The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe Review

The first book written in The Chronicles of Narnia (and second chronologically) was an even better introduction to the fantasy world than in The Magician’s Nephew. It was great to see so many characters from the world with fun personalities and to learn a bit about the lore and ancient magic that comes with any good fantasy series.

The characters of Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan were fun to follow, even though it was hard to like Edmund through most of the story. It was great to see the evil witch Janus again and learn more about her motivations.

I’m still not certain that I like C.S. Lewis’ style of writing. Having the narrator say things like “now we need to go back to Edmund” or “you’ll remember this from the previous chapter” just took me out of the story. It wasn’t a dealbreaker but it definitely took away from my enjoyment of the novel.

Overall, this was a pretty good book about four kids travelling to a magical land. They get wrapped up in a sort-of war and go to battle for Aslan. They make some interesting friends and grow as characters and as siblings.

It’s interesting to see aspects of this story which inspired other things I’ve seen and read.

4 Stars/5

The Magician’s Nephew Review

It is my first time ever reading C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. I’ve never fully watched any of the movies either. I have a basic knowledge of what the series is about and had some high hopes for this novel. What I hadn’t realized before picking it up, is that the novel doesn’t focus on the children from the rest of the books. Considering this book as a prequel of sorts (though it’s #1 in chronological order and #6 in publication) is probably the best way to view it.

This book takes place in the 1800s and begins with Digory meeting Polly. Digory lives with his Uncle Andrew, a magician, and his Aunt Letty, while his mom recovers from being ill. The inciting incident is when Digory and Letty enter Uncle Andrew’s room in the attic by accident and Letty becomes a guinea pig for Uncle Andrew’s experiment with magical buttons.

For what it is, I enjoyed the novel. The characters were interesting and the settings were described in a way that allowed me to really visualize them. I think I did myself a disservice reading/watching Lev Grossman’s The Magicians series because I kept thinking about the Neitherlands whenever Digory and Polly were in The Wood Between Worlds even though they only have dozens of pools/fountains in common.

This was a great introduction to Narnia as you get to see it from it’s creation. You see the creating of the Talking Beasts, the tree that protects Narnia, the origin of the wardrobe (kinda), and other elements of the series. Of course, you’re introduced to Aslan as well. Through his introduction you become aware of the gravitas of this magnificent beast. It’s  a great novel for background info. If the series were published today, these would be probably be novellas a la The Assassin’s Blade, Fairest, or Dorothy Must Die Stories.

4 Stars out of 5.