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A review by grrr8_catsby
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
4.0
The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe is the second entry in the Chronicles Of Narnia series, but the first book actually published. While maybe confusing the reader as to what the best Narnia timeline is, this is it; love it or hate it, The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe is The Chronicles Of Narnia at its most iconic.
The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe successfully utilizes a lot of things from its predecessor (or, rather, as The Magician's Nephew was written 5 years after The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, lends a lot of things to what would become its prequel). The utilization of the separation of England and Narnia helps to establish characters and setting, as the characters (Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy) come to discover and explore Narnia as we do. Similarly, the time disparity between Narnia and England adds a nice wrinkle to the story, in a way where we don't have to question why time passes in places like Charn but not in Narnia as we did in The Magician's Nephew.
Ultimately, your enjoyment of The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe will depend on your tolerance of C.S. Lewis's heavy use of Christian allegory. If the parallels between Genesis and The Magician's Nephew didn't halter your reading, the parallels between The Resurrection and The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe should not deter you either.
Not everything works in The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. Pacing feels off at times, as the final battle concludes during the final chapter of the book. Many years have passed between the end of The Magician's Nephew and the start of The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe with minimal explanation as to what has occurred. Perhaps the weirdest of all? A very sexist Santa shows up about halfway through this book.
As I mentioned in my review of The Magician's Nephew, ultimately, it doesn't matter what I write here, because The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe has established itself as a staple of early fantasy over the last 70 years. And why shouldn't it? It's a safe, family-friendly fantasy story about the magic of exploring a whole new world.
The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe successfully utilizes a lot of things from its predecessor (or, rather, as The Magician's Nephew was written 5 years after The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, lends a lot of things to what would become its prequel). The utilization of the separation of England and Narnia helps to establish characters and setting, as the characters (Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy) come to discover and explore Narnia as we do. Similarly, the time disparity between Narnia and England adds a nice wrinkle to the story, in a way where we don't have to question why time passes in places like Charn but not in Narnia as we did in The Magician's Nephew.
Ultimately, your enjoyment of The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe will depend on your tolerance of C.S. Lewis's heavy use of Christian allegory. If the parallels between Genesis and The Magician's Nephew didn't halter your reading, the parallels between The Resurrection and The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe should not deter you either.
Not everything works in The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. Pacing feels off at times, as the final battle concludes during the final chapter of the book. Many years have passed between the end of The Magician's Nephew and the start of The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe with minimal explanation as to what has occurred. Perhaps the weirdest of all? A very sexist Santa shows up about halfway through this book.
As I mentioned in my review of The Magician's Nephew, ultimately, it doesn't matter what I write here, because The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe has established itself as a staple of early fantasy over the last 70 years. And why shouldn't it? It's a safe, family-friendly fantasy story about the magic of exploring a whole new world.