The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
Publisher – Red Fox
Published – Out Now
Price – £7.99 paperback £3.99 Kindle eBook
It's Christmas-time in the Stanton family house: presents, carol singing, good cheer. But for eleven-year-old Will Stanton, something sinister has begun, inching round his subconscious, shouting silent warnings he can't decipher. Then on Midwinter Day, Will wakes up to a different world: silent, covered in snow and ancient forest, a world of another time. A world where evil lurks.
Because Will is not the ordinary boy he always thought he was. He is the last of the Old Ones and the power to vanquish the evil magic of the Dark lies within him.
Merry Christmas! I was looking for a suitable read for this time of year and one book has been on my mind. While not being obviously the spirit of Christmas it best captures the strange time of year and also the earlier incarnation of this season is The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. It is a strange poetical journey into myth, magic and beautifully captures the realm of nature to create a wonderfully atmospheric read.
Will is about to turn eleven. The weather feels oppressive, and animals are suddenly very wary of him. A local farmer passes him an iron symbol and a strange old man seems to be watching him from the sidelines. After a very strange night where Will feels he has been watched by something evil and powerful Will eventually finds that he is one of a group of magical beings known as Old Ones pledged to stop an evil force know as The Dark from triumphing and this is via reuniting six ancient symbols as Will is the Seeker. The Dark throws weather and various agents at Will to prevent him seeking the other Signs. Only supported by other Old Ones including the mysterious Merriman Will needs to learn his powers fast and be prepared to make hard choices to save the world.
This 1973 novel is children’s fiction and with a modern gaze could be seen as surprisingly passive. Will moves from scene to scene often doing what his elders and betters tell him. There is little banter and beyond Will’s siblings hardly any other main young characters and yet I would say this is one of the most hauntingly beautiful fantasy reads that forever has a piece in my heart well over thirty years since I first read it.
What I think marks the book out is Cooper very much is pulling together a tale out of various British myths and in the process creates a modern legend that at no point feels overcooked. At the heart is the battle between the Light and the Dark. Two force that are not at all explained. They’re big epic powers that have been in conflict for thousands of years and at Midwinter it is The Dark at its most powerful. Crucially then the setting of a British winter where the days are short, and the weather is terrible remind us that that fear of the Dark becoming never ending is a huge [part of various pagan festivals. The setting is not a school or a city but a very small isolated farming village cut off from the world and as the Dark rages that gets ever mire isolated. This is a story that perfectly captures that feeling of deep snow that muffles sound and feels eerie. Later on in the story we get storms and floods as the Powers collide for a sweeping finale where the stakes appear initially small as ghe village is cut-off and loses power but actually we see the whole world is at stake. The story uses natural magic to help push the story along and Cooper’s use of prose gives this story a sparkle I haven’t found in too many authors over the years.
In terms of characters there are not many. Will does have to make choices but he’s not someone we get to know very early he is good of heart but not the template YA hero we see in other books. He has a happy family background and isn’t a rebel. What though is important is he has to resist temptation and cruelty by the Dark and learns he is very much alone. He can’t share his secrets with his family as they are now targets. Aiding him the most is Merriman the traditional mentor figure but while largely exposition he has a sense of humour and warmth that means we don’t get the traditional mentor to argue against. When Merriman arrives on the page, he immediately grabs the eye, and you want to find out further secrets of this strange world we visit. The Dark isn’t really an evil force led by anyone, but we do meet some of its agents and in particular two standout. The Rider is Will’s constant antagonist a much more skilled wielder of magic and carries a constant air of malevolence. There is no battle of wits and one-liners here but Cooper makes the Rider frightening you sense someone you don’t want to be trapped by and his scheming and casual cruelty highlight how The Dark doesn’t value humanity at all. One of the best evil figures you’ll meet. There is also the most interesting character of The Walker an old tramp we find has had allegiances to both powers through his life. While he too makes many bad choices it is a highlight of the book that we learn his fall from grace us very much down to the Light’s own choices and this makes the story realise that even the ‘good’ power can be ruthless when required to win. For a children’s novel it is surprisingly less cuddly and more ambiguous than you’d expect instead this is battle for the fate of the universe.
For me the real standouts of the story are firstly the feeling of dread and horror this tale comprises. That can be a strange night where without anything too frightening appearing what Will feels in his head and the sense of the unknowable force watching him to rooks flying overhead and attacking. The Dark here is a strange malevolent cold force with its own agenda and reading this time I realise that it probably has a good claim to helping my love of horror develop over the years. Then on top of this we get various legends sown together – magical doors standing in the countryside leading to hidden places; ancient books hidden out of time; a memorable appearance of both an ancient longship and Herne the Hunter. Cooper weaves all these myths together to create a sense that all these stories are part of a bigger tapestry to which Will’s story is the next chapter. The depth of story created is rather stunning and we can see why a wider sequence of books was developed to further explore this enticing world of magic and myth (weirdly technically this is second in the Sequence but the official first entry was retrospectively made into the series as we will see in a future review so start here newbies).
The Dark is Rising is a perfect winter read; cold, oppressive, warming and magical. You quickly devour it in a few hours and Cooper’s writing is absolutely delicious and very suitable for a seasonal read. One of my favourites ever books and so pleased to say it still stands up! Strongly recommended to everyone.