The Last Battle

A clever ape's chance encounter with a dead lion starts a serious of destructive events in Narnia. The ape is able to dress his donkey friend in the lion skin, and thus convince everyone that he is the great lion "Aslan". Others fall for this, and blindly agree to follow his words, eventually enslaving themselves to nearby enemies. The enemy-Ape crowd continue to use their detailed knowledge of Narnian believes to spread small lies and entrench their leadership position.

With conditions really bad, all the previous "Narnian children" are called back to help resolve the problems. It turns out that they were "called" back via a train crash in their real world, and are now permanent residents of Narnia. After the calamities of Narnia, it too is transformed to a "new Narnia". Those that were not worthy did not make it through the door to the new area. (And some, like the Dwarfs, failed to believe of the goodness, and thus continued to live in darkness.)

. People are eager to accept the appearance of the long-missing deity. The eagerness encourages them to blindly follow him - without stopping to question or think that it might be an impostor. Many of those that finally stop following the "false Aslan" are so disturbed by the experience that they begin to abandon their faith altogether. By subtly mixing small lies with the truth the evildoers are able to undermine the faith for their personal gain. (However, they are soon undermined when they discover that even their 'evil' deity is real.)

The end is a story of the rapture and the joyous afterlife. Those believers were obvious participants in the joy. While others with strong belief and morals, even if misplayed in an evil god were also allowed to join, as they were willing to accept the true "good" Aslan.

This completes the epic, coming from the creation on to the final destruction of the Narnian world and the afterlife. This book feels somewhat different than the other Narnia books. Its not a mere battle that they children are set join, but a true destruction of the world. While things are extremely ominous, out of the destruction rises one of the most joyous occasions. This makes this also one of the better books in the series.

The Silver Chair

Eustace Scrub and a girl are being chased by bullies. They wish for an entry in to Narnia. Then they go through a door and end up there. Narnia time has aged a generation since Eustace's last trip. He and the girl are supposed to go find the young prince to restore him to his thrown. Only, they don't communicate well and end up on a few detours before they go on their mission. They eventually strap a knight to a Silver Chair (hence the book's name) and manage to break an evil witch's spell and bring him back home.

This novel shows the gradual evolution of Scrub. He is still a little prick, but lets more of his good side show through. We also see the nefariousness of the witch, who manages to belittle everything with week comparisons. (When they say the sun is like a light, she belittles their world as being a mere imitation of her real world. Finally, they are able to overcome her be acknowledging that they would rather live in their potentially better world than be stuck in her 'known inferior' world.)

They also get their share of fantastical adventures, being blown by a lion's breath away from a miles high cliff, narrowly avoiding becoming the key ingredient in giants' meal, and finding an underground revolt.

This book is a pseudo-tangent. Read after Dawn Treader, it seems to flow fairly naturally. However, the story seems somewhat of a tangent from the main Narnia line (after all, Scrub was not introduced until the previous book). It also seemed to lack the engagement of the earlier books. However, it is still a fairly good story.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This book in the Narnia series contains a series of "adventures" similar to Gulliver's Travels or a Jules Verne novel. A couple of the "Narnia" kids are with their do-gooder intellectual cousin (Eustace) when they get sucked in to a picture of a ship they see. On the ship with Prince Caspian, they participate in a number of fairly unrelated adventures. They are sold as slaves, only to depose the ruler of a realm. Eustace is turned in to a dragon, only to be eventually rescued by Aslan. They run in to invisible monopods that they help turn visible. (And in the process Lucy regrets that she cast a spell to learn what everybody thought of her.) And what magical adventure is complete without water that turns everything it touches to gold?

Eustace becomes the main thread through the story. He is a bookworm, snobbish teetotaler who is set in his ways. (Lewis also uses alcohol as part of his 'separation', with the others freely drinking while Eustace stays away.) Eventually, he starts to realize that perhaps he is part of the problem. When the kids finally return home, he is seen as having a much improved character.

This is a "fun" novel in the Narnia series with a number of small adventures. It ties in a few moral and religious messages (such as faith, and the disadvantage of knowing too much about others.) And it also ties in Lewis's views of the benefit of socializing and not being too uptight. Each of the adventures could just about be released as its own short story. Thus far, this is probably my favorite Narnia story.

Prince Caspian

The children, on their way to boarding school, are summoned back to Narnia. There they find great kingdom mostly in ruins. An evil group has taken over, and the few rebels (lead by rightful heir Prince Caspian) have summoned them to help defend it. They win in a big battle, and discover that the usurpers to the thrown were also humans extracted from earth.

This is more of an adventure story, with the religious allegory present, much less strong than in the "Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". However, there are still issues of faith, with Lucy maintaining a belief in Aslan, even though others cannot seem to see him. She is rewarded for this faith, but still has to struggle to convince the others.

It is a well written book that could stand alone, but is better read after the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The Horse and His Boy

This is a light, simplistic fantasy story that even I liked. A boy runs away from servitude with a talking horse. They eventually meet up with another horse and person. They then take part in a big battle where the good guys win and people get married and live happily ever after.

The story seems more simple than the other Narnia stories and feels much lighter in tone. It feels more like a 30 minute cartoon than a feature length movie.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

This was better than I remembered it. A girl goes exploring in an old house and discovers a wardrobe that leads to another world. The time moves at a different rate and she comes out shortly after entering (even though she was there for a while.) The other kids do not believe her. A boy stumbles in and encounters the evil "queen" who offers him magical Turkish delight. He craves it and wants more and more (along with promised kingship and glory.) When he returns, he tells the girl he was there, but then tells the others that she simply had an imagination. Eventually they all end up in Narnia, where the boy discovers that the "queen" is just trying to use him for her means. Eventually the lion dies for them, thereby reversing magic and saving everyone (including himself.)

The Christianity is obvious,(kids are daughters of eve or sons of Adam), yet subdued. (The evil queen comes from another parallel line of Adam.) The Lion is a pretty obvious Christ figure, complete with the sacrifice. However, the world is still a world of its own, unique from any biblical one.

One message seems to be to not give in to temptations to mess up your life in search of yummy food. (Hmmm, that is a tough one to follow.)

Magician's Nephew

Some kids associate with their Magician uncle. They see the witch and unlock the world of Narnia, and inadvertently bring the evil witch back to earth. Luckily, she seems to have no power here.

The story didn't seem all that bad, but I did have trouble getting in to it. It did have some pretty clear Christian metaphors. As the "creation" story for Narnia, it had many similarities to the biblical creation (complete with fruit.)