Simon, Barney, and Jane Drew take a vacation to Trewissick, five miles from the sea. There, they meet their mysterious Great-Uncle Merry, who joins them on a quest to find a hidden Grail after they find an ancient map in the attic of the house they are renting. The children are in for more than they bargained for, however. There are other people who want the Grail, and their purposes are no good.

What an adventure!

I was expecting to meet Will in this book, but instead, Merriman Lyon was the character shared between this book and another book in the sequence. Though by now he's a familiar character to me, Meriman's true identity never occurred to me.

This was a great book. I enjoyed it so much that I can’t wait to finish the other books in this series! ( )

The Drew children's holiday in Cornwall is made memorable by their inclusion in their honorary Great Uncle Merry's quest to find one of the great things of power in the fight against the Dark. The eternal conflict between good and evil is linked to the Arthurian legend and Great Uncle Merry is a figure of old and great power. This story and "Greenwitch" are less complex than the others in the sequence

This first book in "The Dark Is Rising" series was mildly interesting—my son assures me they get better. This book was written in 1965. Back then a smart 5th to 7th grader could have read and enjoyed it. Today many students I know of that age might have trouble reading something with so much description and a large vocabulary with references to the Arthurian legends. An older reader would find the story a little childish. This may be why this series, which promises to be very interesting, is not wildly popular. It could make a good series for a Harry Potter fan.

The first story tells of three siblings, Simon, Jane, and Barney Drew, who spend a vacation in a rather strange house on the Cornish coast. Their Great Uncle Merry, who arranged for this vacation, pops in and out of the area helping and guiding them to find a missing grail. Other, darker forces, are working against them to find the grail first. The story is mildly interesting, but the children often seem to be pretty foolish and somewhat annoying. It is also difficult to believe that the parents could be so oblivious to what is going on—even in England there must be some sort of parental supervision when you are in unfamiliar places.

In spite of these reservations I enjoyed the story enough to want to continue the series. ( )

http://books.moonsoar.com/archives/20... ( )

This book references the legend of King Arthur but brings his quest for the Holy Grail to the modern realm, offering a fresh take on fantasy in which ordinary children play the roles most familiarly assigned to heroic knights. The language is not overly flowery, but injects just enough description to evoke the physical atmosphere in a palpable way. While I felt the quest itself progressed a bit quickly in the book, with the characters figuring out their next moves a little too easily, the plot is punctuated throughout with intrigue and conflict so that the story is not too predictable. The book prefaces a series that sees additional characters develop in vastly different times and places, but works well on its own, not taunting the reader with mysteries yet to be resolved. It is perhaps not as evocative a story as its follow-up, but one that I have read several times now and can still enjoy and be surprised by on each re-read. ( )