Tag: Susan Cooper

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The Grey King by Susan Cooper

 

The Grey King had been recommended to me some time ago by a lover of high fantasy. Since it’s a Newbery Medal winner, I was willing to try it out, and if I liked it, I’d read the whole series: The Dark Is Rising Sequence.

My fellow Scriblerian, Tim, will not be happy with me.  And no, he was not the one who recommended that I read the series.

I can see why it won the Newbery back in the Seventies, but as a Christian, I had trouble with it. A disturbing trinity of Lords most definitely does NOT represent the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as I would expect Christian-based fantasy to symbolize. I found the concept of “Old Ones” confusing –in this case, a young boy who truly has been born into a family, but his soul is “old”—it smacks of reincarnation. So if I found it confusing, what goes on in the minds of young readers as they take in this world of  fantastical spirit mixed with humanity?

Synopsis

Of course, the setting is Wales, with lots of unintelligible spellings, swirling mists, and magical doors. Thank goodness the main characters have simple names like Will, Bran, and John. It is up to young Will, the last born of the Old Ones, to save the world from the forces of evil led by the Grey Wolf. To succeed, Will must wake up Six Sleepers with a magical golden harp. The humans are unaware of the danger except for Bran, a boy close to Will’s age who was transported through time by another of the Old Ones.

Pros

  1. Loads of action for boys’ tastes. (Have you ever noticed that girls are happy to read action stories, but boys rarely peruse a sweet romance?)
  2. Susan Cooper spends a good deal of time teaching her readers how to pronounce Welsh words. I’ve never understood Welsh phonics, so I had a great time sounding out words as I learned the rules.
  3. Spoiler: the good guys win. On to the next book of the series, Silver on the Tree.

Cons

  1. If you are a parent wanting easily identifiable, Christian symbolism for your child to understand, you won’t get it here.
  2. With forty-plus years of high fantasy novels following The Dark Is Rising Sequence, the plot may seem trite to twenty-first century readers.

Conclusion

The vocabulary is geared toward the more capable reading ability, and definitely not for anyone under the age of nine. Because the writing is so good, I won’t pan the series, but if my sons had read the book, I would’ve wanted to discuss it chapter by chapter.

 

 

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The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper Book 2 of 5

 Synopsis:

Will Stanton, seventh son of a seventh son is turning eleven and this birthday marks the beginning  of his awakening as the last of the Old Ones. The Dark is Rising tells how Will, met by Merriman Lyon, comes to power in the modern world and must accumulate the six “signs” to help fight the rising Dark.

Pros:

  • This is a basic story about Good versus Evil and how everyone must at some point make a stand for one or the others.
  • The pros in this book is stunning example where art and popular stories merge into one well done novel. Susan Cooper is hitting her stride after book one and doesn’t seem to look back.
  • This was one of the first fantasy novels to break into the Newbery Awards, which was no small feat back when it was originally written.
  • The story is well paced and full of suspense and creepy backdrops, but that might fall under the Con category.

Cons:

  • I really can’t think of any, but if you have a problem Arthur tales and the legends of Cornwall England, this may not be the book for your reader.
  • Like in the review for Book One of the series, I don’t find this story antithetical to anyone’s beliefs unless you’re an atheist. Since this is only fiction, I can’t imagine anyone taking a story so literally that it would cause them problems.

Final Word:

I cannot say enough good about this novel. This was one of two novels responsible for turning me into a reader.If you have any qualms as an adult, I recommend you read it first before you turn it over to your young reader.

 

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Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper: Book 1 of 5

Synopsis

Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper is a  middle grade fantasy novel and the first of five in The Dark Is Rising series. It features the Drew children: Simone, Jane, and Barney vacationing with their parents in the fictional village of Trewissick.

The  children find an old manuscript with a map of the Cornwall coast in the ttic of the mansion they’re renting for the summer. When Barney discovers the map is related to King Arthur, they turn to their Great-uncle Merry. He confirms that the map is a reproduction of a much older map to an ancient relic of Britain, the children decide  to withhold the information from the adults and set themselves to treasure hunting. Merry does warn the children that there adults looking for the artifact, especially and organization called The Dark. Soon the summer activity turns dangerous as they are pursued by agents of The Dark, bent on possessing the relic for themselves.

  • Pros:

The book will be enjoyed by boys and girls since the protagonists are a sister and her brothers. The book isn’t spooky, but it is thrilling and has a lot of action that utilizes the supernatural as the backdrop of story.

Susan Cooper is a wonderful writer and took advantage of all the English folklore from the Cornwall region and uses it as a backdrop for all five  books. Of all the books, Over Sea, Under Stone is probably the weakest of the stories, but it was also the first of the series. This means that if you like book one, the next four only get better.  If you don’t like book one, try the next one because it gets better.

  • Cons:

The series is a fantasy series and will get darker as the books progress on, though in defense of Ms. Cooper, you will never find her books without hope or dreary. Some children might not enjoy the darker aspects of the story.

While the whole series takes advantage of the Arthur legend, the first book utilizes the Holy Grail legend as a backdrop.  While I don’t believe they are antithetical to Christian, or any other belief system (with the exception of Atheism), the Arthur legend does run parallel with Christian beliefs: so be warned, or encouraged.

  • Final Word

Susan Cooper is the reason I fell in love with reading fantasy as an eight year-old. Though I didn’t start with book one in the series, I still found this book fun to read. Two of her books in the series won Newberry Awards, which in the sixties and seventies, was unheard of because of the general disdain for fantasy.  Having said that, her work has continued to win acclaim and readers across the genres, which speaks volumes to the quality of her writing.