All about the books

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1656317]

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I honestly couldn't decide when it's best to read Magician's Nephew. I think either way works. I read it later, which worked. But I'm curious to know how it would read in chronological order. OTOH, I think LWW is more classic, so if you're not sure if you're going to read more than one, you should read that.

I have read Last Battle, but wasn't sure if other people should so so. It's definitely of abstract interest (several bits made me incredibly sad), but I'm not sure if most people would find it a worthwhile addition to the Narnia canon (even though Lewis obviously did). I think if you've been reading the books in a child-adventure sort of way, you're never going to be satisfied with the "die and go to heaven" ending. But then, it's possible if you're a more sophisticated reader, but still not wedded to the explicitly Christian parts, you would like it, I can't tell for sure.

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

I read The Last Battle as a primary school kid, reading it as a child-adventure series, and enjoyed it...

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. OK then.

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

Seconded! At eight, it seems like a fantastic just-desserts ending, to the point where even the part with Susan is more like the end of the Polar Express where you can only still hear the jingle bell if you believe.

I should really go back to the books again now that I'm a twenty-nine-year-old graduate student in religion who's read (and loved) some of Lewis' Not For Children works. I'm sure I'll be grabbing my head in shock now that I can see that Aslan = Jesus.

[andrewducker]

Aslan=Jesus? Spoilers!

(Yes, kidding. I didn't see it myself as a kid, either, despite going to a Christian school...)

[naath.livejournal.com]

When I first read the series as a child I thought tLB was a reasonable ending to the series. It really does END Narnia after all, whereas most fantasy epics leave the possibility for "what happens next?". It was never my favourite, and I now think it's dreadful, but it didn't seem so bad then.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Hm. I agree that having an actual ending is a good way to end a series. And don't pretend my experience has to be universal. But I think my strongest impressions of it, was that it was mostly about characters I didn't know and didn't care about, having almost exclusively unpleasant things happen to them. And I had become conditioned to children from earth arriving to fix everything, so was disappointed to see they arrived just in time to blunder about without a plan and preside over the end of the world. And then there was some kind of vague, unsatisfying and depressing afterlife.

That is, I didn't really appreciate it. I'm not surprised _some_ people appreciated it, but I'm surprised many young people did :)

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

There should be an option of skipping The Horse And His Boy completely since it's essentially a short story padded out with nearly no plot.

The entire thing should have been four or five pages in Prince Caspian. Perhaps a story told to young Caspian by his tutor.

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

Agreed with this

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it only exists to set up who the Telemarines are so that Caspian will make some sort of sense.

But, you don't need an entire book to do that.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I agree it doesn't have the same overall importance as most of the other books, but when I first read it, I found many things very notable, and found it interesting to see Narnia and Aslan from the outside, and from the point of view of an average person

[joexnz.livejournal.com]

yeas, though i always read it as a christian (narnia) islamic metaphor, but its been 13 years since i read them

[grapefruitzzz.livejournal.com]

I like the way it's a side-story, as it has less 'weight' to carry and can get on with some rather nice characterisation.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

You missed out "read them all more than a third of a century ago and can't disentangle them in memory any more".

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

I'm in a similar space.

I read them all at age 7, I enjoyed them as a bright 7 year old might, but didn't necessarily ask the questions I might now.

That was over 20 years ago and I quite honestly can't remember the nuances enough to comment in detail.

I do remember particularly enjoying The Silver Chair but since as I can't remember the details of the plot...

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

I had mixed feelings about Prince Caspian, truthfully. But there were enough bits that I loved that it gets an overall Good. I should reread Last Battle and see if my opinion has changed.

In my opinion Magician's Nephew has much, much more impact if read after LW&W, and LW&W has more impact if read before MN.

[grapefruitzzz.livejournal.com]

Chronological order is the way to go. Although 'The Last Battle' is a bit crappity.