![]() ![]() In this fight, Will is the sign seeker charged with finding the six great signs of light which when joined will empower the old ones to defeat the dark. Soon he learns that he is no ordinary boy, but one of the ‘old ones’, possessors of special powers and knowledge and while this makes him extraordinary, it also places on him a great burden-to fight the forces of darkness which are rising once again. When Will wakes up the next morning (after a hard, snowy night), he finds himself in almost a different world. As they visit the Dawson farm, Mr Dawson gives Will an ornament-an iron circle quartered by two crossed lines which he tells Will to wear as a buckle always. But as he steps out with his brother on the evening before his birthday for some errands, strange things begin to happen-the birds and animals are uneasy, even his own dogs seeming to ‘fear’ him, a tramp is lurking about, and Will himself experiences a strong feeling of fear in his subconscious. It is nearly the winter solstice, the day that also marks Will’s birthday and he is about to turn 11. ![]() The book opens in the Stanton home where young Will Stanton lives with his parents and several siblings, the eldest though away in the Navy. Second in the Dark is Rising sequence, The Dark is Rising (1973) by Susan Cooper takes us into very different territory from and introduces us to entirely different characters than the first book, and if I found the darkness and danger palpable in that one, in this book it is far more intense and disconcerting. ![]()
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