Hidden Gems: The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper

There are a lot of books I love. I’ve been reading voraciously almost since I learnt how, tackling a Baron Munchausen story *grin*. I’ve always been most interested in books as gateways: magical artifacts that can transport me somewhere else, to places I would not have dreamed of myself, but that will always remain with me. So I don’t usually read — or write — books about the real world, at least not the ‘normal’ bits.

Some of the books I love seem to be a ways off the path for most other readers. This has always seemed like a nasty injustice to me, both for the authors concerned, and for other readers. I could do a quick list, but that doesn’t seem entirely fair either. So I think I’m going to make this a series of posts, and take the time to go into a bit more detail about each one. I’ll try to pick out the books that most often get me blank stares from people, and explain what it is I love about them. I’ll also provide links to authors’ websites or relevant bios where I can.

Greenwitch, book 3 in the Dark is Rising sequence.

I’ll kick off with Susan Cooper‘s magnificent “The Dark is Rising” sequence. It is one of the eeriest and most magical things I have ever read. It was the first work to grab me and drag me off to a place so enchanting it took my breath away, and it did so more powerfully than anything else ever has. The Dark is Rising sequence makes the world magical again, and gives me back my sense of wonder and awe, and I will never be able to thank Cooper enough for that.

The core idea of the sequence is that there are poles of mystical power watching over humanity, with very different intent. The two major forces are the Dark, which seeks to gain dominance over mankind and drive it to its destruction, and the Light, which fights to stop them. Both sides have agents in the world — ageless, magically talented, able to step between times as easily as between spaces. There are other poles of power as well, and each of them capture the same feel of vastness, grandeur and wonder, even the Dark. It is clear throughout the books that you are only getting to see the tip of the iceberg, and trying to guess what is hidden can lead to all sorts of amazing places.

The series consists of five books, “Over Sea, Under Stone“, “The Dark is Rising“, “Greenwitch“, “The Grey King“, and “Silver on the Tree“. They are set against — and within — a wondrous evocation of English and Welsh myth, taking elements of the ‘Matter of Britain‘ and teasing them out to produce a mystical web which ensnares the modern world. Most of the protagonists are children, but the writing is beautiful and lyric, with a grace and maturity that many adult-protagonist books would be jealous of.

The stories follow six of the Light in their struggles to drive back the Dark; three normal children helping out, and three of the Light’s own agents. The first two books deal with different protagonists, but then the series gets more entwined, leading up to the dazzling finale to decide the fate of humanity.

“The Dark is Rising“ sequence is beautiful, and if you haven’t read it, do yourself a favour and find a copy.

Important note: by all that’s holy, avoid the recent movie “The Seeker: The Dark is Rising” like the plague. It was a Hollywood version of the second novel — which is to say that it ripped out the guts, heart and eyes of the original version, and then did unspeakable things to the twitching corpse. Moral of the story: don’t give movie adaptations to directors who publically boast how much they dislike the original work.