What do You think about The Magician's Nephew (2005)?
Well isn't this a pleasant surprise! I should explain:I have been struggling for quite awhile with this series. Having not gone to an English speaking school, I never read The Chronicles of Narnia growing up. I have to admit I discovered the film versions first. Then,I attempted to read it right after 'The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe' came out, but at that time, I had a hard time with C.S.Lewis' style. He tends to constantly insert the author’s voice, and I found it broke the fantasy bubble for me and kept taking me out of the story. This time around, I begun with 'The Magician's Nephew', reading the story chronologically instead of by order of release. Maybe it's because I don't have the film version to taint my opinion, but I very much enjoyed this book.The Magician's Nephew is the tale of how Narnia came into being. It takes place many hundreds of years before the events of 'The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe'. I found it really fascinating, since one of the main characters is the old Professor who takes in the Pevensie children in TLTW&TW (the one who owns the infamous wardrobe). You get to see the creation of Narnia, meet Aslan, and see how the evil White Witch came to Narnia. The idea of witnessing a world just beginning.... hardly any people, few animals... seeing places with no names; all of this was really fascinating to me.The magic aspect of Narnia; it's a different kind of magic then I'm accustomed to, and I'm not sure how to explain it...kind of like it's the world itself that is magic; the magic exists in the very nature of Naria: in it's water, in it's trees, in it's animals. So it's fun to read about magic in different form than I'm accustomed to. All things considered, I really enjoyed this story. I've read up on The Chronicles of Narnia quite a bit, and I was looking out for the hints of sexism and christian subtext, and while both were there; maybe they weren't at their worst in this particular book...or maybe because I was ready for them it didn't bother me as much...we'll see how the next books hold up :)
—Micheline (Lunar Rainbows Reviews)
The Narnia books have always been some of my favourites. There's always been a magic in it for me, even now I'm twenty -- I never got to the age where I was too old for fairytales. That, or I passed through it so quickly I'm already out the other side.I know that for a lot of people, the magic is spoiled when they find out that Aslan is really Jesus, that this first book is an allegory for Genesis, that the whole thing is full of Christian themes. I nearly always knew, though, and figured it out when I was about seven years old, and it didn't spoil it at all -- just added to the levels of possible meaning, for me. I was a Christian then, though, and I've always found Christian ideals interesting and relevant and close to my heart. So it's not very surprising.I don't think the allegory detracts from the magic at all. It's wrapped around by wonderful fantasy, and the voice of the narrator is fun -- a storyteller's voice, really: I think I can almost hear the book being read to me, in every line. There are some parts that I think are just beautiful, because they're perfect. The writing is always clear and easy to read (and tastes quite nice, if you're that kind of synaesthete -- in my experience, anyway). The characters feel quite real, imperfect but trying hard -- they're not completely likeable, sometimes, especially Diggory, but in a quite human way.I'm not very good at criticising this book because it's so full of warmth and nostalgia for me. My children's lit course does make me think about how much this book is really for children, given the references to very adult concerns -- mostly surrounding Uncle Andrew -- but I think it works on that level, and if I have children, I'll give them these books.
—Nikki
When I was 15 I finally decided it was high time I read the entire Narnia series. Up until then I'd only watched The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In my set of Chronicles of Narnia, The Magician's Nephew is labeled as the 6th book in the series. However, I noticed another set that labeled it as the first book. This made me curious about where the book "should" fit in the reading order. So even though I still hadn't read Horse and His Boy or Silver Chair, I jumped ahead to read The Magician's Nephew.I can see why some people would push for this book to be the first in the reading order. Plot-wise, it takes place before the others. However, the way the narrator explains things makes it clear that it is anticipated that the reader already knows something of Narnia, Aslan and the others. Also, when thinking about the other Narnia books, there is a lot of enjoyment to be gained through the mystery and surprise of the way the story is laid out. If you'd already read Magician's Nephew, I think you might lose some of the excitement in discovering Narnia and its magic. Still, if you want to be a chronological plot reader, there isn't anything that would preclude you from starting here. It is definitely a stand alone story and does a good job of keeping the reader informed of anything they might need to know.As to the plot itself, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I think I was expecting Digory and Polly to hop into Narnia within a few chapters and have most of their adventures there. Instead there was a fair amount of build up around the characters and their lives in London followed by magical adventures not in Narnia but in other worlds.I enjoy Lewis's narrative style in these books. I love the way the narrator speaks to the reader directly in a friendly and casual way. This conversational attitude makes the book seem more intimate and likely makes it more approachable to younger readers. I particularly enjoy the little asides where the narrator comments on the behavior of good little boys and girls or says things like "surely you wouldn't do this, but [this character] doesn't know any better." It's sort of an off-handed teaching tool to emphasize "correct" behavior.The story in Magician's Nephew is really a lot of fun. Where The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and Dawn Treader all involve large scale adventures set in Narnia, this book is focused on the smaller scale adventures of Digory and Polly, the idea of magic and other worlds, and the nature of people.There are a lot of very creative and intriguing ideas in this book. There are sets of magical rings to transport the wearer between worlds (although, as the narrator explains, the Magician doesn't truly understand how or why they really work like they do). There is a strange World Between Worlds where a person has access to any world throughout the wide universe. There are worlds dying and dead through curses and greed. There are new worlds being born from out of nothing.As with his other books, I could definitely see the Christian themes running through this novel. As is true of the others, he doesn't come right out and preach to the reader, but if you are familiar with your Bible stories (particularly the creation story), you will find a lot of similarities. And yet, this book is much more than a simple retelling of a Bible story in a fantasy world. Lewis provides us with fantastic and fun adventures alongside simple moral lessons of pride, wisdom, honesty, mercy and others.I especially loved the story thread running in the background about Digory's mother who is slowly dying. Without spoiling the plot points too much, I just want to say that I really loved the way Digory is faced with very difficult choices and has to make decisions based on the balance between his desires and his integrity. The internal turmoil he faces are really insightful.Overall I really enjoyed this book. In many ways, it's my favorite in the Narnia series. At the same time, it's different enough from the other Narnia books I've read that it's hard to make a direct comparison. I love the imagery, language and themes that run through this book. I love the fabulous conversational way the narrative is presented to facilitate both enjoyment and teaching. I love the fun and creative fantasy elements and how they are used to present a commentary on human nature and larger themes. It is definitely aimed at children from a structural and plot perspective but it has greater depth which should appeal to and entertain older readers as well. Interesting quotes that I didn't include in the review: Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are. The Last Passage(view spoiler)[ It was like this. The tree which sprang from the Apple that Digory planted in the back garden, lived and grew into a fine tree. Growing in the soil of our world, far out of the sound of Aslan’s voice and far from the young air of Narnia, it did not bear apples that would revive a dying woman as Digory’s Mother had been revived, though it did bear apples more beautiful than any others in England, and they were extremely good for you, though not fully magical. But inside itself, in the very sap of it, the tree (so to speak) never forgot that other tree in Narnia to which it belonged. Sometimes it would move mysteriously when there was no wind blowing: I think that when this happened there were high winds in Narnia and the English tree quivered because, at that moment, the Narnia tree was rocking and swaying in a strong southwestern gale. However that might be, it was proved later that there was still magic in its wood. For when Digory was quite middle-aged (and he was a famous learned man, a Professor, and a great traveler by that time) and the Ketterleys’ old house belonged to him, there was a great storm all over the south of England which blew the tree down. He couldn’t bear to have it simply chopped up for firewood, so he had part of the timber made into a wardrobe, which he put in his big house in the country. And though he himself did not discover the magic properties of that wardrobe, someone else did. That was the beginning of all the comings and goings between Narnia and our world, which you can read of in other books.When Digory and his people went to live in the big country house, they took Uncle Andrew to live with them; for Digory’s Father said, “We must try to keep the old fellow out of mischief, and it isn’t fair that poor Letty should have him always on her hands.” Uncle Andrew never tried any Magic again as long as he lived. He had learned his lesson, and in his old age he became a nicer and less selfish old man than he had ever been before. But he always liked to get visitors alone in the billiard-room and tell them stories about a mysterious lady, a foreign royalty, with whom he had driven about London. “A devilish temper she had,” he would say. “But she was a dem fine woman, sir, a dem fine woman.” (hide spoiler)]
—Ademilson Moraes
