Dark is Rising/King of Shadows

[Amy Z]

Rosmerta wrote:
 
> Ender (or anyone else) if you have any more opinions on The Dark Is 
> Rising, I'd love to hear them. I've seen the series mentioned but 
> don't know anyone who's actually read any of the books... 

Hi, Rosmerta!  I finished the series last month and posted my thoughts 
on the series at msg. 2910, which started a thread like the one you've 
just read.  I do recommend them highly despite my criticisms.  I'd 
love to hear more from John on why they're the best ever.

On a related (but totally unrelated to King Arthur) note, I just 
finished listening to a much more recent book by Susan Cooper and 
absolutely loved it.  I couldn't wait to hop back in the car (I don't 
bring the tapes inside.  The exception was Thanksgiving break, when I 
could spend 5 days doing no work, so I brought in HP 2-4 and lay on 
the couch day and night, headphones on, munching clementines, 'til I 
reached the end).  It's called King of Shadows and it's about a boy 
who goes to the new Globe in 1999 to play in a boys' Shakespeare 
company and is transported to 1599, where the Lord Chamberlain's 
Men are rehearsing for a performance in the =new= new Globe, as in, 
when it was first built, and he finds himself playing Puck to 
Shakespeare's own Oberon and having Shakespeare as a mentor.  If you 
love theater and Shakespeare it is a must-read.

I can't say it's a must-listen, because the accents are atrocious.  I 
picked it up and said, "ooh, Susan Cooper" and then "hey, and it's Jim 
Dale, too, so much the better" (pauses to acknowledge retching noises 
emanating from St. Andrews).  Well, Jim Dale may have a talent for 
accents, but his Greenville, South Carolina is godawful.  The book is 
a read-out-louder's nightmare, featuring kids from all over the US, 
grownups from all over England, and 16th-century speakers who are 
supposed to sound something between a modern West Country and modern 
southern U.S. accent.  (The accents are significant, too, because the 
reason Nat blends in as well as he does in Elizabethan England is that 
certain Southern U.S. accents =are= supposedly the closest modern 
equivalent to the way Shakespeare would have talked.  Cooper must've 
seen The Story of English on PBS, same as I did.)  To make things 
tougher on the listener's ears, it's in first person, so Jim is doing 
his non-South Carolina accent almost all the time.  Yikes.  However, 
it's a tribute to the book that I still couldn't stop.

Amy Z