The Magician's Nephew

This is the first book (chronologically, though the sixth to be written) in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis.

I had read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to the kids over Christmas and they enjoyed (despite my finding some annoyances with it).

I wasn't sure if I wanted to read more from the series, but not finding any good books to read, I decided to gamble and borrow The Magician's Nephew from the library.

It is a much better book than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A lot more happens in it and the kids enjoyed it more. Tania even remarked that this book was more interesting because there was more stuff happening.

Even I enjoyed it. The story of the creation of Narnia wonderfully parallels the Genesis account of Creation, but in a manner that is novel and fresh; there was clearly a lot of thought given to it. While Aslan's sacrifice in the second book paralleled Christ's crucifixion (with Edmund standing in for fallen humanity), it was not as satisfying - although, after reading this book, it makes more sense since it occurs in a better framed context.

Image nabbed from here

Comments

KayMac said…
C.S. Lewis...one of my fav authors. Altho I do prefer some of his other works better...The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, Surprised by Joy to name a few. My daughter has read and reread these books. I think she concurs w/ you.
Richard said…
I know that many like him, but I was not impressed by him (at least not until this book). I will probably pick up the third book in the series and see how that goes.

Funny thing is that I am not really partial to "popular" authors. I never finished reading the Lord of the Rings because I just couldn't plow through the first book. I am not a fan of Asimov sci-fi (though, I like his science texts). I like Poe and Verne, but not Kipling or H.G. Wells.
KayMac said…
Try the Great Divorce. Lewis' writings for adults is quite a bit different than the Chronicles of Narnia.

My girl loves all things Poe, including his poetry.
I really liked The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and was always fascinated by the religious allegory. I haven't read this one but I think I'd like it too. I'm interested to see how they present the biblical parallels.

Your daughter is a critical thinker/reader/listener already! That sounds good to the teacher in me!
Anonymous said…
Hi Richard,
yes, coincidently, Ros read this book recently too and she said it was much more interesting than the other series.
my regards to you & family.
Richard said…
kaymac: I have sampled a number of his writings, but they were not what I was looking for. Unfortunately, one size does not fit all :(

MOI: I think this one was much better. Tania is very smart and capable of complex arguments (if only she would do so in school as well - she is terribly shy).

inner grace: nice to see you again. What happened to your blog? It is now a redirect to some sort of marketing web page?
Anonymous said…
I closed my blog, hasn't have time to post my rants. I think someone got hold of my blog-name immediately after i close. Will still randomly visit your site, cos i still enjoyed reading your posts.
b.rgds
Richard said…
innergrace: I noticed that someone else took over your blog name. This seems to happen quite frequently. I might switch to disallowing anonymous comments, so you may need to get a an account if you want to comment. Thanks for continuing to drop by (even if only quietly).
tin-tin said…
hmmm... a new read. i'll look for it :)
Richard said…
tin-tin: yeah, it is not too bad of a read.

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