After The Dark Is Rising, this is my favorite of the Dark is Rising Sequence. This novel works because it is such an intimate and romantic story. The Welsh setting is beautifully described and the pain of being different and approaching adulthood are captured in all their sticky reality.

Will Stanton, suffering from the after effects of a long illness and slowly regaining his memory is sent to Wales to recuperate. There he meets Bran, the mysterious white-haired boy, and Cadfal, his beloved dog.

There is quite a story in here interwoven with the larger story of the battle between Dark and Light. It would be easy to make the character of Bran all sweetness and light, but Susan Cooper never takes the easy way out. She fills Bran with all the contradictions contained in every one of us - the potential for good and evil residing uneasily twinned inside him, waiting for him to choose his way.

This is the book that made me want to visit Wales when I was a little girl. I still do. ( )

There is a Welsh legend about a harp of gold, hidden within a certain hill, that will be found by a boy and a white dog with silver eyes -- a dog that can see the wind. Will Stanton knew nothing of this when he came to Wales to recover from a severe illness. But when he met Bran, the strange boy who owned a white dog, he began to remember. For Will is the last-born of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to saving the world from the forces of evil, the Dark. And it is Will's task to wake -- with the golden harp -- the six who must be roused from their long slumber in the Welsh hills to prepare for the last battle between the Dark and the Light.

This is to date my favorite book of the Dark is Rising Sequence. It was so nice to see Will struggle with something for a change. It made him human, it made him relatable, it made him the child that he is, and it made him lovable. Rather than dreading a book focused solely on Will, I found myself eagerly turning page after page. There was also much more emotion in this book. At one particular part, after experiencing a character death, I swear I lost the ability to breathe for a couple seconds. And Bran's family history, when discovered, leaves me anxious to pick up the fifth book.

However, true to Cooper's style, I felt the book lacked a bit in the explanation area. I would have liked to know what was so powerful about the six riders and why they had the power to stop the Grey King. I would have also liked to know more about other two robed figures Will and Bran met in the cave (for lack of a better, more grand term).

I still liked the book, though, and I can't wait to read the fifth one! ( )

I am involved in a group read that is working through this series, so I re-read this book for the first time in what must be more than 20 years. As a child I loved it and read and re-read the book, to the point that I still had a vivid memory of some of the scenes. On re-erading it I rediscovered some scenes I had forgotten.

Susan Cooper has written a classic series, with an incredible sweep of imagination, and such an enduring appeal that some of the things she invents in these books are even being remembered as a kind of new folk lore! For instance, the association between Cader Idris and King Arthur is actually quite modern, but these days anyone will tell you that the mountain is Arthur's seat! That tells you how widely these books have been read and are still read.

And so they should be read. The stories areclassics. This one rightly one a Newbery award. It is not quite the perfect children's book that the earlier "The Dark is Rising" is, but there were aspects of this book that made me almost ache as a child! I remember when I first read the start of this book, where Will Stanton wakes up from a fever grasping at a memory that he has lost. That was, for me as a boy, an incredibly powerful way to start this story - and the rediscovery, followed by the mystery around the boy, Bran, all worked perfectly driving to the conclusion.

Caradog Prichard is an annoying nasty character that had me feeling terrible righteous anger - and he is but the helper of the real antagonist - the Grey King.

What is more, the location of this story in the beautiful Dysynni valley was so perfect for anyone who has ever visited that part of wales. The landscape of that valley just evokes mystery and a feeling that this is the centre of some old and wonderful legend.

On the downside, this book was written in the 1970s and in places the dialogue sounds a little clunky to 21st century ears. Will Stanton uses phrases like "Good Lord, no". The Welsh is also rather formal and uncolloquial (not that a non Welsh speaker will care about that!) But just because the book is now 40 years old does not mean it is any less a good read. Children still read all kinds of other books from that generation - and this series should be among them.

Suitable for ages about 10 and up, and it was something of a cult book when I was at University too, so there are no upper limits here. ( )

Like its predecessor "The Dark is Rising," this book deals more with the philosophical implications of the Light versus the Dark than with a gripping plotline. The action of the book was a bit slow and dry for me; the climax comes more through character development and solving a mystery rather than through the expected vanquishing of a foe. This book, in particular, ends rather suddenly, as it seems to reveal such monumental information in its conclusion that there can be no relaxing pause for the characters before the end of the story is cleared up in the last book.

The struggle between the forces of "masters" of either the Light or Dark and mere men reflects Christian debate on predestination versus free will quite strongly, yet Cooper has her characters act as if Christianity is just a belief subservient to the greater forces of her story. Once again her personal attitude on religion, and the philosophy she wishes to convey through her storyline, are unclear to me, yet the debt to Christianity in her writing is undeniable. ( )

This is the fourth book in The Dark is Rising Sequence and probably my favorite so far. This one seemed slightly more mature than the previous ones. It annoys me that Will never really has to think to solve his problems--he always knows what to do, what words to say in the Old Language, just by "instinct." Where's the fun in that? A very quick read. ( )