The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia series, Books 1 - 7
C. S. Lewis
HarperCollins
Fiction, CH? Fantasy
Themes: Anthropomorphism, Classics, Dragons, Epics, Equines, Fantasy Races, Pirates, Portal Adventures, Religious Themes, Seafaring Tales, Small Animals, Witches
****
Description
The world of Narnia is the domain of the great Lion Aslan, where Men and Talking Beasts live among wonders such as satyrs and dryads and unicorns... and
terrors such as dragons and sea serpents and foul giants. The Chronicles tell Narnia's story, from its creation to its destruction.
This was originally published as seven books:
The Magician's Nephew - Young Digory and his friend Polly are pulled into their devious Uncle Andrew's experiments that take them into other
worlds, where they witness Narnia's creation and accidentally unleash a great evil upon Aslan's new world.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy discover a passage to Narnia through an old wardrobe. The land suffers
in the grip of a magical winter, and the coming of the four humans may fulfill a prophecy to save Narnia from the immortal White Witch.
The Horse and his Boy - A boy in the savage desert country of Calormen discovers that he is not, as he long thought, the son of a poor, cruel
Calormene fisherman, but an orphan from the green northern lands. The warhorse Bree, a Talking Horse from Narnia who was captured as a foal and has been hiding
his nature for years, enlists his aid to escape bondage.
Prince Caspian - Foreigners with no love of the land have conquered Narnia and driven the Talking Beasts and other wonders into hiding. Young
Prince Caspian, enraptured by forbidden tales of the time before the invasion, defies his family and seeks to restore Old Narnia to its former glory... with some
help from Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, summoned by a magic horn and Aslan's will.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - After establishing peace in Narnia, the young King Caspian fulfills a coronation oath and sets sail to seek seven
nobles who long ago vanished into the uncharted eastern seas. Edmund, Lucy, and their disagreeable cousin Eustace, pulled into Narnia by a painting, accompany him
on a voyage to unknown lands and untold dangers, to the very end of the world itself.
The Silver Chair - Eustace and a schoolmate, Jill, are fleeing bullies when they find themselves called to Aslan's service. The prince of Narnia
has been missing for ten years, lured away by a ghostly vision. The English children, along with Puddleglum the web-footed Marsh-Wiggle, must find the prince before
the old king's health fails.
The Last Battle - A selfish Ape schemes to deceive the populace with a false Aslan, and is in turn used by the Calormenes and their bloodthirsty god
Tash to bring about the fall of Narnia and the end of the world.
Review
My plan to accumulate the series via Half Price Books wasn't working out to my satisfaction, so I broke down and bought this all-inclusive volume. Each individual book reads fast - I read most of them in a matter of hours, and rarely needed more than a day to finish one. The series is fairly imaginative, though, like many Christian-themed fantasies, it's awfully easy to pick out friend from foe at first glance, with a distinct trend towards fair-featured Heroes and dark Villains. I still find god-characters like Aslan a bit of a cop-out, conveniently omnipotent as they are - appearing and disappearing at random, they create whole worlds to judge, but only reveal themselves on select occasions to a chosen population whom all others must evidently defer to. The series isn't too predictable, though, save the usual givens in Christian-based fantasy (anyone acting in Aslan's name is Good, anyone else is generally Evil or merely Prideful or Foolish - in which case they are usually magnanimously converted by a well-timed visit from the Lion - and the main characters are guaranteed safe passage through the book), and it has some great imagery and memorable characters.