The Silver Chair (original 1953; edition 1970)

I much prefer these small Scholastic books to the mammoth anthology I've been reading the other books in. For one reason, it's much more enjoyable to hold. For another, I love that it's illustrated. I love that the type is larger because it's meant for children's eyes. I *feel* like a kid when I'm reading the smaller book and is so enjoyable :-)

In regards to the story itself, I'm amazed at C. S. Lewis' ability to create new characters -- Jill Pole, for example, and Puddleglum -- and have us fall in love with them in only 243 pages. That is so cool! In the beginning, I wasn't sure if I was going to like Jill & Eustace but I ended up really liking them! I'm so excited for the next book :-) Anxious too because it's the last :-( Already I feel the need to reread this series!

Adrianne ( )

The last two books are definitely not in line for my favourites. There are various factors -- one of which is simply that I don't like seeing Narnia come to an end! But the main one is that I don't find Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum that compelling as main characters. Or Rillian, for that matter, even though he's Caspian's son. They're quite realistic and human, and lack the nobility that Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy have, I think. Perhaps too realistic. I want to kick Jill a lot of the time for making excuses and not doing what she knows is right. Nobody else is much better. Puddleglum is an interesting idea for a character, but I don't find him that compelling.

It doesn't help that this book is fairly dreary. Snow, stone, cold, giants, underground, sunless seas... there are some beautiful, beautiful sections, like the description of Bism, and little gems about Narnia, like about how serious it is to ask a centaur to stay for the weekend. Overall, though, I find it hard to get into and sympathise with the characters.

I do find myself tearing up, even now, at Caspian's death and renewal. ( )

Probably my second-least favourite of the lot. Puddleglum is a fantastic character, but Jill was such a latecomer, and paired only with Eustace -- also a latecomer, and not the most sympathetic of them either... It doesn't really work for me in that sense. And of course, Caspian is old, and that's just... ugh. It doesn't have the delightful magic of Narnia, for the most part, not until the gnomes are talking about Bism, which is pretty darn late in the game.

Still fun to reread, I suppose, but... It's not really Narnia to me. ( )

Eh, Narnia. I just can't warm to it. Too episodic, and I always end up tripping over the allegory. After seeing a documentary that posits that each Narnia book corresponds to one of the planets in the medieval understanding of the cosmos, I picked up The Silver Chair because it was the next one in order I hadn't yet read. I might just get the book which inspired the documentary ([Planet Narnia]) and put the rest of the Chronicles aside. I don't know. I want to like them. I'll allow as how this one held my attention more than the dreadful, interminable Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Blee. ( )

Great series, I loved these as a kid. Read them over and over again. ( )