Review - The Dark Is Rising

[wilderthan]

I suspect that the books of this sequence are among the most beautiful I've read. I get that feeling especially with this book. The tone here has changed already from the Blyton-esque kids-on-a-great-adventure of the first book, and the character is different accordingly. It's almost a bildungsroman, for all that we only see less than a month of an

Comments

[first_seventhe]

I've read reviews where people felt that nothing happened in these books.

Having finally read them, I can understand this from the point of view of people who like "fantasy adventure" books. There aren't battles and specific spells and stuff like that. But I think those readers may have been expecting the wrong thing -- these are books about simple, normal characters, who end up doing extraordinary things.

I think one of my favorite parts about this was the chapter when Will reads the book of the Old Ones. You get those great brief images of everything Will could do and all of this potential power and greatness -- such awesome writing -- and then later, he's just being a boy! It's a great contrast: the very grandiose world of the Old Ones, vs. Will's Christmas.

[wilderthan]

Yeees. The contrasts between Will's magic life and Will's normal life are so fun.