The Dark Is Rising: The Complete Sequence (Over Sea, Under Stone; Greenwitch; The Grey King; Silver on the Tree)

Best one-sentence review I ever heard about this book: "Clueless protagonist stands around while inexplicable mythemes bump into him." Still a fun read.

A favourite from childhood, still very readable today a couple of decades on. 5 books in the series. The first details the adventures of three children on holiday in Cornwell. A light touch in the writing really gets the feel of children, exploring a world apart from the business of adults.

in the

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title volume (2) a completely different character set, Will becomes 11 yrs old and strange events suddenly evolve deeper significane. Why is a tramp bothering his family? What happened to his birth sign? Why is the snow so heavy this year.......

Book three, the Drew children are back in Cornwell, but now WIll is amoungst them. Who is he, will he spoil their plans? For the treasure of last year has been stolen, and they mean to get it back. William seems to know their Great Uncle though and proves to be of assistance in the end.

Book 4, Will is alone again, sent to S.Wales as the darker powers in the world make their move. A friend comes to his aid, though the Dark intervines, and humans prove to be in the end, only human. The darkest of the stories in many ways.

Book 5, All togther now, the great push for the defining moment in history as both sides show their true colours. But in the realm of humans, human ties hold far more power than the greatest magic, but with love betrayed how will the choice be made?

All great writing, keeping the same light style and childlike wonder at the world, even when times are hard and difficult choices need to be made.

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Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper is the first book in the "Dark is Rising" series. Three children find a map with clues to finding the Holy Grail. Aided by their mysterious Great-Uncle Merry, and under their oblivious parents noses, they battle evil mundane and surreal to find the grail and

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keep the Darkness down. Think of this as "The Secret Seven" with a little magic thrown in. I liked that the human villains ranged from nice looking to surly and sinister, after all evil can be appealing and goodness can look disheveled or surly.

I would recommend this book to the following people I know: A 4-6th grade teacher for his classroom, an 11 year old girl who likes Harry Potter and Tamora Pierce, a 4th grade boy who likes mysteries and his 53rd grade brother who likes historical fantasies.

The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, and Silver on the Tree history, time travel, Welsh tales, and the classic struggle of good and evil into a set of progressively engrossing incidents. I still don't care for the Drew children and I think they are the least developed of all the characters.

The box set says that these are "Teen Fantasy" but the giftee (now 12) and her younger sister (9) both understood and enjoyed the series.

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These held my attention surprisingly well for children's books, and The Dark is Rising especially enchanted me.

The first book, Over Sea, Under Stone is a good kid's book, but not remarkable, but The Dark is Rising is a really powerful story, Greenwitch keeps the pace up, and The Grey King is simply stunning. Silver On The Tree doesn't quite hit the same heights, but has many good things in it. For me, the

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middle three books blow Harry Potter far, far, away.

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The Dark is Rising is one of the better YA fiction books out there, in my opinion. It stems away from Arthurian legends, but puts the contest in a (relatively) modern time and the responsibility on the shoulders of a group of pre-teens. This focuses on Will, who discovers that he's an agent of the

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Light just before his 11th birthday. While the book did suffer from a few too many instances of deus ex machina, overall it's a wonderful story. Involving, well told, and imaginative. 244 pgs
8/10

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The first 'proper' books I ever read (ie, non-Dr Suess). I still love them, and they'll always be one of my favourites. My elder brother read the first chapter of The Dark Is Rising to me and my little brother, and then had to hide it so I couldn't find it and read it all myself. I searched his

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room all day, and finally I found it. It took me ages to read it because I was very slow in those days, but it left me a love of fantasy which I have to this very day!

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Read the entire series at once - triggered by a mention on LT of the Seeker movie (no, I don't think it will be good). I very much like The Dark is Rising (the individual story) - it's very rich. My favorite, I think, is Greenwitch, then Over Sea, Under Stone. Grey King is quite depressing, though

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very powerful, and I don't think much of Silver on the Tree even though it finishes things off. As usual, I finished it slightly confused...there is a _lot_ of symbolism, particularly in Silver. So is Bran one of the Circle or not? He must be, because the 'three from the track' have to be the Drews...but he's not an Old One. And is the 'one (who) goes alone' Merriman, then? Or if Bran had gone, could Merriman have stayed? Would he? Or is the third from the Circle the Lady? No, it was Bran holding a Sign...when it wasn't John Rowland. Sheesh. Vatefer. Good stories, though the earlier ones are better, and I'll keep them.

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well, i read this book when i was quite young (8 or 9) so i can't remember it that well, but i really liked it. Way better than harry potter; not as cliched

These 5 books range from very good to stunning fantasy that explore old myths, terrible evil, great heroes. Wonderful audiobooks too.

Contemporary story of finding the Grail, set on the Cornwall coast , very charming.
Written in the tradition of "Narnia", though I prefer this one.

I bought this book purely after seeing it had been recommended online. Being a great fan of YA/fantasy literature, I thought this was a must-have in my book collection.

The result - I was very disappointed. Reading it for the first time as an adult I found the style, pace, quality of writing, depth

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of characters, and originality of ideas (in short, everything!) inconsistent between each of the stories. The forces of good and evil were unexplained in origin and were particularly vague, meaning that I had little sympathy for the 'good guys' winning at all.

The book deals with the usual good vs. evil, where the good are of the 'Light' and the evil are of the 'Dark'. And that is about as far as the explanation ever goes.

The first book of the series 'Over sea, under stone' is like reading the Famous Five - alright, but uninspiring.
The second, 'The Dark is Rising' is the best of the series. Thankfully the annoying kids in the first book have gone and we're introduced to the main hero. This book was a good read.
The next book that follows brings these children together (just as we thought we'd got rid of them). Both 4 and 5 have a handful of good ideas in them, but not enough to carry the series to its conclusion.

The sad thing is that the ideas in the book do have the potential to be made into a fantastic story, it just never achieves this.

Children's fiction has moved on a long way since this book was written. I could easily name half a dozen children's fantasy authors of the last 10 years whose books blow this one out of the water.

It gets 1.5 stars because the second book of the sequence is a decent read. Unfortunately, you need the others to complete the story.

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Classic story of good versus evil. Well written and full of mythological parallels. Godd for older kids or younger teens.

An excellent series with just the right mixture of Welsh legend, the supernatural, and character interaction and development. The description is vivid without being overly verbose and the characters are not simply instruments of the plot. Read alone - 13+, Read-aloud (with some appropriate editing)

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8+

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One of the greatest series based on the Arthurian/Pendragon legend, and one of my favorite series of all time.

This series was my ABSOLUTE favourite growing up. The stories of magic and intrigue set in the UK fascinated me for hours on end. I love the twists, the symbols and preferred it to Narnia. It made me think I needed to learn to speak Welsh!

This is one of the few "fantasy" books I've gotten involved in; it was very good. I was a bit disappointed when the recent movie came out. It was nowhere near as good as the book, but that always happens.

Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper Mom's review: Here's a quote from her, and a link to her blog's review: "It's like 'The Hardy Boys'. 'Oh, you want to explore a haunted island? Let me pack you some sandwiches and ginger beer. Don't forget to dress warmly!'. But the others in the series are

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better." click here to see her review of this book and the rest of the series. My review: It's OK . I found it entertaining, but felt as if I knew everything that would happen next, what I would have for lunch the next day... All right, it wasn't like that, but I did feel a strange sense of de ja vu. I probably won't read it again 'till Easter, but that's what normally happens. I would recommend this book to 11-13/14 year olds, and adults. It's very long, and I found myself skipping paragraphs and had to reread them[AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGGGGGH!!!].

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Before Harry Potter there was The Dark is Rising - and it's better. I don't even have to say anything more, you just need to read it.

One of the best kids' series ever. I just loved these.

I've called this series a favorite for a good 15 years now and recommend it to everyone I meet when we get on the topics of books. There's a good mix of Arthurian lure, adventure, and heart.

I love many different locations the stories take place in and how the characters vary between books. There's

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a fantastic layer after layer after layer effect with the characters that is perfect.

I recommend this to everyone, and have been known to tell people that if they need to skip Over Sea Under Stone, it's okay. I personally read The Grey King and Silver on the Tree first, then went back to the beginning.

Enjoy the series.

Quick Edit: Read this series, it rocks!

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A pretty good fantasy read. Started in 1965 but doesn't seem dated at all.

I remember absolutely loving these books as a child. I started with "The Grey King" when I was in the 5th grade and trying to read all the books that appeared on the "Newbery Medal" poster that was on the wall of the school library. That poster lead to my reading a lot of fantastic books, but the

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"The Dark is Rising Sequence" definitely had the most lasting impact on my memory. Feeling a desire to revisit the series, I picked it up when I went home for Christmas and brought it back to my home in Japan. This Spring I picked it up and finally gave the entire series a rereading. 20 years have passed since I picked up "The Grey King," but it still holds up remarkably well (truly the best in the entire series). In fact the entire box set was really satisfying to reread, though the books with the Drew Children never achieve the same level as the stories that focus on Will Stanton. I definitely recommend the stories to anyone who enjoyed the Harry Potter books, but keep in mind that these books, while dealing with the fate of the entire world, are much simpler in their narration than the much longer Harry Potter books.

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I learned of this series after watching the movie The Legend of the Seeker. So far I've read The Grey King and "seen" The Dark is Rising. These books were written in the late 60's and 70's, and hard to find, but I think they are timeless. I plan on reading more of the series as I find them.