Seaward

by Susan Cooper

His name is West. Her name is Cally. They speak different languages and come from different countries thousands of miles apart, but they do not know that. What they do know are the tragedies that took their parents, then wrenched the two of them out of reality, into a strange and perilous world through which they must travel together, knowing only that they must reach the sea. Together West and Cally embark upon a strange and sometimes terrifying quest, learning to survive and to love and, at last, the real secret of their journey.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Adventure, Middle Grade, Science Fiction Fantasy

180 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1983

About the author

Susan Cooper's latest book is the YA novel "Ghost Hawk" (2013)

Susan Cooper was born in 1935, and grew up in England's Buckinghamshire, an area that was green countryside then but has since become part of Greater London. As a child, she loved to read, as did her younger brother, who also became a writer. After attending Oxford, where she became the first woman to ever edit that university's newspaper, Cooper worked as a reporter and feature writer for London's Sunday Times; her first boss was James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

Cooper wrote her first book for young readers in response to a publishing house competition; "Over Sea, Under Stone" would later form the basis for her critically acclaimed five-book fantasy sequence, "The Dark Is Rising." The fourth book in the series, "The Grey King," won the Newbery Medal in 1976. By that time, Susan Cooper had been living in America for 13 years, having moved to marry her first husband, an American professor, and was stepmother to three children and the mother of two.

Cooper went on to write other well-received novels, including "The Boggart" (and its sequel "The Boggart and the Monster"), "King of Shadows", and "Victory," as well as several picture books for young readers with illustrators such as Ashley Bryan and Warwick Hutton. She has also written books for adults, as well as plays and Emmy-nominated screenplays, many in collaboration with the actor Hume Cronyn, whom she married in 1996. Hume Cronyn died in 2003 and Ms. Cooper now lives in Marshfield MA. When Cooper is not working, she enjoys playing piano, gardening, and traveling.

Recent books include the collaborative project "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure" and her biography of Jack Langstaff titled "The Magic Maker." Her newest book is "Ghost Hawk."

Visit her Facebook pages: www.facebook.com/SusanCooperFanPage
www.facebook.com/GhostHawkBySusanCooper

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was in sixth grade I had a teacher who was a real fantasy reader. And the man could do the most excellent voices for every character. We sat enthralled at his feet as he read aloud to the entire class each day. No mean feat to keep a mess of eleven and twelve year olds' attention like that day after day. He's a huge part of the reason I love the genre and he is responsible for introducing me to so many of my all-time favorites, including (and perhaps most memorably) the incomparable Lloyd Alexander and Susan Cooper. Not long after we, as a class, inhaled Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence, I struck out on my own looking for anything else I could find by the woman. A kind school librarian handed me a copy of SEAWARD. It was instant love, you guys. I've re-read my copy so many times over the years and I guess I thought all other Dark is Rising fans must have sought it out as well and I found myself frequently surprised at how rarely that was the case. I was dismayed to discover it is actually out of print now. What a shame because SEAWARD is that all-too-common breed of book--an absolute gem forever overshadowed by its famous big sib.

Westerly knows he has very little time. Traveling alone and on foot through a strange land, he's constantly looking over his shoulder, only able to rest for moments at a time as he flees an unnamed danger that is never far behind. Filled with visions of the violence done to his family before he was ripped away, West only knows he must be on his guard and he must head toward the sea. Cally knows something is wrong when her father falls suddenly ill and is taken away to the seaside in a last-ditch attempt to regain his health. When her mother follows shortly after, Cally is left alone in their empty house until one day she hears a voice singing snatches of a song her mother used to sing and finds a mirror into another time and place. Coming from different directions but both headed to the sea, West and Cally meet up and form a cautious friendship built on the one quality they have in common--they're the things that don't belong. As they attempt to learn why they are in this strange land and how they will survive, they encounter primal, mighty, and terrifying forces who control the land and who will do anything within their power to turn these two young people to their own purposes.

In some ways SEAWARD resembles the Dark is Rising sequence, with the feeling of an almost alien world existing side by side with our own. A world almost drenched in magic and characters who come to form the unshakable conviction that the tiniest of actions can have massive and far-reaching consequences, stretching across both time and space. Certain prophecies come into play as well.

A man with eyes like an owl, a girl with selkie hands, a creature in a high place.

But SEAWARD is a much shorter, much sweeter story, filled with the themes of love and loss, what happens once one has lost everything, and how or whether it is possible to go on in the face of the vastness of the universe and the seemingly inconsequential place one person occupies in it. What I love about this book, and what is one of my strongest memories from reading it for the first time, is that the reader is dropped into the midst of the action without so much as an apology. It makes it feel real and large and whole and it doesn't detract from the movement of the story because the two main characters are filled with questions themselves. Finding out piece by piece along with them only helps to highlight the mounting tension. And by the end of this sucker that tension level is high. West and Cally are quite different but both extremely likable and interesting people. If West is a bit more suspicious of everything, his past (as Cally comes to find out) didn't really give him a choice in the matter. Cally is strong and has a good heart, as West comes to find out as he spends more time in her company. The end is almost achingly bittersweet and every time I read it, as it draws closer, I find myself turning the pages slower to prolong what time is left. These two have been my friends for a long time now. I find myself thinking about them when I'm not with them and I know, despite the ending, we will always be finding each other again throughout the years to come. Recommended for fans of Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine L'Engle, and Guy Gavriel Kay.

[Kalin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, subdued novel which packs an astonishing amount of emotional punch. With its fantastic journey toward growth and (self-)discovery, Seaward feels like a sister of The Neverending Story: sometimes younger, sometimes older.

Full review:

https://choveshkata.net/forum/viewtop...

[Francesca Forrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friends recommended this to me and said they thought I, specifically, would like it, and some of the bits they quoted made me think that yes, I likely would. It's book from 1983 for young teens, a very dreamlike story in which a boy (Westerly) and a girl (Cally) from our world find one another in a liminal otherworld and travel toward the sea, which for both of them holds an Answer, in vague, unspelled-out terms.

If I had encountered this at the appropriate age, I believe I would have loved it without caveats. (Or almost without caveats ... I think the big explainer that happens at the end wouldn't have pleased me, and even at that age I might have had a few moments of "but if ... then how about...?) But overall, I would have accepted the dream logic in which threats and aid appear and disappear according to the whim of the narrative. I would have seen it as simply how mysterious otherworlds work, and I would have been there for the waking dream of it all.

Reading it at my current advanced age, there were aspects I still loved, like the language, which endows everything with beauty and mystery, and some of the philosophical moments. And there were broad portions of the book during which, even though current-me felt pretty detached, I could summon up past-me and let her enjoy it.

Examples of what I mean by the language:

He came to a fork in the faintly-marked path, the way trodden no longer by men but written on the land by the memory of them

and

The silver fish blackened and sputtered, and the smell of it made Westerly’s stomach clutch at him with emptiness.

Examples of what I mean by philosophy:

“Oh selkie girl, selkie girl—wherever they are, they have not become nothing, they are not gone as if they had never been. . . . Your world is all change, all journeying, and nothing that happens and no one that lives is ever lost.”

But adult-me had dissatisfactions both large and small. The book is addressing grief and loss and death via a fantasy setting. Fair! Lots of books do. But I feel like the ones that do that that I like best also have a coherent in-story reason for the fantasy, for why these particular characters, why this particular place, why these particular happenings. I don't feel like Seaward had that. Mytho-godlike figures with names out of Welsh mythology guide and hinder Cally and Westerly, but not in any way that's situated in the myths they come from. And Cally and Westerly's own attributes are ??? Cally has selkie blood... but it affects her trajectory not one whit. Westerly has special magical knowledge from his mother, but the why/how of this aren't clear.

I really didn't like the explainer at the end re: life, death, and Welsh-myth-inflected (but universal!) heaven. I also had been reading Cally and Westerly as younger than they were until bang! They start becoming aware of each other ~ in that way ~ in the eleventh hour, and then that has to be a thing, too. And this story has one of my least-favorite tropes, the characters go back to our world with no memory of their adventures or each other, but the assurance that they'll find each other eventually. Swell. This is especially awesome because in Westerly's case he's going back to some unspecified authoritarian state--I thought he was from a whole other world, initially, because of his ability to work magic and this nonspecificity regarding where he came from, but no; it's our world--and both Cally's parents are dead, so that's nice.

As I say, I don't think I would have liked that ending even as a kid, but I would have enjoyed the rest of the story. And that's who it was intended for--a me of 13 or 14 years old. So I'm rating it for the me of that age, and I'm glad I read it, even if adult me has gripes.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been meaning to reread this one for a while. It was lovely to go back to it. It’s a bit more mature than The Dark is Rising, I think; certainly, there’s a physicality between Cally and West that isn’t even hinted at in The Dark is Rising. The first time I read it I said that this book ends perfectly, “neither too early nor too late”, and I still feel that way. It’s enough to have the promise of Cally and West’s future, at the end of the book; I don’t need to read about it, and that would take away from the bittersweetness of the story.

I didn’t like this as much as the first time I read it, I think; I still enjoyed it, found it interesting, loved the creativity, but this time I was asking more questions, picking more holes. Why was this element taken from Welsh legends, and not that? When is it set — it feels unrooted, which might make for universality, but it makes it hard to imagine how Cally and West will find each other again, how to read their absence, their changes — and where do Cally and West come from?

It’s beautifully written, though, and full of lovely things: gorgeous passages, enchanting creatures (Peth!), mysteries and metaphors. I do still love it, and I also appreciate that unlike The Dark is Rising, it’s a personal journey, not an all-out fight against absolute evil. The absolutism of the Dark and the Light in those books is completely absent here, with the dichotomy drawn between Life and Death instead, and with both wearing kindly faces and less kind. It’s a journey for Cally and West, one in which they’re frightened, have enemies and allies, but it isn’t moving toward some apocalyptic endpoint, some make-it-or-break-it scene where a few decide the futures of the many.

I’m not sure the new cover does the book any favours, in that sense; the traditional fantasy elements here are the least important.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely, lovely book. The tone and quality of the writing reminds me very much of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence, although it seems in some ways more mature than that sequence. It's the first book in a while that I just couldn't put down once I got started -- I stayed up late to finish reading it. Fortunately, it's quite a quick read, so that didn't matter too much. It's also the first book in a long, long while to make me think that I couldn't actually go to Cardiff without taking it with me, just so that I could sometimes pick it up and reread a favourite part to make me smile.

I love the relationship between West and Cally. Somehow, in such a short book, Susan Cooper builds up a love story that I really feel and want to follow. The build-up of awareness between them is well done, even in so short a space. And the ending is beautiful -- the knowledge that they will find each other. It's enough, in a way, too: I would read more, and I do want more, but I feel it ends on just the right note, and neither too early nor too late.

The world of the story is magical, drawing on Celtic myth and making up a mythology of its own, as well. I love the descriptions of the world -- the chess game, the tower, Snake, Peth...

I'll definitely be revisiting this book. Probably many times.

[MJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

2017 update: still a very good read.

-------

"Whatever happens, believe that the journey is worth taking, and then you will reach its end."

I initially picked this up because when Catherynne M. Valente tells you a book was "formative," you pick that book up. It was brilliant and I devoured it in under three hours.

So. Seaward. Seaward is what happens when Irish mythology invites Diana Wynne Jones, J.M. Barrie, the Brothers Grimm and every bit of magic left on earth over for tea and philosophy.

Cally's sick parents have gone away to a hospital by the sea; Westerly is running from the people who killed his mother. Out of desperation and fear and loneliness they both manage to pry open doors into the Country of Life and Death. Once there, with little to go on except gut feeling and the kindness (or cruelty) of strangers, they both begin journeying west, seaward.

Westerly's mother told him he could trust a girl with selkie hands; the tea leaves told Cally she would meet a boy in a boat. It seems as good a reason as any to travel together. And their journey is strange and incredible and, unquestionably, worth taking.

Seaward is an astonishingly complex and beautiful book about loss and guilt and finding the will to carry on, and is perfectly appropriate for the 13+ crowd--proving, once again, that YA is the genre to beat when you want to talk about the big stuff.

[Arie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one really surprised me - like something between a fever-dream and a living metaphor, and, I think, all the better for it. I did see a review that notes Seaward as feeling "unrooted," and this is an apt description, though this is often a boon rather than a negative thing: my only complaints would be that this unrootedness occasionally detracts more than it gives the overall atmosphere, and that there are a few points that feel slightly dated rather than timeless (as in the rest of the story). But it's strangely moving, and deep, and lovely, and I didn't expect to read something that felt so cathartic right now but I'm glad I picked this up when I did.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two young people are transported out of their own world and into a strange and fantastical land—West (Westerly) through a door and Cally (Calliope) through a mirror—in this haunting fantasy from Susan Cooper. Each is heading toward the sea, hoping to find the missing parents they are seeking: West the father he never knew, Cally the mother and father who went away due to illness. Here they must confront the capricious Lady Taranis, whose land it is, and who seems intent on preventing them from completing their journey. Confronting many dangers, the pair also receives aid, from such figures as Lugan (a seeming opponent of Taranis) and Ryan / Rhiannon, as well as the ancient and lovable Peth, a creature like no other. After many travails, West and Cally do reach their destination, where they discover the nature of the land through which they have traveled, and the identity of those they have encountered. But what road will they follow, having finally found their way seaward...?

As a girl I absolutely adored Susan Cooper's five-volume The Dark Is Rising Sequence , and looking around for other books by the same author, discovered Seaward. I recall reading it, and finding it enjoyable, but the details escape me. It certainly didn't make as strong of an impression on me as the author's other books did, and other than the general story-line and the fact that Cally is a descendent of selkies, I couldn't recall many specifics. How glad I am to have reread the book now, as I found it immensely engrossing and deeply moving, this time around. I think it is a little more mature than the Dark Is Rising, as its two protagonists stand on the brink of maturity, and find an incipient love with one another. Perhaps I was too young when I first read it, to appreciate that fact, or the subtle, understated way Cooper dealt with the beginnings of their sexual awakening, and the beginning of their journey into adulthood. I didn't really care for young adult fare as a child and actual young adult, so a coming-of-age story, even a fantastical one, may not have appealed to me. However that may be, I found so much to enjoy this time around, from the mythological underpinnings of the story and characters to the relationship between Cally and West. I find it astonishing that I could have forgotten Peth, from my initial reading, as I found his character so beautifully realized this time around. This is one I would recommend to anyone who enjoys myth-infused fantasy fiction.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, the writing itself was beautiful! This is good if you like metaphorical journeys along the lines of Narnia or Labyrinth (I couldn't stop thinking of Callie as Sarah). There's a hint of Earthsea, too, in the worldbuilding and the philosophical life and death stuff.

It wasn't the greatest read ever, a little wanting in character development and believability and.... the presence of weirdly sexual acid trip.... it's the 80's I guess? I was skeptical of how almost everyone they meet wants to help them, and I didn't much care for the two main characters, who had maybe 2 personality traits each. It doesn't quite work, but was worth reading for me just to watch the evolution of fantasy with woman writers and experience the magic of a different world for a while.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cally pushes herself through a mirror to escape an endless, unearthly voice. Westerly escapes his pursuers through a hidden doorway. They each find themselves in another world, where magic and thought have power beyond their imagining. This is very much a coming of age adventure story, full of chases and near-escapes, but it is told in such beautiful language that I found myself re-reading the descriptions of the countryside.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any book by Susan Cooper is worth a read, but this one, an alt-universe fantasy/allegory about Life and Death - and those capitals say it all - is a bit heavy-handed.

[AE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like the statues of Taranis, I have two faces regarding this book.

On the one hand, I really enjoyed a lot of aspects:
- Susan Cooper is very talented at the art of writing, in a poetic mature style that I feel like I don't see in many newer children's books
- There are some lush descriptions of the incredibly creative fantasy settings that just bring each scene to life in your head
- The side characters are absolutely the best part of the book. Ryan, Lugan, Snake, and my favorite Peth are all incredibly charming and uniquely drawn, and Taranis is terrifying in a way that makes sense for who she is.
- The mythological elements are always well done and woven seamlessly into the story. The foreign-ness of Taranis's world, the way the rules were so alien but strict, it made the whole thing feel like a fairy tale both strange and familiar.
- Overall, it's just a very fun quick fantasy read!

On the other hand, I had some problems with it:
- Cally and West are not the most compelling main characters, I think in part due to the author's seeming unwillingness to expand on their backstories or otherwise actually place them in a time and space. Cally seems to be a generic white girl tomboy who is probably American or British, but we get very minimal info about her life besides the trauma with her parents. West is supposed to be from "another country", but we are only given tidbits about this unnamed country, which it seemed reasonable to assume was from the global south. However, he often acts or speaks like someone who is from America/Europe (e.g. not having any questions about references like Jack and the Beanstalk). It's also a little weird that he doesn't seem to be from an area with Celtic influence, but the book seems to only have Celtic myth. This is also jarring when, toward the end, real country names are listed for random people going through the gates.
- On top of this, Cally and West feel like they are being guided through the story by a cast of much more interesting side characters. Neither of them has very vibrant characterization compared to the likes of Ryan or Peth, so they both feel somewhat generic. By the end, I was far more invested in what happened to Lugan, or Ryan's backstory.
- And then we have the romance. I thought about this a lot, and I want to be clear that I have encountered pairings I disliked way more. In this book, I just didn't really find the relationship all that compelling, due to the two characters not having any really compelling reasons for liking each other all that much, or even seeming to get to know each other past a surface level. They barely felt like they had made friends, much less fallen in love, aside from the narration mentioning Cally blushing and West having a boner. Unfortunately, the ending is somewhat reliant on this relationship, so it felt a bit abrupt and not quite up to the level of the rest of the writing.
- Finally, maybe this is a personal thing, but sometimes I felt like this book was supposed to be longer and for some reason got cut/the author just stopped writing more? We get an entire list of things in West's pack, and the only thing that actually gets used again is the green bottle. There are multiple mentions that imply West is interested in drawing, but this is never actually explored.


I think, for me, this book feels a bit like what would have happened if The Grey King had just been the part where Bran and Will go to the lost kingdom. A fun (and somewhat trippy) time, but missing all the things that made The Grey King so good, and Bran and Will's relationship so endearing. Bran and Will aren't even canonically a romantic pair, and I still find them far more compelling as a couple, in part because they are allowed to have time to become friends, to have meaningful interactions, to get to know each other better than anyone else. The Grey King also has an entire series to help build up to that point, so that the story itself feels more rooted and meaningful.

Seaward is by no means a bad book. I honestly still quite enjoyed it! I just wish it had gotten a little more development, and maybe had more time to focus on all the things it wanted to cover.

[Kogiopsis · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Re)read as part of my ongoing shelf audit. Verdict: Will find a better home with a younger reader.

I had absolutely no recollection of this book, though apparently I'd rated it before. It's a solid classic fantasy tale with some Celtic elements, though that aspect felt fairly lightly applied. The allegorical nature of the story becomes clear at the end, and looking at the story with that in top of mind puts a lot of things into new and poignant context. Ultimately, it's a story about life persevering through grief, and the way support from and trust in others is an essential part of overcoming fatalism and depression.

Not my favorite Susan Cooper, but still enjoyable.

[Littlerhymes]

Cally is coming to terms with the possibility of losing her parents when she is thrown into another world. There she meets Westerly, around the same age, who is also from another world. The two team up and travel through this world where the powerful Lady Taranis tries to stop them at every turn, and the mysterious Lugan aids them.

There is such a dreamlike, fable feel to their journey, that almost feels like a kind of weightlessness. The tension does pull tight sometimes, but I did feel that at every stage they would probably get through and someone would help them, because it happens time and again. I quite liked the journey but I would've really liked a bit more, especially at the end.

[Magda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know what it is about this book, but even the first time I read it, I had the feeling I'd read it before, as though it were a very old story, retold in such a way that I can't figure out what the original is.

[Meg Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this . It had the same dreamy journeying quality as George MacDonald’s novels and similarly uses religious allegory but with Celtic myth instead of Christian . I could have easily read it in one sitting but wanted to savor it . Very interesting , too , to compare this in pace to her Dark is Rising series!

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extended metaphor that's mostly beautifully written, if a little cheesy and containing some awkward plot holes and leaps. But honestly, it's probably nostalgia and my love for Cooper's 'The Dark is Rising' series that compels me to round this one up to 4 stars.

[Abbi Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Not exactly disappointing, because I like Susan Cooper's style, but the story wasn't what I expected either.

There were a surprising amount of typos.

[Bitsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was one of those rare children that came to Seward before I came to The Dark is Rising. So, years later, when I did an internet search with a few vague keywords during the dark hours of a read-a-thon to try and re-find this childhood novel that I half remembered I was shocked (no, seriously, shocked) to discover that it was by none other than Susan Cooper. And then… I wasn’t shocked at all.

In a lot of ways Seaward is a short story version of all the things that made The Dark is Rising so incredibly awesome. The magic, the danger, the young people caught up and confused in a grown-ups plot, all combined to make this a tense journey as West and Cally attempt to make it to the sea and to find answers to why they are there in the first place.

The symbolism in this book is amazing. There is no way I got all of this the first time around. Everything from the many faces of death, to the constant rebirth of life, from the people of stone, to the selkie, to Snake all had many meanings and additional ramifications that were often just hinted at (since this IS just a YA novel). I have to admit Snake bothered me in this adult re-reading but after some thought I decided to think of him as an inner expression and not an outward standalone person. Before snakes were given such a bad rap in Genesis to deter other religions who glorified the animal, snakes and women were once considered in the same mysterious light. Snakes shed their skin, women bled, and yet they both kept on living, a predominant theme in this book, continued life against all odds.

With the overall message of life and hope amidst death and destruction, I found this book to be really uplifting and much more powerful the second time around. The symbolism was amazing and multi-layered, reaching out to all sorts of different audiences at different ages. Cally and West were an inspiring couple to read about and it was touching watching them discover the world, their journey and ultimately each other along the way. You root for them from page one, and their story is a roller-coaster of magic, excitement and mystery to the last page. I really recommend reading this forgotten Susan Cooper story, or re-reading if you read it once long ago, especially if you are a fan of The Dark is Rising. You won't regret it.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I beleive I read this sometime in highschool when I thought reading lists where romantic and wanted summer reading. I read a lot of fiction that indicated that sutdents received summer reading lists and I was jealous and therefore hunted one down (yeah I was that kind of book nerd - English was by far my favorite subject as I adored the creativity).

Anyways, I am pretty sure this was a book I had read that summer. And I was completely captivated by it. It is one of those alternative worlds, slip through from ours to another, but at the time I thought this was perfect. I thought slipping to another world was a marvelous adventure I wished to have. The trope had not yet become cliched.

I don't know about giving it a reread. I do know that I am glad the Squeecast mentioned this book recently because I had been racking my mind for quite sometime trying to figure out what book this was. I had pretty much given up finding it ever again, besides baraging my library to find out my book history back in high school.

[Miss Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Susan Cooper is a master at atmosphere, but I rarely connect with her characters. This was again my largest difficulty with enjoying this story, as I wanted to know so much more about West and Cally. About their families, where they come from and what their lives are. But we get thrown into the story even as they are thrust from our world into a separate dimension that together they traverse as they head seaward, encountering figures of myth and legend.

It has an otherworldly tone and feel to it but almost too much of one. It has a distant, dreamlike quality to it that made for a rich read, but a part of me wished it was less mystical and more substantial.

2.5 stars

[Kimikimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew of Susan Cooper because of the Dark is Rising series but I never thought to look for any of her other books. That is until a co-worker gifted it to me as a Christmas present, it was her favourite growing up which is quite an honour. I was really glad she did, it's been an incredibly long time since I've read a book that's just this...Joyful. Cooper does a really good job of blending mythology into her stories in a way that is both true to the source and also kind of new. I would recommend it to children everywhere, it's definitely going on my books to throw at unsuspecting young ones list.

[Pop Bop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sneaky, Sneaky Cooper

This is a little known Cooper gem that has undoubtedly been overshadowed by Cooper's classic "Dark is Rising" sequence. So, appropriately enough given its themes and structure, it lurks in the shadows waiting to be discovered by Cooper completists. Cooper has written other books as well, including her successful Boggart books for younger readers, so "Seaward" keeps drifting lower and lower on the Cooper search return list. Congratulations on finding this book. And what have you found?

This book is both different from and similar to the "Dark is Rising" books. Those books are all grounded in a here and now reality into which the heroes of myth and legend intrude. The protagonists step back and forth through the veil that separates myth from reality and a good deal of the tension and suspense in those books arises from how the two alternate/parallel worlds influence each other. "Seaward" takes an entirely different tack. In chapter 1 our hero Westerly appears in a strange and foreign land. In chapter 2 our heroine Callie falls through a mirror and enters that same out-of-time and out-of-place world. The balance of the action takes place in this vaguely threatening and often confusing world. There is no anchoring, comfy reality. This gives the book a dreamy and unsettling atmosphere throughout the tale.

In a similar vein, the "Dark is Rising" books portray a battle between good and evil, between the Dark and the Light, and the distinctions are clear. "Seaward" is different in that almost every character has two aspects and almost every choice could go either way. "Seaward" is much more about deciding what's the right thing to do instead of knowing what's right.

But still, the apple never falls far from the tree, and so in "Seaward" we find similar themes of love, duty, honor, grief, free will, and even love. Our heroes are followed almost step by step by a man and a woman who obviously have great magical power in this strange land and their regal presence touches on all of the most noble aspects of high fantasy and Celtic myth. They are never really named until the end of the book, and they are never identified with any particular recognizable Celtic tale, but they are undeniably part of the legend and myth tradition that powered the "Dark is Rising" books.

This is a brief book and is, as I noted, a bit on the dreamy side. But it also has thrills, adventures, and some gripping action/adventure scenes. Our heroes are, after all, fleeing from something on a path that's laid with peril. You can read the book as fantasy-adventure, or as a romance of sorts, or as allegory, or as part of a life/death myth cycle, or even as a mystery. All of those approaches work because Cooper has packed so much into this book. As I say, a gem, but with many facets.

[Capn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, Susan Cooper..... I didn't know what to expect from this novel, and obviously what I expected wasn't there (this is my third book for the Middle Grade Madness August 2022 MG Reading Challenge) - I thought, wrongly, it might have a maritime or nautical nature, and I could tick off related tasks. Nope.

Instead, it was a coming-of-age/quest story, of two separate, recently bereaved teens (a male, West (Westerly), and a female, Cally (Calliope)) leaving their innocence behind. It features selkies, Rhiannon, Tir n'An Og, stone giants, and lots of travelling or fleeing through various natural landscapes, ever seaward (hence the title), in a desperate attempt to reach the sea.

It would make an excellent movie or series, given the graphics capability of today. I think my favourite character might be Peth the... yeah, I still don't know what sort of creature he was (one of "Lugan's folk", which doesn't narrow it down much), and Rhiannon's leaf magic was easily the most captivating scene, for me. But there's quite a lot here, from impassable deserts to unclimbable rock faces to enchanted buildings, bone divination, first sexual stirrings, forces of nature, weather magic, death, life, the afterlife(s)...

It's partly a romantic coming-of-age read, and partly a "meaning of life" philosophical book, all wrapped up in Cooper's Celtic/British Pagan-mythological subtext (similar to one of my all-time favourites, The Dark Is Rising Sequence). If you could only read one of hers, make it The Dark Is Rising. This one was good, but didn't reach 'greatness' my by reckoning.

[Mathew · Rating 5 out of 5]

When two children find themselves carried away from a set of catastrophes too haunting to accept, into a world just as complicated as perilous they each are filled with a desire to find the answer to their being there and set off Seaward. Both Cally and West begin their journeys alone and the land they cross is full of a magic and people beyond the realm of their understanding yet there is something about the reality which they are unquestionably a part of.
The more I reflect on Seaward, the more I really like it. Both Cally and West are well drawn and much is left to infer upon their inner thoughts and feelings. These are teenagers growing up in a world which they can comprehend on a surface level but which remains ever more complicated beneath the skin. As a passenger alongside their journeys, we find our own selves trying to pick apart the nature of those they meet whilst answering the questions which hover in their minds. These are complicated children in complicated situations encountering situations which are beyond their understanding and experience.
The Land and its denizens itself is very interesting and full of the fantastical. Yes, there are elements of The Dark is Rising in here but, in some ways, the reading feels more grown up. The questions bigger or, perhaps, far more personal. The two main rulers of the realm, Taranis and Lugan are metaphors for something which is alluded to at the end and ones which readers may return to with different perspectives as they grow up. The final chapter has been as carefully constructed as the journey itself and although there may be gaps, as with the Dark is Rising Series, where you would like a little more explanation, I felt the story’s close was as satisfying as any others of hers that I have read.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally read this as a middle schooler after loving Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, and reread it a million times after that. The story didn't have the staying power for me that TDIR has, so I anticipate that it was the romance and some surprisingly sexy parts that made this an adolescent favorite. The book definitely has echoes of TDIR - Tyrannis and Lugan mirror The Rider and Merriman in some ways, and young strangers navigating a larger than life quest is also a familiar theme, as well as some roots in Celtic mythos (selkies!). But Seaward is definitely for an older crowd (did I mention the sexy bits?!) and is much broader in its symbolism. 

Things I observed on my reread:  Westerly and Cally are cute together, though maybe underwritten considering they are our protagonists. They are very funny (West's brand of sarcasm is particularly fun to read), but because we meet them just launched into this world, we don't get to know them much outside of their survival and growing love for each other (and even that isn't investigated much beyond two teens stuck in dramatic circumstances). The book is definitely for those who prefer their literature heavy on theme and setting rather than character.

I am glad I reread it, it was a nice comfort read after a long year of demanding work-related book needs.  But I don't know that I'd need to visit it again. It majorly pales in comparison to TDIR. Cooper's work shines when she can really dig into the characters she creates (Lugan cannot compare to Merriman, the best of the old wizardly mentors IMHO) and the circumstances that Cally and West encounter feel like flashes in a pan compared to the rich adventures Will Stanton and the Drew children engage in.

Top marks for the sexy bits, though.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally read this as a middle schooler after loving Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series, and reread it a million times after that. The story didn’t have the staying power for me that TDIR has, so I anticipate that it was the romance and some surprisingly sexy parts that made this an adolescent favorite. The book definitely has echoes of TDIR – Tyrannis and Lugan mirror The Rider and Merriman in some ways, and young strangers navigating a larger than life quest is also a familiar theme, as well as some roots in Celtic mythos (selkies!). But Seaward is definitely for an older crowd (did I mention the sexy bits?!) and is much broader in its symbolism.

Things I observed on my reread: Westerly and Cally are cute together, though maybe underwritten considering they are our protagonists. They are very funny (West’s brand of sarcasm is particularly fun to read), but because we meet them just launched into this world, we don’t get to know them much outside of their survival and growing love for each other (and even that isn’t investigated much beyond two teens stuck in dramatic circumstances). The book is definitely for those who prefer their literature heavy on theme and setting rather than character.

I am glad I reread it, it was a nice comfort read after a long year of demanding work-related book needs. But I don’t know that I’d need to visit it again. It majorly pales in comparison to TDIR. Cooper’s work shines when she can really dig into the characters she creates (Lugan cannot compare to Merriman, the best of the old wizardly mentors IMHO) and the circumstances that Cally and West encounter feel like flashes in a pan compared to the rich adventures Will Stanton and the Drew children engage in.

Top marks for the sexy bits, though.

[Raven Stromdans · Rating 3 out of 5]

This pretty different from the way I remembered it from reading in my childhood. That said, all I could really remember from this book was a reference to "the girl with the selkie hands". This is a very different form of prose than I what I more commonly read now; much more description and long passages of narrative flow compared to more contemporary fiction that I find tends to read a lot faster because it's so often broken up with more dialogue and more centered on action than description.

In the end, I liked the story, I found it interesting, but partially due to the brevity of the story and partially due to the writing style, I didn't appreciate it as much now as I did when I was a child. I can entirely understand why the concepts stuck with me over the years, but less so the actual details of the overarching story.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another charmer from Susan Cooper. West and Cally both arrive in a strange country by different means, after their parents leave them. They both feel they must go to the sea. But as they struggle through the country, they are blocked by some inimical figures: Taranis, the Stonecutter, and the desert itself. But they are also helped by others: Rhiannon and her birds, Lugan, Peth and Snake. When they reach the seashore, they have to make a decision - to go home or to stay.

[Eric Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not what I expected it to be based on reader reviews, but, despite my expectations, the book ended really well. The ending was a bit unexpected, but that, to me, is good. I was not able to predict how the story would come to a conclusion, and that left me thinking after finishing the last few pages. I won't spoil that for you here, but I definitely felt it wrapped up the story well, didn't make you desire more, but left you thinking about life in general.