Sheer Brilliance
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I first read this series in 1986. I loved it but gave it away to a friend! Last year I bought the series again & was captivated. Especially as I realised that some of it was set in Tywyn where my partner is from! It's very spooky when you realise that all of the places in Wales are real! The American film of "The Dark is Rising" does not even compare to the stunning intricacies of the writing. These books had me on the edge of my seat both as a child and an adult. Amazing!
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Not good for reading aloud
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I am sorry to confess that I really didn't like this book. Reading all the enthusiastic reviews, I am clearly out-numbered but if I explain why I didn't like it then maybe you can decide whether your mind works like mine or like the books' admirers.
Perhaps the difference is that I read the book aloud and I have the impression most of the reviewers read it alone as children. When you read a book aloud you are very conscious of the quality of the prose and especially the dialogue. That, I believe, is the weakness in Susan Cooper's books.
The story is nicely crafted and it is easy to identify with the brave and occasionally foolish children who are the heroes. But I found the prose excruciating. It is difficult to explain what is wrong but I found myself skipping practically every other sentence in order to make it readable. Try reading a page from the Dark is Rising and then a page from Jonathan Stroud's superb "Amulet of Samarkand" and you will know what I am talking about.
I find it difficult to understand why better editing wasn't applied as it would not be difficult to improve Susan Cooper's writing. The answer may be that the book was written a generation ago when people used typewriters and standards were different. Children's books tended to be slower with a dumbed down version of adult prose that sounds pedestrian compared with the lively artistic style of some modern children's writers. Try digging out your old copy of the first of Enid Blyton's adventure stories (Famous 5 I think) and you will be amazed at the uninspiring description of the family getting ready to go on holiday, including getting dressed and having breakfast, which goes on for about 50 pages.
I suspect a lot of the support for this book is nostalgic. If you read it as a child and loved it, go ahead and get it again. If it is new to you, please have a look at a copy in a shop before you buy it in case you find you agree with me about the writing. There is so much excellent children's fiction around, it's a shame to make a mistake.
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Great series, awful film
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A wonderful series such a shame Fox have made such a needless and tragic hash of transferring it to the big screen. Maybe if someone at Fox had actually bothered to read Dark is Rising then they may not have made such a soulless and disappointing cure for insomnia of a film.
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Time for a new generation to enjoy this
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I first read these books years ago, and have a much thumbed version on my bookshelf. They were collectively one of my favourite books then, and now a whole new generation can start to enjoy them thanks to the film version of The Dark is Rising.
I persuaded my son (12) to come and see the film with my husband and me, and he loved every bit of it, as did we. When we got home my husband almost beat me to the bookshelf and we have to share it! Time to buy a new copy for him and my son, otherwise my copy will fall apart.
If it takes a film version to bring these books to the notice of a new generation then so be it. These are classic tales of good and evil, Arthurian legends and good old fashioned adventure stories all mixed together, with common threads running through them. I'm loving them as much now as I did when I first read them.
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the dark is rising sequence
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such a great pity there are no unabridged audio book recordings of this series. I suppose they will arrive after the film.
Why oh why are book publishers so slow to audio tape good books without there being a film on the way.
Please publishers do us a favour and audio tape the series but please not as an abridged version. Go the whole hog and do a cover to cover version.
Abridgers never ever get it right.
Senior Librarian
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