4.5 stars

This is the origin story of Narnia. I really liked the character of Polly, and all the magic, Aslan, and allegory were wonderful, too.

I didn't love this particular narrator for the audiobook. Some of his tones and inflections just sounded wrong.

This does contain a small amount of profanity. ( )

(3.5 / 5)

While I appreciate the origins of Narnia shown in this book, it's my least favorite of the series. I think part of that is my own fault, as I'm still watching for the theological parallels to God, and this one threw me off a lot. I wonder if I'm just not the right kind of person to read this and see it the way others do. To me, at least, as a parallel to God creating the universe, it fell flat in many ways. Maybe that's because God did it perfectly, and anything besides that just seems like a poor comparison. Of course, from a fiction (and fantasy) standpoint, just having it done the same way as God did it would be kinda weird. But even seeing it more as an allegory than a parallel (which is probably more how it's meant anyway), I just didn't enjoy it as much as I did others in the series. Taking it as its own story with no connection to the Bible, it felt a little disjointed.

This series is one of those that I feel like I'm never going to enjoy like so many others do. I didn't read them as a kid, so that might make some difference. Still, I sometimes think I just don't have enough sense of wonder or whimsy to make these books more enjoyable. Not that I haven't enjoyed any of the series by any means, but I don't know that I'll ever re-read it. On the other hand, it's possible that reading the series again some time in the future might give me a different insight into it, and this book in particular. ( )

My late-summer reading list took a turn when political and natural disasters overwhelmed. Returning to Narnia kept me calm and sane and reminded me of the miracle of imagination and the magic of allegory.

Rereading my favorites from the series as part of my personal self-care and wellness. ( )

The Magician's Nephew was an interesting read that didn't grab my attention well.

I wanted to read this book because I am really interested in older stories. The Chronicles of Narnia was introduced to me through the films and ever since I have been dying to pick up these books. So, I decided to start in "reading" order (at least, that's what my book said). This book is the prequel novel, but it barely grabbed my attention to pull me into the series.

I think this book would be an excellent read to anyone's child. Someone with a lot of imagination, who is also reading out loud, might be able to make this story sound far more intriguing than how it sounded in my head. If it weren't for the history behind this book, I probably would have put it down. The story is cool, and the writing style is obviously dated, but it just didn't grab me like I hoped it would.

The book seems to be more of a children's fiction novel - it's full of wickedly evil characters that don't have much personality (other than being evil), the main characters are young and pure of heart, and Aslan is just introduced and barely used in the story.

There are obvious themes in the story - the daughter of Eve, the son of Adam - but I feel like it goes over the reader's heads (at least, it did for me the first time through). I would have rather read this as an English project with a teacher walking me through all the satirical aspects and amazing references that C.S. Lewis introduced into this story.

Overall, this book is truly memorizing but I wasn't as impressed at it as I wanted.

Two out of five stars. ( )

An unnecessary prequel to Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe that lacks in imagination and story. Despite this, there are good spiritual principles to be gained from reading it as well as some interesting parallels with creation and the fall. ( )