Silver on the Tree - Final thoughts with Nymeth

Nymeth, Kerry and I reviewed The Grey King here, last month. We were all three slated to do Silver on the Tree together, but sadly life got busy for Kerry and she couldn't complete her reading, so asked us to go ahead this time. So this time Nymeth and I emailed our final questions on The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper: Silver on the Tree, the final book in the sequence.


Nymeth has already done her post, here, and as before, she has done a quick plot review. For those who have not ever read this series, the three Drew children - Jane, Simon and Barney, plus Will and Bran, are facing the greatest challenge as the battle between the Light and Dark comes to its final great conclusion.

Nymeth asked first: Early in the book, there's a scene in which Will and his brother stop a group of schoolmates who are harassing a Pakistani boy. Why do you think Susan Cooper included this scene? How do you think it relates to the series' themes?
Susan: Ouch! This is a hard one, possibly one of the most difficult scenes in the book. Actually, when I first read it, it was so unlike anything else in the book that I paused and asked myself, why is this here? I wasn't sure I liked it, at first. It seemed out of place, too real, in a book about higher magic and old magic and light versus dark; but then I thought about what the racism did. It was hard to hear the word Paki - which I remember from my childhood, being used to those of Pakistani descent - it was hateful and hard. But that was the point. The evil that Will and the others would have to face at the end, was going to be on a real, daily world level.

The scene also pointed out, like the bad-tempered Caradog in The Grey King, that people have a choice in how they behave, and sometimes in choosing light or dark, they become tools for that side - open up themselves to do greater good or evil. This is a constant theme in the books, from the agent of the evil in Greenwitch, to Caradog, the painter in Over Sea, Under Stone, to Richie Moore, and later one particular character (nameless to preserve some surprises!). They all are human beings, who in hurt, rage, fear, or greed, chose to do bad things. It's that choice that Susan Cooper is interested in, because she carefully shows one of the good characters always pointing out they could stop, choose another approach, and the bad character always says no. In this particular case, the evil of Richie Moore had its beginnings in his father, who turns out to be the worst prejudiced sort or person. This is Will's reaction:"'The mindless ferocity of this man, and all those like him, their real loathing born of nothing more solid than insecurity and fear....it was a channel. Will knew that he had been gazing into the channel down which the powers of the Dark, if they gained their freedom, could ride in an instant to complete control of the earth." At the end of the book Merriman says all the characters, all the people, will still have to fight to keep the world good, that though the battle of time has been won, the daily battle to keep the world good goes ever on.

Nymeth's response: I love how you linked this scene to Caradog in "The Grey King". I made that connection as well. My reasons for liking this scene are similar to yours. I have a hard time taking an abstract concept like “The Dark” or even a decontextualized notion of “evil” seriously, but there are many instances in the series in which Susan Cooper concretizes it in everyday things, and that’s what makes the whole thing work for me. Also, I agree with you that she’s most of all interested in the choice – what makes people act kindly rather than unkindly, what’s behind hostility, what’s behind compassion. The characters you mentioned are all human, and despite the existence of supernatural forces in the story, their actions are justified in human terms. Again, this is what I love about this series.

Susan asked next: “What do you think of the fact that some of the characters had their memories of their contact with the forces of Light and Darkness wiped? Why do you think it was done? Do you agree?”

Nymeth's reply: I think this goes with what we were talking about in our previous answers: how regardless of all the magic in the books, Susan Cooper keeps things very human. The characters in question forget so that they may continue to be human. Forgetting means that they remain as lost and as uncertain as the rest of us, making what they hope are the right choices as they go along. If they remembered, they would have definitive answers, which in real life none of us do. I especially liked how one of the characters in particular was given a choice about whether they wanted to remember or forget. Although the Old Ones have the power to do so, they don’t decide for people. They give humankind the autonomy and responsibility of choosing freely.

Susan's reply:
I liked your answer, although I have to say at first what happened to the characters very much upset me. I was mad when the first character had it done, because I felt it unfair, and I almost yelled at the book when the other characters had it done. I really had to reason with myself, think it out, because I thought it unfair they should have no memory at all. something great like that should be remembered, that's how our myths get told, and legends. Joseph Campbell says we can't have contact with the numinous without being changed, and I think that is part of the richness of myth and the call to the threshold - each character has done something special, and why couldn't they be allowed to be a little changed? I'm not so sure it was a gift to have their memories wiped, because the whole point of re-enacting a myth, is to bring back something for humanity to use and learn from. The burden of all they saw and did was very much, I agree, and they couldn't have had a normal life after, and the point of the battle, was that in the end, control of the world passes to humans, as the scene with the Pakistani boy in the first question showed, the battle between good and evil continues on a human level. I just think it's unfair that after all their choices, everything they saw and learned, that they weren't allowed to keep some of it - wouldn't Barney have painted some fabulous paintings, then? And who knows what Jane and Simon would have gone on to do. So in a way, I thought this was the easy way out. You can tell I feel passionately about this question, I really spent a fair bit of time thinking it through, when it happened in the book!

Nymeth then replied: I guess that in this case, my uber scepticism influenced my reaction. You see, at the end of the book I did feel that they had been changed, even if they didn’t explicitly remember things. I guess it’s strange, and it's hard for me to explain why I think so, since obviously forgetting an experience would keep you from learning from it. But I guess I justify it to myself by seeing these supernatural forces in more symbolic terms. So for me, by forgetting they internalized what I always saw in more interior terms.

Susan: Now, on to your excellent question which is one I would have asked if you hadn't beat me to it!

Nymeth's next question: Without giving it away, were you satisfied with the ending? Why or why not? How do you think this book compares to others in the series?

Susan's reply: Even given how upset I was with the loss of memory in the book (see previous question), I'd have to say that on the whole, I was satisfied with the ending. They are allowed to be children. I still think they should remember something, though! The best touch is what happens with the choice a character has to make in the ending - that touch of love humanizes the whole ending, and shows that in the end, it is our connection with one another that matters most. Love will always overcome darkness, is always the right choice. It is a huge choice at the end that is the right one, and that was very good, and ends the series on a powerful up note. The memory loss, not so good! In a funny way, while the book ends overlooking a lake in Wales, and the series begins overlooking the sea in Cornwall, there are other physical similarities too, such as most of the series takes place in the countryside, and that was satisfying as well. It makes good use of the natural surroundings and highlights the Celtic nature of the landscape to go with the myth being reworked. The book itself was one of the least satisfying to me to in the series, and I wondered why: was it the juxtaposition of the Barney children with Will? This time, no, I think it wasn't that. It was how the items of light were found, and the tone of the book - there was tone of coldness, distance, in this book, that made the book the least likeable for me. It was too remote.

The books are uneven, with Over Sea, Under Stone being universally the hardest one to get into and like (at least I've found, and with other comments sent to me). I did like Greenwitch, I found it very haunting. I loved The Dark is Rising. And I enjoyed The Grey King very much. Those are my favourites in the series.

Nymeth's answer: I was satisfied with the ending, yes. It reminded me of the ending of some other fantasy series, namely The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Prydain, which makes sense, as they draw from some of the same myths. That whole theme of an era ending and humankind being left with the responsibility for the world they inhabit is there in them all, and I like that a lot. "Silver on the Tree" is probably also my least favourite after "Over Sea, Under Stone", but I still enjoyed it a lot. My favourites are "The Grey King" and "The Dark is Rising", with "Greenwitch" in the middle.

Susan: My next question to you is: Did you find a difference in how the Barney children were written versus Will and Bran?

Susan's answer: I'm not sure if Susan Cooper liked the Barney children. It is very difficult to warm up to them, although I wanted to, and I liked them. As Over Sea, Under Stone, and Greenwitch went on, I liked the children more and more in each book. I really liked Jane. But Susan Cooper uses a different tone for the characters, and the love she feels for Will spills over whenever he appears. I'm not sure how she does this, but he was such a fully realized character that I wanted the series to be about him, with him as the central character. Which it was! By the fifth book, the children were more familiar with one another, so it wasn't so awkward, except for meeting Bran, and I thought that was well done. And of course Bran was very interesting. I know that she was trying to show that the mythic battle for good and evil must be played out at the personal level, and she needed characters who were ordinary as well. It was always awkward though, I felt, in the series, when the two worlds collided. I'm not sure if that was on purpose, or by accident. I really think I would have liked to know a little more about the Barney children, because they did play an important part, and one of the pivotal scenes in the whole series involves Simon and Barney at the caravan, in Greenwitch. There, they had no help but what was in themselves, to guide them forward. That was very well done and was when I thought all three Barney children had a right to be in the series, if that makes sense! Jane already had because she was involved with the Greenwitch.


Nymeth: “I guess we disagree on this one. I didn’t see all that many differences, other than the fact that Bran and Will were more than what they seemed, whereas the Barney children were “just” children. But they all played an important role in the final outcome of the whole thing. But I had no trouble at all warming up to them. I liked Jane best, though, and I like the fact that she was give a more central role as the series advanced, especially in "Greenwitch". I fully agree with you on why ordinary characters were necessary,
though. That’s really what makes this series work so well for me.

Susan came up with the final question to the series: I think the only question I have left is, would you recommend this series to children to read?

Susan's answer: I know it's kind of a silly question, but we're adults reading this series, and it's written for children especially. Myself, I know I'm going to read it out loud to my kids, and hope one day they read my copies! I really enjoyed this overall, and would have no problems giving this to any child who reads fantasy, or who enjoys reading. I think Will and the Barney kids and Bran are great kids to grow up with, along with the Narnia kids. (My daughter loves Lucy, the one closest in age to her right now).

Nymeth: I'm probably the least indicated person there could be to answer this question, as age appropriateness almost never crosses my mind when I'm reading. I don't have any children myself, and I grew up with unsupervised access to any book in the house. This resulted in my reading "The Lady of the Camellias" by Alexandre Dumas, which is about a prostitute dying of tuberculosis, when I was in my pre-teens. And you know what happened? I didn't understand what was going on for the most part, and I was bored by it. Anyway...my default answer to these questions is almost always yes. I enjoyed the series as an adult, and would have enjoyed it as a kid too. And I'm sure plenty of other kids will as well. I love the fact

that you plan to share it with your children!

Susan (Note to Nymeth: I was too late to email this to you, I'm sorry!): It's funny how we come to read books too advanced for us. I think I read Arthur Hailey at this age, and Rosemary Rogers - and adult Isaac Asimov. So it's a question of finding the right books, and all we can do as adults is guide our children to them, and hope they find answers and treasures and all the delight that we find in them.

So, thus ends The Dark is Rising, a series I had wanted to read for 20 or so years. I've finally read it, and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend this series for anyone looking to give a special gift of children's book to a child in the 8-12 range especially, depending on how much they read. Of course, I am much much older and I would quite happily give this series to anyone who wants to read good fantasy, regardless of age!!!! It really is interesting, and tackles a matter that we are all familiar with - the Arthurian myth - and changes it without altering the structure at all.

Thank you to the wonderful Nymeth for her keen insight and gentle wisdom. She makes me see things in books that I don't readily see often on my own! I really enjoyed it, so I am quite happy to do this again with any of you, my Gentle Readers, if we happen to be reading the same book around the same time.

The Grey King - Susan Cooper - or, playing with Kerry and Nymeth

One of the great things about the web is how it is able to bring people from various countries together to talk about things they love. In my case, it is of course, books. Today, for your reading pleasure, I am going to present The Grey King Discussion, with myself, Nymeth at Things Mean Alot, and Kerry at Saving My Sanity. We each asked 2 questions about the book, and are presenting the answers on each of our blogs. It was great fun emailing back and forth, and setting up the format, and thinking of things that wouldn't give the plot away. I'd also like to point out that the web truly is world-bridging, since we three cover the world - Nyemth is in Portugal, Kerry in New Zealand, and I am in Canada. Isn't that just a little bit awesome?

The Grey King - Susan Cooper - #4 in The Dark is Rising series


1. Nymeth asked: What did you think of the book's sense of place?

Kerry's Answer:I am not a visual reader. I don't get an image in my head when I read (or in this case, listen), rather I get I kind of emotional connection to what I'm reading. I found myself feeling very grounded while reading "The Grey King". I've never been to Wales and have no real idea what that is like, but I had a real sense of the farm and the sheep and the mountains. I could almost picture woolly mountain sheep
despite the lack of pictures, I felt well-emmersed in the book.

Nymeth's Answer: It was one of my favourite things about it. Last year I spent a week in Wales, in the same area where the book is set, and reading, The Grey King brought back so many memories. Susan Cooper’s descriptions are very beautiful and vivid, and I think that in addition to that she really captured what North Wales feels like. A feeling of ancientness and also of…confinement, perhaps. I don’t mean this negatively; the place really is stunningly beautiful. But the valleys and the mountains can feel haunting and a little entrapping. As that feeling is a big part of what’s at the heart of this story, the setting couldn’t have been more perfect. You can see some very nice pictures of Gwynedd here and here.

My answer: I agree with both Ana and Kerry - the sense of place was very strong in the book. I like how Kerry put that it made her feel grounded in Wales. I could see the hillside, and the lake, and the sheep. I haven't been to Wales, and yet like you Ana, I felt the sense of isolation that the mountains ringing the valleys gave, the remoteness from the rest of the world, that mountains give. I have lived in a mountain range, in the BC interior, and also on Vancouver Island, and I can say that mountains do give a very definite sense of space. Cooper really makes the scenery, the mountains, the landscape, part of the story. All of the important events take place outside, so it seems the battle of Light and Dark is for the earth itself. I really liked the sense of place in this book.

2. Nymeth asked: Share a favorite moment or scene in this book.

Kerry's answer: Gosh, this turned into a surprisingly hard question. I'm not sure why, but it did. When looking back at the book, I keep finding myself thinking of the lake at the end - the lake in the pleasant place. For all the action and danger that happened there, I find myself with an image in my head of a beautiful, and indeed peacful place and so I'll choose Will's time by the lake as favourite moments, even though I know this is a vague and very indefinite answer.

Nymeth's answer: I loved the scene where Bran tries to teach Will to pronounce Welsh sounds, particularly the “ll” sound. It made me smile, and it brought back memories of my lovely hostess in Wales explaining some of the very same things to me. Especially the morning my boyfriend and I went to Llangollen. We had to find a bus that would take us there, and that involved asking bus drivers and attempting to pronounce the dreaded “ll” twice in a single world. I can’t say we did too well, but everyone was extremely helpful regardless.

My answer: "The bracken-brown slope lay still beneath the sunshine, with outcrops of white rock glimmering here and there. A car hummed past on the road below, invisible through trees; he was high above the farm now, looking out over the silver thread of the river to the mountains rising green and grey and brown behind, and at last fading blue into the distance. Further up the valley the mountainside on which he stood was clothed dark green with plantations of spruce trees, and beyond those he could see a great grey-black crag rising, a lone peak, lower than the mountains around it yet dominating all the surrounding land."

3. I asked: Do you think The Grey King deserves the Newbery Medal? Why?

Kerry's Answer: Here I admit to my ignorance of things American. I knew the Newberry Medal went to children's books, but that was about all, so I had to go and look the details up on Wikipedia. It tells me the award goes to the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Being neither American nor aware of what other books were published for children in the USA back in 1976 when it won, makes it rather hard for me to answer this question. However, I think it is an excellent book that not only tells a good story, but introduces its reader to beautiful and haunting writing, difficult moral dilemmas, pain and heartbreak and success. It brings old legends to new life and encourages the reader to find out more about them and draws us in to the age old struggle between the Light and the Dark. For those reasons I think it is a book that deserves to be well known and well read, but I still find it interesting that such a very British book should win a US award (I see - from Wikipedia again - that Cooper married anAmerican, which I guess is what made her eligible). Sorry, I haven't really answered the question, have I?

Nymeth's Answer: I, too, have to admit my ignorance when it comes to book awards in general. It’s hard for me to come up with an answer that is more elaborate than “yes, because it’s a great book”. Awards like the Newbery are great because they bring books to people’s attention, and that’s always a good thing. But I’m someone who believes that ultimately, they don’t mean much more than that the people responsible for choosing the winner liked the book. I don’t mean this dismissively – the Newbery winners are chosen by librarians, and librarians are generally sensible and well-read and awesome in all sorts of ways. So I care about their opinion, and I want to know what their favourite book of the year is. But still, I don’t think any award should be looked at as the ultimate definition of what quality is, even one as cool as the Newbery. So I’m not sure about deserving, but it’s an intelligent, beautifully written and complex book, and I’m happy it won.

My Answer: Yes is the quick answer. Yes, The Grey King deserves the Newbery Award. Why? Because it takes myth and legend, and shows that they are rooted in real things, and that above all, faith, and love, show the way. There is such a strong sense of place here, that children can really picture it - the mountains, the lakes, the farms. There are places in this story where the characters could choose to go to the Dark, and by showing this, Cooper makes the characters fallible and real. Children reading this book can see that being good or bad is a choice, a state of mind. But it's not dull or a treatise, it's an adventure story, and it's well-done.


4. I asked: Did the riddles Bran and Will have to answer make you want to go find Welsh myths and folktales? What did you think of the answers?

Kerry's Answer: This is a reread for me. Although I suspect that on my first reading it did send me out to find out more about the myths and tales. I don't remember. I've certainly been through my Celtic and Arthurian mythology phase before now and accumulated a good collection of books and information on the subject. I'll always be a bit of a sucker for a good incorporation of Arthurian legend in the modern day (which I think Cooper does brilliantly in this series) and I'm sure that
remains part of why I still love it to this day. On this read, I could see the parallels building and enjoyed recognising at least some of the things Cooper was using in the story, but I didn't feel the need to go researching. Been there, done that, loved it.

Nymeth's Answer: Yes! Yes they did. I think 2009 will be the year when I finally read The Mabinogion. It’s really about time. I felt that there was a lot I missed about the riddles. I mean, I trusted Will and Bran to be doing things right, and my ignorance never actually pulled me out of the story. But I’m sure I’ll appreciate the inner logic of the whole thing a lot more on a second read. Kerry mentioned the incorporation of Arthurian myth, and I have to agree. We can’t say much about this without giving too much away, but it’s done brilliantly.

My Answer: One of my favorite scenes is the riddle scene. I love how Cafall helps Bran, and I really love the answers. I also like this fantasy tradition, where the hero has to answer a riddle. This is part of Welsh bardic training, where knowledge is passed through riddles. The whole setting of the riddles is fantastic, and the answers made me want to run and read all the myths and legends, and Evangeline Walton's series, and the Mabinogion, The White Goddess which I have started twice now, everything I can find so I can find those answers to the riddles. Part of my heritage is Welsh, and I feel like I've been given a key to it with these riddles.

5. Kerry asked: Cooper fills the books with a lot of description. What effect did this have on your reading, did it enhance it or make it falter? There are also a lot of Welsh words; did they cause you any trouble?

Kerry's Answer: As I said earlier, I'm not a visual reader, so Cooper's descriptions didn't draw pictures in my head. Instead, it was the power of the words in her descriptions that caught me. She uses metaphor and simile beautifully and they add greatly to the power of the book. I marked a few that particularly struck me as I was reading (and I also noted she used the sky and birds as part of her scene setting a lot).

"Birds whirred away from him; somewhere high above, a skylark was pouring out its rippling, throbbing song."

"The voice crawled like a slug over Will's skin."

"Will could sense the man's anger and malice whirling round his mind like a maddened bird caught in a room without exit."

As for the Welsh, here I think I had a huge advantage listening to the audio rather than reading the print book. All the Welsh words were pronounced correctly (or so I assume) for me and I didn't have to stumble over all those consonants on the page. The Welsh characters were also given Welsh accents which added to the sense of place I had for the book. It was an excellent recording and I really enjoyed listening to it. (And as an interesting aside, it was the only book of
the five in the series that had a different narrator from all the others. I find myself wondering if the original narrator couldn't handle the Welsh and this book was given over to someone else. I shall be interested to continue listening to "Silver on the Tree" with the other narrator as, so far as I recall, parts of that take place in Wales too.)

Nymeth's answer: I loved her descriptions. I wonder if having been to Wales helped me visualize the landscapes more easily. It’s possible that I wouldn’t have imagined it all quite as vividly if I hadn’t been there, but then again, I haven’t been to Cornwall and she really brought it to life in Over Sea, Under Stone and Greenwitch. I also loved her inclusion of Welsh. It wouldn’t have felt quite as authentic without it, and plus I just love how the language sounds. It could be my imagination, of course, but I actually think that Welsh sounds old. On a side note, the number of Welsh speakers has increased in recent years, which makes me happy and relieved. Anyway, Kerry, I imagine that the audiobook really was an advantage for you. For me, as I’ve had some exposure to the language before, I could mostly hear the words in my mind. I probably didn’t always imagine the sounds correctly, but Bran’s explanations really helped.

My answer: The description brought Wales to life before my eyes. While I can't speak Welsh, I want to learn it, and I enjoyed seeing it used in the speech and names and places of Wales. It adds to the exotic feel of the setting, and enhances the myth being told. I really enjoyed learning a bit about speaking Welsh, although I think it will be long and a trifle difficult!

6. Kerry asked: John Rowlands speaks of a coldness at the heart of the Light. What do you think about this?

Kerry's answer: This particularly struck me (which is why I asked the question). We like to think of the good guys as being, well, the good guys. They do the right things for the right reasons and don't hurt anyone or anything. But doing the right thing can be hard and it can be painful - and sometimes the decision has to be made that it will be hard and painful for others, which seems far more arrogant that deciding such a result for one's self. Will is there to fight for humanity's future, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy or kind or merciful. He's there to do what has to be done and there's a possibility he might need to sacrifice some of his own humanity to do it, which doesn't feel like it's the right answer. It's what an Old One is called to do and perhaps not something we mortals could manage. It leaves me feeling uncomfortable, just as John Rowlands words left Will feeling uncomfortable.

Nymeth's Answer: I’m so glad you asked this question, Kerry. It touches on one of my favourite things about this series, and I probably wouldn’t have remembered to bring it up otherwise. The Dark is Rising Sequence tells the story of an epic battle between the forces of Darkness and the forces of Light. If I were told this and only this about the series, my reaction would probably be “meh”. See, I’m not much of a fan of moral absolutes, and taken out of context, that seems to be what this is about. But the brilliant thing is that Susan Cooper uses this premise to tell a story about shades of grey and complex choices and humankind’s potential for cruelty, kindness, and everything in-between. For me, the coldness at the heart of the Light John Rowlands brings up is self-righteousness, judgement and mercilessness; the demand for perfection without taking into account that humans make mistakes, and that to make a mistake doesn’t automatically makes you a horrible person. That is indeed a dangerous thing. And that’s part of what makes Will such an interesting character. He’s an Old One, yes, but he’s also a young boy. And that makes him humble and kind, which is why he plays such a crucial role.

My answer: I think it is appropriate - how many times have we read where wizards, or magic users, or others who have access to memory or knowledge beyond their time, who act in ways the characters think is cold, only to find it had the best result? However, I've never thought of it as cold, because there is a difference between the heart of the Light and the Dark, and what happens to the characters shows that difference. I'd probably turn to John Rowlands and ask him how he thought warmth at the heart of the Light would be like!


As you can see, we had great fun thinking of the questions to ask one another. We hope you enjoyed our discussion and answers. We are following with Silver on the Tree when Kerry is ready. I for one am delighted to review a book this way, and it was lovely to see how we thought of sometimes similar, sometimes different, answers. I'd like to say I had fun playing with Nymeth and Kerry, too!

Happy Friday!!

Reasons to be happy today:

- it's Friday. Fridays are generally good days. The end of the work week, and two full days of being home with my family lie ahead. Possibly sleeping in to 8 am if the little ones let us.

- it got above 0 c today (that's 32F). And not just about, it got to over 40F!!! We were standing at our window at work, waiting for the temperature to rise: "Is it warm yet?" "No, I can see the smoke {from the building across the street} blowing in the wind from the north still." "No, it's freezing rain, hear it hit the windows." We left work, it wasn't quite warm yet, but by the time we got across the river, I felt like singing. It was warm! and the sun was trying to break through. A lovely way to end the day. I even opened the windows a crack once home so the house could air out a little.

- I went book shopping. Aha! you say. I thought you went last week? At least, that's what my husband said. "You know I ordered those two books so I could finish the series with Nymeth and Kerry. Well, they came in." Slightly baffled look on my husband's face as he nods slowly. So off I went......and this is what I came home with:
- The Grey King, book #4 in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series
- Silver on the Tree, #5 " " "
- Tithe - by Holly Black - see below. Someone did a book review, but I can't find it right now, nor remember who. I'm sorry! Because there is a Bad Blogger out there, and you deserve a point! Let me know if it's you!
- The Naming (Canadian title, on Mariel's blog it's The Gift - UK title book one in the Pellinor series) by Australian writer Alison Croggon *Mariel, here, reviewed the 4th book in the series, which got me interested. Someone else also mentioned her to me on their blog - I can't find it now. Please let me know if you reviewed her sometime in this past year!
and, finally, *drumroll*
- We Never Talk About My Brother by Peter Beagle. Yes, they had a copy!!!! So Nymeth gets point, for being the first to bring it to our attention, on last Sunday's Salon. Nymeth is racking up those points, and not just on my blog either......Now, when I saw this book, I paused, and wondered: do I buy it straight from the publisher? I checked my copy, and it's from the same publisher. So then I thought, "if I buy it from my independent bookstore, thus ensuring both the survival of it and that the money is going back to the right publisher/writer, I can help two things out I love very much." My bookseller said they had just got the book in. So I felt very happy, helping out with those first week sales that Nymeth mentions in her book review of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, today's post.

I thought I would also let you know thatthis same bookstore, my favourite independent bookstore in Ottawa, is sold out of Drood by Dan Simmons! Hopefully first week sales for this are good! I might have treated myself to a hardcover, because I know there is no way I can wait for the soft-cover edition to come out. Next time....more are on order. Isnt' that a good thing to hear? "More books are on order."

So that's what my Friday was like. I'm just about to sit down to watch the 3rd to last ever Battlestar Galactica episode.....I'm happy that it's on tv tonight, though very very sad it's about to end.....

I hope wherever you are tonight, Gentle reader, you have a good book to read and reasons to enjoy the weekend ahead!

another essay, and Dark is Rising and Greenwitch

This is The Language of the Night, the book of essays by Ursula K Le Guin that many of you have been asking me about. I have the 1979 edition, which is trade paperback. I'm not sure if it is still available, I don't think so, at least according to Amazon.com, it is only available used. This book has a collection of essays and speeches given by Le Guin over her early career as a writer, because of course she has continued to write these past 30 years since this book came out!

I have been reviewing - or rather, writing about - the essays in her book, in some of my posts this month, because each one is so important to understanding why we all (or most of us in the book blogging community that I have met) read fantasy. In the wider world, of course, we are reading a genre that is treated as only slightly above horror, and barely tolerated as literate, never mind as great literature. This despite the efforts to recognize within the fantasy and science fiction book world excellence in writing. She extends this to children's literature as well. Le Guin addresses all of these concerns in her essays. She also talks about the act of writing. She writes about writing, and reading, and what we find when we go on a voyage into these books. Because I love fantasy first and foremost, her books seem to talk directly to me, affirming to me what I have long ago thought in my heart about fantasy, and what I discover in my soul every time I venture into a fantasy book.

Here is what I discovered in today's essay, "The Child and the Shadow". I read this over a toasted bagel with cream cheese, and a cup of tea, and about half-way through the essay I realized I had eaten most of the bagel without tasting it, because there was so much other food for my mind in the essay.
She opens with a quick retelling of one of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, about a man and his shadow. The essay asks, Is it appropriate for children to read? Because society - parents,school boards, etc, are always asking what is 'good' or 'appropriate' for children.
She writes about the Andersen story: "I don't know. I hated it when I was a kid. I hated all the Andersen stories with unhappy endings. That didn;t stop me from reading them, and rereading them. Or from remembering them.....so that after a gap of thirty years, when I was pondering this talk, a little voice suddenly said in my left ear, "You'd better dig out that Andersen story, you know, about the shadow.
At age ten I certainly wouldn't have gone on about reason and repression and all that. I had no critical equipment, no detachment, and even less power of sustained thought than I have now. I had somewhat less conscious mind than I have now. But I had as much, or more, of an unconscious mind, and was perhaps in better touch with it than I am now. And it was to that, to the unknown depths in me, that the story spoke; and it was the depths which responded to it and, nonverbally, irrationally, understood it, and learned from it.
The great fantasies, myths, and tales are indeed like dreams: they speak from the unconscious to the unconscious, in the language of the unconscious - symbol and archetype."
Isn't that somehow perfectly said? As if Le Guin herself had bypassed all the reasons why we should read fantasy, and said why we do read it - because it speaks to something deep inside us, the place in our hearts and souls that other books that are 'reasonable' and 'good' for us don't reach. I think the idea of morality is very important, and Le Guin goes on to make a much deeper connection between fantasy and morality in this essay: she says that instead of dividing good from evil, that we must learn, what our souls know, that good and evil are intertwined. Not mixed, but rather, in order to live a whole life, we must face the darkness in ourselves, in order to contain that darkness. If we don't face it, we become lonely, because we are cut off from our deepest source of creativity and understanding about the world. If we do face it, we show the world that evil can be contained in ourselves, and we show the way for others - for children, in our stories, how to do this. How to face our shadow, and win. She also makes the important statement that we can't cut off the shadow, we can't forget about it, or ignore it; it just grows stronger, until we, the conscious self, becomes the shadow of the Shadow, which is now corrupted with the evil we wouldn't admit to. It's not easy to say, I can be like her - the worst crimes committed, but if we can find a way to acknowledge the seed of the idea might possibly exist in us, no matter how dark, we are saved.

So how do we find our way to our shadow? "How do you get there? How do you find your own private entrance to the collective unconscious? Well, the first step is often the most important, and Jung says that the first step is to turn around and follow your own shadow."

And children, I believe, instinctively know this. Le Guin makes this point again and again: they see with an uncluttered mind, uncluttered with reason, logic, all the ways adults use to stop themselves from seeing. Even if the child doesn't understand all the facets of the story, they instinctively know it's true in its depths. Not just the battle between good and evil, which we all face every day as adults, but how we live our lives. They know if someone or something is true. So my favourite Andersen tale,

is one that I have both feared, dreaded and loved dearly. All at the same time. As an adult, I can acknowledge that the Snow Queen lives in me, that I have the fearsome and awesome capability to freeze my emotions if I have to, in order to survive. If I am in danger of doing this, my dreams tell me - I'll dream I'm in the arctic, or ice or snow is all around me. And the way home for me is to love, is to feel again, to be passionate. So, fairy tales are true. How did my child-self know all those years ago? The fairy tale is my guide and my instruction home again. So is The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, so is Beauty and the Beast, so are the best fantasy books and fairy tale books and our cultural myths we tell. Le Guin says fairy tales give children the chance to see yes, the world is full of danger, and yes, there is a way to survive. We do have to be careful with children, to not shatter them with too much knowledge too early. What we can show them, she says, is this: "And it seems to me that the way you can speak absolutely honestly and factually to a child about both good and evil is to talk about himself. Himself, his inner self, his deep, the deepest Self. That is something he can cope with; indeed, his job in growing up is to become himself.....He needs to see himself and the shadow he casts. That is something he can face, his own shadow, and he can learn to control it and be guided by it......
Fantasy is the language of the inner self."

Anyway, that's why I forgot what I was eating for breakfast, because her essay swooped me away into my deeper self, where I remembered that going within is the most important journey each person makes, and necessary to the well-being of the world. So, what is your favourite Andersen, or other, fairy tale? Is there a relation between that story and you?


So, with all that in mind, how does a classic children's fantasy series measure up?


The Dark is Rising and Greenwitch, books 2 and 3 in the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. This is a fantasy series written for children, and won two Newbery Awards - for The Dark is Rising volume, and The Grey King.
I read Over Sea, Under Stone last year, and my review is here. The next two volumes are even better.

Dark in Rising introduces Will Stanton, and what happens to him on his 11th birthday. It is a true fantasy story, filled with Old Ones, magic, items to find, protecting the world from Evil, and in this book, the wonder of a Christmas with the Stanton family with their 10 children. This is a classic book of good vs evil, with a delicious sense of danger and malevolence that I love: 'And then in a dreadful furious moment, horror seized him like a nightmare made real; there came a wrenching crash, with the howling of the wind suddenly much louder and closer, and a great blast of cold; and the Feeling came hurtling against him with such force of dread that it flung him cowering away.'
I love this bit, which Cooper does in all the books: weave in a bit of local lore, that grounds the books in Cornwall (Over Sea) or The Thames Valley (The Dark is Rising), using existing magical lore to deepen the connection of how to find your way in the land of magic and dream:
"Here," Old George said, appearing suddenly at Will's side as they all pushed the cart out of the gate. "You should have some of this." He thrust forward a great bunch of holly, heavy with berries.
"Very good of you, George," said Mr. Stanton."But we do have that big holly tree by the front door, you know. If you know anyone who hasn't -"
"No, no, you take it." The old man wagged his finger. "Not half so many berries on that bush o'yours. Partic'lar holly, this is." He laid it carefully in the cart; then quickly broke off a sprig and slipped it into the top buttonhole of Will's coat. "And a good protection against the Dark," the old voice said low in Will's ear, "if pinned over the window, and over the door." Then the pink-gummed grin split his creased brown face in a squawk of ancient laughter, and the Old One was Old George again, waving them away. "Happy Christmas!"

This book is filled with danger, and evil, and goodness, and light, and those that stand eternal guard against the dark. It's a wonderful story, and I really enjoyed it. I also really wanted to go and put some holly and berries over my doors and windows!!

Greenwitch brings together the children - Jane, Barney and Simon Drew from Over Sea, Under Stone, with Will from The Dark is Rising. They are again in Cornwall, and they are brought there under the guise of a week's holiday in April (a school break time in England). Really, they are looking for the Grail, which at the end of Over Sea, Under Stone had been placed in a museum. It has been stolen, and Merriman, the Old One who is the Merlin-like figure of aid to Will in the stories, knows they have a small window of time to find it before it is lost forever. Being the Grail, it is indispensible in the fight against evil. This story took a while to find a balance; it read more like an adventure in the Enid Blyton style, then when it was involving Merriman and Will, suddenly it had the more mythic overtones that The Dark is Rising contains. Over Sea, Under Stone had the same juxtaposition of adventure fun with mythic overtones. Cooper is a good enough writer that she in the end pulls it off, and Greenwitch works on a much deeper and better level than Over Sea, Under Stone does.

I think this is because Greenwitch is based on a Cornwall ritual of making an offering to the sea. Whether this is based on a real Cornwall ritual, I couldn't say, but it feels like once upon a time, it could very well have been done. It is very simple, the creation of statue of branches - for those who know their trees, rowan and hawthorn especially are used. How the Greenwitch figures in the story, I don't want to give away, but I do want to say that this is again a magical story, with old magic and Wild Magic, which are two different things. I like this too, that there are different kinds of magic in the world. It works especially because what Jane does crosses the divide between the Wild Magic and Old Magic, something no one else is able to do because it doesn't come from knowledge, but understanding, and sympathy. So often, the greatest fantasy stories are about this act of sympathy - remember, Bilbo doesn't slay Gollum when he has the chance, and so he saves the world. What Jane,Simon, and Barney do, make up the bulk of the story, and it is believable in the way adventure stories must be for children, as well as full of wonder, as magical stories must be. Will and Merriman are more watchers, seeking the Grail specifically; I think their story is the whole of the 5 books put together. I think Cooper put ordinary children into a mythic story to see what would happen, and it is fun, exciting, and dangerous, just like the best stories for children are.
"Barney felt again the power and the nastiness that had leapt at him from the canvas he had seen the man painting in the harbour; up on this ceiling too he saw the particular unnerving shade of green he had found so unpleasant out there. He said suddenly to Simon, "Let's go home."
"Not yet," said the dark man. He spoke softly, without moving, and Barney felt a chill awareness of the Dark reaching out to control him."

Very highly recommended. I have to buy the last two in the series, and that will be later this month. I have to know how it ends!

Sunday Salon - fantasy weekend

No, not that kind of weekend, where all my wealthy, I can have anything I want and go anywhere in the world, all-my-dreams come-true kind! In true fantasy chick weekend, I have been quiet here because I have been reading and watching movies with my kids as we recover from a virus. I was home sick on Friday, and spent it finishing Horizons by Mary Rosenblum. I had to change our digital satellite box that day also since it died, so while I was at Rogers I looked around for some movies to rent, and came home with:
- Mirrormask - based on Neil Gaiman's book. very strange and I don't like the colours, so we didn't finish it. My daughter did watch some of it.
- Gotham Knight. We've watched this twice already. It's fascinating to see how Batman emerged from youngster to hero in this .
- Pan's Labyrinth. I have this for a week. I am very curious, having heard very good things about it.
- George and the Dragon. A direct to dvd movie, with James Purefoy, Piper Perabo, and Patrick Swayze, along with an uncredited appearance by Val Kilmer (I had to look twice, definitely him!). And so much fun. The dragon is obviously special effects, but it's a very sweet knight to the rescue adventure story for kids, so very little gore, and lots of genuine laughs for the adults. I really enjoyed this one and might get buy it.
- The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian. We haven't seen this one yet, that's tomorrow's viewing. since we enjoyed THe Lion, the witch and The Wardrobe so much, I'm really hoping this is good again.
- Scooby Doo and the Goblin King. Just out on video. My daughter watched this the first night.

All fantasy!!! all fun!

That's not all, though. I read. I finished Horizons, I'm halfway through Serious Concerns by Wendy Cope, and as a very special treat for myself, I read The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, vol 2 in her series The Dark is Rising, and have started the next one in the series, Greenwitch. I have to say that so far, I've enjoyed The Dark is Rising much more than Over Sea, Under Stone. I like Will and his family. So I am quite happy to see Will put together with the kids from Over Sea, Under Stone in Greenwitch.

I will reviw the books later, right now the Superbowl is about to finish (wah! since I didn't care, I was cheering for Arizona Cardinals, and they've just lost), and the one hour special The Office is just about to begin.

And I got my walk in today, as it was above 0 c finally for the first time since we got back from England. It was a very quiet weekend, as my daughter and I recovered from fevers, and very enjoyable with all our movies and my fantasy books. This is what I mean by a fantasy weekend!

I hope yours was delightful, too.

success at the dentist, and Widdershins

Hurrah!!! I now have the screw implanted in my mouth, step one to getting my new front tooth implanted sometimes this summer! Ok, I'm on painkillers and you can plainly see the screw when I take my fake tooth/mouthpiece out, which I now absolutely have to do anytime I eat anything......so more grossing out my eating companions......but I'm half-way there, finally! No more dead tooth with many many root canals done, in the front!! Oh, and the dentist found yet another infection in the area where the bone graft went, so I'm back on penicillin. And painkillers while the screw and bone adjust to one another......the good thing is it let me leave work early today because of pain, and with the second winter storm in two weeks raging outside since 10 this morning, this is a good thing. I got home before rush hour started! Though our bus almost got stuck, with 10 cm at least already fallen.
The other good thing is I met my husband downtown, who got 'stood down' from his job with DND (Department of National Defense) because of the storm, so we were able to meet and grab a quick bite WITHOUT the kids (a treat!!!!) and it was in Chapters, so I took a quick look around. I did not buy anything, though I was so tempted......Pillars of the Earth is back out in paperback which though I was given a copy 10 years ago, I didn't finish and my mother raves about it, so I want to pick it up and try again, especially as now the sequel is out. And I didn't really look around since I have two books on hold at Collected Works and there are so many I want to buy that I feel guilty buying at Chapters when I want to support the independent bookstores. So I was good, and with the snow blowing past the windows, I just looked with my eyes......
I did take the opportunity to finish Widdershins yesterday. I managed to sleep off enough of the sedative by mid afternoon to be able to read - I couldn't do much else, even the tv put me to sleep, never mind sitting at the computer - so I read to my heart's content for a couple of hours before it was time to get Holly-Anne from her daycare, which is just down the street and all i could manage yesterday. It takes a long time for sedatives to leave my system, or so my three experiences with it has shown.

Widdershins did not blow me away the way I thought it would, and yet, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think my main problem was I couldn't tell Whiskey Jack from Joe Crow Dog; whenever they spoke - and they are two of the main aboriginal spirit characters/real men in the book - I had to keep checking their names, even though as characters they are separate and fascinating. I'm not sure why. I love Geordie and Jilly, and how Jilly works out her problems is really interesting, especially how she resolves it. I really like the creative, original ideas Charles brings to his books and characters. I love all his characters. The Unseelie Court and the Native world are as ever fully imagined and realized, and especially 'the inbetween' - which he has made his own creation and which you will have to read yourself to find out about - is a place I'd give anything to visit, and I think the idea is, I can. So I'm not sure why the book didn't 'blow me away'; I think almost he had too many characters and stories, and so he didn't have enough time with some of his secondary ones who were just as interesting - in a way, this book should have been bigger. Now that I write this, I think so. I want more of all of them, more story, and I really want more Lizzie and Grey, whose story doesn't seem finished - or another story to come.
The characters are all well-drawn and lively, the music is fun, and there is real emotion as characters deal with death and change and the past affecting the present. It is a fantasy book unlike any other, and is very close to magical realism now, I think. It is well worth reading, and one of his best books, and has a better ending than some of his very early books. But it seems to me that he opened the door to a fascinating subject - fairie and the native spirits, and how they join or clash - and then shut the door on really exploring the mix, which I think would have made this book extraordinary. It is a difficult subject to write about, myths and the unseen world and this one, and this is a very good book. I highly reccomend this book, and I really hope if you haven't tried Charles de Lint, you will. He write about dark things in an uplifting manner - hope and faith sparkle through his books, and personal responsibility and choices. There's a reason why I've been collecting him from the very beginning!

Links: Eva

So now it's on to Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper, which I have been meaning to read for 20 years!