Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... The Grey King (1975)by Susan Cooper
Favorite Childhood Books (194) » 23 more Folio Society (271) Childhood Favorites (191) Books Read in 2015 (1,629) Books Read in 2021 (3,635) Books Read in 2023 (4,490) Books Read in 2014 (2,185) Unread books (952) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I liked Will a lot better in this story than the first two, probably because he had more "normal boy" moments. The memory loss for the first bit was kind of weird and I didn't really like the villain but I guess villains aren't supposed to be likable... but this plot about how Wow. The characterization and dialogue in this volume kicked the series up to a whole new level. While remaining true to its YA genre, the emotional complexity here far exceeds its predecessor novels. I'm immediately moving on to [b:Silver on the Tree|11313|Silver on the Tree (The Dark is Rising, #5)|Susan Cooper|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1364805592l/11313._SY75_.jpg|1358831]. This is book 4 of the sequence and we are back with Will and with out and out fantasy after the previous blend of adventure story with fantasy and the Drew children's return. Will is sent to Wales to recuperate after a serious illness which not only weakens him physically, but makes him forget that he is an Old One, last of that mysterious group who serve the Light and oppose the rising of the Dark. At first he is unaware that he has to perform a quest to regain another object of power to help the Light prevail, and must do so without the help of his mentor, Merriman Lyon, although a boy with whom he strikes up a precarious friendship is instrumental in helping him succeed. Bran, who it transpires is the Raven Boy from the poem Will memorised at the end of book 3, is an albino and a loner, his only close friend his father's sheepdog, Caffal. Will meets them when he starts to explore the hills, having had a small stirring of memory about what he is meant to be doing there, and the dog restores his lost sense of self. But they are opposed not only by the supernatural forces of the Grey King, a major force among the Dark, but by human stupidity and vengefulness. In some ways this is far more of an adult book than the rest of the series because of the thread concerning the relationship between Bran's mother, his father, and the local villain. Will has to grapple with issues far in advance of his eleven and a half years, though not of his greater Old One self, yet he has sympathy for Bran's difficulties. There is tragedy for Bran, though probably not as affecting as it could have been as it was telegraphed long before the event. But in some ways it is the human story concerning Bran which is the most affecting part of the book. The fantasy elements are in some ways a bit grafted on and artificial - the sequence when the boys have to answer the riddles posed by the three "kings" and who their real identities are is a case in point. It is also rather odd that a major plot device concerns a wildfire - the eponymous book that introduced Will shows us that he can start and put out fires, but here he never even thinks to try extinguishing this one, and yet he is supposed to be a powerful wizard. I liked the book, but I didn't love it, so a 3 rating from me. no reviews | add a review
AwardsNotable Lists
In this fourth book of The Dark Is Rising sequence, Will Stanton, visiting in Wales, is swept into a desperate quest to find the golden harp and to awaken the ancient Sleepers. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
Published in 1975, The Grey King was the winner of the Newbery Medal in 1976, and it is not difficult to see why. Although not my favorite of Cooper's sequence—that honor belongs to the second book, The Dark Is Rising, which was a Newbery Honor Book in 1974—this is a powerful book, one that I find deeply moving, emotionally, and intensely involving. I have read and reread this book many times, from the moment I first discovered the series as a child, and am always heartbroken at
Rereading as an adult, I do question the cosmology of Cooper's world more than I did as a child, and am not convinced it is entirely coherent. In particular, the concept of High Magic, and how it works in relation to the Light and Dark (not to mention the Wild Magic, which does not come into play here, but which is dealt with in the previous title, Greenwitch), and how the (presumably) at one-point human