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|date=July 2001
|website=http://www.thelostland.com/index.html
|cover=Cooper_Rising
|aznuk=0140316884
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As a child, I read The Grey King, book 4 in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising Sequence. I loved the book so much it topped my Christmas list for years, but sadly Santa never delivered. As an adult , I finally bought the entire sequence for myself. This book is intended as a child's book, and it is brilliant as book for children, but it is also well -loved by many adults, whether as a cherished memory of their own childhood or as a book discovered as an adult. I'll admit that as child, this can book can completely draw into other worlds in a manner not possible for an adult, but this is still an excellent read, whatever age you may be.
The Dark is Rising Sequence consists of five books in total which have been compiled into one larger edition. The first book in this sequence Over Sea, Under Stone was written in 1965, but the tales are timeless. The stories take place both in and out of time moving between what we see as the real world and a magical world of the Old Ones, whom I take to be the Sidhe although this is never specifically stated. Events separated by centuries can take place as one, but when the story is taking place in the present, there is little in the book to date the story. It could be taking place in 1965 when it was written, perhaps or in 2013 as I write this except for the notable absence of mobile phones and computers. There is nothing about this book that makes it feel old fashioned, or less relevant to a reader today.
This book has nothing to make it unsuitable for very young readers, but the reading level is fairly advanced and the print small. I would recommend this book for confident readers of all ages, and as a read aloud to story to children who enjoy Arthurian legends and children's mystery stories from perhaps age 6 - 7. Because some young children are put off by very large thick books, and because I believe the text is larger in the single editions, they might represent a better choice for a younger reader who is just starting to move into YA type books.
If this book appeals then you might also enjoy:
[[Tomorrow's Guardian by Richard Denning]]
[[Sentinel by Joshua Winning]]
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