Reviews - Хроники Нарнии. Племянник чародея | The Chronicles of Narnia. The Magician's Nephew

7.54k reviews for:

Хроники Нарнии. Племянник чародея | The Chronicles of Narnia. The Magician's Nephew

C.S. Lewis, C.S. Lewis

3.89 AVERAGE

megan66green's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

aristifer's review against another edition

3.5

Read this aloud to my 6yo after not reading it since childhood. Like I said about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it's an odder book than I remember. I found the pacing and tone really uneven—some scenes were fast-paced and borderline comedic (the witch's rampage through Victorian London), while others got extremely bogged down in description, especially the scenes in Narnia toward the end of the book. It's like Lewis got so involved in describing his creation myth that he forgot he was writing a children's book. My son kept interrupting to ask what happened to the witch because she disappeared for so long and the creation stuff was frankly boring. The parts of the story that bracketed all the Biblical allegory were fun, but it feels like a book that wants to be two things at once and those two things are neither playing well together nor written for the same audience. He still wants to keep reading the series, so I guess it succeeded on that level.

emma_hughes_'s review against another edition

5.0

I do love these books. they just... they make my heart burn with the ache of good storytelling. since I got my own box set of the series for Christmas, I decided to read them in chronological order (I've previously been a stickler for reading them in the order they were published, but I wanted to try this way since that's how the box set numbers them). chronologically, [b:The Magician's Nephew|65605|The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia, #6)|C.S. Lewis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1308814770s/65605.jpg|1031537] is the first one in the series, as it deals with "how all the comings and goings between our own world and narnia first began.

what I like:
• the first time I read this, what most struck me was lewis's beautiful portrait of

Spoiler

Aslan singing the world into being.

I love the creativity behind it all, and being a singer myself, it resonates with me.
• the most enjoyable part of any prequel (because this is, indeed, a prequel) is seeing the way it ties in with the original. all of lewis's parallels to [b:The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe|100915|The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)|C.S. Lewis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1353029077s/100915.jpg|4790821] are quite clever and woven in quite well to the narrative.
• as always, something new strikes me every time I read one of these books. some Gospel truth I missed the first time around hits me hard, in this case, the delightful way Aslan blesses His animals, in such a way that they are joyful and His plan is still furthered.
•somehow, lewis always manages to add a bit of humor to his books, and I love him for it.

what I don't like:
• there isn't much, but I've always felt that the narnia books get weirder as you go on (assuming you start with [b:The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe|100915|The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)|C.S. Lewis|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1353029077s/100915.jpg|4790821]). so naturally, this had some weird elements in it, like

Spoiler

the wood between the worlds and all of charn and the rings

. the later books still have a lot of beauty in them, I just don't love them quite as much as I love the first four. perhaps that will change, in time.

rachael_esa's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

cthib9's review against another edition

4.0

I have stepped into Narnia for the first time of my life - a momentous occasion. I started with this book because it had "#1" on the cover. Do not question it.