This is book 4 of the sequence and we are back with Will and with out and out fantasy after the previous blend of adventure story with fantasy and the Drew children's return.

Will is sent to Wales to recuperate after a serious illness which not only weakens him physically, but makes him forget that he is an Old One, last of that mysterious group who serve the Light and oppose the rising of the Dark. At first he is unaware that he has to perform a quest to regain another object of power to help the Light prevail, and must do so without the help of his mentor, Merriman Lyon, although a boy with whom he strikes up a precarious friendship is instrumental in helping him succeed.

Bran, who it transpires is the Raven Boy from the poem Will memorised at the end of book 3, is an albino and a loner, his only close friend his father's sheepdog, Caffal. Will meets them when he starts to explore the hills, having had a small stirring of memory about what he is meant to be doing there, and the dog restores his lost sense of self. But they are opposed not only by the supernatural forces of the Grey King, a major force among the Dark, but by human stupidity and vengefulness.

In some ways this is far more of an adult book than the rest of the series because of the thread concerning the relationship between Bran's mother, his father, and the local villain. Will has to grapple with issues far in advance of his eleven and a half years, though not of his greater Old One self, yet he has sympathy for Bran's difficulties. There is tragedy for Bran, though probably not as affecting as it could have been as it was telegraphed long before the event. But in some ways it is the human story concerning Bran which is the most affecting part of the book. The fantasy elements are in some ways a bit grafted on and artificial - the sequence when the boys have to answer the riddles posed by the three "kings" and who their real identities are is a case in point. It is also rather odd that a major plot device concerns a wildfire - the eponymous book that introduced Will shows us that he can start and put out fires, but here he never even thinks to try extinguishing this one, and yet he is supposed to be a powerful wizard. I liked the book, but I didn't love it, so a 3 rating from me. ( )

Not a fan but the audio reader is excellent ( )

Not a fan but the audio reader is excellent ( )

Hay una leyenda galesa que habla de un arpa de oro, escondida en las montañas, que ha de ser encontrada por un joven de pelo blanco con un perro con ojos de plata. Hill Stanton no sabe nada de esto cuando llega a Gales para recuperarse de una terrible enfermedad que le ha dejado sin memoria. Pero cuando conoce a Bran, un extraño muchacho, y a su perro con ojos de plata, empieza a recordar… Will, el último de los Ancestrales, deberá recuperar el arpa escondida, el último de los seis signos de la Luz que en su día ayudaron a los Ancestrales en la eterna lucha contra las Tinieblas.

For me, each book in the series isn’t as good as the previous one. “The Grey King” has its good moments, but in general I found it a bit slow. At one point, the narrative is put on hold for a Welsh language lesson, where the main character learns how to improve his pronunciation.

Although I like Will Stanton, he isn’t as endearing as the three Drew siblings from Books 1 and 3. If they’d been part of the story, it would’ve added some brightness and variety.

The author’s good at bringing the landscape to life but is too fond of adverbs. Adverbs ‘tell’, not ‘show’.

So, worth a read, but it’s not something I’d return to for a second time. ( )