Rebecca rated it

· review of another edition

This sequence of books is all about the Dark vs. the Light.
I started reading it as a preview for my ten year old son.
He read the first book, was not "thrilled" with it and isn't particularly driven to continue the series unless I point him in that direction. (and tell him it gets BETTER)

The second book WAS a bit more interesting than the first.
That being said, I will not be having him read this book. At one point the author touches on the belief of Christ and ...more

· see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 490 491 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Honors 9: The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper	1	2	Jan 24, 2012 06:04pm

combine
Other Editions (55)

More editions...

Genres

Fantasy

985 users

Young Adult

327 users

Childrens

125 users

Childrens > Juvenile

40 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

38 users

Adventure

37 users

Mythology > Arthurian

36 users

Fantasy > Magic

25 users

Childrens > Middle Grade

25 users

Classics

22 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

About Susan Cooper

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...more

More about Susan Cooper...

Books by Susan Cooper

Over Sea, Under Stone (The Dark Is Rising, #1)

Silver on the Tree (The Dark Is Rising, #5)

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

Trivia About Wintersonnenwende

13 trivia questions
1 quiz

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Wintersonnenwende

“Too many!' James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.” — 5 people liked it

“The snow lay thin and apologetic over the world. That wide grey sweep was the lawn, with the straggling trees of the orchard still dark beyond; the white squares were the roofs of the garage, the old barn, the rabbit hutches, the chicken coops. Further back there were only the flat fields of Dawson's farm, dimly white-striped. All the broad sky was grey, full of more snow that refused to fall. There was no colour anywhere.” — 5 people liked it

More quotes…

Groups That Shelved The Dark Is Rising

Building a SciFi/Fantasy ...

2359 members

last activity Feb 08, 2012 05:27am

shelf: read

Children's Books

1219 members

last activity 2 minutes ago

shelf: read

Clean Reads

558 members

last activity Feb 07, 2012 04:12pm

shelf: read

title link	preview: The Dark is Rising (Dark is Rising Sequence
avg rating	preview: The Dark is Rising (Dark is Rising Sequence Goodreads rating: 4.00 (11068 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/311479.The_Dark_is_Rising_Dark_is_Rising_Sequence?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173647107m/311479.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/311479.The_Dark_is_Rising_Dark_is_Rising_Sequence?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Dark is Rising (Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper[/url]

The Dark is Rising (Dark is Rising Sequence (The Dark Is Rising #2)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Readers Also Enjoyed

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website