Series Of Books On Land Of Narnia Make Great Escape

Of all the gifts I got for Christmas this year, one stands out as my favorite. In it, I can escape from this world to the land of Narnia, a land of evil witches, wise old fawns and a great lion named Aslan.

I’m sure many of you have heard of Aslan, and the land of the red lion from the story “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” But did you know that not only are there six more books about Narnia, but that “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” is not the first in the series?

In order they are: “The Magician’s Nephew,” “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe,” “The Horse and His Boy,” “Prince Caspian,” “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” “The Silver Chair” and “The Last Battle.”

By now you know that the gift was The Narnia Chronicles, all seven in a boxed set. I had the honor of spending many nights curled up in bed with a mug of tea under the spell of C.S. Lewis. I can tell you now that some of the books are better than others. If you ask me, it’s always best to read the whole series straight through, from beginning to end. But if you’d rather know the ones to look forward to and the ones to skip, I’m your girl.

While it’s hard to find a fave, I have to award a tie between “The Magician’s Nephew,” “The Silver Chair” and “The Last Battle.” The reasoning behind this? I like the beautiful way the author created and ended Narnia. And as for “The Silver Chair,” well, I suppose it was just that the underworld of Narnia is so interesting. It’s full of little mining dwarfs, an evil witch, and even Father Time himself! But I won’t give it all away. What would be the fun in that?

There is only one book that isn’t as brilliant as the others, and may leave you unsatisfied. That is “Prince Caspian.” Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a good book, if you read it out of the series, and it does fit into the Narnia themes.

Still, it’s drab compared to the others. It takes place at least a thousand years (of Narnian time, mind you; about a year in ours) after “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” That’s that first mistake. The second is that Narnia has changed so much that it’s like another world set apart from the beautiful free place we all know and love.

About the others, they fall in the middle somewhere. “The Horse and His Boy’ is a really good one, but it doesn’t take place in Narnia as much as Calormen, a sort of Turkish-type country near Narnia, across the desert. Those who have fallen in love with Narnia may get disappointed by that one.

“The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” is also very good, with living stars and sea people, to name a few. But, like “The Horse and His Boy,” it nearly all takes place outside of Narnia. Unlike number four, though, it does have two of the original four children; Lucy and her brother Edmund return for more adventure, this time, taking their whiny cousin Eustace (even though he’s a pain, you’ll fall in love with him - I know I did).

And, of course, there’s “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe,” the most famous of the seven. To anyone who has not read it, do. You’re missing out on a world more magical and mystical than you could ever imagine. To those who have… my favorite is Tumnus; whose’s yours?

There are a billion more characters and sights and feelings and battles and loves and losses and animals and more. But we won’t get into that, because it would take up too much space, and ruin the books for you.

All I will say to finish is please, if you long for something more than this world, or if you love adventure, or if you’ve seen the show or even if you just want to curl up with a good book, read these. They’ll make you dream and imagine more than you can possibly realize.

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, BOOK REVIEW - Book Review CREDIT = Jessica Chrichton Lewis and Clark