The Dark Is Rising is the best of Susan Cooper’s awesome series by the same name. The Grey King and Silver on the Tree are also exceptional, though different. With all of the books that I have read, this is still one of my very favorites. There are only a couple series that I like as well.
Highly symbolic, there are connections between modern time and the medieval as the quest against evil starts to unfold. The worlds are parallel with intertwining points and transporting pathways. Greatly fantastical, the book has a strong sense of realism nonetheless.
One of the things that is so striking about the book is that Will Stanton is surrounded by his family as he celebrates the Christmas season-and yet, he is not. He is elsewhere. The sense of a historical time happening right alongside ours and even mixing with it is extraordinary. People he has known all his life are also of a different time. There are places where the times blend seamlessly, and there is the sense that it is all too real.
