Friday, February 10, 2017

Surprises Galore In These Tales From Wales !! -- Review of Susan Cooper's "The Grey King"

NEW SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS
Reviews Of Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
Reviewer: Forrest Schultz schultz_forrest@yahoo.com 770-583-3258

February 10, 2017

Surprises  Galore  In  These  Tales  From  Wales !!

A Review of

Susan Cooper The Grey King (Margaret K. Elderry Books, 2003)
                          $8.99   165 pp   ISBN: 978-1-4169-4967-1

Reviewer:  Forrest W. Schultz

     As with the first three books in her The Dark Is Rising quintology, this fourth book is so chock full of events (almost all of them surprises) that there is no way I can do justice to it in a short review like this.  I shall, therefore, restrict my comments here to perhaps the most important scene, the one pertaining to the magic harp shown on the front cover of the book.  By playing this harp at the close of this great story, Will Stanton, the newest of The Old Ones, fulfills the prophecy on page 151:

     “Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold
       Played to wake the Sleepers, oldest of the old. “
   
  It is these awakened Sleepers who defeat The Grey King.  As I read about this I was reminded of a similar scene in Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings, where Strider/Aragon walks The Paths Of The Dead, whom he awakens and then sends forth into the battle then raging on Middle Earth.

     I highly recommend this book as I have the previous three.

     Information on the author is available on her website www.thelostland.com.   


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