Although we had a box set of The Dark is Rising sequence on the shelves for my entire childhood, I only read it as an adult after one of my college friends raved about it. She shipped Will/Bran. I was very surprised Bran didn't show up till book four! She also loathed the memory-wipe ending, so I went in knowing that was going to happen, which dampened any emotional reaction on my part. But I wonder what I would have felt about it if I'd gone into it cold.
There's definitely whiplash between the kid's-own-adventure of Over Sea, Under Stone and the more high fantasy battle-between-good-and-evil of The Dark Is Rising. I enjoyed the first book, and I did like parts of the second - as you said in your other post, the atmosphere is fantastic - but Will spent most of the book being shuffled through the plot like a counter on a board, "being jerked around by fate and given orders by more powerful characters" as you said. The same in Silver on the Tree, my other least favorite.
It's such an interesting series, though, just for being so varied - different tones, different kinds of fantasy. I've always wondered if she meant the first two books to be connected from the beginning or decided to do it when she got to Greenwitch.
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There's definitely whiplash between the kid's-own-adventure of Over Sea, Under Stone and the more high fantasy battle-between-good-and-evil of The Dark Is Rising. I enjoyed the first book, and I did like parts of the second - as you said in your other post, the atmosphere is fantastic - but Will spent most of the book being shuffled through the plot like a counter on a board, "being jerked around by fate and given orders by more powerful characters" as you said. The same in Silver on the Tree, my other least favorite.
It's such an interesting series, though, just for being so varied - different tones, different kinds of fantasy. I've always wondered if she meant the first two books to be connected from the beginning or decided to do it when she got to Greenwitch.