Right after I finished Over Sea, Under Stone, I jumped into this second installment. I liked this one much more than the previous one, even though Cooper kept her writing style and ideas untouched: the incredibly well built suspense scenes, the darker tone spread all over the story. The introduction of Will Stanton and his family made the story a lot more attractive to me. Somehow, it was easier for me to picture the Stantons as a real family than the Drews. Maybe it was because the author took more time to describe the former, maybe I just connected more with them for they reminded me more of my own family when I was a kid: a gigantic human ball of mess.This book, in my opinion, is the real beginning to the story Cooper wants to tell. The story is told under the point of view of a new character: Will Stanton, a ten year old boy, seventh son of a seventh son, part of a big messy family, brought up on a small town. The place where the story is acclimated is a huge contributor to the general cozy feeling it threw me into; besides it happening, mostly, near Christmas (snow!), Will lives in a very small town where everybody knows everybody. The author does an excellent job of describing every single small-town task Will and his brothers do the help their parents, their relationships with the neighbors, the architecture of the place and their strong religious beliefs. There are several scenes in churches; lots of songs are used all the time, with lightens the plot a little, being that it's mostly a very dense and dark story-line.Regarding religion, this book is full of it; christian and even pagan rites of passage are popping up everywhere, even under the most innocent circumstances. When Will's birthday approaches, his family starts planning the celebration: "'Double-ones tomorrow, Will,' said Mr Stanton from the head of the table. 'We should have some special kind of ceremony. A tribal rite.'". His father didn't know how right he was. From the moment Will turns eleven, everything changes.Strange dark events start happening to Will on a daily basis and he doesn't have a clue of who is causing them and why, until he is initiated into an ancient order: the Old Ones. Apparently, these are magical servants of the forces of Light who are locked in an eternal battle against the Dark and Will was predestined to be part of it. Usually, I don't like the "chosen one" factor, but for this series I made an exception. You know, I read it during the winter, covered in blankets, drinking tea. I was just not ready to give up on a story full of snow and old churches; I really have a soft spot for cold weather and old things. Besides, there was just too many questions hanging at the back of my mind for me to just throw the book away. Cooper is a genius when it comes to building up suspense, and when I say suspense, I mean real, logical suspense, not that nonsensical suspense that you see on cheap horror movies. As if it wasn't enough, she throws into the story other elements that kept me glued, like time travel and treasure hunt. Just too much to give up on, as I said.All things considered, I loved the whole thing. The story, at times, felt like a silly magical fantasy; at other times, though, it got serious and I got to read about, albeit fictional, very realistic and well depicted ceremonial rites of passage, which transported the whole story to a level completely different from fantasy books aimed for children that I had read to that point. I'm only taking out a star from this book for, here, Cooper showed, again, a lack of skill for writing battle scenes. Seriously, it gets to my nerves how an author can be that good at writing a coherent story with suspense scenes prone to giving you a heart attack and then turn important physical confrontations into such dull affairs. Interesting quotes that I didn't include in the review: All the broad sky was grey, full of more snow that refused to fall. There was no colour anywhere. It is a burden... make no mistake about that. Any great gift or power or talent is a burden and this more than any, and you will long to be free of it. The Last Passage(view spoiler)[ As he looked down the road still, with the music singing in his ears, Will saw that out beyond Merriman the trees and the mist and the stretch of the road were shaking, shivering, in a way that he knew well. And then gradually, out there, he saw the great Doors take shape. There they stood, as he had seen them on the open hillside and in the Manor: the tall carved doors that led out of Time, standing alone and upright in the Old Way that was known now as Huntercombe Lane. Very slowly, they began to open. Somewhere behind Will the music of “Greensleeves” broke off, with a laugh and some muffled words from Paul; but there was no break in the music that was in Will’s head, for now it had changed into that haunting, bell-like phrase that came always with the opening of the Doors or any great change that might alter the lives of the Old Ones. Will clenched his fists as he listened, yearning towards the sweet beckoning sound that was the space between waking and dreaming, yesterday and tomorrow, memory and imagining. It floated lovingly in his mind, then gradually grew distant, fading, as out on the Old Way Merriman’s tall figure, swirled round again now by a blue cloak, passed through the open Doors. Behind him, the towering slabs of heavy carved oak swung slowly together, together, until silently they shut. Then as the last echo of the enchanted music died, they disappeared.And in a great blaze of yellow-white light, the sun rose over Hunter’s Combe and the valley of the Thames. (hide spoiler)]
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 →
What do You think about The Dark Is Rising (2007)?
I haven't read Firebirds, but that's quite a line-up of great authors! I've seen a lot of positive reviews for it here, too.My favorite Diana Wynne Jones are The Ogre Downstairs, Howl's Moving Castle, and Dogsbody (which has a lot of mythological references as well). I've read several novelizations of Arthurian stories as well, but not enough of the Celtic stuff, I guess.
—Jon
It took me a while to get round to reading this. Which I don't mind too much: reading these books is like coming home, in a way. I'll touch on that more when I review The Grey King and Silver on the Tree, I think. Anyway, again, this is a bit of an on-the-spot overview of how I felt reading this book just this time. My longer review, which really covers how I've felt about the book over the course of many rereads, is here.The second book of the series is probably the most familiar, to me. I didn't read it as a child, I heard the BBC radio adaptation. I fell out with my sister badly when she lost the third episode of it that I recorded off the radio, and didn't forgive her until I found mp3 recordings of it last year. Ronald Pickup voiced Merriman, and was amazingly cast. I haven't actually listened to the mp3s yet, but I will soon. In my memory they're slightly badly acted in places, but mostly well-cast and well-adapted for the context, although it does skip some of my very favourite parts.Anyway, enough about the radio adaptation. Just know that Merriman is irrevocably voiced by Ronald Pickup, for me. A man who also voiced Aslan, if that gives you some idea of the kind of voice. Oh, and Struan Roger voiced the Rider, and was also amazingly good. He creeped me out something awful -- quite rightly so.This time, mostly I just sunk into the words. There are some gorgeous descriptions: of magical events, of ordinary events made magical, of family times, of light and shadow on snow, of the smell of new-made bread, of the cold of winter and the violence of storm.I still love how deft a touch Susan Cooper has with people. In just a page she can sketch out the life of a whole family so that the reader feels they've been there, exchanged a few words with each member of it. There's always enough detail to hold on to, to care just enough about each character, without ever getting bogged down.It does strike me that The Dark is Rising is a bit slower and maybe harder to grasp than other fiction aimed at a similar age group -- the difficulties for Will in resolving the two halves of his identity, for example, and the hints at moral ambiguity, and the lack of choice Will has.I wonder what implications it has for children with, say, LGBT identities, that Will is born a member of the Light and the Circle and cannot fight it, can never escape it, is bound to fight for it. I don't know how I think that would read: my struggles with identity were largely over by the time I came to these books. I don't believe people do choose their sexualities, and yet I rebel a little at the idea of Will's identity being so set in stone...I do think there's more ambiguity and food for thought here than it would seem, when you look at the simple Dark vs. Light dichotomy that seems to be set up. Not as much here as later, in a conversation between John Rowlands and Will Stanton -- I think in The Grey King -- but already starting to make itself known, I'd say.
—Nikki
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.
—Alex
