March 13, 2008 at 5:05 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Children's Literature, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
28. Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper (Children’s Fantasy) 274 p.
I thought about taking a break from The Dark Is Rising sequence and saving this book for a while. Then I thought about how much I wanted to know what happened next, and that idea went out the window.
Silver on the Tree brings Will Stanton together with all his old friends from the previous books, as the Light gathers to do battle against the Dark.
Susan Cooper’s writing kept me glued to the page right to the end, as usual, even though this wasn’t my favourite book in the series. Actually, it was probably my least favourite, although not by much—the quality of these books is very consistent.
The only thing I didn’t like was the way the series dealt with memory. The Old Ones, who are unambiguously the heroes of the story and represent the forces of good in the world, often use their supernatural abilities to alter the memories of ordinary humans.
This seems dodgy to me, especially since mostly it seems to be done out of expedience rather than necessity. I could accept the power to alter memory as one which could be used for good or evil, with only the Old Ones having the wisdom to use it responsibly—except that as far as I can see, they don’t use it responsibly, or seem to acknowledge that morality even comes into the case. Not an important point, but it bothered me a bit while I was reading the series.
On the other hand, I really liked some of the points made about racism in the book. The book was published in 1977, but there’s one particular conversation that still happens today:
“Not much I don’t know about Indians and Pakkies, after all these years. Of course I got nothing against them personally. Very intelligent, well-educated, some of them. Got myself an op from an Indian doctor at the memorial hospital last year—clever little chap, he was.”
Barbara said, in the same polite voice, “I expect even some of your best friends are Indians and Pakistanis.”
Her father gave her a sharp warning glance, but the words went flickering quite over Mr. Moore’s stubbly head.
It’s sad that even thirty years later, that passage is still funny because I’ve heard that attitude so often. That doesn’t make Susan Cooper any less awesome for writing the scene, though!
Pages read: 8,114
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising, What's in a Name?
March 12, 2008 at 3:33 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Children's Literature, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
27. The Grey King by Susan Cooper (Children’s Fantasy) 165 p.
Having been desperately ill, Will Stanton goes away to Wales to recover at his aunt and uncle’s farm. His illness has wiped all knowledge of the Old Ones from his mind, and he can recall only a few snatches of a poem which he knows is vitally important. All sorts of sinister things are going on in the Welsh countryside, and Will needs all his knowledge and power if he is going to find the harp of gold and wake the Sleepers.
Once again, Susan Cooper paints the setting with such rich and vibrant colour that I almost felt I was there. She also includes a surprising amount of Welsh, including a plethora of Welsh place-names, and even manages a fairly natural way of weaving a pronunciation guide into the text!
The only drawback, from my point of view, was the inclusion of a certain legend that I really would rather not have had used, but that’s entirely a matter of personal taste.
I think this is actually my favourite of the series so far. The tone felt more serious, and the story more real and immediate, than either of the others. For the first time, I felt as though Will and the other characters were truly acting on their own, rather than stumbling through a series of fated events or merely reacting to what the Dark was doing. For the first time, I was genuinely in suspense as to the book’s resolution.
I’m now especially eager to find out what Silver on the Tree has in store.
Pages read: 7,840
Sort of off-topic, I got a comment on this blog last week from an Indigo employee. Among other things, she corrected my earlier remark about Indigo’s children’s and young adult sections. When I was in the same store again today, I realized that she’s absolutely right; since the whole section was being moved around the last time I was there, the signs at the time were probably just mixed up.
I’m having a very good week so far. Aside from hearing that some of my students are showing noticeable improvement in the classroom and on tests, I also found a new favourite bookstore, just a couple of blocks from where I work. I not only found some books I’d pretty much given up home on, I discovered one of the most pleasant and best-organized used bookstores in the city. And none of the paperbacks (mass market and children’s trade) I bought was more than $4; most were $3.
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, Eponymous Challenge, Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising
March 11, 2008 at 7:28 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Children's Literature, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
26. Greenwitch by Susan Cooper (Children’s Fantasy) 147 p.
A fitting sequel to The Dark Is Rising. The three Drew children from Over Sea, Under Stone (which I have yet to read, but Imani was right, I didn’t need to) once again join their great-uncle, Merriman Lyon, on a vacation in Cornwall. The grail they recovered in the first book has been stolen from the museum, and Merriman believes they have a part to play in getting it back. Someone else joins them for the holiday: Will Stanton, who the other children resent for pushing into their holiday.
I quite liked seeing Will from the Drews point of view. He’s quite convincingly written as a young boy with an agelessness that sometimes makes him seem much older than his years. I also like Merriman much more now that I’ve seen him with his family, rather than just with Will, who is his peer rather than a child in his care.
The Greenwitch was an interesting creation, and I found the description of it rather intriguing. Once again, I found the lack of agency on the part of the characters a little frustrating, but what could have been major complaint is totally overshadowed by Susan Cooper’s excellent writing. The tone of the books is interesting, with the high-minded, epic language of Tolkien, but with the morals and attitudes of a certain kind of old-fashioned British children’s book; it’s Lord of the Rings meets The Adventurous Four.
Pages read: 7,675
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising
March 7, 2008 at 12:58 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Children's Literature, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
24. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (Children’s Fantasy) 244 p.
I made a slight mistake when I picked up this book yesterday. I’d got it into my head that Over Sea, Under Stone was a prequel written later and didn’t have much connection to the rest of the series, so I could safely skip it (rather like The Magician’s Nephew in The Chronicles of Narnia.) Apparently I was wrong, but oh, well. Too late now.
The Dark Is Rising begins on December 20, in the small English town of Huntercombe, on the Thames. The next day will be Will Stanton’s eleventh birthday, and what he wants most is a real snowfall, not just the light dusting they usually get in the south. When he and his older brother, James, go out to feed the rabbits, some unsettling things happen—things only Will seems to notice. A farmer he’s known for years gives him two things: a sign—a circle of iron crossed by two bars—and an ominous warning.
The next day, his birthday, Will walks out of his sleeping household and six hundred years into the past. He finds out that he’s one of the Old Ones, immortals whose job it is to fight the Dark, and that he is the sign-seeker, the one who must find the six signs that can be joined to forge a much-needed weapon against the Dark.
The plot of The Dark Is Rising is standard children’s fantasy fare: a boy finds out he has special powers, and heavy responsibilities to go with them, and goes on a quest to find magical objects, receiving help from mentors, supernatural beings, and magical animals along the way.
In fact, if anything, the details used to flesh out the plot lower, rather than raise, its quality. Although Will is called upon to make moral choices, he merely reacts to events, rather than taking any initiative. Although he is called the sign-seeker, he never has the knowledge that would be necessary to look for the signs himself; instead, they are revealed to him through various events.
If there is anything in The Dark Is Rising that lifts it above the commonplace, it’s Susan Cooper’s writing. Although some of the grown-ups are rather cardboard cutout-ish (namely Merriman and the Lady), she does some lovely characterization with Will and his family, particularly his brothers and sisters.
The book has a marvellous sense of time and place; after reading it, I felt I knew Huntercombe personally: the river, the village, the fields, the manor, the woods, and all the lanes and roads. And most of all, the weather. The book is set during a very particular time of year, Midwinter Eve through Epiphany, which worked perfectly for the story being told. Like the Stantons, Christmas is my favourite time of year, and Cooper did a brilliant job of capturing all the traditions, friendship, and love that make the holiday season such a magical time of year.
The contrast of the warmth and excitement of Christmas with the cold and unending snow sent by the Dark made the latter feel more genuinely menacing, although I think as a Canadian, I was at a disadvantage. Toronto, my hometown, has some of Canada’s mildest winters, but I think all Canadians grow up with a cultural consciousness of the truly hideous weather that winter can throw at some parts of this country. Even though Cooper did a good job of showing how crippling the snow was for England, I couldn’t let go of my knowledge that to be a truly credible attack from the Dark, it ought to have been much worse.
Quibbles aside, this book was very absorbing and hard to put down. I even spent an extra forty-five minutes in Tim Horton’s last night, because I didn’t want to close the book for the two-minute walk to the nearest subway station.
Pages read: 7,214
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, 888 Challenge, Fantasy Classics Challenge, Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising
