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Title: The Dark Is Rising Sequence: Silver on the Tree/The Grey King/Greenwitch/The Dark Is Rising/Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper ISBN: 0-02-042565-1 Publisher: Simon Pulse Pub. Date: October, 1993 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.78 (162 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Parents be aware; "Dark is Rising" full of real life lessons
Comment: I just finished reading "The Grey King" by Susan Cooper. I've been picking through the series of books, in which this title is the fourth, over the past couple of months. The series is titled "The Dark is Rising Sequence," after the name of the second book, "The Dark is Rising." The series is labeled as teen fantasy, and I suppose that's appropriate, but misleading at the same time. "The Hobbit" was originally conceived by Tolkien to be a story for younger audiences, you know, but publishers now realize its value to readers of all ages. Cooper's Sequence has the same value.

The story takes place mostly in present-time Cornwall, Wales and an old English countryside, with a couple of visitations from America in the third book, "Greenwitch." The three Drew children, Simon, Barney and Jane, and two 'Old Ones' - a humanlike species fated to protect Humanity from the powers the Dark -: young Will Stanton and the old Merriman Lyon - and the strange Welsh albino boy Bran, all become weaved into one tense story. It is both classic and original, rising and falling with the victories and defeats of both the magical realm where the Old Ones toil, and the entanglements of everyday human life itself, where all the characters must find themselves trapped from time to time. These frequent visits to the world of parents, homework and friends, and other trials of growing up, give the books a realistic edge, making suspension of disbelief easy.

The Sequence leaps out and surprises you with the fourth book, which is why I had to write something about it. There is still one book left in the series for me to read, but I feel like I've stepped over a threshold now into a place where anything can happen, where few dangers would be too "mature" for Cooper's audience. After dealing with such complicated and severe issues as death, abandonment, insanity and rape in "The Grey King," I feel almost as if Cooper intended for her audience - her first audience - to grow up with these stories, taking in a diet of innocent, and rarely dangerous, child's play in the first book ("Over Sea, Under Stone") to steadily more 'adult' dangers as the reading progressed. If you check the publisher's information at the front of the books, you will notice that the gaps between publishings of subsequent books were generally two or more years apart. I get to read everything within a couple of months, so its fortunate that I'm not some nine-year-old (or nine-year-old's parent) mislead by the 'cuteness' of the first book and a half or so.

This should be taken as a warning sign to parents buying the books: The series is a great way to introduce children to the realities of life within the context of a story that revolves around good-hearted protagonists' challenges; However, the care-free charm of the beginning of the storyline is not an indicator of the story in its totality. I recommend all four books at some point in time for everyone (and the fifth on advance of trust), because these are not full of junk food for the brain; not "Harry Potterized" in the sense that most escapist fantasy is.

The books in the Dark is Rising Sequence are: Over Sea, Under Stone; The Dark is Rising; Greenwitch; The Grey King; and Silver on the Tree.

Rating: 5
Summary: A childhood love, a grown-up treasure
Comment: This series of books made me want to be a writer when I grew up. I remember distinctly reading these books and realizing the power that authors have to create a world and populate it with living characters. Ms. Cooper has created a universe in which magic lives just under the surface of the "real" world--her theme, that the power of magic is accessible to believers, and that we have a responsibility to fight against evil in both the real and magical realms, continues to resonate with me and many other readers.

I highly recommend The Dark is Rising series to children and adults. It's for a slightly older audience than the Harry Potter series, and makes a nice next level for kids who want more.

I am thrilled that the series is still available and I am adding it to my collection in the hope of passing it on to the children in my life. That, and I'm going to re-read them myself-- they're just too good to pass up!

Rating: 5
Summary: The Dark is Rising Sequence
Comment: For all fans of Harry Potter the Dark is Rising books would also be a great book sequence. It includes magic, fantasy, and many other things. I cannot stop thinking about them! Susan Cooper uses such good descriptions that you actually feel as if you were there. This is a great sequence I can't get Merriaman, Lyon, Will Stanton, Jane, Simon, and Barney Drew, the lady, the Grey King, and all the others out of my head. You would reaaly enjoy these books. They are great books. (...)

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