Title: Prince Caspian
Author: C.S. Lewis
Series: Chronicles of Narnia #4
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Easy reading, Fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Grafton
Year: 1951
5th sentence, 74th page: Then he thought it was only a dream and turned over again; but as soon as his ear touched the ground he felt or heard (it was hard to tell which) a faint beating or drumming.

“Look sharp!” shouted Edmund. “All catch hands and keep together. This is magic – I can tell by the feeling. Quick!”

The evil King Miraz and his army can only mean trouble for Narnia and Prince Caspian, rightful heir to the throne, fears for the future of his country. He blows the Great Horn in desperation, summoning Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy to help with his difficult task – that of saving Narnia before its freedom is lost forever.

Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy return to Narnia, and it is exactly as good as I had expected and hoped. Instead of repeating the same battles and triumphing over similar evils, they attempt to help restore the rightful king to the throne. This time, their foray into Narnia is so much shorter and their tale isn’t as long. Most of this story is, in fact, taken up by the tale of Prince Caspian, his blossoming knowledge of the “Old Narnia” and fleeing to the forests.

Prince Caspian shows what happens to legends and tales as time passes. Hundreds, if not thousands of years have passed in Narnia since the adventures of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the four return to find out that nothing is what it was. So much tradition and so many people / species have been lost with the passage of time. Yet, the core values of the people / creatures remain the same. It is only because of this and the legend that surrounds them that the four are able to help Caspian to triumph.

This is also Peter and Susan’s last trip to Narnia. The passage of time changes us all, and as we get older, sometimes we have to say goodbye to the favourite parts of our childhood. For Peter and Susan, this is it. There’s a promise in the air of more adventures of Lucy and Edmund, but in so many ways, this feels like saying goodbye to the past and childhood and welcoming a grown-up life.

Image source: Narnia Translations Home

Title: The Horse and His Boy
Author: C.S. Lewis
Series: Chronicles of Narnia #3
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Easy reading, Fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Grafton
Year: 1954
5th sentence, 74th page: As the moon was behind it, it looked quite black, and Shasta did not know what it was, except that it had a very big, shaggy head and went on four legs.

“How ever did you learn to talk?” asked Shasta in amazement.

“Where I come from, nearly all the animals talk,” replied the Horse. “The happy land of Narnia.” His whinny sounded very like a sigh.

Bree, the horse, has been kidnapped from Narnia and longs to return there. Shasta, on the verge of being sold into slavery, decides to run away with him in search of the home he’s always dreamed of. But the journey is full of surprises and fraught with dangers, and when the companions uncover a treasonous plot, it also becomes a race against time…

I feel like this is sort of a forgotten part of The Chronicles of Narnia series. It takes place when the four are still in power, but follows a different boy from a country across the desert. Shasta’s upbringing is less than ideal and he struggles to find compassion and love in his daily life. Yet, when he meets the Narnian Bree, they both embark on a journey across the land to save not only the four, but the land of Shasta’s birth.

Although I love revisiting Peter, Susan, Lucy and Edmund throughout many of the other books, this is a nice way to build upon the world of Narnia. The multi layering of a beloved world is brilliant and helps to expand on the structured reality that Lewis has so carefully created.

Where The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is about morals and sacrifice, The Horse and his Boy is about fate, trust and bravery. Not just for Shasta, but for the rest of his companions as well.

Image source: Abe Books

Title: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Author: C.S. Lewis
Series: Chronicles of Narnia #2
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Easy reading, Fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Grafton
Year: 1950
5th sentence, 74th page: “It’s no good, Son of Adam,” said Mr Beaver, “no good your trying, of all people.

“This is the land of Narnia,” said the Faun, “where we are now. And you – you have come from the wild woods of the west!” “I – I got in through the wardrobe in the spare room,” said Lucy.

Lucy steps into the Professor’s wardrobe – but steps out again into a snowy forest. She’s stumbled upon the magical world of Narnia, a land of unicrons, centaurs, fauns… and the wicked White Witch, who terrorises all. Lucy soon realises that Narnia, and in particular Aslan, the great Lion, need her help if the country’s creatures are ever going to be free again…

There’s a reason that this is a classic. And one of my all-time favourite books since I was a child. I can remember when I first had this read to me in primary school, and (unlike with Charlotte’s Web) I’ve never looked back. Actually, this is the third copy of the book that I’ve had to buy – the rest have fallen apart a little.

There’s been so many discussions about the Christian undertones to this story and the ways in which this tale reflects the journey of Jesus. I do understand this, but as someone who is not Christian and not interested in their religious stories, it’s not just about that. If it’s about that at all. This story is about morals, sacrifice and love. Every action has a consequence, but sometimes there is someone bigger and stronger there that is willing to protect you from all of the things that go bump in the night.

Although the morals and messages in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe are strong and potent, it’s really the joy of the story that makes this so much fun. This is the ultimate children’s adventure. A cold, rainy day and you decide to play hide and seek, only to be swept away on a journey of good versus evil. Plus, even Santa makes an appearance!

Image source: Narnia Translations Home

Title: The Magician’s Nephew
Author: C.S. Lewis
Series: Chronicles of Narnia #1
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Easy reading, Fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Grafton
Year: 1955
5th sentence, 74th page: But he was, in any case, as vain as a peacock; that was why he had become a Magician.

Digory let out a scream. “What’s happened to Polly?”

“Congratulate me, my dear boy,” said Uncle Andrew, rubbing his hands. “My experiment has succeeded. The little girl’s gone – vanished – right out of this world.”

When Digory and Polly discover Uncle Andrew’s secret workshop, they are tricked into touching the magic rings which transport them to the Other Place. But even Uncle Andrew doesn’t realise the wonders that await them, for here is the gateway to the Land of Narnia and the beginning of many wonderful adventures there…

I found this Narnia story a little harder to get into at the beginning. Probably because the rest of the books have got residual characters from previous books. Characters that I have already formed an attachment to. However, from the third chapter onwards, I was happily hooked and involved. And, as it turns out, these are characters and happenings that are actually integral to the story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The Magician’s Nephew is a story that I’ve read a few times – actually, it’s the first prequel to a series that I’ve really sunk my teeth into. And, it’s everything that a prequel should be. There is a sense of beginning, and although there is still the typical beginning, middle and end, the end is a little more open and there is a sense of new starts throughout the tale. Or at least, that’s how I always feel when I finish The Magician’s Nephew – like this small tale might be over, but the big battle is just beginning.

A big part of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and indeed, all of the Narnian stories is the fact that while the land is not a land of men, it must be ruled by man (or woman). It makes the stories work, but it is something that annoys me – the symbolic mastery of man over nature as though it can’t survive without us. But, regardless of that, I had always wondered how other men had come to the world. In the first book, they came through the wardrobe, in Caspian’s time, his people long ago slipped through another portal and bred up in a different country within the world. So, how did the first king and queen arrive? The Magician’s Nephew answers this, and how the wardrobe came to be, and even how the queen managed to sink her teeth into Narnia in the first place. So many questions that I hadn’t even known I needed answered…

Image source: The Outer Edge of Normal