"The Dark is Rising" by Susan Cooper

This book is the sequel to Over Sea, Under Stone ... but it is almost entirely different. There is only one shared character: Merriman Lyon. The setting has moved from Cornwall in summer to the Thames Valley in the grip of a fierce winter; the tone had changed from bright to very dark.

Will Stanton is the seventh son of a seventh son; on his eleventh birthday he discovers that he is one of the Old Ones, a group defending the Light against the Dark. He has to collect a set of signs; once they are assembled together the Dark will be defeated, although only for a time. The whole plot conforms very closely to that of the 'hero's journey' with a delightful status quo ante in the real world followed by a call, helpers on the journey, tests along the way and a final climactic challenge. 

At he start I was very much enamoured. There was a real sense of menace, there were some beautifully poetic moments, written to be chanted aloud, and there were some beautiful descriptions (which continued throughout). But almost as soon as the magic started, I became, ironically, disenchanted. 

Okay, it's a children's book. But there was no questioning, no resistance. Will was eleven. There was no sense that he was at all resistant when he was told he was special, with magical powers, by a rather strange old man. There was no questioning of the idea that the old ways are good: Will lives in a very cosy country world of carol-singing and church-going, with a Lady of the Manor and her butler, and distinctly feudal ideas. When Merriman exploits and betrays another human being he regrets the consequences but this doesn't raise questions about whether the Old Ones are good or bad.

And I had my usual problems when magic is involved. It's a cop out. There can be no real danger when you can perform tricks. Will is repeatedly protected from harm by the signs, by Merriman, and by other Old Ones. It all seemed too easy.

So it was a wonderful start but as it went on it became more stereotyped and predictable. Probably I was expecting too much. It's a children's book. 

Great descriptions:

What makes these descriptions great is their simplicity. A single word (picture-writing!) or a short phrase conjures up so much. 

• "The snow flurried against the window, with a sound like fingers brushing the pane." (1, Midwinter’s Eve)
• "The fear jumped at him for the third time like a great animal that had been waiting to spring." (1, Midwinter’s Eve)
• "all around them was a quivering of things, a movement like the shaking of the air over a bonfire or over a paved road baked by a summer sun." (1, The Sign-Seeker)
• "nobody had been along the path since the snow began; down there it lay untrodden, smooth and white and inviting, marked only by the picture-writing of birds’ footprints." (1, The Walker on the Old Way)

Selected Quotes:

• "The radio let out a sudden hideous crackle of static as he passed the table. He jumped." (1, Midwinter’s Eve)
• "this night will be bad, and tomorrow will be beyond imagining." (1, Midwinter’s Eve)
• "It was then, without warning, that the fear came. The first wave caught him as he was crossing the room to his bed. It halted him stock-still in the middle of the room, the howl of the wind outside filling his ears. The snow lashed against the window. Will was suddenly deadly cold, yet tingling all over. He was so frightened that he could not move a finger." (1, Midwinter’s Eve)
• "He had never known a feeling like this before. It was growing worse every minute. As if some huge weight were pushing at his mind, threatening, trying to take him over, turn him into something he didn’t want to be." (1, Midwinter’s Eve)
• "All his senses sprang to life at once, under a shower of unexpected sounds, sights, smells." (1, Midwinter Day)
• "Any great gift of power or talent is a burden, and this more than any, and you will often long to be free of it. But there is nothing to be done. If you were born with the gift, then you must serve it, and nothing in this world or out of it may stand in the way of that service, because that is why you were born and that is the Law." (1, The Sign-Seeker)
• "For the Dark, the Dark is rising. The Walker is abroad, the Rider is riding; they have woken, the Dark is rising. " (1, The Sign-Seeker)
• "For all times co-exist, and the future can sometimes affect the past, even though the past is a road that leads to the future" (1, The Sign-Seeker)
• "You changed me from a man into a creature always running, always searching, always hunted. You stopped me from growing decently old in my own time, as all men after their lives grow old and tired and sink to sleep in death. You took away my right to death." (3, The Hawk in the Dark)

The full poem:

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.

November 2023

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God