"Cooper skilfully keeps readers spellbound by swift changes of scene and mounting suspense that sweep to a climactic conclusion, leaving a haunting echo." (Booklist)

In the triumphant conclusion to The Dark Is Rising sequence the author has produced a tour de force. The many strands from the four previous books are interwoven in a masterly fashion. The children - Simon, Jane and Barney Drew; Will Stanton, youngest of the 'Old Ones'; and King Arthur's son Bran, brought forward into the present day - as well as Merriman, the venerable Old One, all play major roles in the final reckoning with the Dark. The story is filled with terror and beauty; the complexities of gaining the weapons required to combat the final rising of the Dark lead to disparate, striking episodes, such as the horrifying pursuit of Bran and Will by a skeleton horse and the haunting adventure of the Lost Land, which is willingly sacrificed for the Light.

Vignettes remain with the reader: Will's close, loving family; the horrible encounter with the bigot Mr. Moore; Bran's farewell to Arthur as he chooses mortal life and the bonds of human affection. The distinguishing characteristic of the sequence is is not so much the style of writing, superb and clear though it is, but the underlying conception of the books, deeply rooted in myth and legend yet perfectly intermeshed with daily reality. So ably has the author blended the fantasy with the concerns of humanity, that in the magnificent finale an ordinary, decent human being under stress, not an Old One, provides the means to the ultimate weapon against the Dark.

( from Horn Book Review - 1977)

This is the final book in the Dark Is Rising series and the culmination of the battle to stop the Dark from rising My goodness! This book is a roller coaster ride of excitement and emotion. As I read the DR series I could not envisage the size of the task required to write this book. I held it my hands, a book thicker than the rest, and dived straight in. I was desperate to know what was contained in its pages. I wasn't to be disappointed.

Silver on the Tree is longer and more complex than the other DR books. It is hardly surprising as four other books had been pointing towards this gripping climax. Susan Cooper is a master of her craft and she lead me by the hand in to the idyll of a halcyon English summer afternoon and the comfort of family. But a series of images and events swept me off into the fantasy that permeates all of the books. Immediately we are warned of the impending onslaught of the Dark and its increasing malevolence. At the same time we are reminded of the conflict in Will, his life in a boisterous family and his destiny as an Old One. In the opening scenes of the book Will has to tell his revered brother Stephen of his destiny and the battle between the Dark and the Light. It is here we see the last vestige of Will's innocence pass away.

In the quest that leads to the final battle with the Dark the characters in the stories are confronted with scenes of nightmare and pure terror, each of them a test of their resolve in this most important of battles. Susan Cooper describes herself as feeling 'breathless' at the shifts in time when she re-read this book. And indeed, we are swept through time and place with breathtaking speed.

I remember the feeling of completing this book. Several hours after opening the first pages... it was all over and I was faced with the last page of the very last book, completed six or seven years before the rest of the series were written. And I could relate so much with Susan Cooper's own feelings when she completed writing Silver on The Tree - that sense of loss - there were all these people I had grown so fond of and I was never going to see them again...