The Grey King Audiobook By Susan Cooper cover art

The Grey King

Book 4 of The Dark Is Rising Sequence

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The Grey King

By: Susan Cooper
Narrated by: Richard Mitchley
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There is a Welsh legend about a harp of gold, hidden within a certain hill, that will be found by a boy and a white dog with silver eyes - a dog that can see the wind. Will Stanton knew nothing of this when he traveled to Wales to recover from a severe illness. But when he met Bran, the strange boy who owned a white dog, he began to remember. For Will is the last-born of the Old Ones, immortals dedicated to saving the world from the forces of evil, the Dark. And it is Will's task to wake with the golden harp the six who must be roused from their long slumber in the Welsh hills to prepare for the last battle between the Dark and the Light.Listen to more in the Dark Is Rising Sequence.©2007 Susan Cooper (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group. Fantasy & Magic Science Fiction & Fantasy

Critic reviews

  • Newbery Honor Book

"Susan Cooper is a consummate storyteller, and Richard Mitchley is an extraordinary narrator. His voice resonates with the atmosphere of the British Isles. The power and depth of his voice as the Grey King cause the listener to cower, and his icy tones create chills as the Brenin Llwyd blows by. As Will comes to understand the eerie might of the warestones, Mitchley brings goose bumps to the listener's skin. The interplay of past and present is compelling and believable, given his masterful presentation. This is a fabulous listen!" (AudioFile)
Well-written Story • Engaging Characters • Excellent Welsh Accents • Interesting Twist • Vivid Storytelling
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What made the experience of listening to The Grey King the most enjoyable?

The discussion of Wales and Mitchley's excellent handling of the language and accent.

What did you like best about this story?

see above

Any additional comments?

At first I was hesitant to try a new narrator, as Alex Jennings handles the others in the series with aplomb, but after hearing Mitchley's Welsh I don't think Jennings could have done it proper justice. Both are good narrators but Mitchley was the best choice for this particular novel. An enjoyable listen, if a weird book.

This series starts out good but gets weird

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Trigger warning: one of the dogs dies. It’s tragic, unnecessary (within the story world), gut-wrenching, but it’s quick. Instant. There’s no suffering.

Another amazing installment in this series, this is an incredible book, and if Cooper would rewrite it without killing the dog, it would probably be one of my favorite books of all time. It’s got everything. However I will add that from a story perspective while I don’t know if the dog’s death was essential, it does meaningfully develop the villain and his relationship to the heroes, and it makes the ending more satisfying. She also deals with the resulting grief in a way that’s realistic, resonant, and identifiable without ever succumbing to sentimentality or hallmarky feelings. She handled it perfectly.

Can’t wait to see how the bigger story is resolved in the final book.

Brilliantly read.

Excellent but for the dog

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I love the Dark is Rising series and this book in particular. Ive read them all multiple times. I’ve listened to this one, The Dark is Rising, and Greenwich, and the reader of this one, Richard Mitchley, is far and away the best. Really a tremendous performance that enhances the words and story. I hope to encounter him again!!!

Fantastic

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I like grey king because I need to do book in a bag project on this book. I like it a lot everyone should read

This story good

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This is my favorite of the Dark is Rising series. The reader captures the Welsh accent so very well, it's like being in Wales. Brilliant.

The Best of the Best

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The story picks up as it goes along--it seemed to start more slowly to me than the others. This one is more intense emotionally, I think, what with the adult relationships figuring in. The narrator took a little while to get into it, but by the end it was a full blown acting production, which was quite enjoyable. His accents are marvelous, but It took me a little bit to warm up to him since I rely liked the narration from the first three. All in all, though, a good story, with an interesting twist on the Arthuruan legend that firs nicely into this world.

The story continues

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This is one of the best of the Dark is Rising series, and the audiobook performance is the best of the series and one of the best readings of any book I've heard, a stunning balance of acting and reading.

amazing audiobook performance

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The dog dies so she can't have 5 stars for this one. Also a huge part of the plot hinges on a gross man furious that the woman he felt entitled to didn't want him, and he deliberately hurts her son because of it, a trope I call the "Snape" with great loathing. It's well written, I love the good guys and hate the baddies and was myself writhing with rage and frustration for most of the story, which indicates a very good writer, but ughhhhhh.

I wondered why they switched from Jennings to Mitchley for this one, Jennings was so phenomenal for the first three, but it's clearly because of the Welsh. Glad they did that. Great performance. Worth a listen if you want to finish the series but definitely the least fun, unless book 5 is planning to kill more than one dog.

spoiler/trigger warning

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This was actually the first book of the sequence that I ever read. At that time I didn't know it was part of a series. This latest adventure begins when Will Stanton, last of the Old Ones, is sent to visit relatives in Whales while he recovers from a bout of Hepatitis. Soon after his arrival he meets Bran, an introverted, pale boy who seems to know something of Will's true nature and his business. It soon becomes apparent that even here the forces of the Dark, and indeed one of their most powerful lords, are at work, with the unwitting but not entirely unwilling aid of a disagreeable farmer with a grudge against Bran's father. Will the two boys be able to accomplish their mission before all is lost?
This is the only book in the series not read by Alex Jennings. Fortunately Richard Mitchley, Jennings' stand-in, has both a good voice for storytelling and a good ear for accents and dialects. This is a fairly short book but I couldn't put it down for long.

One step closer.

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A little confusing but overall a great story! I'll be listening again in the future...

Another great one in this series

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