THE DARK IS RISING!! (And Almost Wins!) -- Review of Susan Cooper's "The Dark Is Rising"

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

Blog Address: http://newsciencefictionandfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/

February 8, 2017

THE  DARK  IS  RISING !!  (And Almost Wins!!)

A review of

Susan Cooper The Dark Is Rising (Margaret K. Elderry Books, 2001)

                        231 pp    $6.99    ISBN: 978-0-689-30317-3

Reviewer:  Forrest W. Schultz

       

   It is very interesting and very important to note the unusual fact that Susan Cooper's famous Sequence has the same title as the SECOND book in this Quintology, NOT the first book, as is usually the case whenever a series has the same title as one of its books.  This is due to the fact that the title of the second book (the one under review here), The Dark Is Rising, is also the underlying theme of the entire Sequence.  The first book, Over Sea, Under Stone, is an introduction only -- the seriousness of the whole story is NOT disclosed until the second book!!  The first book is interesting and fun and a good read but is not nearly as powerful as the second, which, by the way, won the Newberry Honor Book Award!

   

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  It is also interesting to note that in Cooper's world-view, the conflict is between The Dark and The Light, NOT between the dark side and light side of the The Force, as in Star Wars. It is far, far more serious than that.  I normally do not quote from other reviewers but I shall now present two reviews, the first from Amazon, and the second from Psychology Today because they are so pertinent and so well expressed that I feel I MUST present them here:

 "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 powers of evil that trouble the land. His task is monumental: he must find and guard the six great Signs of the Light, which, when joined, will create a force strong enough to match and perhaps overcome that of the Dark. Embarking on this endeavor is dangerous as well as deeply rewarding; Will must work within a continuum of time and space much broader than he ever imagined."  --  Amazon.com

"Susan Cooper is one of the few contemporary writers who has the vivid imagination, the narrative power, and the moral vision that permit her to create the kind of sweeping conflict between good and evil that lies at the heart of all great fantasy. Tolkien had it. So did C. S. Lewis. And Cooper writes in the same tradition." -- "Psychology Today"

     Amen and Amen!!!  

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