I've been openly critical of Susan Cooper's structuring of The Dark Is Rising series of books.
Sequential battles to win amulets to complete a belt of power doesn't work for me.
However the rest of those books are still quite good enough to more than make up that shortcoming.
And here is the author speaking at Oxford University in 2017.
#SusanCooper #FantasyLiterature #TheDarkIsRising
"fight battles to get more strength levels"
I'm very over this approach - so many hours playing Diablo computer game?
Strangely the earliest example I've found is a British mytho-fantasy book series called The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper that first appeared in 1965.
Otherwise excellent, the repeated, inevitable victory by the books' main characters becomes increasingly irksome.
I really enjoyed #TheDarkIsReading on twitter a few years ago. Is anyone else starting #TheDarkIsRising ? I'll be reading the first chapter and listening to the BBC Radio version with my 9 year old - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvp7
The Dark Is Rising sequence: appalling movie, passable radio series, but *almost everyone* picks the wrong story to begin at. Over Sea Under Stone sets up Merriman Lyon enough that xe does not need so much exposition. Radio did it.
The Grey King should be easy to adapt, but no-one has ever got that far. They don't need a whole fictional land with giants and a magic lion; just Wales in bad weather.
Ten authors I've read at least five books by?
Brandon Sanderson
Trudi Canavan
Robert Jordan
Genevieve Cogman
Micheal Moorcock
Susan Cooper
Terry Pratchett
Anne Rice
Ian Irvine
Kate Elliott
I could keep going...
#Bookstodon #10Authors5BooksEach #BrandonSanderson #TrudiCanavan #RobertJordan #GenevieveCogman #MichaelMoorcock #SusanCooper #TerryPratchett #AnneRice #IanIrvine #KateElliott
"Through the door of the birds where the breeze breaks..."
Following in the footsteps of Will Stanton and Bran Davies, high up above the Dysynni valley on Craig yr Aderyn (Birds' Rock), looking towards Cader Idris and the mountain fastnesses of Y Brenin Llwyd. A place that I have known since I was at primary school, but have never been to before except in my imagination.
In "Silver on the Tree," from Susan Cooper's "The Dark Is Rising" series, the evil servants of the Dark wear cloaks of either black or white to demonstrate their extreme, uncompromising fanaticism while the noble servants of the Light prefer more nuanced shades of gray or blue.
#WyrdWednesday #BookChatWeekly #31DaysofHaunting #literature #fantasy #SusanCooper #DarkIsRising
"The snow lay thin and apologetic over the world. That wide grey sweep was the lawn, with the straggling trees of the orchard still dark beyond.... All the broad sky was grey, full of more snow that refused to fall. There was no colour anywhere."
- Susan Cooper, "The Dark Is Rising"
#BookWormSat #BookChatWeekly #GothicSpring #31DaysofHaunting #literature #fantasy #SusanCooper #TheDarkIsRising
Christmas Eve in my annual re-read of #TheDarkIsRising. A very important date in the book, it gets three chapters and marks a pivotal midpoint; Will gains the gift of Gramarye and the third sign, but Merrriman places too much strain on Hawkin's love for him.
Soundtracking this tonight with Vince Guaraldi's 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' which is suitably seasonal if lacking dramatic tension!
Vivienne Dunstan
skua
Edward Andrews-Hodgson
JdeBP
Dr Richard Hussey
thesweetcheat
Bevan Thomas