: The Dark is Rising
Author: Susan Cooper
Book two of the “Dark is Rising” sequence. A very different book from the first. Didn’t seem at all geared towards children, though the main character is a boy who discovers on his eleventh birthday he has special magic powers. Unfortunately, those powers come with tremendous responsibility, and he’s not at all happy with the situation: it’s more of a curse than a blessing. Excellently written, but dark, abstract, and full of mystery and odd philosophical and theological explanations. The boy saves the world, but I never quite understood the how or why (the only time he does something creative, he’s “inspired” by a voice inside him; otherwise everything seems to happen to him). For most of the book you aren’t really sure what is happening. There’s time travel, strange magic, mysterious things, evil everywhere, etc. Towards the end of the book we’re treated with long-winded explanations of everything, but it’s more like reading a textbook on magical history instead of an adventure story. The ending isn’t as satisfying as it should be. In short, this is a well-written and thought-provoking book for adults, but the child in me wanted a lot more fun.
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