Which is your Favorite / Least Favorite Narnia Novel?

[Argus Skyhawk]

The responses to this other thread got me wondering about which books in C.S. Lewis' series are the most popular. Several posters stated their favorites in that thread and they differed quite a bit. As for me personally, my favorite was always The Voyage of Dawn Treader. The adventures on the various islands were so much fun, and I'm glad they filmed it before the movie series ended.

I hardly remember anything about some of the books, having not read them since I was a child (Prince Caspian, Horse and his Boy, Magician's Nephew), but of the others, which I reread as an adult, my least favorite was probably The Last Battle, which felt surprisingly small and un-epic considering that it is about the end of the world.

Edit: Sorry, I wasn't sure how to put TWO polls.

 

[D Man]

^^Agreed, Dawn Treader is my favorite of the books, too. It's followed closely by Magician's Nephew for me, I loved the idea of the forest with all the ponds leading to different worlds. Charn was amazingly creepy, too. My least favorite is probably Prince Caspian which just wasn't as interesting as the others, or maybe The Last Battle because it just sort of fizzles out and is a bit too blatant in its allegorical-ness from time to time.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Dawn Treader's my favourite. I felt that, for the first time, Narnia felt like a big adventure story and I did like the episodic nature of it. The Last Battle's my least favourite. It pissed me off actually. It seems more or less to be written to tie up loose ends without really having much of a plot on its own.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Magicians Nephew is my favorite. The idea of Charn, a dead desolate world, yet still all there... I really want to see this in a movie.

Horse and his boy is my least.

 

[Orcus]

^^Agreed, Dawn Treader is my favorite of the books, too. It's followed closely by Magician's Nephew for me, I loved the idea of the forest with all the ponds leading to different worlds. Charn was amazingly creepy, too. My least favorite is probably Prince Caspian which just wasn't as interesting as the others, or maybe The Last Battle because it just sort of fizzles out and is a bit too blatant in its allegorical-ness from time to time.

I agree with the creepiness of the dead Charn; this is compounded by Charn's pool drying up once that world has ended competely - a fact that I found rather disquieting when I first read the story. The Magician's Nephew is undoubtedly my favourite as I like "beginings" stories - closely followed by The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair (I guess I'm a sucker for 'quest'-type stories).

Least favourite is The Last Battle owing to the fact that, as others have pointed out, bugger all happens and the book only seems to exist to tie up the loose ends, with very little plot guiding the story to it's conclusion - a conclusion that seems rather too protracted for the reader's comfort...

 

[trekkiebaggio]

Dawntreader is my favourite and like everyone else in this thread Last Battle is my least.

 

[Mr Light]

I only read them once a decade ago but I remember liking "Magician's Nephew" and "Dawn Treader" the best. I don't remember which one I liked least but I do remember hating the ending of "Last Battle". Hey, children! Dying in an accident is the best thing that can happen to you!

 

[marillion]

^^ I know, right? I did like the book, however.. The ending was just so sad. I was reading it to my daughter at the time and IIRC, we both cried a bit at the end.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

I only read them once a decade ago but I remember liking "Magician's Nephew" and "Dawn Treader" the best. I don't remember which one I liked least but I do remember hating the ending of "Last Battle". Hey, children! Dying in an accident is the best thing that can happen to you!

I'm also not too fond of the fact that Susan got left behind. I know C.S. Lewis was making a point, but I didn't enjoy it.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I only read them once a decade ago but I remember liking "Magician's Nephew" and "Dawn Treader" the best. I don't remember which one I liked least but I do remember hating the ending of "Last Battle". Hey, children! Dying in an accident is the best thing that can happen to you!

I'm also not too fond of the fact that Susan got left behind. I know C.S. Lewis was making a point, but I didn't enjoy it.

Me neither. She apparently lost faith as she grew older, hence her not believing the stories they were telling her anymore.

"My Sister Susan", answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia."

"Yes", said Eustace, "and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia, or do anything about Narnia, she says, 'What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those games we used to play when we were children.'"

So, not only does she not believe in Narnia, she's lost touch enough that she's remembering it all as games they were playing, akin to saying, "Oh, how nice! You still believe in fairytales!"