Susan Cooper

Susan Cooper's five-book series The Dark Is Rising were among the most prominent works of young-adult fantasy in the latter 20th century. Cooper's mythic tales paid distinct homage to the legends that inspired them — particularly those of King Arthur, and the Mabinogion — and Cooper's reverence for this lore suffuses these engrossing adventures without weighing them down with self-importance.

Over Sea, Under Stone is a prequel to the series proper. The Drew siblings — Simon, Jane, and Barney — are vacationing with their parents in the coastal village of Trewissick in Cornwall. Exploring the musty attic of the Grey House, the imposing ancient home the family has rented for their holiday, the kids discover a crackled and enigmatic map. Their "Great-Uncle Merry," Merriman Lyon, a traveling "professor" of some sort who neatly fills in the role of wise old sage, translates the obsure Latin and Old English text on the map. They learn that it does indeed hint at a lost treasure: a grail. Not the Holy Grail, but a grail dating back a thousand years to the days of the original King Arthur, who fought nobly against the forces of evil which eventually overcame him. An ancient prophecy attached to the shrivelled map foretells that a new Arthur will one day locate the grail, and he will take up the original king's battle against the forces of darkness. Of course, there are baddies seeking the map, and the grail, as well. As the children follow the cryptic clues on the map, they are harried by a mysterious yachtsman, his creepy "sister," a thuggish local boy, even the town's vicar! Could there be more people allied with the dark, right under their very noses?

The simplicity and unpretentiousness of Cooper's exciting story are its best virtues. This is just terrific entertainment for young and old alike. Breathless chase scenes keep the tension ramped up. Moonlit nights under enormous standing stones bestow an atmosphere upon the novel that most fantasy novelists would give their eyeteeth for. The children are very appealing and believable characters, not the least bit cloying nor advanced beyond their years. (I've read kid's stories where the author has had first-graders talking like grad students. Come on.) American readers will smile at how very British everyone is, but this story wins you over in the way it recalls what we all like to think of (realistically or not) as a simpler time. If you have (or if you are) a kid who's just discovered the delights of reading and of fantasy through Rowling and Tolkien, Susan Cooper's venture into the mist-enshrouded realms of Arthurian myth won't disappoint. And if, like me, you enjoy the idea of digging up the occasional childhood favorite to relive a bit of the magic of those years, these novels may be just what you need. There's treasure in that old attic, indeed.

The Dark Is Rising continues Susan Cooper's famed young-adult fantasy saga, though its release eight years after Over Sea, Under Stone illustrates just how different today's publishing practices differ from those of thirty years ago. Clearly there wasn't as much pressure back then to crank books out like processed food. The results are tangible: The Dark Is Rising is one of the best fantasies ever written, young-adult or otherwise. Seeped in mystery, magic, atmosphere and a very keen sense of the significance of mythology and history, there's more to inspire wonder in this small, haunting book than there is in most entire trilogies.

Readers today will instantly recognize all of the mythic tropes Susan Cooper brings to bear in this tale. This novel revels in its archetypes, but where a lesser writer would turn a novel like this into an exercise in going through the motions, Cooper weaves a gripping and dreamlike story that reminds us exactly why archetypes have the power they do. Will Stanton is the youngest child (and, significantly, the seventh son of a seventh son, no less) of a large English farming family who, on the eve of his eleventh birthday, learns that he is the last of the Old Ones, immortal beings whose task it has been since the dawn of time to protect the world from the forces of the Dark. It is Will's task to seek six magical Signs, each in the form of a cross within a circle, which, when united, will provide the ultimate weapon against the Dark. Will is aided in his quest by other Old Ones, most importantly Merriman Lyon, introduced to us in Over Sea and whose true identity provides the series' most direct link to the Arthurian legends. Will's enemies include the sinister Rider, who menaces Will from astride a black stallion, and the mad Walker, who seeks the Signs himself out of a demented desire for revenge against Merriman.

On top of high myth, The Dark Is Rising is also a coming of age story, as Will learns of his true calling and destiny at the threshold of adolescence. Cooper doesn't cut corners when fleshing out Will's family life, and Will's bevy of brothers and sisters, plus his doting parents, give Will a warm, human context in which to frame his superhuman tasks. Will learns for the first time of a brother who died years ago in infancy. He hero-worships a big brother who's overseas in the armed forces (and who yet manages to play a role in Will's personal transformation) and finds himself under the watchful eye of another brother, Paul, the only family member to suspect that something about Will is changing. There's no time, despite the challenges he comes to face and the powers he must learn to wrest control over, that you stop believing in Will as an 11-year-old kid.

The winter setting of the novel establishes the perfect backdrop for this proudly traditional good-vs-evil saga. There's just something about cold weather that conveys magic and fantasy, and Cooper gives us plenty of cold, all right. As Will's power increases, the Dark responds by blanketing the entire countryside in the worst snowstorms it has suffered in years. The roaring winds of winter storms are so vividly depicted by Cooper you can almost hear them and feel the cold in your bones. And a genuinely eerie sense of foreboding permeates the narrative, without which the story wouldn't have worked half as well. Without a visceral understanding of the danger Will faces — without honestly believing that the Dark is rising — this book would have indeed been just a string of fantasy clichés. Many fantasy writers work their way through "good" and "evil" story elements as if they were just accessories, but Cooper gives you a conflict that means something. Whether subtly, as in the flock of rooks that follow Will around and spy on him from treetops, or overtly, as in the scene in which the entire town is huddled for warmth in a manor hall against the increasingly violent supernatural ice storms, Cooper knows how to draw readers into the story with a sense of danger they can have a stake in.

But Cooper isn't merely blessing us with terrific art direction by setting the story in the winter; no, everything pays homage to the myths from which she draws inspiration. The story takes place over the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas (with Will's birthday falling on Midwinters' Eve), but anyone who knows a little history will know this time of year is not merely significant to Christianity. Pagan traditions that predate Christianity by centuries held their most important holidays at this time of year, too, and Cooper's story ties together all of these holiday traditions, from myths both ancient and contemporary. You'll also notice what an important role music plays in the story. Each of the book's major scenes incorporates music to some degree, either simply to carry the mood or more directly to announce the arrival of something new and mystical.

This is really a wondrous book that can be appreciated by lovers of great storytelling both young and old. If you vaguely remember reading it as a kid, don't hesitate to pick it up again. You'll find it will still hold you in its thrall. And if you're a parent, you'd be derelict in your duties if you didn't give Susan Cooper's novels to the little J. K. Rowling fan in your house. Settle in and enjoy...especially if it's a dark and stormy night!

Given the wonder that is The Dark Is Rising, it would seem that a three-star summation for its sequel Greenwitch would amount to a disappointment of the highest order. But it shouldn't really be interpreted that way. Greenwitch is quite a good adventure, and one that continues the series in satisfactory style. But it's true that it doesn't quite replicate the sheer literary magic that Susan Cooper so effortlessly achieved before, getting the job done in a manner almost prosaic. Part of this is due, I suppose, to the high bar Cooper set in her earlier books; from any lesser writer, Greenwitch might be a minor masterpiece. And part, I suppose, has to do with Greenwitch's startling brevity. It's barely over 130 pages in paperback, short even for a kid's book, and this makes the novel feel, well, more like a novella. It certainly lacks the layered depths of both The Dark Is Rising and Over Sea, Under Stone, even if it does succeed in capturing its predecessors' sense of wonder when it absolutely has to.

Greenwitch brings together Dark's young hero, Will Stanton, with the Drew siblings, Simon, Jane, and Barney, from Over Sea. The story opens with the theft from the British Museum of the Grail the Drews recovered at the climax of Over Sea. Merriman Lyon knows, as do the kids, that this is the work of the agents of the Dark. Merriman returns with the Drews to the coastal village of Trewissick to search for clues, bringing along Will. The initial meeting between Will and the Drews is handled disappointingly; Will doesn't reveal to the Drews that he is one of the immortal Old Ones, and the Drews react to Will initially with some coldness, resenting the intrusion of another boy into an adventure they feel is theirs. The Drews' reaction is believable, but what's disappointing is that Will, whose real-boy characteristics Cooper took pains to maintain convincingly in Dark despite his growing magical abilities, here seems little more than a superhuman sidekick to Merriman. His presence isn't as strong in the story as it ought to be, and it's a letdown that Cooper sketched over this fabulous opportunity for developing and augmenting Will's character.

In Trewissick, Barney Drew, the youngest boy, runs afoul of a wandering gypsy painter who is in league with the Dark. The painter, as it happens, has the grail, but he really wants something else, something that is in the possession of the Greenwitch. The Greenwitch is an effigy of sticks traditionally sacrificed to the sea by the women of Trewissick, but of course, in Cooper's world, there's real magic in everything, and a bundle of sticks shaped like a witch is no mere bundle of sticks. The Greenwitch indeed has possession of something she refers to only as her "secret." But will the undersea goddess Tethys allow our heroes access to the Greenwitch, or will she inadvertently aid the Dark by refusing to interfere at all?

There are, as in the first two novels, some dazzling setpieces in Greenwitch. Again, the story deals with the need to recover some priceless, lost artifact in order to combat the Dark. The scene where Will and Merriman journey deep under the icy waves to implore the aid of Tethys is appropriately chilling (hell, it's almost Lovecraftian), and a later scene in which the evil painter attempts to control the real Greenwitch through a canvas on which he has painted his evil incantations recalls some of the breathtaking storm sequences from The Dark Is Rising. And though it's a shame that Cooper didn't see fit to flesh out this book as richly as she did the previous two, it's still delightful to experience her enchanted storytelling even in such a small dose. With two more books to go, the position of this series among young-adult must-read lists is assured. 

The Grey King won children's literature's ultra-prestigious Newbery Medal, and it returns this saga to the mythic grandeur of Cooper's previous masterpiece The Dark Is Rising, which, ironically, was only a Newbery runner-up. (Hey, what do awards committees know?) Short but no less epic for it, The Grey King is the story of 11-year-old Will Stanton's coming into his own as the last of the Old Ones, those immortals whose task it has been from time immemorial to combat the forces of the Dark that seek to dominate the world. But what at first seems another exercise in running down the archetypes takes on an impressive depth as Susan Cooper veers from the typical moral clarity of genre fantasy and explores the grey areas that can cloud the judgments and actions of the best of men. Sure, today, moral ambiguity has become a storytelling cliché in its own right, but here, in this deceptively simple, beautifully rendered young-adult tale, Cooper's layered and rich writing delivers up a work of satisying maturity.

Will, recuperating from a bout of hepatitis at the home of his mom's cousin in Wales, is now struck with amnesia regarding who he is and the prophecies he must fulfill as laid out in the preceding volumes. He only recovers his memory upon meeting Bran Davies, an albino boy who fills the role of the "raven boy" in a shadowy prophecy concerning the recovery of a golden harp. (As in previous books, an ancient artifact must be found to combat the Dark.) But Will's reawakening triggers devilish activity on the part of the Grey King, a fearsome, unseen agent of the Dark said to inhabit a nearby mountain. Fires, landslides, and spectral, ravenous white foxes no one but the boys can see are among the obstacles thrown at them.

In a scene that packs more pure, breathtaking magical atmosphere than most multibook sagas in their entirety, Will and Bran locate a chamber deep within a hill where they must answer riddles in order to recover the harp. It's moments like these that pull you up short and remind you of what you first loved about fantasy: that sense of transport, that dreamlike sensation that you've entered a mythic world in which literally anything can happen. And Cooper pulls it off effortlessly. No spoilers intended, but there's a moment when the boys are confronted with a vision of the vastness of the universe that leaves you reeling in a way even the best SF seems to have forgotten!

It's only when unforeseen tragedy strikes that the ooh-aah escapist stuff begins to be tempered with a dose of the harshness and unfairness of reality. In this regard Cooper is foreshadowing the work of contemporary fantasists like Martin and Goodkind, who've demonstrated the dramatic power of hurting your protagonists often and with enthusiasm. Martin has learned the lesson better, however, as Cooper explores the consequences of actions in a manner that will be very familiar to A Song of Ice and Fire devotees. "People are very complicated," Will remarks in an authentically uncomplicated 11-year-old's way, but it's probably the truest answer to that most complicated of questions Why?

If I have to critique, then I can only say I wish this book were longer, even if only by fifty pages or so (it's well under 200). The first few chapters do feel a little rushed, barely giving us time to settle into Will's new surroundings before the story kicks into fifth gear. (But I really appreciated Bran's crash course in Welsh pronunciation!) Then again, it's high time Will stepped back into the spotlight; here, the wizardly, mentor archetype Merriman has the slightest of walk-on roles, which is very satisfying after Greenwitch (in which Will, so strongly established in TDIR, was little more than Merriman's sidekick).

The Grey King does a dazzling job of maintaining this series' high standards of excellence. A kindred spirit to Tolkien and Lewis, and a precursor to many of the top names writing fantasy today, Susan Cooper is worthy of your rediscovery. Don't let any embarrassment at browsing the young-adult shelves of your local bookstore allow you to overlook her.(SF Review.net)

The three Drew children and their uncle Merry, an Old One from outside of Time; young Will Stanton who learned of his identity as an Old One in The Dark Is Rising; Will's albino friend Bran, really King Arthur's son Pendragon brought forward to be reared in our time; Arthur himself, at the climax; a benign, disappointingly spiritless Taliesen; and all the forces of the Light and the Dark converge in Wales for the final cosmic battle in Cooper's ambitious, five-volume, resolutely High fantasy. First the children and Merry become Six assembled, later to wield the protective Six Signs which Will had gathered in the earlier volume; next Will and Bran must journey to a Lost Land where Bran's crystal sword must be acquired from a world-weary craftsman/King in his remote glass tower; and at last (this final task is announced to cast and reader alike only as the company is madly racing the Riders of the Dark to its location), the forces of Light, with the Six at the center, must pluck a sprig of mistletoe at the moment of its blossoming--for whichever side accomplishes the plucking will thereby command all the powers of the previously uncommitted Old and Wild Magic. To the end Cooper wields her cryptic prophecies, obscure instructions, and arbitrary contingencies, rules, and conditions with the authority of a sleight-of-hand master; and to the end the discrepancy between her grand scheme and the particulars of the story is unbridged, giving a morally and intellectually hollow ring to the whole. Even at the end, when the much-respected Lady wearily pronounces, "It is done. Our task is accomplished," the actual nature and consequences of that accomplishment remain meaninglessly abstract. And though there is welcome relief in Merry's final charge--the battle from here on is up to humans, who will get no more magic help--it does make the purportedly final and crucial battle that has gone before that much harder to credit.