Priestess Guidance

Thursday, November 14, 2024

The Magician's Nephew

 


The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Published The Bodley Head May 2, 1955
Genres Children's Fantasy, Christian Literature
Pages 186
Format Audiobook

The many readers who discovered C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will be delighted to find that the sixth volume in the series is actually the first in the sequence—and a step back in time. In this unforgettable story, British schoolchildren Polly and Digory inadvertently tumble into the Wood Between the Worlds, where they meet the evil Queen Jadis and, ultimately, the great, mysterious King Aslan. We witness the birth of Narnia and discover the legendary source of all the adventures that are to follow in the seven books that comprise the series.

This edition follows the original numbering scheme. More recently, publishers have renumbered the volumes so that the events in the books are ordered chronologically. Other editions number this book as #1.

I have started a new way to read series, that might be a little controversial. Now, whenever I start a new book series, I want to read the first book chronologically. Not the first book that was published. I’m doing this with The Selection series, Warriors, and now with the Chronicles of Narnia. I was warned that this book wasn’t as good as the others, and that it had completely different characters than the main series. I shrugged it off and went ahead to read it anyway. (Or listen to it.) The understanding of why the cover has a picture of an apple becomes evident throughout the story, and that part was really sweet. It had some undertones of the Adam and Eve story, and it gives some backstory to the witch, though I’m not sure if any of that will matter now that I’m currently reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Overall I do believe that this book is not necessary at all to read the rest of the series, and I’m not even sure how it connects to the main story at all. Are they related? Honestly, there are big chunks missing from my comprehension because it was an audiobook, so I’ll probably read the physical book one day to dive deeper into it and possibly write a better review.

With that being said, I’m not sure if I can recommend it to anyone. 


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