Over Sea, Under Stone

Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising is one of the best children's fantasy book series ever written, and everyone who likes fantasy should read it.
Yes, it was written quite a long time ago (1965) and the details reflect that, but I read it first time in the 80s, and I didn't feel it was the least old-fashioned or outdated.
Now I'm an adult, I have read it dozens of times, and I still love to reread it, and I still feel the... uneasiness, fear, excitement, worry... One thing though, it felt it took a LOT longer for things to happen back at 80s :-D

I'm pretty sure I read the full sequence as a kid, though I really only remember the titular Dark is Rising. That's the book that brought me back to this adult reread, but I figured I'd start with the first book. I have to say I enjoyed it more than I expected to. Sometimes childhood loves don't hold up well—I'm looking at you, David Eddings!—but in the case of this opening novel to the sequence, it really does. There are strong vibes and a sense that this book knows what it is.

And what is that?

I'd say that England is the vibiest part of the book. I know Cornwall pretty well and have visited Mevagissey, the town on which the setting of this book is based, so I had a good time with the location and scenery. The plot was a straight forward grail quest with kids outwitting the baddies in Scooby-Doo fashion. They really would have got away with it had it not been for those pesky kids! They're of a time, when kids weren't helicoptered as they are now. I can just imagine modern parents' horror as the characters set off around a headland at low tide to seek out a grail in a cave in nothing but shorts and sandals.

Character development was thin, with the possible exception of Barney, the youngest of the three siblings. Plot development was fast and also thin, but hey, it's children's literature.

A good book to be the last read in 2022

I'm sure this would be a good introduction to fantasy for younger generations. My own younger self would have devoured these books, just like he couldn't get enough of Dianna Wynne Jones's children's fantasy. Adult me thinks it stretches a pretty straightforward story a little thin, but will still try to get a hold of the next part.

An old favorite.

There's so much to love about these books. I never read them as a kid, and I wish I had. They are as wonderful as Narnia, but I can stand reading them as an adult, too. Unlike Narnia, there's no abrasive religious undertones and the children actually get to take real actions with real consequences. There's a lot of complexity – in the characters, in the world, in the notions of what it means to side with the Light or the Dark (and the sacrifices entailed by each). And wonderfully evocative descriptions of these places in Wales, suffused with magic and mystery.

I stopped reading this book quite some time ago, and every time I considered picking it back up, I was reminded of how dreadfully boring the writing was. What annoyed me most was what seemed to be the overdone british-ness of the characters... its hard to explain. The way the characters conversed just got on my nerves!