The Dark is Rising - the rest of the series

[sholio]

Only short notes per book because I should probably have written these up right after I finished them ...

Over Sea, Under Stone - I really liked it!

It's definitely a book of a particular type, but a very fun and vivid one. I really enjoyed the kids, and I wonder if the introduction of actual magic (however subtle) would have been startling for someone who had come into it cold. Obviously it's much less of a surprise after having started with Dark is Rising! But it's a really enjoyable quest/treasure hunt and I had a lot of fun with it.

Also, I read the entire series as a kid without ever once catching onto Merriman = Merlin. Now that I've read the rest of it as an adult, I think I would probably have figured it out in Silver on the Tree, but that went completely over my head so it was startling to have it spelled out here.


The Grey King - A really lovely, evocative book; I enjoyed it even though I don't have a lot to say about it.

I did remember Bran, but not what the whole deal was with him, so it was fun working that out; I like the further development of powers beyond Light and Dark, and ways in which the Light and Dark balance each other. And the scenery descriptions and the kids' exploration of the Welsh mountains are gorgeous. I did not remember the dog's death at all, so that completely blindsided me!


Silver on the Tree - I could see why this was a lot of people's least favorite.

It's all right, I guess? But it certainly does feel like a lot of book for not a lot happening, which I guess is ironic for a book with a big climactic battle between good and evil. The descriptions of the Lost Land are really vivid and beautiful, but this one really doubled down on the parts I didn't care all that much about in this series (big magical set pieces, fated destinies and characters being jerked around by fate and given orders by more powerful characters) while also feeling strangely anticlimactic considering that the ultimate battle between good and evil to decide the fate of the world basically comes down to a courtroom-style debate over Bran's heritage in some random part of rural Wales. (Most likely a folklorically significant part, but still.)

I'm still figuring out how I feel about the ending. I am guessing that readers overwhelmingly hated the kids losing their entire memory of the rest of the series, but I kind of ... don't? I mean, in the context of the bigger picture, which is basically "the world belongs to humans now, it's up to you what you do with it" - which I liked. Mainly I was just glad that Bran didn't leave with the other magical folk and gets to stay with his friends and adopted family.


I'm glad I reread the series; it's been an entertaining read and now I'm feeling like I might want to do a similar dive into another series I haven't reread in a while.

Comments

[sovay]

I did remember Bran, but not what the whole deal was with him, so it was fun working that out

When I re-read The Grey King in 2010, it turned out I had forgotten the chunk of the plot that is most meaningful to me.

the ultimate battle between good and evil to decide the fate of the world basically comes down to a courtroom-style debate over Bran's heritage in some random part of rural Wales.

I am fine with this choice, but it now reminds me of the celestial trial in Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death (1946), deciding the dispensation of an airman who has become (if you take the mythological rather than medical interpretation of the film; it allows for both) liminally stuck between our world and the next. I can't prove any link between the two. The film was and remains very popular, but then again a similar sort of thing happens in Stephen Vincent Benét's "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1936), so it might just have become a literary-folkloric motif.

(I am one of the people who does not like the memory wipe at the end of this series. I am not a fan of memory wipes in general; as an element of a plot, fine, as the wrap-up to one, I can't think of a time it's worked for me. I did a lot better with everyone keeping their memories even as ordinary people inherit the world at the end of the Prydain Chronicles.)

What series are you thinking of trying next?

[greenwoodside]

I've only read The Grey King once, probably because I remembered the dog dying. But it was very atmospheric.

Like you, I enjoyed the Lost Land section of Silver on the Tree most, though I liked the book in general enough to reread it. Might do it again this winter since the Welsh references would mean more to me now than they did twenty plus years ago. I've walked through the fossilised remains of trees on the beach at Borth and skirted Llyn Barfog near Aberdyfi since then.

I remember loving gramarye1971's Dark is Rising/Harry Potter crossover fanfic when I was in my teens. It featured an older Will without his friends. I certainly thought it captured the angst of being an Old One combined with Will's general disinclination to angst. (Not going to revisit it in case in doesn't match my memories!)

Re: memory wipe. I'm neither for nor against. These days — especially since I've been reading Lev Grossman's meta Narnia Magicians trilogy — it does strike me as being rather manipulative in the nature of Aslan's "and now you must leave Narnia" announcements.

[osprey_archer]

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.

[ambyr]

I wonder if people who started with The Dark Is Rising tend to react more negatively to the memory wipe than people who started with Over Sea, Under Stone. It's horrifying on some levels either way, of course, but to me there's a difference between "this series started with magic, and now all the magic is gone" and "this series started with a Kid's Own Adventure that seemed mundane on the surface, and then magic came and went, and now we've come full circle and all that was below the surface is hidden again." I find the latter more narratively satisfying.

I have also been in a rereading mood lately (very rare for me!). I don't know what I'll pick up next. Westmark? Pratchett? Hobb?

[lunabee34]

I did hate the memory wipe, but I always hate the trope of magic leaving however it manifests.

[chanter1944]

Would you believe that, as a kid, I found The Grey King first? Cue little me, between L'engle and Cooper, becoming thoroughly enchanted with northern Wales! This was the book that taught me the rudiments of Welsh pronunciation; related, Will and Bran horsing around running down that hill will never not amuse me. Will nearly falling into the *lake* but for a fortunate ledge, and then being rescued by a shocked adult, will never not give me the chill sparks of something that's definitely not fear or dismay, which... tells on me. Ahem.

This was also the book that little me got busted sitting up reading at one in the morning - we were at Girl Scout camp, there had been tornado warnings over a period of days, and I was both unbothered and awake where my sister was thoroughly freaked, so I stuck my nose in a novel. :)

[sheron]

I bounced hard off the memory wipes even earlier in the books, and so I was already side-eyeing the sequels so I never really fully "read" them as a kid, just skimmed them to find out what happens and the memory wipe there just made me not want to get involved at all.

[snickfic]

Man, I think it is really time I tried this series again. Having now read all the books, which book do you recommend starting with first?

[copperfyre]

I read Over Sea, Under Stone and adored it, and then was so confused by The Dark Is Rising and it not having any of the characters I liked from the first one that I never finished it or read the rest of the series. As an adult I have much less of a knee jerk "no!" reaction to a shift in main characters, so I feel like I should try again!

[cgbookcat1]

I also hate the memory wipe. As much as I imprinted on The Dark is Rising to the point of memorizing the Sign chant, I think Cooper's Seaward works better as a single book.

[oracne]

I have remembered that I read Over Sea, Under Stone last! It took me a while to find it in a library (I was in elementary and middle school while reading these). I didn't own my own copies until college.

[rabid_bookwyrm]

The dog in Grey King is the only thing I really recall from these books - that they have a beloved dog and then the antagonist dog? wolf? fox? canid, like, pretends to be/looks like the protagonist dog and kills a sheep, setting up the protag dog to be killed by the farmer? There was some real horror in them seeing what was happening and not being able to turn events.

I tried rereading Prydain a few months ago and bounced off hard, I'll warn you. I remember really liking them when I was younger, but I no longer have patience for how young they are pitched. I haven't tried L'Engle since middle or maybe highschool - my middle school library had a ton of her work, which is how I learned there were more books outside of the Wrinkle/Wind/Tilting trilogy.

Other suggestions for young-me books you might also have read - the Enchanted Forest chronicles (which do hold up, except the last one), the early Tamora Pierce quartets, Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, Jane Yolen, or Monica Furlong.