Before there was J.K. Rowling and a certain bespectacled young wizard there was Susan Cooper and Will Stanton. On the surface Will looks like any other 11- or 12-year-old boy, but he exists in two separate worlds. He is the last of the Old Ones, a circle of magical men and women who exist throughout the ages of the world fighting a constant battle against the powers of the Dark.

In the five books of her Dark Is Rising sequence, Susan Cooper depicts a desperate battle being waged under our very noses against powers that would create a world of fear and hatred. Drawing heavily on British myth, tradition, and history, with heavy emphasis on Arthurian lore, Cooper's Old Ones make use of the magic that is buried in our past.

Traveling back and forth in time, observing such rituals as the hunting of the Wren, witnessing the invasion of Wales by the English (proving that the powers of the Dark can wear many faces) and observing the construction of a Roman amphitheatre in England, readers are given a history of the British Isles that is remarkable for its unconventionality. With both Herne the Hunter and Arthur Pendragon playing roles of vital importance in the fight against the Dark, Cooper makes it possible to believe in the existence of myth even amid the bustle of the 20th century.

We first meet young Will in book two, The Dark Is Rising, (from which the sequence derives its title) on the eve of his 11th birthday. The seventh son of a seventh son his birthday on Midwinter's Day will not only signify another year passing for Will, but act as his birth into his heritage as an Old One, a warrior for the forces of the Light in the constant struggle against the Dark.

Will is the last of the Old Ones to be born, because it is in his time, the 20th century, that the last great rising of the Dark has been foreseen. All through the ages of men there have been great risings, indeed there have been times when it would appear the Dark has been triumphant. (They weren't called The Dark Ages for nothing.) But in order for them to obtain complete domination they have to win through in our modern times and complete their circle of power, just as the Old Ones must win through to join their circle of protection against the Dark throughout the ages.