The Dark Is Rising

Book 2 of The Dark Is Rising Sequence

By: Susan Cooper

Narrated by: Alex Jennings

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

On the Midwinter Day that is his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton discovers a special gift: he is the last of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to keeping the world from domination by the forces of evil, the Dark. At once, he is plunged into a quest for the six magical Signs that will one day aid the Old Ones in the final battle between the Dark and the Light. And for the twelve days of Christmas, while the Dark is rising, life for Will is full of wonder, terror, and delight.

This book is a rare act of creative imagination in which the listener will be equally moved by the warm happy village life Will shares with his large family and the nearly overwhelming danger he encounters, often in other centuries and places, while he seeks the Signs and learns their power. Interweaving ancient Celtic and English traditions with the legends of the Buckinghamshire hills and valleys where she grew up, Susan Cooper has written a superlative dramatic fantasy of the eternal conflict between good and evil out of which all myth is made.

Listen to more in the Dark Is Rising Sequence.

©1973 Susan Cooper (P)2000 Random House, Inc., Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

"As narrator, Alex Jennings superbly conveys Will's mixed emotions." (AudioFile)
"So perfect is the match between Alex Jennings' voice and this mysterious magical tale that it is difficult to imagine any other voice reading these words." (The Horn Book Magazine)

Beloved story from childhood stands the test of time

This audio version of one of my favorite books of all time was wonderful to listen to during the holiday season and is highly recommended for readers and listeners of all ages.

Missing part of story

A portion is missing. Between chapter 10 and 11.
There’s no way I could see to report it.
It seems to be unique to audible (I have it via other audiobook services and it’s complete)
Otherwise this is great and i recommend it just not from audible (till they fix it)
The full length should be 8:11

Excellent narrator, Great story

Narrator is perfect for this book, and the story is great. I did feel like it took a while to pick up, but I'm really glad I stuck work it to the end.

very imaginative

this book has fantasy with an injured woven plot line. at times very exciting and other times filled with unexpected danger

Excellent Fantasy for Children and Adults

I've read this book many times and very much enjoyed the narration of it. Highly recommend!

Engrossing.

This is the sequel to Over Sea, Under Stone. Set an indeterminate though presumably relatively brief time after the events of that first tale, this story centers around Will Stanton, who is one day away from his eleventh birthday and several days before Christmas, a chaotic time in his large family. And it's at this time that strange things begin to happen. It started when Will and his elder brother James went to get some hay from a local farmer who gives Will a strange ornament and tells him to wear it always on his belt like an extra buckle. Following a night of troubled sleep and a sudden snowstorm, Will wakes to find a strange landscape outside his window and, after a few encounters with a sinister black rider and a pathetic, frightened tramp, Wil makes his way to a strange set of doors leading into a great hall where a strange woman known simply as the Lady waits with a tall man, Meriman Lyon. These two tell Will that he is the last of the Old Ones, an ancient order of guardians whose purpose is to protect the world from the forces of evil, the Dark, and that this day, Will's birthday, marks the beginning of his quest. Will learns that he must find the six signs of light, one of which, the sign of iron, he already possesses. He learns that the mysterious, frightened vagrant he met earlier possesses the second of the six, but that finding the others will be much more difficult, and the forces of the Dark will stop at nothing to prevent the six from being joined. Can Willl recover the signs before all is lost?
As before British actor Alex Jennings does a standup job of bringing this tale to life. I would, however, recommend that you download the enhanced format version from Audible, as I know that the Format 4version in particular seems to be either damaged, corrupted or in a format that some MP3 players can't play properly. All I know is that it got to a certain point and then stopped, and while I could conceivably have just skipped past that chapter it would have been a shame to skip even just the small part that seemed to be damaged. The enhanced format worked more or less perfectly though, so I got the entire story, which was just as gripping as I remembered it from my teenage years. It's just unfortunate that Hollywood, in their usual fashion, had to totally mangle the story in the 2007 film adaptation, The Seeker. Almost makes me want to become a film director so I could make film adaptations of the entire series that would actually do it justice, particularly in view of the fact that Susan Cooper herself has expressed extreme disappointment with the way The Seeker washandled.

A wonderful Christmas classic

I love the magical world woven through space and time where I can lose myself for a happy while. Few stories remind me as much of Christmas and capture so well the essence of the deep winter season.

One of my all time favorites

I first read the Dark is rising 25 years ago, and I still find myself coming back to it every couple of years.

Dark Fanstasy for Exceptionally Gifted Children!

Will Stanton was the Harry Potter of MY childhood - a hermetic, pagan, and somewhat fatalistic Harry Potter - but a kid wizard nonetheless.

That being said, this is an extraordinary children's book. If it is unrealistic and predictable, then it is so only to the degree that all children's novels don't pay the same attention to place and plot-twist as some adult novels.

The appeal of this piece to a non-child "Audible" listener should be akin to that of well-done animation and fairy tales. Cooper interweaves somber Celtic myth with modern middle-class life. The effect is enchanting and - at times - unsettling. The accomplished narrator, too, I insist performs a conscientious and careful re-telling of what is, essentially, a dark and pre-adolescent Arthurian legend. Unlike the tales of the other kid sorcerer, Will's story wraps around archetypal imagery and highly abstract themes from the vantage of a sympathizable "everyboy" protagonist. Thus - it does not FEEL like a children's novel - nor at any point will a listener feel condescended to by the novel. It treats its child-audienced readers like adults and with dignity. It does not make itself easily accessible for them as some childrens' books do.

Freud could have a hey-day, carrying on about child-Narcissism and the damaging effects of fantasy writing on childhood development, so I won't recommend it for children anymore than I would Harry Potter. But if you must choose of the two - pick this piece for its 'humanist-responsibility' theme, impressive lexicon, and broad spectrum of emotional imagery. And for adults ... we all like cartoons and crayons - try out this title, which I highly recommend for that exceptionally gifted pre-adolescent in everyone.

5 for the series, 4 for the reader

Well, I have to say I never thought I'd hear Susan Cooper criticized for not creating a believable world, though everyone's tastes are different. I read these books frequently as a child and absolutely adored them. The whole series weaves together a large number of old British folk traditions and legends to form a tight plot fabric. I have no trouble deciphering British accents, so the reader isn't a problem for me either.