“Fiddle-de-dee’s not English.”

Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper
Aladdin Paperbacks (2000)
274 pages

I think I have a crush on Stephen Stanton. I want an older brother like him.

Silver on the Tree is the last book in the Dark is Rising sequence, and it definitely won’t make sense without reading the first four books. (Over Sea, Under Stone seems really negligible plot-wise, actually, in the long run. But read it for the characters, and a great adventure by the sea.)

All of our characters — the Six — are united the first and last time. Everyone is here this time around. All of them have gathered in Wales again: Merriman, Will and Bran, and the three Drew children, Simon, Jane and Barney.

Surprisingly (or perhaps not, knowing my attachment to families), I loved the first part of the book to pieces, even though it’s only Will and Merriman, and not the Six, at the start. Especially where it involved Stephen and Will and the rest of their family. It’s a rather ordinary start, as far as fantasy adventures go — not much of the fantastic happens in the first part. But I do love the scene by the river with James and Will and Stephen, and Will reading from the old book about plants . . . that sounds like something my siblings would do.

The plot picks up when Will goes to Wales and meets up with Bran and the Drews. Some friction again, this time between Bran and the Drews, and we see again how wonderful Jane is, and how brave. And Bran comes into himself and his birthright throughout his journey, and I love the interaction between Will and Bran. The first and the last parts were near perfect for me, but somewhere in the middle of the second part, when the group gets separated, I was a little disappointed. Not that I didn’t enjoy reading what happened after — it was just that I really liked it when the Six (even when Merriman wasn’t there) were together. I loved it when the children are together — how they play on each others’ strength and how they get along. Jane was especially my favourite.

Part Three dealt a lot with myth and folklore, and I got a bit lost there, despite the grand adventure going on. I think it may be due to my being unfamiliar to lots of things — I kept wondering things like “why did that scary [spoiler] thing go away when [spoiler] happened?” and “Why is that place significant?” It didn’t detract much, it just made me pause and wonder for a bit.

This book is a bit longer than the other four, but then again it’s packed with so much more. It’s about love and trust and betrayal and loyalty. And the ending, the ending. (And oh, John Rowlands!) It’s bittersweet and lovely, and it’s not very kind, but it’s . . . right, I guess. It left me feeling sad and glad both, and the very last line was perfect.

♥

The Grey King by Susan Cooper
Aladdin Paperbacks (1999)
165 pages

One day, I will have to go to Wales. I am a sucker about books set in Wales.

The Grey King is the fourth book in The Dark is Rising sequence. It builds a lot on the previous books, especially The Dark is Rising and at least the very last chapter of Greenwitch. I don’t think this is a book that would bear well to be read out of sequence. To reflect on how compelling this book is, I just went back with the intention to flip through the book to check a few things and ended up flipping through and reading parts of the book till the end. Yes, I have no willpower, I know.

This time the focus of the story is back on Will. We barely see Merriman Lyon and the Drew children play no part at all in this book. When we meet Will Stanton again, he’s recovering from a nasty case of hepatitis. His illness momentary robs his memories of being an Old One and the battle of Light and Dark, and only bits of pieces of the prophecy and the task he’s set out to do. He’s sent to Wales to recuperate, and there he meets Bran Davies and his dog, Cafall, and his memories return on his meeting with Bran.

And Bran is wonderful in his own right. ♥ I don’t know why I have a compulsion to fangirl all the major characters in this series! I swear I’m usually not like this!

This book is beautifully written, atmospheric and dark at times, and it makes me long to see Wales. If previously the ties to Arthurian legend is only given a nod to, here it becomes pivotal to the plot. The Light versus Dark themes aren’t so clear cut any more, John Rowland says it best that the Light can be as unforgiving as the Dark: “at the centre of the Light is a cold, white flame, just as at the centre of the Dark there is a great black pit.” We’ve seen it before with Merriman and the Walker, but here it hits home harder, at least for me, because it’s Will who is caught in the struggle. The other characters are wonderful — John Rowlands and his perceptiveness, Owen Davies and his relationship with his son, Will’s extended family and their kindness, Caradog Prichard with his bad temper and suspicion.

And the ending, the ending. It didn’t matter that I had figured some things out earlier than Will and Bran did, it really didn’t. When I finished the last paragraph I stayed curled up in bed a long time, thinking, caught both in the story and the wonderful prose.

Some spoilers that I can’t help but mention (highlight to read):

I will forever be suspicious of women named “Gwen” in any story that has a connection to Arthurian legend. (I blame you, The Once and Future King! I blame you.) I pretty much went Oh man, surely Bran’s not who I think he is? the moment John Rowlands said that Bran’s mother was called Gwen. To be completely truthful I was even wary of Will’s sister Gwen when she was mentioned in The Dark is Rising, so this can easily be chalked down to me being suspicious of a lot of things!

I love how Susan Cooper is subtle with this, though, and how she doesn’t spell things out.

Greenwitch by Susan Cooper
Aladdin Paperbacks (2000)
147 pages

I loved this book. I guess this is Jane’s book, in a way. Jane was wonderful in it. She’s sensitive, she’s kind, she’s intelligent, and she’s made of a whole lot of things that just make me want to flail around in joy. More evidence of how awesome Jane is: just watch how she treats her brothers and Will, and how she’s both afraid and brave at the same time, and the wish she makes for the Greenwitch. Why can’t we have more strong female characters like Jane in YA fiction?

This is the third book in The Dark is Rising sequence. We’re back in Cornwall, and the Drew children — and Merriman, of course — meet up with Will Stanton, and there’s some tension between the kids, especially between Simon and Barney and Will. Jane keeps trying to patch things up, and it made me grin.

“It’s lovely to be back,” said Jane diplomatically.
. . .
Then Jane said brightly, without looking at her brothers, “Yes, we can.”

Poor old Jane having to deal with all the diplomaticallys and brightlys.

A lot of character growth, Jane and Barney especially, and we get to see Will getting more comfortable being an Old One, but not to a point where he stops being a kid altogether.

The tone of the book feels almost like a bridge between Over Sea, Under Stone and The Dark is Rising. Well written, lovely, and completely engaging. It’s a bit slow at the start, but it picks up pretty steadily after the first chapter. Really fast read, too; I found it surprisingly short (and right now, I’m finding myself running out of things to say about it without ruining the plot). I think I love it best of the whole sequence.

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
Aladdin Paperbacks (1999)
244 pages

I. Uh. I could mash the keyboard in absolute GLEE and fail to write anything substantial for this book, simply because of Will. I love Will. And his family. I don’t think I can remember the last coming-of-age story where a protagonist comes to terms with his/her new powers is from a loving family. Seriously. Why can’t they have complete, wholesome families? Wouldn’t that give them more incentive to save the world (or worlds, or multiverses, or the whole of existence, depending on their canons)?

But I digress.

There doesn’t seem much to connect this book with Over Sea, Under Stone, except that Merriman’s here as well. Even the Arthurian elements aren’t really that obvious this time around. In The Dark is Rising, the focus shifts to a young boy named Will Stanton, and the struggle between the Light and the Dark.

Will is your average boy — a bit quiet, rather thoughtful, the youngest of a very large family. Everything changes when he turns eleven: he wakes up on his birthday to a different world. It’s a world of snow and magic and in a time before his own. He discovers, along the way, that he is the last of the Old Ones, and meets Merriman Lyon, who will be his guide and tutor as he discovers the true extent of his powers. It’s a classic battle between the Light and the Dark, and to defeat the Dark, Will has to search for the Signs of Power, but of course the Dark Rider is after them too. The book focuses mostly on his search, and the tests and trials Will has to go through, but what stands out most in my mind is how Will is forced to grow up too suddenly and too fast, and my heart aches not at his own pain, but how much it hurts him as he watches his family react to the strange responses he sometimes gives. Even with all his powers, there’s a very human side to Will — how he cares so deeply about his family and the lengths he would go to protect them.

Susan Cooper’s writing is just beautiful here. I love her details, and the way she weaves in Celtic mythology and Arthurian legend into the story. Shuffling through time would’ve been awkward if it was handled by another less skilled writer, I’m sure, but it works here and I have nothing against it. (For the record, stories involving time travel often leave me going “huh?”, almost as much as first person narratives do.) There is more magic involved in the whole of the first chapter than all the chapters in Over Sea, Under Stone combined.

I have certain things that I wasn’t sure I liked but am willing to dismiss. Will seems like a rather passive protagonists — he solves most of his problems with Merriman’s help, or coincidence, or the fact a lot of what he knows has been given to him. (There is a magical tome in this book. I don’t know whether to think that’s awesome or laugh at the fact that there is a magic book of knowledge in this book. Will has to get all that knowledge from somewhere, I suppose.) But it’s not quite the same problem I had with Arthur in The Keys to the Kingdom series . . . it’s not quite the same thing. I like Will. I still have problems with Arthur. (Oh dear. I have to take back what I said in the very first paragraph up there — Arthur Penhaligon in The Keys to the Kingdom comes from a complete, loving, albeit eccentric, family. We don’t see much of his family, though it’s obvious that Arthur loves them. My memory, it is like a sieve.) I guess I get attached easier to characters than to stories — if I like the characters, I’m pretty much willing to forgive the story.

Haven’t seen the movie. Don’t think I shall. (Besides, I don’t want to suffer Renay’s wrath. In capslock. Surely there is no worse fate than that?)

.

. . . Oh man, I have another nine books backlogged. I’ll have to get to them next weekend.

Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
Aladdin Paperbacks (2000)
196 pages

First things first: I love the Drew children. I tend to like books with siblings in them, especially if they get along well and care for each other. It’s probably because I have five younger siblings and the very idea of quarrelling and quibbling all the time gets on my nerves!

Okay, okay, so that probably shouldn’t have been the thing to start this off with. Over Sea, Under Stone is the first book in Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence. I don’t know how to say this, but I feel if I had read the book on its own without knowing what comes after, and without expecting there was more to come after, I would have given this book an A++. It reads like a great mystery/detective story with a satisfying ending (though there is obvious that there is more to come), with some supernatural elements thrown in. But there are other books in the sequence, and I have read them, and when I compare Over Sea, Under Stone to any of the books that come after it, it feels like something is missing from this book.

(Which, you know, you should parse that as THIS SEQUENCE IS SO AWESOMELY MARVELLOUS that you have to read the whole thing, oh please.)

More than anything, Over Sea, Under Stone feels like a read of one of those older mystery novels I used to read when I was younger — maybe one of Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five books, or perhaps something from the Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys series, but with a solid story line and slightly more advanced vocabulary and even better writing, and a touch of Arthurian legend and folklore mixed in.

The three Drew siblings, Simon, Jane and Barney, are off for a vacation in Cornwall with their parents. Their Great-Uncle Merry meets them at the train station, and they find an ancient treasure map in the attic of the house that they’re staying in. They begins searching for this treasure with their great-uncle’s help — though cryptic hints may be more like it — and realise that they are not the only ones who are looking for this treasure. The bad guys are bad here, and dangerous, and they don’t care if you are kids, and while it’s never really spelled out what would happen if the other side got the treasure, you just know you don’t want it to fall into their hands.

They’re bright kids, those three, but nothing they do seems overly fantastic — they’re pretty much ordinary, and that was part of the appeal to me. Of course, Great-Uncle Merry was a great help and they would have got into awful scrapes without him around. And he listens to to them, that’s the best part — he listens and respects their opinions, and who wouldn’t have wanted an adult like that around when they were kids?

I still have a few quibbles with my edition of the book. Not with the story or writing — more on the editing/proofreading part of it. For some reason I kept noticing missing closing quotation marks, and that distracted me a bit. Some other punctuation marks as well, particularly at the end of sentences. I — uh, I’ve inserted them with a pencil; they irked me that much. Maybe it’s just me carrying work habits back home, but well, there you go.

But that’s a small matter, and it doesn’t detract from the story. It’s a great start to a great series, and I am very, very glad I started reading The Dark is Rising sequence. ♥