Cooper's prose, as always, is gorgeous, and her flair for imagery is enviable, but this final volume in the Dark is Rising sequence disappoints as a novel. The first four volumes were nothing but buildup - and this is nothing but buildup too, until five pages from the end. Like books two, three, and four, there are random time travelling scenes, but here they muddle the plot instead of moving it along.None of the characters have particularly vivid personalities, but the Drew siblings - especiall...

I never read these as a kid, though I was aware of them. I read them as an adult, and I remember the entire series as a whole. I think I'd like to read them aloud to my kids, once we finish Harry Potter.

Cooper brings us to a fine conclusion in the battle between good and evil, the light and the dark. The ending in this is packed with emotion and heartbreak. I thought this was a superb series; if I had read it as a child I would have loved it even more.

an excellent finale for a smashing series. I particularly appreciated how the chapters alternated between magical duo Will & Bran and the resolutely "normal" Drew children, showing their differing reactions to the Rising. everything comes together nicely in the end. special shout-out to a superb new villain: The White Rider! *swoon* yes, I'm swooning for an infernal, chaos-loving, completely dastardly Lord of the Dark. The White Rider gave me some wonderful chills, especially during the train ri...

This was a disappointing end to a disappointing series. "It's all too... vague," says Jane at one point, at the start of yet another random adventure, a sentiment that unfortunately applies to the whole of The Dark Is Rising sequence.I don't even know where to begin, so I'll start with the same criticisms I had with the other four books: no explanation about how all the magic works and overuse of capitalized words that signify nothing. Now, there is a little speech Will gives at the beginning of...

A spellbinding, heart-wrenching final chapter to a wonderful fantasy series. It’s criminal that these books aren’t more widely read.I first read this series as a child and I was really worried that by re-reading it as an adult it would let me down by not living up to my treasured memories of it. It most decidedly did not. I loved every minute of this and it fully deserves its place on my shelves next to the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings.If you’re a fantasy lover, do yourself a f...

I’ve read this entire series by audiobook, and while I enjoyed it, I really think I need to go back and read them as books. Sometimes I would have gaps of days in between my listening within a book, and gaps of weeks or even months between the books themselves, so I got a little confused. The whole series seems a bit un-explained, to me, and I’m really kind of perplexed that I couldn’t get as into it as so many other people. I didn’t like the way the point of view jumped back and forth between t...

Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of goldPlayed to wake the Sleepers, oldest of the old;Power from the green witch, lost beneath the sea;All shall find the Light at last, silver on the tree. This was my Harry Potter, you kids. It is still magic.September 2013 rereadI still remember the day in fifth grade, many, many years ago, when the school librarian told me that the book I'd been waiting for was in. Silver on the Tree, the fifth and final volume in Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequen

I remember loving these books as a child but I had forgotten how much I skipped over. Re-reading childhood favorites is dangerous, but in the case of the Dark Is Rising books, you really should not do it.What I loved was the Drew children, because Stone Over Sea is a wonderful book and I kept reading to get more of them. But everything having to do with Will Stanton was so outrageously irritating, I nearly didn't finish the fifth book, Silver on the Tree. Good lord. He magically gets all these o...

And now we have to talk about The Thing. Spoilers abound, for once, because I’ve really just gotta get my teeth straight into this. Before that, though, the rest of the book. It’s . . . honestly, I’m not crazy about it. I remember that this was never one I reread much as a child. Well, that’s not true – I reread the first third all the time, but I’d stop whenever the magic started coming thick and heavy. There is something so wrenching about Will and his brother by the river, about Stephen carin...

Well, this was exceedingly disappointing.Silver on the Tree encapsulates and highlights every single thing that was frustrating about the series as a whole: the vagueness of the plot, the lack of any real sense of danger (considering that the Dark!is!Rising!), the quests that are not really quests and are more like stumbling unto Things, the overwhelming sense that everything is pre-ordained even though everybody talks about free will, the lack of any character development, the romantic obsessio...

In this last book, everything comes together. All the characters, all the plots and threads, all the separate pieces of mythology. Again, it's a beautiful book, and again, as always, there is some amazing characterisation. The things that catch my eye especially in this book are the initial awe/resentment of Bran from the Drews, Gwion's loyalty to and grief for Gwddyno, and John's grief when Blodwen betrays him. There's a lot of complex emotion going on here beneath the actual plot, and parts of...

A satisfying conclusion to the series. I realized, listening to the books, that they're not so much about what happens as about the tone, the sense of place, and the way that good and evil work themselves out in the world. I couldn't really tell you the plot of this one - the Dark is rising again and Will and the others are trying to stop it? But that scarcely mattered, because I was interested in how Bran would decide his own fate, and how John Rowlands would respond to an unexpected twist in h...

The 5th of an amazing children's series I'd read so many times over that the spine creases combined into one, big, obscuring curl. I'm saddened by the previews of the upcoming movie where it appears the lilting beauty of Cooper's story has been fed steroids and 'enhanced' with explosions. What's this about an American protagonist rather than English, and no mention of the Arthurian connection? The horrors!

Some authors treat magic in a somehow mechanistic way, although perhaps no explanation is offered for how the magic works.The magic user says a spell, flames light up.The magic user says a spell, he levitates.The magic user says a spell, somebody dies.As easy as that.But there are other authors who can do more than that: they create worlds in which magic feels like air filling the atmosphere there, seeping through the words that we read so that we feel magical ourselves. One of the authors with

Finishing up my first reread of the series since I was much younger. And while The Dark is Rising still holds its spot as my favorite, I think Silver on the Tree is very close behind. There's a grand explosion of mystery and wonder and it all ties up in a fee perfect final chapters full of emotion and tension. Having more knowledge of Welsh mythology now (and the aid of the internet) is certainly a plus in really getting this series. Susan Cooper is really one of those authors whose books transc...

I really don't know what it is about this series that leaves me less than enthusiastic about reading it. I barely managed to finish this, the final book. In fact I ended up skimming most of the second half and tuning back in only for the final battle. Throughout the whole series the story suffered from a removed and distant point of view, so I never felt anxious or sad of happy about anything that happened. The bad guys weren't really that bad- they followed all the rules! There was even a point...

A quest. An adventure story. A warning for the future. Beautifully written. Just wonderful. I remember the first and only other time I read this. I was 19, on a geology field trip to Manitoulin island on a summer day. It was hot and sunny. Today I’m in Ottawa. It is January. It is -20 degrees Celsius this morning and a storm is coming. The ache in my heart right now is the same.