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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
adventurous
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
"Yes," said Queen Lucy. "In our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world."
Always enjoy returning to my childhood favorites. The Chronicles of Narnia hold so much magic, no matter how many times I read it.
Always enjoy returning to my childhood favorites. The Chronicles of Narnia hold so much magic, no matter how many times I read it.
adventurous
challenging
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
It's only appropriate that we saw the world beginning that we see the world ending.
Glad I finally read them all. I had had it on my bookshelf for years.
Also, I knew the books and the TV show The Magicians took a lot of inspiration from the Chronicles of Narnia. However, I did not know how much inspiration they books took from these books. How they chose to end the series makes a lot more sense, in hindsight.
Glad I finally read them all. I had had it on my bookshelf for years.
Also, I knew the books and the TV show The Magicians took a lot of inspiration from the Chronicles of Narnia. However, I did not know how much inspiration they books took from these books. How they chose to end the series makes a lot more sense, in hindsight.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia
I should've stopped at the silver chair. I got halfway through the book and as soon as eustace talked about being afraid there was an accident I thought that Eustace and pole were dead and that was why they were in narnia without the rings. Which to be honest I was really excited at the idea of using the rings again since the first book. I thought perhaps c.w. Lewis could've used this by having Eustace and pole successfully use the rings and if Peter, Edmund, and Lucy couldnt use the remaining rings, Digory and Polly could and that would have made for a more fitting story.
Then when the others appeared when the king ended up in the stable it confirmed they were all dead.
It was a sloppy and disappointing ending to series and I am not gonna lie, I am going to ignore this book with how poorly written the ending was. I was so hoping at any given moment, the book would redeem itself but no.
Then when the others appeared when the king ended up in the stable it confirmed they were all dead.
It was a sloppy and disappointing ending to series and I am not gonna lie, I am going to ignore this book with how poorly written the ending was. I was so hoping at any given moment, the book would redeem itself but no.
Good ending for Narnia and the Christian undertones. The very last page was shocking though.
adventurous
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
sad
tense
medium-paced
I’ve come to the end of my Narnia reread and it is somewhat bittersweet. So much of the ideas are rich and wondrous, and unique to C.S. Lewis, and I love to come back to the world he created. The magic of imagining as a kid that just through a wardrobe you can find yourself in a whole other world, having adventures and making friends, without consequences to your real life, touches on a very real fantasy. The games I would come up with for me and my younger brother were very much of this variety.
Yet as the books go on in the series, a little of something is lost in each of the books. I’m not sure I can quite put my finger on it. Perhaps it’s that Lewis is now leading with preaching through allegory, or perhaps that’s not the issue. Maybe he wanted to step away from Narnia and make sure it led people to a Christian God, and if that was his goal, maybe it worked in some cases? That’s for each individual to reflect.
Technically, the stories meander. Sometimes there’s steady pacing, like in the first book, The Horse and His Boy, and The Last Battle. Often there was meandering pacing, like in Prince Caspian or The Silver Chair. Often the focus was on subject matter that wasn’t interesting (especially in The Silver Chair).
The series is unfortunately greatly outdated, too. Sexism and racism and antisemitism are pretty pronounced. I know these came out in the 50’s, and were written in England, so that mindset was pretty blatant at the time, but it’s really tough to read. I can’t see myself having a child and pulling out The Last Battle unless I’m going to teach them about black face and all these “isms”.
From the Christian pov, perhaps The Last Battle is perfect. It mirrors “the end times” and shows a perfect Heaven at the end of it all.
For me, I find it sad that Lewis took away the Narnia that children can imagine being whisked away to, and left only the one you can reach if you die. But also you have to believe in him, and God (or Aslan) forbid you like “girlie” things because that’s worse than murder, than racism, than any of all that, and as what reads as a cruel footnote, Susan the Gentle is left behind an orphan and without family. I know Lewis wished to convey that it was about her turning from God and mirroring his own journey, but considering she was never written as a stand-in for himself, he failed in his mission, and the result was cruel and misogynistic.
I don’t know when I’ll come back to this series. I’m glad to have revisited them before the Netflix productions. Maybe I’ll do a reread when they come out in the future. But outside of that, I think I would like to find other stories (maybe I’ll revisit the Magic Treehouse series) of a similar persuasion, that have less cruelty in them to enjoy.
Yet as the books go on in the series, a little of something is lost in each of the books. I’m not sure I can quite put my finger on it. Perhaps it’s that Lewis is now leading with preaching through allegory, or perhaps that’s not the issue. Maybe he wanted to step away from Narnia and make sure it led people to a Christian God, and if that was his goal, maybe it worked in some cases? That’s for each individual to reflect.
Technically, the stories meander. Sometimes there’s steady pacing, like in the first book, The Horse and His Boy, and The Last Battle. Often there was meandering pacing, like in Prince Caspian or The Silver Chair. Often the focus was on subject matter that wasn’t interesting (especially in The Silver Chair).
The series is unfortunately greatly outdated, too. Sexism and racism and antisemitism are pretty pronounced. I know these came out in the 50’s, and were written in England, so that mindset was pretty blatant at the time, but it’s really tough to read. I can’t see myself having a child and pulling out The Last Battle unless I’m going to teach them about black face and all these “isms”.
From the Christian pov, perhaps The Last Battle is perfect. It mirrors “the end times” and shows a perfect Heaven at the end of it all.
For me, I find it sad that Lewis took away the Narnia that children can imagine being whisked away to, and left only the one you can reach if you die. But also you have to believe in him, and God (or Aslan) forbid you like “girlie” things because that’s worse than murder, than racism, than any of all that, and as what reads as a cruel footnote, Susan the Gentle is left behind an orphan and without family. I know Lewis wished to convey that it was about her turning from God and mirroring his own journey, but considering she was never written as a stand-in for himself, he failed in his mission, and the result was cruel and misogynistic.
I don’t know when I’ll come back to this series. I’m glad to have revisited them before the Netflix productions. Maybe I’ll do a reread when they come out in the future. But outside of that, I think I would like to find other stories (maybe I’ll revisit the Magic Treehouse series) of a similar persuasion, that have less cruelty in them to enjoy.
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix