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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this book and as always loved Edmund and Lucy. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is just that a voyage. As such there seem to be short stories within the book at each island and isn't the same sense of an epic adventure as in the rest of the Chronicles series.
Add Eustace Scrubb to the C.S. Lewis All-Name Team.
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
This one might be my favorite of the series! It was so fun and had some really great fantasy twists.
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
*As per all of my reviews, I like to preface by saying that I listened to this book in audiobook format. This does indeed slightly skew my rating. I have found that audiobooks, give me a better "relationship" with the characters if done well, but also kills the book for me if narrated poorly. Also due to the nature of listening to the text, names and places may be spelled incorrectly here as I often do not have the physical volume in front of me.
Also, I have written this review in a "rolling updates" style. In that I basically chronicle my reading as I progress. This may make for a jarring and spoilery review so be warned.**
Moving deeper into the lore and lands of Narnia...this one seems a bit..different. Peter and Susan have 'aged out' of being able to enter Narnia..which I would have thought would have been a bigger thing to mention. But Lucy and Edmund are the two Pevensie's we have this go round, as well as another character named Eustace Scrubb. Now, I believe that this character is very much supposed to be unlikable and quite the opposite of Lucy and Edmund. (maybe not early Edmund...) but talk about a bore of a character. Also..Eustace is supposed to be a boy, the same age of Edmund and Lucy, yet the narration for him is like an old English gentleman. It doesn't fit and gives me a complete wrong image of the character. That all being said, Edmund and Lucy treat him pretty harshly...
So either way, I really like how the kids always just stumble into Narnia...this time in the form of a panting of a boat...our grand Dawn Treader... The description of it coming to life and moving in the frame and suddenly it sweeping out and pulling them in...
Ah, so we get back to Caspian immediately.....Caspian explains to the Pevensies his intention of finding seven lords who disappeared in a place named the Lone Islands after the tyrant King Miraz murdered Caspian’s father and usurped the throne in the previous novel. Glad to see this go round, nigh little time has passed. We get Reppecheep back and he's as cute and stalwart as ever. There's a bunch of crew and retinue of Caspian that we're introduced to.
The ship lands at an island where the children and king are captured and sold into slavery; only to discover that the man who bought Caspian is in fact one of his lost lords.
This book feels very much more like a fairy tale than the others.. I can see we're going island hopping here..so I hope we get a lot of different, varied Eustace get's turned into a dragon..and he's miserable and he's now all repentant to his cranky, 'boring' ways. I honestly feel a bit odd here...Eustace while a bore.... how as he deserved any of this? I need to re-read the beginning, but it struck me that it was Edmund and Lucy who barged into his home, and force him to play with them. The kid just wanted to read and not be social, and they force him to have 'fun', get him sucked into a painting, and turned into a dragon..and yet he's in the wrong here??
So the island hopping continues, and we reach an island filled with invisible people, and they learn that they're under the lordship of a magician who turned them very repulsive, so rather than continue they made themselves invisible... The group is a charming bunch of character's who have an unwaivering faith in their 'chief' They apparently are all mushroom like creatures with a single foot...I have a really hard time visualizing any of this.. This entire scene reminds me something from Alice in Wonderland really.. It's a bit out there and while I appreciate it, it begins to come off as a bit over the top.
The voyage continues it's tour and we come to some truly fascinating lands...one land is completely steeped in darkness, and apparently manifests people's dreams. Not the dreams of rainbows and world peace...but rather the dreams of nightmares and confusion. I wish we could have spent more time here, the blackness is not just a mere shade, but actual almost tangible darkness. Reepicheep demands on the premise of personal honor that they should go in. This mouse is bordering on suicidal over brave...They lower a boat and sail out and find a man in the water who turns out to be one of the lords. This is a really cool scene, and it's so shrouded in mystery that it really piques my interest. Once onboard the man tells them to flee with all haste. Reep tries to argue but finally Caspian tells Reepicheep that "there are some things no man can face." The crew and even Lucy and Eustace begin having odd fears (more mundane really...)
There's a really cool one off line here from Caspian... Caspian goes over to Drinian and quietly asks how long they rowed into the darkness. Drinian says they rowed in for five minutes, and Caspian points out that they have already been rowing for 30 minutes... That creepy sense of dread I love...
A large bird appears and is this white beacon of brilliant light...it burns through the dark and leads them out. A really cool scene.
Let me say here that this book has a lot of interesting, and fable like scenes, but I don't know, it just doesn't grab me completely.
They arrive at the next island...and I suppose for sake of time, all of the remaining lords are gathered here. All gathered around a table, still as stone, asleep...for years. Hair has overtaken then entire table, as it grows from their heads, and beards. Just before dawn everyone suddenly feels very awake. Outside the pillars there is a hill. A door in the hill opens and a figure carrying a light comes out.
The girl says they arrived seven years ago in a ship that was falling apart. When they sat down at the table, they had an argument about what to do next. One of them wanted to return to Narnia, one wanted to keep sailing east, and one wanted to settle down on the island. In the course of the argument, the one who wanted to sail east grabbed the Knife of Stone. When he did, all three of them fell into their enchanted sleep. The stone knife is indeed the one that was used to cut Aslan down in the first book. So anyway they find out from the girl's dad that in order to lift the spell of sleep that's on the lords they have to do one of the most ambigious goals ever...sail to the end of the world and come back. What the hell does that even mean? My problem with this book is that there's no real clear cut goal that's of any importance. I think this also comes down to the fact that we keep entering Narnia as seemingly random points, and the stakes are just not well established. They all sail east towards an unknown destination and suddenly everything becomes bright and clear and they all feel enchanted...
They have an interesting discussion about the shape of the world..Apparently in the lands of Narnia, it's more common place knowledge to think that the world is flat. So while all of this stuff is ....well..it's there, none of it to me is all that compelling to read about. There's no sense in these later chapters (or I'd even argue the entire book) that makes me want to know what's going on. I love the idea of the high seas and sailing, and the islands they do come across have interesting elements, but they all feel pretty much the same (minus the land of darkness which was admittedly really cool) The character of Reepicheep, while...cute for a while, becomes downright annoying later. The humor of his character is soon removed and he's just now belligerent and a loose cannon. They sail and sail and reach a big "curtain" of white... they lower the bower and sail through the vale. They return with...lillies.. The book takes an odd turn and goes into Caspian attempting to sail further East or..something, I have no idea what his plan is here. Aslan gave him a message the night before, and he's set on leaving the rest behind..after a stern talking to, he relents, but then it's Edmund, Eustace, and Lucy who obviously at this point want to go home so they continue on, run into a weird ass lamb, it turns into Aslan and he opens a portal says they aged out of Narnia and they return to our world...
I don't know... I felt like I wanted to enjoy this more. But I just could not stay invested in anything here. The characters all seemed pretty fleeting and aside from the vivid imaginings, the book doesn't really create anyone I really like or want to hear more about. On to the Silver Chair... Now that all 4 Pevensies are ousted from Narnia for good...I'm curious to see if they return in the last two... This book had an air of finality to it...
Also, I have written this review in a "rolling updates" style. In that I basically chronicle my reading as I progress. This may make for a jarring and spoilery review so be warned.**
Moving deeper into the lore and lands of Narnia...this one seems a bit..different. Peter and Susan have 'aged out' of being able to enter Narnia..which I would have thought would have been a bigger thing to mention. But Lucy and Edmund are the two Pevensie's we have this go round, as well as another character named Eustace Scrubb. Now, I believe that this character is very much supposed to be unlikable and quite the opposite of Lucy and Edmund. (maybe not early Edmund...) but talk about a bore of a character. Also..Eustace is supposed to be a boy, the same age of Edmund and Lucy, yet the narration for him is like an old English gentleman. It doesn't fit and gives me a complete wrong image of the character. That all being said, Edmund and Lucy treat him pretty harshly...
So either way, I really like how the kids always just stumble into Narnia...this time in the form of a panting of a boat...our grand Dawn Treader... The description of it coming to life and moving in the frame and suddenly it sweeping out and pulling them in...
Ah, so we get back to Caspian immediately.....Caspian explains to the Pevensies his intention of finding seven lords who disappeared in a place named the Lone Islands after the tyrant King Miraz murdered Caspian’s father and usurped the throne in the previous novel. Glad to see this go round, nigh little time has passed. We get Reppecheep back and he's as cute and stalwart as ever. There's a bunch of crew and retinue of Caspian that we're introduced to.
The ship lands at an island where the children and king are captured and sold into slavery; only to discover that the man who bought Caspian is in fact one of his lost lords.
This book feels very much more like a fairy tale than the others.. I can see we're going island hopping here..so I hope we get a lot of different, varied Eustace get's turned into a dragon..and he's miserable and he's now all repentant to his cranky, 'boring' ways. I honestly feel a bit odd here...Eustace while a bore.... how as he deserved any of this? I need to re-read the beginning, but it struck me that it was Edmund and Lucy who barged into his home, and force him to play with them. The kid just wanted to read and not be social, and they force him to have 'fun', get him sucked into a painting, and turned into a dragon..and yet he's in the wrong here??
So the island hopping continues, and we reach an island filled with invisible people, and they learn that they're under the lordship of a magician who turned them very repulsive, so rather than continue they made themselves invisible... The group is a charming bunch of character's who have an unwaivering faith in their 'chief' They apparently are all mushroom like creatures with a single foot...I have a really hard time visualizing any of this.. This entire scene reminds me something from Alice in Wonderland really.. It's a bit out there and while I appreciate it, it begins to come off as a bit over the top.
The voyage continues it's tour and we come to some truly fascinating lands...one land is completely steeped in darkness, and apparently manifests people's dreams. Not the dreams of rainbows and world peace...but rather the dreams of nightmares and confusion. I wish we could have spent more time here, the blackness is not just a mere shade, but actual almost tangible darkness. Reepicheep demands on the premise of personal honor that they should go in. This mouse is bordering on suicidal over brave...They lower a boat and sail out and find a man in the water who turns out to be one of the lords. This is a really cool scene, and it's so shrouded in mystery that it really piques my interest. Once onboard the man tells them to flee with all haste. Reep tries to argue but finally Caspian tells Reepicheep that "there are some things no man can face." The crew and even Lucy and Eustace begin having odd fears (more mundane really...)
There's a really cool one off line here from Caspian... Caspian goes over to Drinian and quietly asks how long they rowed into the darkness. Drinian says they rowed in for five minutes, and Caspian points out that they have already been rowing for 30 minutes... That creepy sense of dread I love...
A large bird appears and is this white beacon of brilliant light...it burns through the dark and leads them out. A really cool scene.
Let me say here that this book has a lot of interesting, and fable like scenes, but I don't know, it just doesn't grab me completely.
They arrive at the next island...and I suppose for sake of time, all of the remaining lords are gathered here. All gathered around a table, still as stone, asleep...for years. Hair has overtaken then entire table, as it grows from their heads, and beards. Just before dawn everyone suddenly feels very awake. Outside the pillars there is a hill. A door in the hill opens and a figure carrying a light comes out.
The girl says they arrived seven years ago in a ship that was falling apart. When they sat down at the table, they had an argument about what to do next. One of them wanted to return to Narnia, one wanted to keep sailing east, and one wanted to settle down on the island. In the course of the argument, the one who wanted to sail east grabbed the Knife of Stone. When he did, all three of them fell into their enchanted sleep. The stone knife is indeed the one that was used to cut Aslan down in the first book. So anyway they find out from the girl's dad that in order to lift the spell of sleep that's on the lords they have to do one of the most ambigious goals ever...sail to the end of the world and come back. What the hell does that even mean? My problem with this book is that there's no real clear cut goal that's of any importance. I think this also comes down to the fact that we keep entering Narnia as seemingly random points, and the stakes are just not well established. They all sail east towards an unknown destination and suddenly everything becomes bright and clear and they all feel enchanted...
They have an interesting discussion about the shape of the world..Apparently in the lands of Narnia, it's more common place knowledge to think that the world is flat. So while all of this stuff is ....well..it's there, none of it to me is all that compelling to read about. There's no sense in these later chapters (or I'd even argue the entire book) that makes me want to know what's going on. I love the idea of the high seas and sailing, and the islands they do come across have interesting elements, but they all feel pretty much the same (minus the land of darkness which was admittedly really cool) The character of Reepicheep, while...cute for a while, becomes downright annoying later. The humor of his character is soon removed and he's just now belligerent and a loose cannon. They sail and sail and reach a big "curtain" of white... they lower the bower and sail through the vale. They return with...lillies.. The book takes an odd turn and goes into Caspian attempting to sail further East or..something, I have no idea what his plan is here. Aslan gave him a message the night before, and he's set on leaving the rest behind..after a stern talking to, he relents, but then it's Edmund, Eustace, and Lucy who obviously at this point want to go home so they continue on, run into a weird ass lamb, it turns into Aslan and he opens a portal says they aged out of Narnia and they return to our world...
I don't know... I felt like I wanted to enjoy this more. But I just could not stay invested in anything here. The characters all seemed pretty fleeting and aside from the vivid imaginings, the book doesn't really create anyone I really like or want to hear more about. On to the Silver Chair... Now that all 4 Pevensies are ousted from Narnia for good...I'm curious to see if they return in the last two... This book had an air of finality to it...
adventurous
medium-paced
No me esperaba ese final. Pero muy interesante la novela. Me encantó, los personajes y las enseñanzas son muy bonitas.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes