For nine to twelve-year-old readers this may be subtle enough to miss, depending of course on how the word is read. Soothingly supplies just enough of an off-smelling manner of speaking to give the reader a poke up the suggestive nostrils. Cooper could have substituted warmly, brightly, or politely to throw her readers off the scent of things to come, but she doesn’t. Ignoring an argument for using strong verbs instead of flimsy adverbs of manner, which I debate in Lauren Oliver’s The Spindlers, Cooper’s choice of adverb is what tells. Said soothingly is the verbal construction that supplies the pinch of suspense.

“Of course I realize we’re descending on you out of the blue,” Mr Withers said soothingly. Withers, who invites everyone to a day at sea aboard his yacht. Our three protagonists, Simon, Jane and Barney meet Mr. It’s kind of like sticking one’s toe in the shallow end before the plunge. Every reader knows something is going to happen it’s a book! Just drop enough hints and teasers to hook the reader in. That is the first suspensive technique she employed.

She was let things stew, letting us drift in a boat on a summer day, dropping but hints of the approaching storm. In the opening chapters Cooper established the setting and each of the characters one by one without moving the plot ahead, or not much at any rate. But Over Sea, Under Stone is not a mere fantasy it is a fantasy detective thriller and quest pressed into one. I have become accustomed to have things cracking from the first chapter. I must admit that when I first picked up Over Sea, Under Stone, I nearly laid it down again, so dreary and long were the opening foundational chapters.

For the sake of space, I will confine this discussion to the techniques Cooper uses to create suspense in Over Sea, Under Stone, the first book of the series. I could have addressed her adroit handling of dialogue and her powerful descriptive passages, but I will save those for the second book in the series. Her books are plump with tasty treats for the aspiring writer. So, I come to the work of Susan Cooper late, but not too late to enjoy the treats of a well-known fantasy author.Īs an exceptionally talented and skilled writer, Susan Cooper has a lot to offer. This is the first volume of Susan Cooper’s brilliant and absorbing fantasy sequence known as The Dark Is Rising.įor the Writer: There are a great many books that I have missed reading, The Dark is Rising series among them. And in searching for it themselves, the Drews put their very lives in peril. It is even more than that - the key to finding a grail, a source of power to fight the forces of evil known as the Dark. They know immediately that it is special. Synopsis: On holiday in Cornwall, the three Drew children discover an ancient map in the attic of the house that they are staying in.

Over sea under stone book