It’s a lot harder to say that Bran was conveniently found where Will was vacationing when it’s explained how the Light manipulated those circumstances so that Bran would be found. And Cooper manages to hand-wave the convenience of Bran (and everything else in the series, really) by having both prophecy and the machinations of the Light and the Dark clearly explained and shown throughout the books. The Dark is Rising sequence really isn’t so much an original fantasy world as it is a sort of adaptation or tribute to Arthurian legend. The introduction of Bran is a little strange if you haven’t yet noticed all the references to the Arthur legends throughout the series.

I quite like the balance that it strikes between the two, and as a result I think The Grey King is one of my favorites in the series. It lacks some of the “British seaside adventure” style found in Greenwitch, but also lacks some of the heavier mythical descriptions and happenings that occur in TDIR. The Grey King is sort of a mix of Greenwitch and The Dark is Rising in terms of mythological/strange things happening.

And it is Will’s long-appointed quest, as he now learns, to wake-with the sound of the lost golden harp-the six sleepers who must be roused from their long rest in the ancient Welsh hills to make ready for the last dreadful battle between the Dark and the Light. For Will himself was no ordinary boy, but the last-born of the Old Ones, servants of the Light, immortals dedicated to saving the world from domination by the force of evil which calls itself the Dark. But when he met a strange boy named Bran and Bran’s white dog, Cafall, memory awoke in him. Will Stanton knew nothing of this when he came to Wales, just before Halloween, from his English home for convalescence after a severe illness. There is an old tradition in North Wales that, within a certain hill, a harp of gold will be found by a boy followed by a white dog with silver eyes-a dog who can see the wind. The Grey King is the fourth book in the Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper.

The grey king book