a slight but winning intro into a phenomenal series. this opening book follows the Drew children on summer holiday in Cornwall as they hurtle breathlessly from place to place, ancient map in hand and Arthurian treasure awaiting them as they skillfully avoid the forces of evil.this is probably my 3rd or 4th time reading this book, and this particular time found me more amused than impatient. once upon a time, a long time ago, I started this series by reading The Dark Is Rising - and Over Sea, Ove...

how great is ariel?? ariel is exactly this great:i had never read this series, but had always wanted to. so ariel straight up mailed it to me! like santa! in june! ariel, i have also always wanted a choker made of rubies and emeralds and sweet sweet diamonds.while i am waiting for that,i will write a review for this book. obviously, there are going to be comparisons to that narnia series - british siblings shuttled off to a spooky house with secret passageways behind a wardrobe with an eccentric...

Over Sea, Under Stone (The Dark Is Rising #1), Susan CooperOver Sea, Under Stone is a contemporary fantasy novel written for children by the British author Susan Cooper, first published in London by Jonathan Cape in 1965. Cooper wrote four sequels about ten years later, making it the first volume in a series usually called The Dark is Rising (1965 to 1977).Over Sea, Under Stone features the Drew children, Simon, Jane and Barney, on holiday with their parents and Merriman Lyon, an old family frie...

2022 Reread:Cooper's writing evokes other writers of the time period, notably Lewis and Tolkien (who were published only a decade before) and her descriptions are incredibly atmospheric. I got suckered in both times by her beautiful depictions of Cornwall. Plus the fact that I have Cornish ancestors... you get the idea. The revelation at the end of the book still gives me Excited Goosebumps. More please!Original review:(view spoiler)[I have to admit I wasn't expecting a lot from this book -- I t...

The first book of my all-time favorite children's fantasy series. Yes Harry Potter is amazing, The Chronicles of Prydain is exceptional, Redwall is pretty fantastic. But for my money, Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series ranks as my #1 favorite. It has everything - an Arthurian theme, witches, the Holy Grail, Celtic Mythology, fun characters, and the writing is just superb. It's no wonder these books garnered a ton of awards because it really does stand out like a shimmering diamond in the c...

Over Sea, Under Stone reminds me of that endless string of ’80s and ’90s movies featuring plucky groups of child protagonists outwitting bumbling adult villains. You know the ones I mean—The Goonies is probably the most famous example, but there are others. Children get into real danger and use a combination of courage and clever planning to defeat the bad guys and save the day. In this case, Simon, Jane, and Barney work together to decipher a medieval treasure map that could lead to the Grail o...

In these incredibly anxiety-plagued final days leading up to USA’s Election Day, I decided to go for what I was hoping would be a comforting read, and this sort of obliged. It’s sweetly written, with likable, resourceful children doing their best to solve puzzles and evade bad guys. Unexpectedly, it featured a few dated, discomfitingly racist tropes, and its pace sputtered a bit more than I would have wanted. I’ve heard that the later books in this classic children’s fantasy series are much more...

A Nancy Drew-esque adventure in which some kids with the last name Drew attempt to find the Holy Grail. "Another book on the Arthur legend?" I groaned before commencing a hearty dismissive snore. I guess I didn't read the description close enough on Goodreads or on the back of the book. I knew it was YA, but expected magic. Even sampling of it. This was not the fantasy novel I was looking for.These days reading about three English kids romping around the Cornwall seaside in search of King Arthur...

It’s time for a The Dark is Rising sequence readathon again! If you wish to join, you can do so via this blog. It’s the perfect time of year to reread the books, at least the second one in particular, with the winter solstice coming up. I always try and read them around this time of year!With that said, here goes my millionth (ish) review of Over Sea, Under Stone. I’ve noted before that it’s basically an Enid Blyton adventure/mystery story, with Arthurian trappings. This time through, I noticed

Very few people [who know me at all:] are unaware that The Dark Is Rising is possibly my favourite series of books in the history of ever. Still, I haven't done a series of proper reviews for them, which is a horrible shame, and I'm going to do that this time through.This is probably the fifteenth time I've read Over Sea, Under Stone, give or take a few times. Someone I knew recommended skipping it, since it's the most childish book in the series -- written, if I recall correctly, well before th...

I am on a serious childhood nostalgia bender over here. Let that be a warning to you.This series came back to me like a bolt from the blue on a perfectly normal day last week, and I suddenly had to read it right now. But, fantastic, no problem, I thought. When I originally read these books -- and read them, and read them, and read them -- it was on cassette. The good old National Library Service for the Blind cassettes in their snap plastic cases. And the NLS has been busily digitizing the colle...

What can I say. It's winter; we're snowed in; temperatures will be plummeting. Time to reread, even if it means returning to a children's series that I only discovered as an adult. This is the first of the Dark is Rising series, and although I've read the Dark is Rising, the second book in the series, more than once, I thought this time I'd indulge myself and start at the beginning and read them through. They are quest stories, rich in Arthurian lore with bits of magic with history and artifacts...

I first read this series when I was about ten or eleven and coming back to them now, some thirty-and-change years later, has been an absolute joy. These were the books that first got me hooked on the Arthurian myth and sparked my interest in British folklore.If you’re a fan of fantasy and/or great children’s books, you really MUST try this series! Oh, and if you had the misfortune to see the abysmal movie adaptation a few years back PLEASE don’t let that travesty put you off reading the original...

Over Sea, Under Stone is the first book in a modern classic series of childrens literature, following siblings on holiday in Corwall who discover a map to the Grail of Arthur and must face down villains also seeking it. I think I would have enjoyed this more as a child, but coming to it for the first time as an adult there were a couple of things I couldn't get over. First, the children were SO STUPID!!! The number of times they did dumb things that got them into trouble, like pulling out a secr...

I wanted to like this but couldn't sink my teeth into the plot or characters. Jane, Simon, and Barney, go with their parents to Cornwall to visit their Uncle Merry. The three explore the old grey house and discover an ancient map that puts them on the quest for the Holy Grail. The forces of Dark want the map too for its unlimited power and with the help of Uncle Merry it is a mad race to see who can find it first. The threesome are not sure who is good or bad and their innocent trust oftentimes

Three siblings on summer holiday discover an ancient treasure map and race against the forces of the Dark in order to unlock its secrets.This is one of those books that I’ve always known I should read and have finally gotten around to it. I have not been disappointed. Susan Cooper masterfully evokes long, lazy vacations in a seaside getaway, where every feature of the geography seems to promise wonderful things. I was reminded of my own beach vacations as a boy, my brother and I making up storie...

Reading this for the first time in my sixties! It came out when I was a schoolgirl, and I can’t imagine why I didn’t come across it then, immersed as I was in John Masefield, Edith Nesbit, Tolkien, Alan Garner, CS Lewis etc. Enjoyed reading it, and will read the others in the series, but have to say I think Masefield’s The Midnight Folk has the edge on it. But then, as I’ve said, I’ve not come to this as a child, and if it was the first book, all those years back, I’d read of this genre I most l...

And so it begins. Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising Sequence evolved a lot over five novels and twelve years, but Over Sea, Under Stone grounds the story firmly in Arthurian mysticism, which has inspired Western lore for untold centuries. Simon, Jane, and Barney Drew are visiting the village of Trewissick on the coast of Cornwall, England with their parents as our story opens. They're staying at Grey House, a manor being rented by their great-uncle Merry, also known as Professor Lyons. He's a pe...

This book was bad... Really bad. I think maybe if I had read this as a young child it wouldn't have bothered me, but reading this as an adult it wasn't a good read....I picked this book up as a recent Magical Space Pussycats read and I had hoped to enjoy reading a kid's fiction for once. Unfortunately this story really suffered from prejudices and poor writing so I found myself getting more and more frustrated page by page.In this story we not only see three young British Middle-class children m...

Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.At one point, I read The Dark is Rising trilogy at Christmas every year, lining up the timeline of The Dark is Rising itself with the season, as the most obviously timed event in the books. I still maintain that it’s a good series: Cooper did some clever things with mythology and history. I recently read an article by Michael D.C. Drout, ‘Reading the Signs of the Light’, which made that very clear (though that essay is more focused on the second book of the series

It was an absolute treat to revisit this book and begin again on the Dark is Rising journey. There is much to like about Cooper's writing, her characters and sense of place are strong but deep within the veins of the words is this sense of a connection with our history and heritage. I'm a suckler for anything with monoliths and megaliths in and this was is full to the brim. Not only that but much like The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, there is this search and connection with an ancient past that I

I read the shit out of this series when I was a kid. I still have the above original copy I read as a kid. I haven't re-read them in years but they still stand out as some of, perhaps THE, best series of "fantastic" novels for children.Revel in children's literature before the age of film adaptations, farting cartoon rabbits, and social messages being fuck-squared into the trapezoid of literary mediocrity!Three English kids go on holiday to Trewissick in Cornwall (a fictional version of Mevagiss...

This is the first book of Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising cycle. The Dark is Rising is actually the second book in the series, and much like another famous English fantasy series **coughNarniacough**, the second book is the better one; though in that case you get in to written chronology versus story chronology, and the conversation becomes complicated. I hadn’t read this first one since my early teens. And while it is good, I can’t wait to get the next one in the series. I also noticed many simil...

This book is the first of a series. It has a weird family resemblance to the Chronicles of Narnia: some children explore a mysterious old house while on holiday by the Cornish seaside. There is even a wardrobe, albeit not one that functions as a conduit to a magical world. The book seems to start off somewhat slowly but builds up to a very tense climax near the end, as Simon, Jane and Barnabas Drew grapple with the powers of evil aided by Great-Uncle Merry and a lovable dog named Rufus.

Ultimately this is another one of those, "I'm now probably too old and will never experience the nostalgia that other people experience while re-reading this."However, Susan Cooper's writing is pleasant and the story offers an exciting adventure, so I'm interested to read the next book.It is (of course) aimed at a young audience, and I wish someone had given this to me when I was a child, I definitely would have loved the adventure.

I really enjoyed this story. I know that it is aimed a young reading group, but it was exciting and fun. There was enough mystery and danger to keep me wanting to listen. I am looking forward to the next book in the series to see what is next in store for the Drew children and their Great Uncle Merry.

Three stars from the adult me. When I first read and raved about this series (or as much of it as I could find when I was in middle school--I think I never got hold of Vol 5), it would have been a solid five--or perhaps 7! I was King Arthur-mad in those days, and "fantasy fiction" was a relatively new phenomenon in my environment. The story of three siblings (and a dog) who search for the Holy Grail in Cornwall, dodging bad guys as they go, was just my drop in those days. I didn't remember anyth...

I've been wanting to read this series for many years and the book is a perfect escape from stressful uni study! I really enjoyed the brisk, engaging writing that vividly described this lovely part of England and I wanted more than anything to follow Barney, Jane and Simon as they moved from harbour to rocky outcrops to little bays and beaches in search of the Grail.It helps if you're familiar with the Arthurian legend, but really anyone can enjoy this timeless adventure story and - let's face it...

2.0 to 2.5 stars. A well written, original fantasy story. While written for a younger audience, it is in no ways condescending to them. First in the "Dark is Rising " sequence, this book introduces readers to the ages old battle between the Light and the Dark. Not a bad read.

I had read book 2 in this series and enjoyed it, so I thought I'd go back and start the series from the beginning. Funnily enough though, this story has nothing to do with the second one, as far as I can recall (having read the second one some time back). It was good in its own right though. I liked it right from the beginning in that the three children are not introduced in a simplistic fashion as in many children's books. We are just launched into the adventure. In fact you never really find o...