Coicoy

 And so we come to the end. The book begins unlike any other book in the series: with an Ape and a Donkey. The Donkey's name is Puzzle, and the Ape's name is Shift. They are quite appropriately named, for Puzzle is a puzzled little donkey who certainly believes he is not clever, and Shift is quite a shifty and mean-spirited Ape who changes what is true into a falsehood, and essentially bullies his donkey slave (with whom he pretends to friends) into becoming a makeshift false Aslan .  Shift manipulates the situation to gain control and power over Narnia, and as it turns out he at some point is discovered to be in cahoots with the Calormenes. Together, they fell Narnian trees and mistreat the Talking Animals, who are misled to believe that this false Aslan is the real one and that he is angry with them and that he has changed the rules. In fact, being in league with the Calormenes, Shift gets the Narnians to believe that his real name is Tashlan , and that Tash and Aslan are t...

  The Horse and His Boy is a unique entry in The Chronicles of Narnia , and every time I think of it or hear it mentioned I think of my mom sharing the story of one of her friends who - unknowingly and unfortunately - picked up this particular book first, and, having read and loved it, only then discovered that the characters who are at the foreground and center of this story are characters who scarcely make an appearance in the rest of the series. Edmund and Susan appear in crucial scenes in the middle, Edmund returns at the end, Lucy shows up and makes her presence felt at the end, and the High King Peter is only mentioned by name. The book instead focuses on Shasta, the Talking Horse Bree, the Tarkheena named Aravis, another Talking Horse Hwin, and the Southern Kingdoms of Archenland and Calormen and Tashbaan and their kings and princes.  So, my mom's friend became attached to all of these characters and then only then discovered that the rest of the Narnia series was quit...

The Silver Chair has always been a notable book to me, for a few reasons. For one, it is one of the darkest tonally in the whole series and it was the one I found somewhat scary as a growing child. For another, it was one of the books adapted by the BBC for their series of televised productions, which I remember watching with my best friend Chris O. And then there's my mother, whom I must mention again. I am fairly certain that my introduction to the book came after my mom called me Puddleglum , or said that I was talking like him, or something along those lines. She said it with a smirk and a wink, and it stuck with me. So, when I first read the book, I was a bit amused and slightly bemused. I mean, I was generally a positive and optimistic child, at least I thought so, and Puddlglum's repeatedly referred to by Eustace and Jill as a wet blanket, and he's constantly expecting the worst outcome. He's an aptly named character. And with his musings come a fair amount of w...

This has always been one of my personal favorite books in the series. It is the one that seems to engage the most with the fantasy genre, and Lewis's use of seafaring narrative tropes helps to lend a sense of adventure and mystery throughout the plot. As for story, I say that this is more of an episodic book, with mini-stories being told in every chapter or two. Structurally, it is basically every two chapters that hold a new story within the overarching Quest story. It reminds me of The Odyssey and Gulliver's Travels , and Edmund even mentions "Ulysses when he wanted to go near the Sirens." In the book, Caspian shares that he is searching out seven Lords who were his father's friends and had been lost at sea when his treacherous Uncle Miraz was the usurping 'King' of Narnia (in the story told in the previous book) and Aslan's Country in the far east across the sea. That overall plot device holds together well, just as well as Odysseus/Ulysses wan...

Before I get into my review, let me just mention that the order I'm reading these in is the order that seems to make sense to me to re-read them. But I also think that for first-time readers, whether they start with The Magician's Nephew or not, it works soooo much better to read Prince Caspian as a direct follow-up to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe . The story begins about a year after the Pevensie children's first trip into Narnia, and it begins at a train station. I've always liked the notion of being whisked away into another realm and having one's surroundings dramatically change. There's a bit of humor involved in the way Lewis writes the transition, too, and I like the bits about Edmund having left some items behind but still having a sandwich in his pocket when the children suddenly find themselves exploring what turns out to be a deserted island. What a mysterious island it is! And yet familiar! The reveal works wonderfully, and the storyte...

And so we come to the classic. If there's any one book that most people have read from the series, it's this one: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe . [By the way, there seems to be no Oxford comma in this title, which does make sense to me in this case.] As a title, it's a classic too, and it is the most distinguishable title as a Narnia book in the series. After all, when I see or hear the word closet  (or walk-in-closet ), I think of clothes, but when I hear the word wardrobe , I think of hide-and-seek and coats and trees and snow and Mr. Tumnus and Turkish Delight ! To a certain extent, I'm almost overly familiar with this book when I re-read it, but I'd like to share some reflections and general observations about it, especially with where my mind has been in reading it this time. First of all, I think I've come to the conclusion that it's a coin-flip whether or not it is best to read this one or The Magician's Nephew first if you are an...