Which is the best book in the Chronicles of Narnia?

[Kell]

Sparked by the Narnia thread, I thought I'd ask which of the books you enjoyed most (if you've read them). What did you like about it specifically & what made it stabnd out from the others? And if you haven't read them, why not?!

[Maureen]

...don't think they are my sort of books.

[Kell]

It was kind of a toss-up for me between The Magician's Nephew & The Silver Chair. The first one described the beginnings of Narnia so beautifully that I always look forward to taking it down off the shelf, but Silver Chair is so much darker than any of the previous stories that you can't help thinking the books have grown up with the reader. I also remember going to see a stage production of it when I was about 9 years old & it was startlingly scary at the time - very mysterious indeed! So, in the end, I had to vote for the later book - I think it had a direct influence on my love of pitch-black books.

[Louise]

I liked the Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I had the box set as a kid and I asked her to get them for me from her attic but she couldnt find them so guess what I will be getting for xmas!!!!! :wink:

And I cant wait

[Kell]

Pop your vote in for Dawn Treader then - come on everyone else - which one do you think is best?

[sf1818]

I went with "Lion" - its the only one I remember reading! :D

[Kell]

Looks like we're getting varied results here. Anyone else care to vote for their fave?

[Inanna]

The Silver Chair got my vote, from what I remember of the books :mrgreen:

[Tiger]

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for me. :mrgreen:

[Galactic Space Hamster]

For me it would be a toss up between Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and Magicians Nephew. I haven't read the last couple of books yet so who knows! My opinion might change ;-)

[Louiseog]

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for me. :mrgreen:
and me because it started me off on them

[Laramie]

im probably in the minority here, but personally i hated the lot of them!! the film isnt any better, either IMHO

[dididave]

Voyage Of the Dawntreader is by far the best. People tend to go for Lion, Witch and Wardrobe but Dawntreader has more pace, a tighter plot and more interesting characters.

[Kiwimellon]

My favorite was The Horse and His Boy. I liked the two main characters in that book (can't remember the names though!) and the action was pretty cool. I hope that they will one day make this one into a movie!

[WillowFae]

Definately The Magician's Nephew. Not sure exactly why but I can still picture Polly and Digory crossing through the joined attics in the terrace of houses. See, I haven't read it in 20 odd years and it is still so vivid in my mind.

I know I did like finding out how it all came to be - the wardrobe, the lampost, etc.

[angerball]

im probably in the minority here, but personally i hated the lot of them!! the film isnt any better, either IMHO

I'm with you on this one. I was so looking forward to reading this series, and I just wound up so disappointed. :thud: I can't recall exactly what it was I didn't like, but I know I couldn't read beyond the third book. As for the film, I turned it off halfway. :blush: Just not my thing at all. I'm really, really not into fantasy!

[Kell]

I can't recall exactly what it was I didn't like, but I know I couldn't read beyond the third book.
Then you missed the best one! The Silver Chair totally rocks!

[jenmck]

I almost picked The Last Battle, but I love The Magician's Nephew. It's difficult, because I love them all.
I love when Eustace gets the ring on his arm and becomes a dragon. I love it when Lucy sees her friends trashing her in a magic book.
I need to read the whole series again.

[KathleenMacIver]

I voted for the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe because I REALLY liked Peter... but the Voyage of the Dawn Treader was my next choice. The Silver Chair gave me nightmares when I was a child, after I read it (tons of playground slides that disappeared into the ground and went on forever, LOL!)... but it's okay now.

I liked The Last Battle, too... the other three I had a hard time getting into.

[FishAndChips]

Has to be The Magician's Nephew for me. I love the wood between the worlds.

[Child.of.God.1989]

I described the scene from my close favorite, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, in this post (http://lamari4christ.blogspot.com/2005/12/truths-about-god-from-narnia.html) on my blog. It is not very often that even the most sweeping of books make me teary-eyed, so it was really special. I like The Magician's Nephew second-best because of the creation scene and the fact that I was a little familiar with it from reading half of it in my elementary years.

Do you guys read them chronologically (1. Magician's Nephew, 2. Lion, Witch, Wardrobe, et cetera) or in the order Lewis wrote them (the order the movies are being made: 1. Lion, Witch, Wardrobe, 2. Prince Caspian, et cetera)? I read them chronologically.

Teehee - I bet my younger cousin, my favorite fellow bookworm, will find it funny like I did that so many chose The Last Battle as their favorite. That little monkey was so stinking manipulative!

[Kell]

I read them chronologically, but I often skip the 3rd one completely (The Horse and His Boy), as I'm just don't enjoy it nearly so much.

[happyanddandy]

I had the whole set as a child and read them all starting with 'Dawn Treader'. I voted for this one because it was the one that was read out in junior school by a teacher and encouraged me to read the others :smile2: - sadly I don't remember much about the stories

[Adam]

My sister has all the books. I always wanted to read these. Maybe one day I'll give them a try.

[Kell]

Do read than, Adam - they're wonderful!:readingtwo:

[Kylie]

I'm really looking forward to reading these books. I bought the Complete Chronicles of Narnia a few months back, but it'll be strictly 'home' reading, because it's a pretty hefty tome. My version has the books ordered chronologically and I hope to read the first story next year (I'd like to aim for more than one per year but with my TBR pile the way it is, I don't have great hopes for that happening!).

A friend from childhood recently assured me that we read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when we were in primary school, and I can vaguely recall the cover of the book and an impression of having read at least some of it, but I have no recollection of the story itself. I wonder if it will all come back to me when I read it? :D One way to find out!

[Kell]

My version has the books ordered chronologically and I hope to read the first story next year (I'd like to aim for more than one per year but with my TBR pile the way it is, I don't have great hopes for that happening!).
I can almost completely guarantee that once you read the first one, you'll want to keep going - especially if you have that bit chunky Complete Edition (I have a nice, fat, complete edition too - my hubby got it for me for Xmas a few years back). I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I did!

[Adam]

My sister also bought the movie and I watched it and was amazed. My mom used to love these books so much aswell. She used to say they had a good meaning.

Has anyone seen the film?

[Icecream]

My sister has all the books. I always wanted to read these. Maybe one day I'll give them a try.

I haven't read them all either. I want to. Kell, can you tell us what the order is chronologically? I probably have something that tells me somewhere..

[Kell]

Kell, can you tell us what the order is chronologically? I probably have something that tells me somewhere..
The order they're shown in the poll at the top of this thread is the chronological order of the Chronicles. (The Lion,The Witch and the Wardrobe was written first, but its comes second.)

[lovesreading06]

I Don't think i read any of them but do have the books well there were my brothers he passed them to me.

I think i read them soon.

[scottishbookworm]

I'm voting for "The lion the witch and the wardrobe" that was my sister's favourite book as a child.

I read the wizard of oz

:readingtwo:

[Kylie]

I'm planning on finally starting on the Chronicles of Narnia this weekend (I have a long weekend so I should be able to get through one story). I was going to read them chronologically as that's the order they're published in my book, but I was just looking at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia#Reading_order) and it has this to say about the reading order:

Some fans of the series...maintain that much of the magic of Narnia comes from the way in which the world is gradually presented in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They believe that the mystery of the wardrobe is narratively a much better introduction than in The Magician's Nephew — where the word "Narnia" is the fortieth word in the book.

Do any of you agree with this? If I read The Magician's Nephew first, will I be losing out on some of the 'magic' of the series? Or does it not make much difference?

[prospero]

Personally I think they're better read in publication order than chronological order, particularly if this is your first read.

TMN contains 'spoilers' for LWW and I believe these would detract from the magic of later-published books.

ETA: Sorry, I meant TMN contains spoilers which would detract from the magic of earlier published books, which should be read first. Did that make sense? Probably not. Anyway...if we're talking about Narnia time being linear, then you can read them in chronological order, but I always say they should be read in the order Lewis wrote them. Sure, 'his' way jumps back and forward in time but...well, if it's good enough for the author, it's good enough for the reader, I say.

[Kylie]

Thanks Prospero! :mrgreen:

[Kell]

I agree - although I re-read them in chronological order, they work VERY well if you read them all starting from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and go right through to the end, and THEN read The Magician's Nephew. It's lovely to have it finally revealed how it all began... feels more satisfying that way.

[Kylie]

Excellent! I'm glad you and Prospero agree with each other - makes my decision a lot easier (and with LWW being the most well-known, I was looking forward to reading that one the most anyway). Thanks! :D

(And yes, Prospero, your post made perfect sense!)