Over Sea, Under Stone (1965)

I gave this as a Christmas gift to my nephew and read it before wrapping it. The kids loved it, although I was worried some parts would be a little too scary for the youngest. My sister read it aloud to them and they requested more books in the series. ( )

Above 3-1/2 ( )

This book started out with such great promise: three children spend their vacation on the coast of England in an old house filled with hidden passageways and rooms. They find a manuscript that is tied to Arthurian legend and learn from their mysterious great "uncle" about the ongoing battle between good and evil. And that's where the book stops being interesting. The rest of it is a lot of running around the immediate area, trying to interpret the map on the manuscript in order to find just one item, and being chased by mean people in the process. It felt like a Scooby Doo episode to me. There was even a big dog that followed them around and played a part in helping the children out. I would hardly categorize this book as fantasy. The ending is disappointing. The epilogue sets up the book for a sequel; I wonder if these books get more interesting, but I just don't know if I'm motivated to find out.

( )

Very few people [who know me at all:] are unaware that The Dark Is Rising is possibly my favourite series of books in the history of ever. Still, I haven't done a series of proper reviews for them, which is a horrible shame, and I'm going to do that this time through.

This is probably the fifteenth time I've read Over Sea, Under Stone, give or take a few times. Someone I knew recommended skipping it, since it's the most childish book in the series -- written, if I recall correctly, well before the other four, and most definitely aimed at kids. The scenario reminds me a little of a faintly Arthurian Enid Blyton story: three kids are on holiday and stumble into a mystery. On the other hand, it's much fuller than an Enid Blyton story. It's a fantasy story, at its most basic, really: the Dark vs. the Light. There's hints at an underlying story about King Arthur.

Character-wise, at this point it's relatively simple. Simon, Jane and Barney are pretty typical kids: the bossy older one, the practical and prepared girl, the youngest daydreamy boy. Still, they're endearing: Barney would have had my heart from the moment he opens his mouth and calls his big brother "cleversticks" -- if he hadn't had it already from being as devoted to King Arthur as I am. They may be simple characters, but they're also realistic. They get scared about what they're getting into, they doubt things, they underestimate the danger...

The writing itself is lovely. Not too fancy, and yet still describing things well. There's a real sense of ominous danger in parts of it, and yet the writing also brings across a feeling of childhood, summer vacations and sunburns and going to see the sea.

All in all, reading it now and knowing what the rest of the series is like, I look for the hints and things that will connect up, later. Something I've noticed this time through especially is the hints at Barney being something special, which is followed up on in Greenwitch and Silver On The Tree. It's interesting how often he knows or intuits things which seem hidden from everyone else.

Over Sea, Under Stone isn't my favourite book of the sequence, but it's still worth reading if you can get into it for the light it sheds on the later books.

Now, onto The Dark Is Rising itself! Spending a book with Will and the other Stantons feels like a lovely idea right now.

Reread again in December 2009. Oh, Barney Drew... ( )

I wish we could set multiple read dates on GoodReads. One day I'll run out of alternate editions, if I keep using this workaround. Anyway, my other review of Over Sea, Under Stone is here; this is a quick note of how I felt this time round, especially in light of the fact that I'm doing a children's lit course at the moment.

That's what makes me give it five stars, really. As a book for me as an adult, Over Sea, Under Stone is a bit lacking. I do think Susan Cooper has a deft hand for details: this book is atmospheric, genuinely scary at some points even for me, now -- and you have to remember that not only am I grown up, but I've read and reread this book more times than I should probably admit to -- and it has good touches of what people are really like. The children especially are realistic to me, their little antagonisms, the things they carry in their pockets, the way they stick together, and how far they can be pushed before they become too frightened to go on... All of that rings true, and much more true than Enid Blyton's Famous Five and the like, which I did compare this to in my other review. I don't think the book really talks down to the child reader, and the focus is on the adventure, not on being didactic.

But for all that it rings true, it doesn't go very deep. The children don't learn and grow as much as they will in later books. The adults are there for realism, and they're either not really present -- just cyphers -- or evil. So that's what makes it a little lacking.

I do think the later books in the sequence are rather more mature.

I did find recordings of the BBC radio adaptations of the first two books of the sequence. I don't remember listening to the one of Over Sea, Under Stone. I should do that. ( )