adventurous medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Audiobook Listener

It was really fun to revisit Narnia, I read some but not all of the stories as a child and my memory is mostly from the movies to be honest. Some books were better than others and some were better off forgotten as anything involving the Calormen doesn't age well at all.  I think only adapting 3 of the 7 stories to film was the right move as The Last Battle and The Horse & His Boy are filled with xenophobia and racist stereotypes of Islamic cultures.

The best stories are the ones that include the Pevensies, they are the characters we first get to really see Narnia though and spend a great deal of time with as their books are clustered together. I also think their stories capture the wonder and adventure of discovering a hidden world, something we all fantasize about as children.

The Magician's Nephew suffers from 1st book syndrome even though it was published 6th. Its short and really only serves as additional context for the real first story which is The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe.

The Silver Chair is missing the anchoring characters of Narnia, whom are the Pevensies and Caspian. Caspian is a old man by the time Eustace returns with Jill. We spend this adventure searching for Caspian's lost son Rilian and don't get any time with Caspian until the very end. Since the book is mostly full of new characters we don't have the same investment for the plot. The kid's traveling companion should've at least been a familiar character to us as the reader. That's the issue with Narnia, by the time you return everyone you once knew is long dead and gone. Which is something the characters themselves directly acknowledge.  

My personal ranking would be;

  1. The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe 4.25
  2. Prince Caspian  4.5
  3. Voyage of The Dawn Treader 4
  4. The Magician's Nephew 3.75
  5. The Silver Chair 3
  6. The Horse & His Boy 1.5
  7. The Last Battle 1

I think if you really like Narnia, the 1st 4 books in my ranking are worth the read but 5-7 are completely skippable.
In The Last Battle, everyone who has ever been to Narnia, plus the Pevensie's parents die in the same train accident except for Susan. Her absence is not explained outside of mentioning that Susan no longer believes in Narnia and she grew up to be a vain girl who only thinks about makeup. Which is why there are only 7 Friends of Narnia instead of 8. So the final book ends with everyone dying, including the world of Narnia and they all go to "Heaven" which is Narnia and all Worlds at once, infinite and unending. Happily Ever After, The End </spoiler




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adventurous hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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adventurous hopeful fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

some problematic symbolism and characterization, but a classic collection of adventure stories

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

These books, especially the later ones, were honestly so racist. And also I think these books would have been better without the entire Christian allegory. 

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adventurous hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Note: This edition has all 7 of The Chronicles of Narnia in. I am so glad to have re-read these books, especially as an 'adult'. They are timeless yet you pick up on new things everytime that you read them. Yes, they are books of their time meaning that the culture is very different and they are not as appropriate, compassionate or inclusive as we would expect in this age, but they are still wonderful books and I would highly recommend.

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adventurous inspiring medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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 Hear me out!!!!!! I picked this book up for two reasons. It's a "classic" and it was a childhood favourite of a dearly departed friend. I had very little knowledge of what this book was about other than it had Christian undertones/allegories. I had no problem with that. In fact it was interesting to look for them within in the text. BUT THE RACISM. WOW!

Some may say "it was a different time". NO.

The author knew what they were writing and the language they chose to use. It was unacceptable then but they chose to use those words.

Someone has to be good and someone has to be bad in these types of kids books but this author's clear racism towards (if not Turkish/Ottoman) middle eastern/asian people is clear. The author chose to use the name Aslan (or can also be spelt Arslan in some countries) to name the lion. Yet this actually means lion in Turkic and some asian languages.

For this reason I could only give 2 stars. These 2 stars were for the writing and the story. If some adjectives were changed this would be a great book, the story/writing is fun. But that would be something akin to censorship, which I don't support.

Read it if you want. But beware of the writing. If you want to read this to children, please read it first and make up your mind if you wish to expose this book to children. 

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