Once and Future King

[bibliogramma]

I know, it’s hard to believe, but I’d never read Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series before this year. But, what with the movie coming out and everyone talking about what a mess it had made of the books – plus the fact that I knew they were part of that large body of modern fantasy with Arthurian themes – I finally got around to reading the series.

Over Sea, Under Stone
The Dark is Rising
Greenwitch
The Grey King
Silver on the Tree

I should begin with the admission that I’m rather iffy about young adult books. Sometimes I like them a lot, and sometimes I don’t like them at all, and I’ve never really been able to figure out what it is that makes the difference. But these, I liked. And not just because Merlin was hanging about being all archetypically mysterious.

Like many epic fantasies, this series is another take on the battle between good and evil, drawing on both the history and the mythology of Britain to tell the story of the last-born Old One – a young boy named Will Stanton, the seventh son of a seventh son, whose destiny it is to complete, with the aid of both the other remaining Old Ones, including the Merlinesque Merriman Lyon, and three young, and very brave and inquisitive but otherwise quite ordinary children Barney, Jane, and Simon Drew, a sequence of magical tasks that will allow him to stand as the last Merlin at the side of the last Pendragon in the final battle.

Yummy stuff. And fine reading for a few unusually dark and dreary winter’s eves.

Comments

[shartyrant.livejournal.com]

I'll have to give the books a try then. I originally was going to skip it after watching the movie. It was pretty...lame. My husband and I barely made it through the movie after renting the DVD. I had never read any of Cooper's work before so it was my first exposure to the series and left a very bad taste in my mouth to where I was going to avoid her like the plague. Have you seen the movie and how much would you say it is similiar?

Can you tell I am gun shy still?

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the movie, nor do I intend to. Oh, maybe it it's on TV late some night and I've got insomnia and there's nothing in the house to read and there's nothing on any other channel except infomercials and episodes of Law and Order that I've already seen 20 times. ;-)

However, everyone I know who saw the movie and was also familiar with the books has said that the movie does not in any way reflect what's so good about the books.

I think that if you enjoy reading fantasy with young protagonists - especially if you like C.S. Lewis' Narnia books or (even closer in feel, I think) Madeleine L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time series or Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles - then you'll enjoy these.

[calico-reaction.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel better, I haven't read them at all either. :)

[bibliogramma.livejournal.com]

You might want to give them a try when you have the time and inclination - they're a fast and entertaining read, but with enough solidity that you know you've read something worthwhile when you've finished.

[calico-reaction.livejournal.com]

I've heard good things about the series. One of my good friends from college is insanely in love with the series, and was insanely PISSED OFF about the whole movie, before and after she saw it.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I've heard that from everyone else I know who had read the books before seeing the film. I gather they screwed with things in a very serious manner, and to no good end.