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inkhearted 's review for:
The Magician's Nephew
by C.S. Lewis
A prequel written after the fact, it might be the trickiest of the series to get a read on in some ways. Our protagonists, steady, no-nonsense Polly and the impulsive (but true-of-heart) Digory seem to be marooned in a story bigger than themselves. The tone is at turns ominous (in the treatment of the magician and the portrayal of the burnt-out world the White Witch hailed from) and then almost slapstick as we catch the Witch fantastically out of her element and ordinary folks out of theirs. The book may well be the most blatant of the series as far as its Christian overtones. Narnia's origin story is Genesis all over, but Lewis does at least throw us a few curveballs. Some of the choices Digory and Polly face aren't quite as clear cut as you might expet and Polly is no Eve, in that she's not a scapegoat or a bad influence. If anything, she's Digory's anchor, pulling him back from his own well-meant, but nevertheless impulsive instincts when he really needs it. For other tales of deeply flawed magicians and the poor suckers who get caught up with them, look to Michael Scott and (my personal favorite) Jonathan Stroud, who tackle their characters with some nuanced moral ambiguity.