Book Cover

One day, you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.

# Review

I first read this series when I was learning English back in elementary school; recently, I reread the series to get a more mature perspective on the books.

# The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Four siblings stumble into a magical land and engage in a struggle between good and evil. The story is simple yet very compelling; I really enjoyed the writing and felt that the book tapped into the innate desire for children to escape the boring reality. I can say that the book withstood the test of time.

# Prince Caspian

The siblings are summoned back into Narnia to assist a prince in regaining his rightful throne. The story kind of reminds me of Shakespeare’s Hamlet but less gruesome. I do like how Lewis expands more on how the world of Narnia is connected to our reality and I like how Lewis expands the descriptions of Narnian geography and the different creatures residing in Narnia. There are definitely some aspects that didn’t age well, such as the highlighting gender disparities between the actions of the male and female siblings, but I didn’t feel the differences were maliciously highlighted and the story overall is still excellent.

# The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The story centers around the two younger siblings, as they help King Caspian on his voyage around the world in search of seven exiled lords loyal to his father. This was probably my favourite book from the series as the voyage was full of wildly different fantastical adventures; I appreciate that these adventures have more depth and nuance than just the good versus evil narrative. I also enjoyed reading about the unbearable Eustace and his character development.

# The Silver Chair

This story follows Eustace and his classmate Jill, as they are tasked by Aslan to track down Caspian’s son, Prince Rillian. As with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, this book is a great fantastical adventure that details a quest for good. This quest, however, follows much more the narrative of good versus evil. I didn’t find the Eustace/Jill combo as engaging as the siblings and the villain also wasn’t as engaging as the White Witch.

# The Horse and His Boy

This is the first book to not focus on visitors from Earth; this book follows Shasta, a runaway slave from Calormen and his talking horse Bree. They encounter Aravis, a fellow runaway, and her talking horse Hwin. The four embark on a journey to escape from Calormen into Narnia. I really enjoyed Lewis’ worldbuilding, especially the culture and customs of Calormen. Although basic, I also enjoyed the geopolitics between the different kingdoms. This book is very superficial and very corny, but it’s still a good read.

# The Magician’s Nephew

This story serves as the prequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; it follows the story of Digory and his neighbor Polly, as they first experience traveling to new worlds. The story covers the setup for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. One aspect I liked about this book is that a large chunk of it takes place in England, which is a welcoming change of pace.

# The Last Battle

This is the last book from the Narnia series and covers Narnia in crisis. While the previous books had progressively more religious undertones, this book is almost a Christian fundamentalist parable about faith and the Promised Land. The tone of this book was noticeably darker than the playful tone of the previous books and there were many troubling themes such as the punishment for nonbelievers. It’s unfortunate that such a wonderful series of books ended on such a disappointing note.

# Conclusion

While there were some problematic undertones, it's still an excellent book series.

# Overall rating: 8.0

What does the rating mean?